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Physics

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Thursday 10 September

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Spin-down of the accreting magnetar candidate 4U 0114+65: possible first evidence for a strong coupling regime

Graciela Sanjurjo-Ferrín, Jose Miguel Torrejón, Konstantin Postnov et al. (+3 more)

4U~0114+65 is a high-mass X-ray binary composed of the B1\,Ia supergiant V*~V662~Cas and one of the slowest known accreting neutron stars, with a spin period of $\sim$9.4 ks. In 2025, its long X-ray pulsations became undetectable in Swift/BAT monitoring, motivating a Director's Discretionary Time observation with XMM-Newton. We compare this observation with a 2015 XMM-Newton observation, when the source was brighter and clearly pulsed, and analyze the long-term spin evolution using Swift/BAT data. We performed average and pulse-phase-resolved spectroscopy using the same model as in previous work. The 2025 observation still reveals weak pulsations, with a period of about 9.3 ks, despite their non-detection in Swift/BAT. The overall spectral shape remains similar in both epochs, but the luminosity decreased by about one order of magnitude, mainly due to strong suppression of the bulk-motion Comptonization component. Although the absorbing column is higher in 2025, the inferred wind properties remain broadly compatible with those from 2015, suggesting that no major global change in the donor wind is required. Instead, the results point to a substantial reduction in accretion efficiency close to the neutron-star magnetosphere. We propose that 4U~0114+65 may be evolving toward partial centrifugal inhibition in the strong-coupling regime, where the toroidal magnetic-field component is comparable to the poloidal one. If confirmed, this would represent the first observational evidence of this state. Accretion would become progressively less efficient and more intermittent without reaching a fully developed propeller regime. The apparent disappearance of the pulse in long-term hard X-ray monitoring would then result from the lower luminosity and reduced absolute pulsed flux, rather than from the loss of the underlying spin modulation.
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All authors Graciela Sanjurjo-Ferrín, Jose Miguel Torrejón, Konstantin Postnov, Jose Joaquín Rodes-Roca, Lida Oskinova, Jessica Planelles-Villalva

Statistical Mechanics

Work as a function of protocol duration for the efficient erasure of an underdamped memory: isothermal to adiabatic transition

Nicolas Barros, Stephen Whitelam, Sergio Ciliberto et al. (+1 more)

We use evolutionary reinforcement learning to determine efficient time-dependent erasure protocols for an underdamped cantilever moving in a double-well potential, an experimental realization of a 1-bit memory. We investigate how the mean work $\langle W \rangle $ needed to erase a bit scales as a function of the protocol duration $\tau$. We find two regimes, depending on how $\tau$ compares to the relaxation time of the system $t_r$. For $\tau \gg t_r$, the quasistatic isothermal regime, we recover Landauer's bound plus an overhead that scales as $1/\tau$, similar to the overdamped case. By contrast, for $\tau<t_r$ erasure becomes adiabatic and $\langle W \rangle$ grows more slowly than in the isothermal case. This growth is bounded from below as $1/\tau$, which we derive using a gedanken optimal protocol. Finally, comparison with overdamped erasure shows that learned protocols can outperform protocols that are optimal subject to equilibrium boundary conditions.
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All authors Nicolas Barros, Stephen Whitelam, Sergio Ciliberto, Ludovic Bellon

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from cs.LO

Statistical Symmetry Release for Equivariant Quantum Learning

Zeyu Chen

Hard symmetry constraints reduce model complexity, but can also erase label information. Statistical symmetry release determines when finite data and quantum measurements justify relaxing such a constraint, which directions to open, and how far to move. We connect global signal detection to local, loss-dependent improvement. A two-copy twirl–swap gate estimates task information in the symmetry-breaking complement with a dimension-independent copy count under paired-state and group-unitary access; reweighting the same records resolves representation sectors. An exact duality distinguishes this Hilbert–Schmidt signal from the larger signal accessible to bounded-outcome readouts. Local improvement is governed by the release gradient and a loss-corrected double-commutator matrix. Simultaneous confidence bounds convert empirical direction selection into certified descent, using either shared Pauli measurements or scalar probes with state-independent truncation bounds. Gaussian testing lower bounds quantify the cost of searching over unknown directions in the calibrated local experiment. Independent validation controls adaptively generated models, and a fast squared-loss bound preserves the approximation–estimation rate of a nested release path. On an eight-qubit Ising model, shared measurements certify release with 6300 times fewer shots than the specified scalar estimator on the tested budget grids. Quotient quantum natural gradient then controls parameter redundancy during training. Together, these results turn symmetry relaxation into a statistically justified model-selection decision.
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Mathematical Physics

A proof of the Hodge universality conjecture at nonzero dispersion

Francisco Hernández Iglesias

We prove that a scalar tau-symmetric Hamiltonian deformation of the Riemann hierarchy in generalized standard form is uniquely determined by the nonzero coefficient of $u_x^2$ and the coefficients of $u_{xx}^g$, $g\ge2$, in its first Hamiltonian density. This determines the original hierarchy up to normal Miura transformations. Combined with the construction of Hodge-class double ramification hierarchies by Buryak–Rossi, this establishes Hodge universality at nonzero dispersion.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Topological band structure of excitons in octochlore KTb$_{3}$F$_{10}$: an analog of the Luttinger Semimetal

