Papers

Enzymatic recycling of plastics is limited by the presence of semi-crystalline spherulites that are recalcitrant to enzymatic depolymerization. Depending on the quality of the waste stream and its treatment history, a large volume fraction of the material actually remains in form of connected clusters of such spherulites. We build on a recently published numeric method to predict the number, the connectivity, and the morphology of these clusters as an outcome of enzymatic degradation. When applied to PET waste, our method predicts that the resulting aggregates are loosely connected, "fluffy" structures with a high surface-to-volume ratio, accompanied by smaller clusters following a continuous size distribution. By providing a quantitative framework for understanding the microparticle production during the depolymerization, these findings should assist choosing a suitable downstream treatment, such as filtering or flocculation. This work could thus help to advance the enzymatic depolymerization technologies.

Stable prediction of unsteady flows requires accurate multiscale spatial representation and robust temporal propagation. We introduce the Compensated Koopman U-shaped Neural Operator (CoKo-UNO), which combines a U-shaped spectral backbone with Koopman-dominated latent propagation. Finite-dimensional Koopman truncation produces a state-dependent residual that is repeatedly reinjected during autoregressive rollout. CoKo-UNO models this residual with a selective state-space model (SSM), a principled input-dependent compensation mechanism, together with resolution-adaptive compensatory skip connections and an overlapping-warmup rollout strategy. \NEW{Across four benchmark problems, CoKo-UNO achieves the lowest mean rollout error among all compared methods. Its largest gain is a $76.76\%$ reduction relative to the strongest baseline, while requiring about $41.40\%$ of RNO's training time.} These results show that explicit residual compensation improves stable autoregressive prediction of unsteady flows.

For a stochastic process describing observations of a dynamical system, complexity science provides systematic methods to decompose the information produced into true irreducible randomness, and that which corresponds to structure superficially disguised as random but can in fact be learned and predicted. Such methods then equip vital tools for prediction, control and inference of the system's internal structure. However, quantum analogs remain underdeveloped due to the inherent complications of invasive measurements and quantum correlations. By harnessing the Choi state representation of process tensors which encode multi-time input-output relations, we formulate a convergent measure of irreducible randomness in stationary quantum stochastic processes. This directly enables a measure of temporal correlations which lower bounds the memory resources required to replicate the process via a recurrent quantum circuit.

We present a generalised tripartite Haldane model with a complex nearest neighbour hopping parameter. The total magnetic flux through the primitive unit cell, which consists of three hexagonal unit cells is zero, and thus the model has the structure of a loop-current model. We calculate topological phase diagrams of the Chern numbers as a function of the phases of the nearest and next-nearest neighbour hopping parameters for a fixed ratio of the magnitude of the hopping parameters. We show that, unlike the Haldane model, the topological phase diagram of this model is very complex, but some aspects can still be dealt with analytically. Furthermore, the Chern numbers of the topological phases are as large as $7$ in absolute value. The analysis is supported by explicit expressions for energy bands crossing at high symmetry points in the Brillouin zone, which show as linear phase boundaries in the phase diagram. We show that such lines explain many features in the topological phase diagrams. Finally, we analyse a few representative examples of the nature of level crossings away from high symmetry and their evolution with model parameters.

We identify single-mode Gaussian probes, generated by displacement and squeezing operations on the vacuum state, which are optimal for the simultaneous estimation of displacement and squeezing operations in continuous-variable quantum systems. Importantly, our results reveal that the best precision at a fixed energy is achieved not by an experimentally costly squeezing resource, but rather by redirecting some of the energy towards displacement, thus allowing for more resource-effective operations. Furthermore, introducing indefinite causal order (ICO) in either the probe preparation or parameter encoding step can surpass the Gaussian precision bound, even though the optimal Gaussian probe state is agnostic to the ordering of the operations. Specifically, we observe that odd-parity superpositions of the two definite orders can enhance precision over optimal Gaussian probes in specific parameter regimes. Further, the observed advantage cannot be attributed solely to non-Gaussianity, as quantified by the relative entropy of non-Gaussianity, highlighting ICO as an independent resource for enhancing multiparameter estimation.

