Papers

High-rate quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes can substantially reduce qubit overhead relative to surface codes, but their advantage depends on efficiently realizing nonlocal syndrome extraction. We study the \([[144,12,12]]\) bivariate bicycle code on a neutral-atom architecture with native three-dimensional (3D) geometry, comparing planar and 3D embeddings while holding the code fixed. We characterize spatial efficiency using the logical-qubit density, defined as the number of encoded logical qubits per unit spatial footprint. Because the optical controller's field of view limits the transverse extent of an array, this metric estimates the number of logical qubits that can be accommodated within a fixed optical field of view. The 3D embedding achieves approximately \(4\times\) greater areal logical-qubit density than the planar layout and \(42\times\) greater than a surface-code baseline. It also reduces the bivariate bicycle syndrome-extraction time by roughly \(2\times\) compared to a planar baseline, with fewer movement operations and substantially shorter atom-transport distance. Native 3D geometry can improve both the packing density and executable realization of nonlocal qLDPC codes, making practical performance depend jointly on code structure, optical geometry, transport scheduling, and hardware-level noise. This motivates further development of control techniques in 3D.

Interactions between a quantum system and its environment can inject ergotropy into the system, raising the question of the minimal dimensionality and physical resources required for such injection. We first show that ergotropy injection is impossible under thermal operations when both the system and environment are qubits, whereas it becomes possible when the environment is enlarged to a qutrit. We further show that already in the qubit-qubit setting, relaxing environmental thermality and allowing interactions between system and environment allows ergotropy increment under energy-conserving unitaries. To elucidate the role of interactions, we consider a two-qubit isotropic XY interaction Hamiltonian and identify its distinct degeneracy regimes. We show that, in the central-block regime, when both the initial system and environmental states are incoherent, no ergotropic gain is possible when the environment is initially thermal, irrespective of the interaction strength. In contrast, environmental athermality in the form of population inversion, while retaining incoherence, enables ergotropic injection. We derive the optimal ergotropic gain and show that environmental coherence can enhance it, while system coherence alone need not be beneficial and can even reduce the gain. We further consider the double-degenerate regime, characterized by a finite interaction strength, and demonstrate positive ergotropic gain even for a thermal environment.

Fast solution times in production discrete ordinates transport codes often require the use of diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA). A good implementation of DSA will substantially reduce the number of iterations to converge the transport solution at the cost of solving a diffusion-like linear system at each iteration. Often fewer transport iterations will lead to smaller times to solution. Recent work has shown the promise of reduced precision preconditioning. Time and memory cost can be decreased as long as the reduced precision does not substantially degrade the convergence behavior of the higher precision linear system being solved. In this paper, we discuss the algorithmic implications of accelerating transport iterations in double precision (64 bit) while using a reduced precision (32 bit) DSA solve. We initially implement a stand alone code to investigate any theoretical limitations of reduced precision DSA in slabs. Then we implement reduced precision DSA in ARDRA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) discrete ordinance neutral particle transport code, coupled with hypre, LLNL's scalable linear solver and multigrid methods library capable of mixed precision linear solves Then we solve various neutron transport problems of interest. We find that in most circumstances, DSA acceleration in reduced precision has little to no impact on the acceleration properties of DSA when used with source iteration in most circumstances. However, as tighter tolerances are required, reduced precision DSA may fail to successfully accelerate the transport solve and increase time to solution.

We aim to determine the conditions under which Lidov-Kozai oscillations can arise for circumbinary planets in hierarchical triple-star systems, and to identify the orbital regions where competing secular perturbations minimize eccentricity excitation. We analyzed the statistical properties of hierarchical triples from the Multiple Star Catalog to construct representative synthetic configurations. We then performed N-body simulations of circumbinary planets embedded in these systems, systematically exploring their orbital evolution and long-term stability across a range of semimajor axes and inclinations. For representative compact hierarchical triple-star systems with masses $m_0 \sim m_1 \approx 0.75\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and $m_2 \approx 0.6\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and eccentricities $e_1 \sim 0.1$ and $e_2 \sim 0.4$, dynamically significant stable circumbinary regions exist only in sufficiently hierarchical configurations, with period ratios $P_2 /P_1 \gtrsim 10^2$. In this regime, the secular competition between the tertiary perturbations and the apsidal precession induced by the compact inner binary determines both the onset of Lidov-Kozai oscillations beyond a critical distance ($a_{\rm LK}$) and the location of a region where eccentricity variations are minimized, i.e., the minimum eccentricity variation region (MER). We derived analytical estimates for these dynamical features, showing that the MER is well described by the analytical quantity $a_{\rm short}$ on short and intermediate timescales, while on secular timescales it converges toward the equilibrium prediction $a_{\rm ME}$. These analytical estimates agree well with N-body simulations. Application to the observed triple system WDS 08403+1921 confirms that $a_{\rm LK}$ and $a_{\rm ME}$ accurately identify the main dynamical features of the stability map.