Olivier Demortier, Françoise Damay, Paul McClarty et al. (+3 more)

Understanding the symmetry and topology of band structures in crystalline solids has been among the defining themes of a generation of condensed matter physicists, with implications across many different platforms including electronic bands, photonic crystals, phonons and magnetic excitations. In the latter systems, there is usually magnetic long-range order and time reversal symmetry breaking. Here we further enrich the possible band structures available to magnetic systems by examining dispersive crystal field excitations above a ground state that is a simple product of singlets. In these systems, there is an interplay of magnetic interactions and band topology with both crystal and time reversal symmetries. Using high-resolution neutron spectroscopy we reveal the dispersion relations of bosonic excitons in KTb$_{3}$F$_{10}$, an experimental realization of the octochlore lattice. We show that there are pinch point features in the scattering intensity. The dominant coupling in this system is the long-range magnetostatic dipolar interaction, whose singularity at the zone center is passed onto the scattering intensity. However, the pinch points survive when the range of the dipoles is truncated to finite shell number in the form of a three-band quadratic band touching protected by cubic symmetry. This model, which is related to the Luttinger semi-metal, provides a general long wavelength model for the emergence of pinch point scattering intensity encompassing also the true long-range dipolar model.
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All authors Olivier Demortier, Françoise Damay, Paul McClarty, Stéphane Raymond, Jacques Ollivier, Sylvain Petit

Astrophysics of Galaxies

The properties of central stellar knots embedded in galactic bulges of CIELO simulations

Belén Acosta-Tripailao, Patricia B. Tissera, Manuela Zoccali et al. (+7 more)

Deeply bound stellar substructures of about 1 kpc at the center of bulges are found in a subset of galaxies from the cosmological chemo-hydrodynamical zoom-in CIELO simulation suite. They were identified as stellar overdensities at the lowest binding energies in each galaxy's circularity-energy $(\epsilon, E)$ plane. We refer to these overdensities as stellar knots. We aim to characterize their properties in the context of bulge assembly using CIELO simulated galaxies spanning a wide range of stellar masses ($10^{8.0}$-$10^{10.7}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$), with diverse formation histories. We inspect 54 galactic bulges. Within them, we isolate stellar knot candidates in $(\epsilon, E)$ space, and identify 28 robust knots satisfying successive selection criteria: kinematic, concentration, and morphology. We characterize their chemical enrichment, formation timescales, formation sites, progenitor gas origin, and spatial distributions. Across all galaxy masses, knots are systematically alpha-element enhanced, having assembled the bulk of their stellar mass at earlier epochs and on shorter timescales than other bulge populations, with a median of $\sim$2$\,$Gyr versus $\sim$5$\,$Gyr. Regarding their origin, knots are predominantly in-situ ($5\%$ accreted mass fraction, roughly half that of the rest of the bulge), with negligible disk-born stars contribution and the largest gas fractions originating from a primordial central spheroid ($21\%$ versus 16–17$\%$ for the surrounding populations), consistent with being the primary gas fuel for the alpha-element enhancement. In terms of structure, knots exhibit a variety of morphologies, with spheroidal shapes predominating. Dynamical selection in $(\epsilon, E)$ space of CIELO galaxies demonstrates its effectiveness in recovering coeval stellar populations, pointing to stellar knots as plausible fossil signatures of early in-situ bulge assembly.
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All authors Belén Acosta-Tripailao, Patricia B. Tissera, Manuela Zoccali, Jenny Gonzalez-Jara, Brian Tapia-Contreras, Ignacio Muñoz-Escobar, Susana Pedrosa, Nelson D. Padilla, Lucas Bignone, Rosa Dominguez-Tenreiro

Materials Science

A Community-Developed Domain Ontology for Magnetic Materials

Wilfried Hortschitz, Santa Pile, Claas Fillies et al. (+18 more)

Magnetic materials play a crucial role in energy-related technologies, mobility, and sensing, but their complex multiscale behaviour and the coexistence of multiple unit systems pose persistent challenges for data exchange and interpretation. This paper presents a domain ontology for magnetic materials, developed within the European Union funded Magnetic Multiscale Modelling Suite (MaMMoS) project and aligned with the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO). The ontology formalises intrinsic, hysteretic, and microstructural properties across multiple length scales and supports semantic interoperability between simulation tools, databases, and experimental workflows. One key feature of the ontology is its code-based and human-readable structure, enabled through the EMMOntoPy framework, which allows for direct manipulation and versioning without relying on opaque .owl or .ttl files. This facilitates collaborative development and improves transparency. The ontology supports FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and is openly available for extension by the community. The aim of the MaMMoS project is to foster reproducibility, improve traceability, and promote the adoption of ontology in the magnetism domain. The ontology that has been developed already serves as the foundation for multiple software tools that handle all kinds of magnetic material data.
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All authors Wilfried Hortschitz, Santa Pile, Claas Fillies, Harald Oezelt, Alexander Kovacs, Hans Fangohr, Samuel J. R. Holt, Martin Lang, Andrea Petrocchi, Swapneel Pathak, Michael P. Adams, Jonas Winkler, Thomas G. Woodcock, William Rigaut, Pierre Le Berre, Nora M. Dempsey, Alena Vishina, M. Nur Hasan, Georgia A. Marchant, Heike C. Herper, Thomas Schrefl