We prove mode stability for the Klein-Gordon equation on Kerr-de Sitter black hole spacetimes in the full subextremal range and for the range $m_{\rm KG}^2\in[0,\Lambda\sqrt{2}]$ of squared scalar field masses that includes, in particular, the minimally coupled case $m_{\rm KG}=0$ and the conformally coupled case $m_{\rm KG}^2=\frac{2}{3}\Lambda$ (i.e., the Teukolsky equation for spin $0$). In combination with recent work by Petersen-Vasy, this proves, unconditionally, that sufficiently regular solutions of the scalar wave equation decay exponentially fast to constants, and in fact to zero for nonzero $m_{\rm KG}$.

The RISTRETTO project aims at the direct detection of the reflected light of extra-solar planets to measure albedos and detect possible biosignatures, using the high-contrast / high-resolution method. We report on the assembly, lab-testing and on-sky testing of the seven-spaxel high-resolution single-mode spectrograph which was built ahead of the rest of the instrument. The spectrograph is a high resolution echelle spectrograph build for high spectral fidelity being uder vacuum and thermally controlled. Once the assembly has been completed we had the chance to test it on sky using OHP 1.52 m telescope using the PAPYRUS AO system for injection in our spectrograph.

Since the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2009, thousands of spectra have been collected with the Far Ultraviolet (FUV) channel. Due to the gain sag inherent in the cross delay line detector, regular adjustments to the positions of the spectra have been made, with the seventh and eighth becoming available to Guest Observers in October 2025. Recent improvements to models of the FUV channel, including more extensive optical modeling and better prediction and accommodation of detector gain sag, have allowed us to identify previously excluded locations on the detector for future use, thus requiring additional Lifetime Positions (LPs) to be defined. Since the onboard flight software limited the number of Lifetime Positions to eight, we developed a new method for implementing additional LPs to avoid dealing with the complications of reassigning previously used LPs. This novel strategy, dubbed LP-Infinity, allows an effectively unlimited number of LPs that is now constrained only by the available detector real estate, allowing COS to continue obtaining high-quality FUV spectra well into the 2030s. We discuss the conception, development and implementation of LP-Infinity, its initial use in Cycle 33, and the plans for future LPs starting in 2027.

We investigate the cosmological evolution of a universe with an initially large negative vacuum energy, corresponding to an anti-de Sitter (AdS) space-time. Such a universe inevitably contracts and collapses into a singularity. To prevent this collapse, we propose a dynamical mechanism of vacuum energy compensation based on a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the curvature scalar. Numerical and analytical calculations demonstrate that the suggested mechanism completely compensates the gravitational impact of the vacuum energy, successfully driving the curvature to zero. As a result, the universe avoids the singularity and evolves into a power-law expansion, typical for a radiation-dominated cosmology.

High-resolution precipitation fields are essential for hydrological impact assessment, yet global climate model outputs are too coarse and biased for direct use. AI-based statistical downscaling with diffusion models offers a promising approach, but the mechanism by which large-scale atmospheric predictors condition generation remains largely unexplored. We investigate three conditioning strategies for a denoising diffusion probabilistic model applied to daily precipitation downscaling: channel concatenation of upsampled coarse predictors, cross-attention conditioning with a learned convolutional encoder, and cross-attention conditioning with the frozen encoder of the pretrained Prithvi WxC weather foundation model. All strategies are evaluated against an unconditioned baseline under identical conditions using probabilistic, distributional, spectral, and extreme-event metrics for the Colorado River Basin. Concatenation conditioning achieves the lowest point-wise CRPS and MSE, but tends to produce over-smoothed fields that suppress high-intensity events. In contrast, cross-attention conditioning provides substantially better distributional realism and modest improvements in spectral fidelity. Improvements are greatest for extremes: the Prithvi-WxC conditioned model retains over half of >100mm/day events, although estimates are uncertain due to limited samples. When trained on the full dataset, the learned convolutional model performs similarly to the foundation model-conditioned approach while requiring lower computational resources. However, the Prithvi-WxC-conditioned model achieves comparable performance with only five years of training data. These results indicate that cross-attention conditioning offers advantages over simple concatenation for probabilistic precipitation downscaling, and that pre-trained foundation model representations may offer benefits in data-limited settings.