The long-time dynamics of complex molecular systems often involves rare transitions across networks of metastable states. Building on transition-path theory, which provides a rigorous framework for describing rare transitions between two metastable states, we introduce the variational multistate committor network (VMCN), a neural framework that learns the probabilities of reaching each metastable state directly from molecular simulation data. From this representation, VMCN identifies state-specific commitment, candidate transition regions and committor-consistent pathways between state pairs, and an effective kinetic network characterized by transition rates. The model is trained using finite time-lag trajectory data together with boundary conditions defined on conservative state cores. Applications to a triple-well potential, trialanine isomerization, and the $c$–ring rotation in the V$_{\rm o}$ domain of a vacuolar ATPase show that VMCN recovers metastable organization, provides committor-consistent descriptions of transition mechanisms, and estimates state-to-state kinetics. VMCN further provides diagnostics for incomplete state decompositions and enables adaptive exploration of candidate metastable states and their connecting regions. By integrating VMCN with generative committor-guided path sampling (Gen-COMPAS) for chignolin, we start from two end point structures, identify a misfolded state and a candidate folding intermediate, and we direct subsequent sampling toward the resulting multistate transition network.

We develop a branch-complete classical free-spectrum analysis of local parity-even symmetric teleparallel gravity containing all pure-gravity nonmetricity operators through four derivatives. After canonicalisation and integration by parts, the nonlinear action contains 116 independent operators distributed as $5+13+29+69$ among $Q^2$, $(\nabla Q)^2$, $Q^2\nabla Q$ and $Q^4$. Around Minkowski spacetime in the coincident gauge only the first two sectors contribute to the quadratic action, which reduces to four two-derivative and five four-derivative bilinears. We map the original coefficients to this nine-dimensional basis, construct the Hessian and momentum kernel, and classify local linear gauge symmetries. Unrestricted linearised diffeomorphism invariance imposes six independent relations and leaves a three-parameter family $(A,B,C)$. We also recover TDiff, Weyl, WTDiff and additional accidental symmetry branches. Barnes–Rivers decomposition, gauge fixing, exact inversion and conserved-source saturation reduce the physical exchange to spin-two and scalar factors $A+2Cq$ and $2A+(3B-2C)q$. The generic regular spectrum contains a massless graviton, a massive spin-two state and a massive scalar, with eight degrees of freedom. The massive spin-two residue is necessarily opposite to that of the healthy massless graviton. The regular classification leaves only GR/STEGR, $A>0$ with $B=C=0$, and the scalar extension, $A>0$, $B>0$, $C=0$, as fully healthy Minkowski loci. The latter has three degrees of freedom and mixed ultraviolet behaviour, with tensor exchange scaling as $k^{-2}$ and scalar exchange as $k^{-4}$. Thus, within this finite local metric theory, full four-derivative tensor suppression requires the finite massive spin-two pole with opposite residue.

Twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) offers a promising approach to long-distance QKD networks due to its superior performance over large channel losses. Due to specialized hardware requirements, nearly all long-distance TFQKD demonstrations have only two users exchanging keys, rather than a network with three or more users. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a proof-of-principle three-user-pair Sagnac TFQKD network spanning 127-km using single-photon avalanche detectors without any active phase stabilization or postcompensation. We implement efficient procedures for maintaining polarization stability and circumventing Rayleigh backscattering noise to achieve a stable Sagnac interference visibility of $93\pm1$% over one hour. A secure key rate of $1.398\times10^{-5}$ bits per pulse is achieved over an asymmetric communication channel with 102-km fiber and 45-dB overall loss. To our knowledge, this is the first TFQKD network without active phase stabilization or postcompensation achieved over long fibers. Our results represent a highly practical and cost-effective approach to long-distance QKD networks.