The predicted extent of inhomogeneous chiral phases in effective models of quantum chromodynamics is notoriously sensitive to ultraviolet regularization. We show that this sensitivity is largely artificial. In the two-flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, conventional implementations of three-dimensional cutoff, Pauli–Villars, and proper-time regularization produce strongly different finite-momentum instability regions. Once ultraviolet regulators are restricted to genuinely divergent vacuum contributions, however, all three prescriptions yield nearly identical stability diagrams. Both the onset of the moat regime and the subsequent finite-momentum instability become quantitatively robust. The apparent scheme dependence originates from regulating ultraviolet-finite medium contributions associated with the Fermi-surface response. Our results identify spatially modulated chiral correlations as a genuine property of the dense medium rather than an artifact of the ultraviolet prescription.

Recent observations have found many ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) that contain massive black holes (MBHs) typically consisting of $10\%-15\%$ of their total mass, with some as high as $40\%$. However, whether UCDs initially started with MBHs or grew from intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is unclear. We propose a mechanism in which AGB stars have their gas ejected which forms an accretion disk around an IMBH to fuel BH growth. We used smooth particle hydrodynamical simulations to (i) model the creation and evolution of gas disks that can finally evolve into accretion disks and to investigate (ii) how the properties of the gas disk depend on the model. We find that the amount of mass in the disk increases more with UCD mass than with IMBH mass. For lower-mass IMBHs of $100 \text{ M}_\odot$, a majority of the gas mass present can be trapped in a disk, leading to the idea that lower-mass BHs can utilise the proposed mechanism. The main mechanism working against accretion disk formation is the creation of new stars within the disk, not just through the removal of gas but through gravitational disruption as well. Finally, an estimation of the total BH growth provides a list of observed UCDs which could have formed MBHs using the proposed mechanism which can be useful for verifying the proposed mechanism. Future simulations aimed at modelling the formation of such UCDs can be employed to provide a full picture of the results presented in this paper.

Strained germanium ($\varepsilon$-Ge) quantum wells on metamorphic SiGe buffers have enabled advanced hole-based spin qubit devices. Alternatively, unstrained Ge with lattice-matched strained silicon-germanium ($\varepsilon$-SiGe) barriers eliminates the need for metamorphic buffers altogether. The ground state character of both these platforms is predominantly heavy-hole (HH) with a largely anisotropic spin response. We propose and study an alternative heterostructure, lattice-matched to Ge, in which both the SiGe quantum well and barriers are tensile strained, with their composition contrast providing the band offset for confinement and the tensile strain stabilizing a light-hole (LH) ground state. We show large spin-orbit coupling (SOC), both linear and cubic, along with a significantly more isotropic spin response compared to strained HH qubits. We also study the decoherence properties of the proposed device, showing an appreciable gain in the quality factor compared to their HH counterparts. Finally, we propose a bilayer heterostructure that allows for electrical switching between HH and LH ground state character.

Starting from the identity $e^{2\pi i J_z}=(-1)^{F}=e^{i\pi Q}$ on the color-singlet physical state space, we derive a density-operator identity that ties imaginary rotation to an imaginary quark chemical potential, $\rho(\Omega_I+2\pi,\theta_q)=\rho(\Omega_I,\theta_q+\pi)$. Hence imaginarily rotating $SU(3)$ QCD at $(\Omega_I,\theta_q)=(2\pi,0)$ is mapped exactly onto the Roberge-Weiss (RW) point $(0,\pi)$, where charge conjugation $C$ is spontaneously broken above the RW endpoint—a conclusion independent of any model or approximation. Minimizing the one-loop effective potential on the rotation axis, we obtain analytically, for three massless flavors, the second-order transition at $\Omega_{I,C}/\pi=(22-2\sqrt{22})/9$, and a subsequent first-order transition at $\Omega_{I,{\rm lock}}/\pi=2/3+2\sqrt{111}/27$. At smaller $\Omega_I$, a continuous degeneracy of the massless one-loop approximation leaves the realization of $C$ undecided; a finite strange-quark mass lifts it. We also state how the exact relations and the on-axis predictions can be tested in lattice QCD.