Peer review is commonly treated as a mechanism of quality control. This article examines what happens when participants are split between two groups. Explicators assess whether submissions present logic-based arguments (whether deductive, inductive or abductive), independently of whether they agree with the reasons or the conclusion. Interpreters assess submissions according to their outlook. Their employment of logic is opportunistic, as a means of presenting their own views, but not as a means of assessing others' views. Using a deterministic population-dynamics model of iterative games of "Publish or Perish," this article shows how this asymmetry permits interpreters to increase their population share even when they begin as a small minority. It compares fixed and survivor-drawn reviewer panels, alternative replenishment rules, hostile explicator responses, generational differences in ratios, and different panel sizes. Under survivor-drawn review, explicator hostility to interpreters produces an unstable equilibrium at an explicator share of $q^* = 2 - \sqrt{3} \approx 0.2679$: below this threshold, interpreters can survive without explicator cooperation and continue toward dominance. The threshold is not universal, however. Exogenous replenishment in favour of explicators can eliminate the point of no return, and sufficiently lagged, generational replenishment can permit explicators to recover after it has apparently been crossed. The model therefore identifies not only a mechanism by which peer review becomes corrupted, but also the institutional conditions determining whether that corruption becomes self-sustaining or reversible.

We study the stability of collective neutrino oscillations using a distributional approach motivated by the statistical mechanics of Kuramoto synchronization. Treating the ensemble of neutrino flavor polarization vectors in the thermodynamic limit $N\to\infty$, we derive an exact nonlinear Fokker–Planck (continuity) equation for the one-body distribution $F(\vec{\mathbf{S}},\omega,t)$ on the flavor sphere. This equation admits a two-parameter family of azimuthally symmetric stationary solutions, whose stability we analyze by linearizing around them. The resulting eigenvalue condition determines the growth or decay rate of small perturbations from any initial distribution – not merely from a state close to full flavor coherence – thereby going significantly beyond the conventional linear stability analysis of collective modes. In special limits the condition reproduces known synchronization thresholds in the two-beam model, providing a non-trivial check of the framework. We present analytical results for the eigenvalue equation and explore stability phase diagrams for physically relevant frequency distributions.

KKR 18 is a dwarf irregular galaxy in the Local Void at a distance of 9.46 Mpc. It is gas rich and was experiencing vigorous star formation 20 - 100 Myr ago. Its metallicity is 4% of Solar from an emission spectrum, qualifying is as extremely metal poor (XMP). Its most remarkable characteristic is an extremely deficient Red Giant Branch. This feature is shared with a small number of other dwarf galaxies and it is inferred that they lack ancient stellar components. It is suggested that these are late arrival galaxies (LAG).

Transferable coarse-grained (CG) force fields compress chemical space: by aggregating atoms into a reduced set of interaction beads, models such as MARTINI reduce the number of distinguishable compounds by roughly three orders of magnitude, making high-throughput screening of thermodynamic properties tractable across soft matter, with drug–membrane permeability as a well-developed example. The compression is lossy and, so far, one-way: a screen returns a combination of beads, with no established route back to the compounds it stands for. Recovering those compounds–compositional backmapping–is a one-to-many inverse map, distinct from the better-studied conformational problem of rebuilding atomic coordinates from a known mapping. Here we formulate compositional backmapping as conditional graph generation by introducing juniper, a discrete denoising diffusion model over molecular graphs conditioned on the octanol–water partition free energy $\Delta G_{\mathrm{W} \mapsto \mathrm{O}}$, the principal driver of MARTINI bead type assignment and hence a proxy for bead identity. Trained on molecules of up to 9 heavy atoms mapped onto one or two beads, juniper generates molecules that are 93% valid and 92% unique for two-bead targets, and whose $\Delta G_{\mathrm{W} \mapsto \mathrm{O}}$ distributions track the target $\Delta G^{\mathrm{CG}}_{\mathrm{W} \mapsto \mathrm{O}}$ linearly ($r^{2} \geq 0.96$), departing only in the hydrophobic and hydrophilic tails. Although the model receives no chemical information beyond a single scalar, the functional groups shift systematically with the imposed free energy, from branched hydrocarbons at the apolar end to amides, imides, and isocyanates at the polar end. A bead combination flagged by a CG screen can therefore be turned into candidate molecules for atomistic study or synthesis.

We prove a structure theorem for the dimension towers~$\{d_k(D)\}_{k\geq0}$ which arise in the number-theoretic formulation of Zauner's SIC-POVM conjecture over a real quadratic field~$K=\Q(\qD)$. If~$\eps$ denotes the first totally positive power of a fundamental unit of~$K$ and $t_k = \eps^k + \eps^{-k}$ the trace of its $k$-th power, then the SIC dimension tower~$\{d_k=1+t_k\}_{k\geq0}$ is the level~$m=3$ row of an infinite two-dimensional cyclotomic array~$\{\Psi_m(t_k)\}_{m\geq1,k\geq0}$ attached to~$K$, while the auxiliary factors~$(d_k+1)$ and $(d_k-3)$ are its ramified levels $m=2$ and $m=1$. Here~$\Psi_m$ denotes the minimal polynomial of~ $\zeta_m+\zeta_m^{-1} = 2\cos{2\pi/m}$. This construction arose initially from an attempt to formulate relations among SIC dimensions in $q$-algebraic terms. The central object is a single closed composite norm relation for the two-parameter family $c_{m,k}=1-\zeta_m\eps^k$ over the cyclotomic field tower $\{K(\mu_m)\}_{m\geq1}$. This framework sheds new light on the mod-$p$ analogue of Leopoldt's conjecture, by placing the central 3-symmetry of Zauner's conjecture within a broader arithmetic context. Away from the primes dividing~$2mD$, the valuations $v_p(\Psi_m(t_k))$ at every fixed level~$m$ are described exactly in terms of a single local unit valuation, which is then related, through the~$p$-adic class number formula, to the corresponding $p$-adic $L$-value.

Hail can cause large financial losses and poses risks to public safety, making reliable nowcasts essential for timely warnings. Deep-learning approaches have emerged as a strong alternative to conventional methods, but how input data choices affect performance has not been deeply explored. We investigate how the skill of a deep-learning hail nowcasting model can be improved without changing the model architecture. Sensitivity experiments assess the impact of training-data volume, random data augmentation (mirroring and rotation) and the number of input timesteps. Increasing the years of training data substantially improves forecast skill, by up to 25 minutes at later lead times. Augmentation improved performance for larger datasets but interestingly degraded performance for smaller ones. Sensitivity to input timesteps was weaker than sensitivity to training years. These findings show that improvements in data selection and preprocessing can yield substantial gains even with a fixed architecture, offering guidance for future deep-learning nowcasting development.

The problem of the effective excitations of a gauge theory in the nonperturbative regime remains not completely understood. Using the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger (RGZ) theory as effective model for pure gauge Yang-Mills theories, we revisit the quasiparticle (quadratic) excitations of the theory. A novel interpretation of such quasiparticles is proposed, in the case of real mass poles, taking into account the manifest ${\cal PT}-$symmetry of the RGZ Lagrangian.

HELIX (Hybrid Envelope-multiparticle LInac eXplorer) is a Python hadron-linac framework developed at Fermilab for the PIP-II superconducting H- linac. It combines exact-gradient matching through a self-consistent nonlinear particle-in-cell (PIC) space-charge solve with the lattice-card workflow used for machine design. One TraceWin-format lattice drives an rms-envelope solver with 3-D linearized space charge, a multiparticle tracker with a 3-D FFT PIC solve, and linear matrix analysis over one data model, and the constraint cards that steer six classical matching algorithms also steer a differentiable seventh, which re-expresses a fixed-energy subset of the tracking-plus-PIC map as a single PyTorch graph and returns reverse-mode Jacobians exact to floating-point precision at a cost set by the number of constraints rather than of knobs. On a six-quadrupole manufactured verification problem the exact-Jacobian run reaches a tolerance-normalized residual of $3.2\times10^{-10}$, some 200 times below the finite-difference endpoint at the same forward-equivalent budget; the Jacobian cost is flat in the knob count, with the crossover between ten and twelve knobs and reverse mode 1.45 times faster at sixteen. Verification is hierarchical, from analytic envelope references through $10^{-9}$-$10^{-13}$ cross-implementation PIC parity to TraceWin benchmarks on the PIP-II low-energy, medium-energy and accelerating lines: with space charge on, the rms moments along the MEBT and half-wave-resonator line agree within 0.7%, and over the 186-m linac the energy agrees within 0.03% and transmission within the combined statistical uncertainty. HELIX also provides machine-learned field-map surrogates, Pareto exploration, error Monte Carlo with orbit correction, failure compensation, and RFQ transport, with NumPy, C++/OpenMP, CUDA and Metal backends.