Core-valence double ionization electron spectra near the S2p, F1s and S1s edges of SF6 are presented, analyzed and compared with conventional valence photoelectron spectra and quantum chemical calculations. The core-valence spectra are energetically stretched out, revealing salient structures between 15 and 40 eV that are sufficiently separated for molecular orbital analysis. The spectra offer new insights into the electronic structure, showing that the core hole substantially rearranges the molecular orbital order. This effect can be traced to orbital localization and nodal structure, as well as to valence-to-core penetration. The singlet and triplet splittings of the dicationic states progressively decrease in all three core-valence spectra towards deeper core levels, with larger splittings for S2p than S1s, reflecting greater valence-to-core penetration and exchange interaction for S2p. By large, the MO interpretation holds in frozen or self-consistent-field representations, except for the inner parts of the F1s spectra, which require analysis in terms of MO breakdown effects. An intensity model for CV spectra is derived using an independent-channel approach, where primary core ionization is treated by dipolar coupling to a continuum and the valence electron is promoted to a second continuum through shake-off. Full spin coupling and spin selectivity between the discrete doubly ionized states and the two continuum electrons are maintained. The primary molecular photoelectron intensity is expressed as a weighted sum of atomic subshell cross sections using a one-center atomic orbital projection of the relevant molecular orbital. The calculated spectra agree well with experiment and allow detailed assignment. In particular, symmetry breaking at the F1s core-ionization site is identified and discussed.

We calculate the radiative decay widths of $D_{s1}(2460)\to D_s\gamma$, $D_{s1}(2536)\to D_s\gamma$, $B_{s1}(5750)\to B_s\gamma$, and $B_{s1}(5830)\to B_s\gamma$ within light-cone QCD sum rules, taking into account the mixing between the $^{1}P_{1}$ and $^{3}P_{1}$ configurations. In the bottom-strange sector, we consider the experimentally established $B_{s1}(5830)$ together with the theoretically expected lower $1^+$ state, denoted $B_{s1}(5750)$. We obtain $\Gamma[D_{s1}(2460)\to D_s\gamma]=45.9^{+10.1}_{-8.5}$ keV, $\Gamma[D_{s1}(2536)\to D_s\gamma]=0.55^{+1.73}_{-0.48}$ keV, $\Gamma[B_{s1}(5750)\to B_s\gamma]=12.0^{+2.9}_{-2.3}$ keV, and $\Gamma[B_{s1}(5830)\to B_s\gamma]=8.9^{+2.4}_{-2.0}$ keV. The $D_{s1}(2460)\to D_s\gamma$ decay width is substantially larger than that of $D_{s1}(2536)\to D_s\gamma$. This difference originates from $^{1}P_{1}$-$^{3}P_{1}$ mixing: the two basis-current contributions interfere constructively for the lower state and destructively for the higher state. In the bottom-strange sector, the two widths are comparable within their uncertainties, although the higher state still exhibits destructive interference. These results show that the radiative decay pattern of strange heavy axial-vector mesons is sensitive to the mixing of the two spin configurations.

Quantum metrology typically uses entangled states to achieve measurement precisions beyond the standard quantum limit. The advantage increases with the size of the entangled state, however generating and preserving large entangled states remains a major experimental challenge. Multipass protocols offer an alternative approach by allowing a single probe to interact repeatedly with the parameter of interest, but their performance is highly susceptible to loss, which accumulates over successive passes and rapidly erodes the quantum advantage. Here we introduce a hybrid strategy that combines small, loss-resilient entangled states with multipass interferometry. We show that this approach retains the robustness of small entangled probes while exploiting repeated interactions to achieve substantial enhancements in measurement precision. Furthermore, we propose a concrete implementation using currently available technologies, demonstrating that the predicted performance gains should be experimentally accessible with existing capabilities.

Cosmic filaments are the most striking feature of the hierarchical cosmic web. Yet, their own sub-structure remains unexplored, unlike the well-known, universal halo/sub-halo hierarchy. We use a hierarchical reconstruction scheme to identify sub-filaments within larger filaments. Examining differences in the radial phase-space profiles of parent and sub-filaments, we argue that the latter constitute a statistically distinct class of structures. Establishing the existence of a universal filament hierarchy must then account for these differences, with implications for cosmology and dark matter.

AI weather prediction (AIWP) models rival physics-based models, yet the sources of their unexpected forecast accuracy and the degree of their physical fidelity remain unclear. Here, across a hierarchy spanning observation-based reanalysis, a general circulation model, and the multi-scale Lorenz system, we show that AI models can be trained to skillfully predict the past (backcast), though backcasts are systematically less accurate than forecasts. However, skillful backcasting appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, and all these forecasting and backcasting models miss the butterfly effect. We trace the surprising forecast accuracy, missing butterfly, and skillful backcasting to a single cause: inevitable coarse-graining of training data, which removes fast, small scales and/or some variables. From the Lorenz system to official Pangu-Weather models, reducing coarse-graining makes AI predictions more physics-like (arrow of time and butterfly-like effects emerge), but forecast accuracy declines. Results offer an explanation for AIWP models' forecast skill: unlike physics-based models, they implicitly learn how fast, small scales affect large scales without inheriting their rapid error growth. Broader implications are that AI models' proliferation calls for revisiting predictability theories and long-term climate emulation strategies, and backcasting offers a useful, new lens for such analyses.