Quadratic $f(R)$ gravity carries a massive scalar degree of freedom, the scalaron, whose finite range $\lambda$ screens its influence on the geometry outside a compact object. We show that this screening severs the exterior of a black hole from that of a neutron star of the same mass. Correction to the Schwarzschild metric is Yukawa-suppressed, falling as $e^{-r/\lambda}$ in the coupling, and is thus invisible to any expansion in powers of that coupling; the exterior is moreover intrinsically isotropic, so that inverting the temporal potential alone, as one does for single-potential solutions, fails to solve the field equations. Applying the Gibbons & Werner method of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to this geometry, we find the leading deflection angle to be exactly the general-relativistic, ($b$: impact parameter), scalaron contributions cancelling identically in the combination that bends light. First correction carries the unfamiliar signature $\lambda^{-1/2}b^{-3/2}e^{-b/\lambda}$, screened beyond the scalaron range and confirmed against direct quadrature to around 20% at $b=4\lambda$, improving to 7% at $b=12\lambda$. What survives is the ingredients that deliver it, namely, non-analyticity in the coupling, the intrinsically isotropic gauge, the closed-form screened correction and the pressure-weighted scalar charge, are obtained within a single, self-consistent derivation here. A static black hole carries no scalar hair, and lenses precisely as general relativity requires; a neutron star acquires a scalar charge weighted by the pressure supporting it against collapse, and does not. Weak lensing therefore closes as a discriminant of the theory, whilst the horizon, as against a material surface, remains one in principle. The observational advantage lies in the strong-field imaging of the photon sphere, and in the stellar interior, where the scalar charge is fixed by the equation of state.

We investigate the cosmological moduli problem (CMP) in the context of supersymmetric models where discrete R-symmetries are used to suppress the mu term, and where mu is regenerated via Kim–Nilles superpotential operators. In such theories, a global U(1)_{PQ} emerges as an accidental, approximate symmetry which solves the strong CP problem. R-parity is also generated as accidental but approximate, where RPV operators gain a (f_a/m_P)^n suppression. When n=1, the thermally-produced LSPs may decay before BBN in the early universe, leaving axion-only dark matter of the SUSY DFSZ type. Meanwhile, the dominant cosmological constraint on light stringy moduli previously came from the modulus-induced WIMP overproduction problem. WIMP overproduction is now ameliorated by the RPV WIMP decays, but the moduli-induced BBN bound may be exacerbated by convolving long-lived modulus decay with long-lived RPV WIMP decay: long-lived particle (LLP) cascade decays. In this context, moduli as light as m_\phi ~ 130 TeV may be allowed which can reconcile naturalness with the presence of stringy moduli in the early universe.

There is an extensive body of research probing the potential of adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing to solve hard computational problems. This research endeavor is complicated by noise afflicting hardware during the computational process. An error-correcting approach called quantum annealing correction (QAC) was suggested to mitigate this noise. The QAC approach employs a centralized version of the repetition code in which the qubits are configured in a star-graph pattern with one special qubit playing the role of the hub. In this paper, we explore the thermal physics of the centralized repetition code, using a Lindblad equation framework to analyze its lifetime when coupled to a thermal bath. We show that its centralized configuration leads to thermal stability, enabling the robust storage of a logical bit of information, despite the fact that there is only 1 ferromagnetic Ising interaction per qubit like a 1-dimensional Ising chain.

Losses are a major roadblock in the technological implementation of surface plasmons at optical frequencies. The recent emergence of MoOCl2, a correlated van-der-Waals material with strongly anisotropic optical properties, offers new avenues to circumvent this limit. We report the far-field observation of high-Q surface plasmon polaritons in this material, arising from the anisotropic hybridisation of surface plasmons and dielectric modes. We then explore nonlinear pumping of intraband electrons to the conduction band in these structures, leading, contrary to intuition, to an abrupt increase in the lifetime of the polariton resonance, despite the injection of hot electrons. This counterintuitive phenomenon stems from the competition between photon and plasmon excitations in a lenticular polariton resonance, yielding a largely tuneable lifetime at ultrafast speeds.

A search is presented for the rare, loop-induced Higgs boson decay H $\to$ Z$\gamma$, where Z $\to$ $\ell^+\ell^-$ and $\ell$ = e or $\mu$. The search is performed using a sample of proton-proton (pp) collision data at the center-of-mass energies of 13 and 13.6 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 200 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis design separately considers and optimizes sensitivity to Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion, vector boson fusion, and associated-production processes. The signal is extracted from a simultaneous fit to the invariant mass distributions of the $\ell^+\ell^-\gamma$ system in the various production channels and event categories. The observed (expected) signal strength $\mu$, defined as the ratio of the measured product the of cross section and decay branching fraction value $\sigma$(pp $\to$ H)$\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ Z$\gamma$) to the corresponding value predicted in the standard model, is found to be $\mu$ = 1.10$^{+0.52}_{-0.61}$ (1.00$^{+0.49}_{-0.46}$) for a Higgs boson mass of 125.38 GeV. The signal has an observed (expected) significance of 1.9 (2.3) standard deviations.

Multi-material PolyJet printing produces voxel-scale digital mixtures of an elastomeric photopolymer (Agilus) and a glassy photopolymer (Vero), giving a material family whose room-temperature response ranges from elastomeric to glassy; a unified description spanning the family has remained challenging. Large-deformation uniaxial compression over nearly three orders of magnitude in strain rate reveals a nonlinear, rate-dependent load-unload response that evolves continuously with composition, from recoverable elastomeric hysteresis to glassy yield with post-yield softening, hardening, and substantial residual strain. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) shows that each mixture has a single glass transition temperature ($T_g$) that shifts to higher temperature with both Vero fraction and frequency, so composition acts much as temperature or loading rate does. This time-composition equivalence motivates one constitutive structure for the whole family rather than a separate property set per mixture: an equilibrium hyperelastic network with three non-equilibrium, rate-dependent branches carrying reptational, intermolecular, and glassy resistance. Its properties are anchored at the two endpoints and interpolated by smooth composition scaling laws. The model captures the compression response of all seven calibrated compositions and predicts a withheld mixture from the scaling laws alone. Resolving the predicted stress into its branches shows the load passing from the elastomeric to the glassy mechanism, and the work from elastic storage to dissipation, as Vero content and rate rise. The glass transition that DMA maps at small strain therefore governs the large-strain deformation mechanisms. The framework gives a compact, physically based description of digitally mixed polymers and a predictive basis for designing functionally graded, architected multi-material structures.

Modern atomistic simulations increasingly employ localized orbitals to represent quantum operators, yielding sparse block matrices whose block shapes vary with chemical species and basis choice. Conventional scalar sparse formats store the entries of each block individually, obscuring this local structure and limiting the use of efficient block algorithms. We present VBCSR, a distributed sparse matrix library that preserves variable-size atomic blocks and accelerates the core linear algebra of large-scale atomistic simulations. A unified interface automatically maps scalar, uniform-basis, and multispecies operators to compressed sparse row (CSR), block sparse row (BSR), or variable-block compressed sparse row (VBCSR). Our advanced acceleration method groups blocks of equal shape and dispatches them to optimized dense kernels. In the reported benchmarks, VBCSR outperforms the tested Python-accessible reference implementations for several block-sparse benchmarks. We further demonstrate VBCSR in an InP nanoparticle application containing more than \(10^6\) atoms.