We develop an exact Fock-space representation of the Lebowitz–Frisch–Helfand kinetic equation. The familiar square-root Maxwellian transformation is used only as a convenient starting point: it maps the local Ornstein–Uhlenbeck relaxation sector to the bosonic number operator and thereby exposes an elementary grading. The main issue is the representation of the complete kinetic dynamics when the velocity realization depends on local macroscopic parameters. We formulate the pull-back through an arbitrary admissible realization map, show that external space–time derivatives acquire a differential connection, and prove an intertwining theorem for first-order propagation operators. The physical velocity moments are represented by dual Fock-space functionals; a transport–moment intertwining theorem then evaluates the complete propagation contribution without requiring the explicit differential connection. Compatibility between realization parameters and kinetic moments may be imposed algebraically or propagated dynamically by exact balance laws. In the hydrodynamic limit, the number grading selects the second and third Fock levels responsible for viscous stress and heat flux, leading directly to the Navier–Stokes–Fourier constitutive terms. Finally, we prove covariance under local changes of coordinate realization and illustrate it explicitly for Hermite-polynomial and Hermite-function coordinates. Thus the Hermite realization is computationally privileged, while the intertwined Fock dynamics, physical moments, and compatibility structure are representation-independent within the admissible similarity class.

Adapting ideas of \cite{akutagawa2007perelman}, we show that compact generalized Ricci solitons (GRS) have positive Yamabe invariant. We observe a Cheeger-Gromoll-type splitting theorem for GRS as a corollary of the splitting theorem for Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature in \cite{wei2009comparison}. Using this we show that low dimensional GRS are diffeomorphic to $S^3 / \Gamma$ or $S^3 \times S^1 / \Gamma$. We determine various topological constraints on string backgrounds (Bismut-Hermitian-Einstein (BHE), strong torsion $G_2$, strong torsion $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-manifolds) and show in most cases that they cannot exist on the same manifolds as their classical special holonomy counterparts. Finally we determine the topology of BHE threefolds under natural constraints, relying on an extension of parts of Kollar's characterization of Seifert fibered $5$-manifolds over complex orbifolds \cite{kollar2006circle}.

The motion of a slender vortex in ideal incompressible fluid is a classic problem in hydrodynamics. Formulae for the velocity of a vortex ring go back to work of Kelvin, Helmholtz, Hicks and Dyson in the nineteenth century, while more recently a number of models have been created for simulating the motion of slender tubes of vorticity of general shape. For a vortex tube or filament localised near to a curve C(t), the relevant small parameter to measure slenderness is the tube radius divided by the radius of curvature of C. The present paper revisits this range of classic problems by introducing a coordinate system closely linked to the geometry of vortex surfaces in a slender vortex. The motion of fluid elements in this coordinate system has an action–angle form, and with this the vorticity equation simplifies radically. At the same time, however, most aspects of the shape or evolution of a vortex are thrown into the description of the coordinates, and in particular the corresponding metric and volume form. As the coordinate system is non-orthogonal and time-dependent, tools of differential geometry are most easily used to describe the structure of both vorticity and coordinate system, and a general mathematical framework is set out. This resulting system of equations is taken as far as possible with only the assumption of vortex slenderness in place, but allowing arbitrary motions and distortions of the vortex core and of the curve C(t). The modelling is applied to calculate the motion of a slender vortex ring with arbitrary axial flow, solving directly for the shape of perturbed vorticity surfaces and giving results in agreement with earlier studies. The general framework set up in this paper is suitable for the development of simplified equations for vortex motion and interaction in future studies.