Recent NLO analyses of inclusive Higgs production indicate that high-energy resummation corrections can reach the 10% level, highlighting the growing impact of high-energy QCD dynamics on electroweak observables from LHC to FCC energies. We extend this precision program to Drell-Yan plus jet production by deriving high-energy-resummed predictions for rapidity and transverse-momentum distributions of electroweak bosons. Fixed-order NLO accuracy is consistently combined with next-to-leading energy-logarithmic resummation (NLL/NLO). We outline a JETHAD-DYnamis-POWHEG matching strategy that retains polarization and angular correlations while enabling realistic lepton-level kinematics. This setup provides the first high-energy-resummed description of rapidity-separated electroweak-boson plus jet final states. The resulting framework offers a precision-oriented description of Drell-Yan observables for present LHC measurements and the High-Luminosity LHC, where percent-level theoretical control will become increasingly important.

Quantum simulations of correlated many-body systems will inevitably operate with imperfect information: the prepared states may arise from incomplete or approximate ansatze, while their measured Hamiltonian and overlap matrix elements are additionally affected by hardware and statistical noise. Robust quantum algorithms will be those that can improve upon reliable lower-level descriptions in spite of these imperfections. We introduce a dual-space nonorthogonal configuration-interaction (DS-NOCI) framework built around this principle. Rather than replacing a classically accessible NOCI reference manifold with correlated quantum states, DS-NOCI retains both spaces and couples them variationally. The reference sector provides a stable many-body backbone, while the quantum states contribute whatever additional correlation directions they contain. With exact matrix elements, the enlarged dual space gives a ground-state energy no higher than either the reference-only NOCI or correlated-only quantum-NOCI spaces, ensuring that an incomplete correlation model cannot degrade the underlying variational description. The additional reference–correlated matrix elements require only one correlated state preparation and are therefore less demanding than the correlated–correlated block already required by quantum variant of NOCI. Molecular benchmarks further show enhanced resilience to imperfect amplitudes and noisy matrix elements. DS-NOCI thus provides a general strategy for building quantum many-body formulations that remain useful when both correlation models and quantum computations are necessarily incomplete and noisy.

At high-energy colliders, enormous numbers of feebly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model can be produced with negligible missing-energy signatures in the main detectors. These particles can travel macroscopic distances and decay inside a distant large-volume detector, leaving visible signals. In this sense, we may not need new detectors to search for very long-lived particles. In this paper, we show that long-lived dark particles produced in rare meson decays in proton-proton collisions during LHC Run 3 and at the HL-LHC can leave observable imprints in KM3NeT detectors such as ORCA. If no anomalous signal has been observed in ORCA to date, our projected sensitivity for LHC Run 3 will correspond to one of the strongest limits on kaon decays into light long-lived particles.

Recent discoveries of isolated dwarf galaxies (${M}_{\star}\sim 10^{7-9}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$) with no signs of ongoing star formation have challenged the prevailing notion that these solitary systems are exclusively star-forming. Investigating the origins of isolated quenched dwarfs provides important clues into the dominant processes driving galaxy quenching as a function of environment and stellar mass. In this study, we identify central dwarf galaxies in the Illustris-TNG50 cosmological simulation with ${M}_{\star} \sim 10^{7-9}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$, evaluate their star formation and orbital histories, and investigate how their dark matter halo properties correlate with quenching and interactions with massive neighbors. We find that $R_{\rm{peri}}$, defined as the closest separation ever attained between a central dwarf and a galaxy more massive than ${M}_{\star}> 10^{10}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$, is a reliable metric for inferring the star formation history of central dwarfs in TNG50. We also show that isolated quenched dwarf galaxies separate into backsplash and non-backsplash subpopulations as a function of $R_{\rm{peri}}$, and that non-backsplash galaxies are consistent with being quenched by cosmic web stripping or internal feedback mechanisms. Furthermore, we find that $R_{\rm{peri}}$ correlates strongly with dark matter halo mass and star formation proxies based on halo maximum circular velocity, which are commonly used in empirical galaxy-halo connection models. These predictions can be tested with data from upcoming deep and wide surveys (e.g., Rubin LSST and Roman) that are anticipated to significantly increase the cosmic census of dwarf galaxies.