Motivated by recent experimental advances toward electrical control of the effective mass and the realization of anisotropic mass distributions, we investigate the impact of mass anisotropy on driven-dissipative polariton condensates, focusing on modulational instability, pattern formation, and the collective dynamics of the emergent patterns. We show that unequal effective masses along the two orthogonal directions induce stripe pattern formation in an exciton-polariton condensate pumped by a non-resonant Gaussian laser beam above a critical mass ratio. A Bogoliubov analysis of the homogeneously pumped system reveals that mass anisotropy leaves the modulational-instability criteria unchanged but reshapes the unstable-mode dispersion by reducing the most unstable wave- length along the direction of larger effective mass with increasing mass ratio. This introduces an anisotropy-controlled length scale for pattern selection. When the pump width becomes comparable to the most unstable wavelength, the condensate becomes modulationally unstable and develops stripe patterns along the direction of larger effective mass, accompanied by particle-number fluctua- tions and center-of-mass oscillations along the same direction. As the pump width increases further, the stripes become distorted and develop spatial irregularities during the time evolution, indicative of modulational instability. Nevertheless, the anisotropic mass distribution preserves a pronounced directional preference, in contrast to the fully disordered patterns observed in the isotropic-mass case. Our results identify mass anisotropy as a key control parameter for directional modulational instability and pattern formation in nonequilibrium polariton condensates.

We study a fast-forwarded quantum algorithm for solving weakly nonlinear dissipative ordinary differential equations. Our approach is a combination of the Carleman embedding technique and the linear combination of Hamiltonian simulation algorithm for linearized systems with fast-forwarded scaling. The complexity of our algorithm does not explicitly depend on the evolution time $T$, thus greatly improving the previous state-of-the-art $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{T})$ to $\mathcal{O}(1)$, and any remaining time dependence enters through the output norm and forcing parameters. We rigorously analyze the performance of this approach by convergence guarantees of the Carleman embedding for time-dependent coefficient matrices and detailed complexity estimates, and improve the realization of the Carleman-embedding-based algorithms by simplifying the post-selection step. In addition, we perform a numerical study on differential equations beyond the weakly nonlinear case, and identify possibility of achieving fast-forwarding scaling for systems with stronger nonlinearity or linear non-resonant effect.

We study a non-Abelian Moore-Read fractional Chern insulator under a translation-preserving, nonreciprocal deformation that generates the non-Hermitian skin effect under open boundaries. The model combines the imaginary-gauge Hatano-Nelson deformation with a kagome-lattice three-body interaction designed to stabilize Moore-Read order at $\nu=1/2$. Our primary diagnostic is the biorthogonal $(2,4)$-admissible particle-entanglement counting of the sixfold Moore-Read manifold, the standard Moore-Read fingerprint. Across three sizes ($N=16,20,24$), the counting locks to the clean references 1308, 3965, and 9282 over finite nonreciprocity windows through $\gamma\le0.55$, $0.65$, and $0.74$, respectively, with positive reference-rank entanglement gaps. Within every reported window the count is unchanged by the spectral readings tested; at $N=16$ it is also unchanged across three reduced density operators, with all 15 combinations returning 1308. The sixfold pattern for even $N_f$ and the adiabatically tracked Ising-odd doublet remain separated over the tested range $\gamma\le0.6$. Beyond a geometry-dependent threshold the instantaneous-lowest-six reference-rank gap drops sharply and its counting destabilizes. At $N=24$ a sector-0 branch pair becomes complex conjugate over a narrow interval inside the delocking bracket; both continuations through the interval are delocked at the tested PES points $\gamma=0.76$, $0.77$, and $0.80$. A same-lattice Abelian $\nu=1/3$ Laughlin realization retains its counting to $\gamma=1.0$, so its counting is the more robust. On the torus the eigenstates remain extended; under open boundaries the right and left states skin-localize at opposite edges while the biorthogonal particle-entanglement spectrum is invariant under the imaginary-gauge similarity, so the torus and the open cylinder probe the same deformation under periodic and open boundaries.

Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) provides key insights into the physics of cosmic inflation and the initial conditions of the Universe, which remain central topics in cosmology. In this study, we use the cross-correlation between the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect and the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect derived from Ibitoye et al. (2024) to jointly constrain PNG and early-Universe energy injection, including the standard intergalactic medium contribution. For scale-independent PNG we obtain $f_{\rm NL} = -358^{+140}_{-114}$ ($68\%$~C.L.). For a scale-dependent model ($f_{\rm NL}=f_{\rm NL}^{0}(\ell/\ell_{0})^{n_{\rm NL}}$, with $\ell_{0}=200$), we find $f^{0}_{\rm NL} = -296^{+173}_{-157}$ and $n_{\rm NL} = 0.62^{+1.02}_{-0.64}$, both consistent with Gaussian initial conditions. We also constrain the early-Universe energy injection amplitude to be $\alpha_{\rm inj} = -3.93^{+1.34}_{-0.99}$, with uncertainty reduced by a factor of $\sim\!2.6$ if Planck 2018 $f_{\rm NL}$ constraint is applied as a prior. Future surveys such as Simons Observatory and Euclid will tighten these constraints further. Complementary to conventional probes, this work provides the first ISW-tSZ constraint on exotic energy injection and enables precision tests of early-Universe physics while probing late-time gravitational potential and thermal energy perturbations.

We study the localization of a quantum particle in a one-dimensional disordered system with long-range hopping amplitudes $t(r)\propto r^{-a}$. In contrast to the standard one-dimensional Anderson model ($a\to\infty$), in which all states are localized and the localization length is minimal at the band edge, the long-range model with $1<a<3/2$ exhibits a disorder-driven transition at the band edge, while high-energy states remain localized at arbitrary disorder strength. We investigate this transition for the ground state in momentum space. In the weak-disorder regime, we derive perturbative expressions for the characteristic functions and moments of the momentum-space wave function, as well as for its fractal dimensions. Our results demonstrate that the ground state exhibits $\it semilocalization$ rather than conventional localization, thereby extending the class of models displaying the unusual $\it semifractality$ of wave functions.

Imposing elastic unitarity on resonant amplitudes yields a geometric rule connecting the reaction threshold, S-matrix pole, and Breit-Wigner peak. Validated across six orders of magnitude in energy, from $^5\text{He}$ to the Higgs boson, this rule predicts currently unknown residue phases: $-44(12)^\circ$ for $^5\mathrm{He}$, $-24(7)^\circ$ for $\Sigma(1385)^+$, and $-7(13)^\circ$ for $\Xi(1530)^0$. By inverting this formalism, we determine the $\Upsilon(4S)$ pole from its empirical peak to be $10575(1)-i\,8.3(13)$ MeV, with a $-52(6)^\circ$ phase.

Stretchable hybrid electronics integrate rigid solid-state electronics with stretchable materials and structures to achieve both high deformability and stable electronic performance. However, most existing systems treat stretchability only as a mechanical attribute without exploiting device deformation to encode its own mechanical state. This problem arises from adapting conventional rigid circuit architectures to stretchable substrates, affording a loss in compatibility with the sensors required for strain measurement. This study addresses this issue by proposing a communication-integrated deformation sensing architecture for stretchable hybrid devices. In the proposed approach, standard universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter digital signals transmitted between rigid nodes are amplitude-modulated by strain-induced resistance changes in stretchable liquid metal interconnects. By reading both amplitude changes and digital patterns, the system enables simultaneous digital communication and self-deformation sensing without requiring additional stretchable sensing elements. The architecture is demonstrated in a multi-node system and applied to wearable sensing and self-deformation mapping devices. By extending the integration of rigid circuits and soft elements from the hardware level to the system level, this study provides a novel design paradigm for stretchable electronic systems that inherently utilize their own deformation as functional information.

Physics is usually done from a third-person perspective, as if the world were described from outside. Yet, observers are themselves physical systems within the world they observe. Here, we investigate this tension using a toy model of classical particles. Observers are physical systems characterised by a choice of (i) a manifest variable, whose value constitutes their empirical record, and (ii) ready states, which provide initial information. We ask what such observers (subjects) can learn about the world through interactions that establish a correlation with another system (the object). For each combination of the three types of learning (about the past, the future, or both), manifest variables, and ready states, we determine what the subject can learn. This shows that many subjects face an epistemic horizon—a limitation to what they can learn about the world—even though the model is classical and deterministic. For example, a subject with a complete manifest variable—one whose ontic state is the empirical record—and partial initial information can learn at most half the object's variables, recovering Spekkens' knowledge-balance principle, i.e. an analogue of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. More generally, we find that subjects face more severe epistemic horizons when predicting than when retrodicting, and that learning by repeatable measurements can be more limited than either prediction or retrodiction alone. Our work provides language and tools to study how the first-person perspective can differ from the third-person perspective beyond the toy model studied here, and invites explanations of the inherent uncertainty in quantum theory from the standpoint of embedded observers.