Eukaryotic cells rely on membrane-mediated processes to compartmentalize biomolecules, counteracting diffusion-driven homogenization. These processes involve the selective sorting and packing of molecules into lipid vesicles, which are then dispatched to appropriate intracellular destinations. Previous works introduced an abstract statistical physics framework for studying this molecular distillation process, where the membrane was treated as static and the focus was on molecular aggregation and extraction. Here, we extend this framework to explicitly incorporate dynamic membrane behavior, including bending, curvature generation, and changes in membrane size due to vesicle fusion and fission events. Sorting domains drive membrane curvature, leading to vesicle formation, detachment, and a molecular distillation process that alters membrane size. Using mesoscopic modeling and numerical tools, we investigate the resulting interplay between membrane mechanics and molecular sorting. We determine a well-defined parameter region where vesicle fission and efficient molecular sorting occur, controlled by membrane rigidity, spontaneous curvature, and pressure difference across the membrane. We further identify a trade-off between speed and quality of molecular distillation: parameters that accelerate vesicle formation tend to reduce the quality of distillation, and vice versa. We propose maximization of the rate of negative entropy production as a natural criterion to optimally balance these competing effects. In this context, optimal parameters emerge naturally from the coupled dynamics of molecular aggregation and membrane mechanics, suggesting a possible strategy for cellular sorting systems to strike an efficient balance between rapid vesicle formation and high sorting quality.

Fukui and Kawakami showed that the trigonometric Haldane–Shastry (HS) spin chain can be deformed by introducing twisted boundary conditions. In this work we revisit the resulting twisted HS chains, which we call Fukui–Kawakami (FK) chains. We analyse their spectra in dependence of the twist parameter, utilising a direct connection with the (untwisted) HS chain. This allows us to explain why part of the spectrum can be described by Fukui and Kawakami's twisted Bethe equations, and can be constructed from Yangian highest weight states. These states can be labelled by combinatorial data called `motifs', as in the HS chain, which cover some of the (deformed) descendants. We furthermore show that there are other descendants which do not follow from these Bethe equations, but whose energy can be described as a sum of two single-particle energies, suggesting additional hidden symmetries. We then focus on the special case of antiperiodic boundary conditions, and show that this chain coincides with the `minimally polarised' long-range model recently introduced by Basu-Mallick, Finkel, and González-López. Remarkably, this connection implies that the antiperiodic chain has a hidden $\mathfrak{gl}(1|1)$-symmetry, which we use to relate the HS motifs to their `supersymmetric' $\mathfrak{gl}(1|1)$ counterparts.

We report a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetry of muons from the decay of coherently photoproduced J/$\psi$ mesons with respect to the second-order event plane in hadronic lead-lead (PbPb) collisions. The analysis is based on data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.36 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.26 nb$^{-1}$. The asymmetry is quantified using the amplitude $A_{2}$ of the second-order harmonic modulation of the decay-muon azimuthal distribution. A negative $A_{2}$ = $-$0.194 $\pm$ 0.022 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.018 (syst.) is observed with a significance greater than five standard deviations for the first time. The $A_{2}$ values show no significant dependence on the J/$\psi$ meson rapidity or the degree of overlap of the colliding ions. A theoretical model in which the coherently photoproduced J/$\psi$ meson inherits the linear polarization of the incident photon is consistent with the data. When considered together with recent measurements of coherent $\rho^0$ $\to$ $\pi^+\pi^-$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral collisions, these results provide a direct observation of spin dependence in the azimuthal asymmetry of decay products from coherently photoproduced vector mesons. In addition, the observed correlation with the event plane may enable a novel approach to reaction plane determination in the future.

The standard linearly perturbed Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) framework provides an accurate description of the Universe on large scales but cannot fully capture the non-linear inhomogeneities that characterize the local Universe. In this work, we investigate whether an exact inhomogeneous solution of the Einstein field equations can provide a more realistic description of the nearby cosmic environment. To this end, we employ the quasi-spherical Szekeres class I solution with $\Lambda$ and focus on its axisymmetric subclass, motivated by recent observations indicating an axisymmetric expansion rate of the local Universe. We determine light propagation by numerically integrating the Sachs optical equations, thereby obtaining the luminosity distance and its evolution with redshift. We further compute the multipoles of the covariant cosmographic parameters and apply the formalism to an attractor-repeller configuration representative of the local matter distribution. We find that the resulting covariant cosmographic parameters are consistent with current observational constraints. Finally, we derive the gravitational potential and peculiar velocity field generated by the Szekeres density distribution, establishing the connection between the exact relativistic solution and its Newtonian counterparts.