Data Analysis and Statistics

Combinations of measurements that are simultaneous fits of parameters of interest and systematic uncertainties using the BLUE method

Tomas Dado, Mark Owen and Michele Pinamonti

Combining estimates of the same physics parameter obtained from different measurements improves the precision and robustness of the parameter determination. Modern particle physics measurements are often performed using likelihood fits that include the physics parameter(s) of interest together with nuisance parameters representing systematic uncertainties. In high-statistics analyses, typical of many analyses at the Large Hadron Collider, these nuisance parameters can be constrained in the likelihood fits. We describe how the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator method for combinations can be applied to both the estimates of the parameters of interest and the estimates of the nuisance parameters. We show with concrete example combinations that including the nuisance parameters can improve the precision on the parameters of interest. We show with pseudo-experiments that the uncertainty reported by the combination is reliable and that the approximate likelihood combination proposed in a previous publication and implemented in the Convino software reports an underestimated uncertainty. The method is implemented in an open-source software tool, Combiner.
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Materials Science

Bottom-up Synthesis of Metastable 2D Hexagonal Copper(I) Iodide on Monolayer and within Bilayer Graphene

David Kaiser, Guobin Jia, Janis Köster et al. (+9 more)

Copper(I) iodide (CuI) is a wide-bandgap semiconductor crystallizing in the 3D $\gamma$-phase under ambient conditions; its layered van der Waals bulk phase $\beta$-CuI is stable only between 643 and 673 K. The two-dimensional (2D) h-CuI form has been obtained via liquid-phase exfoliation of mechanochemically prepared precursors and via encapsulation between graphene sheets, whereas bottom-up growth of 2D h-CuI on open surfaces has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we report a vapor-phase synthesis of h-CuI directly on low-defect, large-area monolayer and within bilayer reduced oxo-graphene (r-oxo-G) at low temperatures. Using a copper TEM grid as the solid-state precursor for copper, HI-vapor exposure at 40 $\deg$C initiates nucleation, while annealing at 180 $\deg$C promotes the growth of extended h-CuI domains. Aberration-corrected HRTEM resolves the atomic structure, local twist angles, and lattice anisotropy of the CuI/r-oxo-G nanohybrid, while STEM-EDX yields a Cu:I ratio consistent with 1:1. First-principles calculations show that van der Waals adhesion to graphene stabilizes the supported hexagonal layer. Under the presented low-temperature precursor conditions, pathways for nucleation of the $\gamma$-phase are not available, allowing the hexagonal phase to form selectively at the graphene interface. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations show that the heterostructure retains its hexagonal lattice order at 600 K, including on an open monolayer graphene support. The lateral extent of the growth is limited mainly by remaining interfacial adsorbates. These results establish a route to metastable 2D h-CuI on a chemically inert graphene template, which may be useful for wide-bandgap electronic and optoelectronic devices.
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All authors David Kaiser, Guobin Jia, Janis Köster, Sadegh Ghaderzadeh, Christian E. Halbig, Siegfried Eigler, Andrey Turchanin, Benjamin Dietzek-Ivanšić, Arkady V. Krasheninnikov, Jonathan Plentz, Elena Besley, Ute Kaiser

Quantum Physics

Local decoders for fault-tolerant quantum computation and translation-invariant stabilizer codes

Nathaniel Selub, Aditya Bhardwaj and Ethan Lake

We construct the first fully spatially local fault-tolerant quantum computer based on topological codes in fewer than four spatial dimensions. Our construction is a two-dimensional architecture that uses only geometrically local quantum and classical operations, bounded-speed classical communication and computation, and a constant density of quantum and classical resources. The core component is a new time-translation-invariant cellular-automaton decoder for the surface code. This decoder preserves logical information for a time stretched-exponential in the code distance and operates continuously during state injection, stabilizer-state preparation, lattice surgery, and transversal readout. We also prove that every translation-invariant topological Pauli stabilizer code is locally decodable under phenomenological noise.
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Lava Tube Exploration with LunarLeaper

Anna Mittelholz, Simon C. Stähler, Valentin T. Bickel et al. (+9 more)

Lunar pits, some of which are interpreted as collapse features into underlying lava tubes, expose otherwise inaccessible stratigraphy and may provide entry points to subsurface voids that preserve records of lunar volcanism and offer potential sites for future human exploration. We synthesize the current state of knowledge on lunar pits and lava tubes, covering their morphological characteristics, classification, proposed formation mechanisms, mechanical stability, and detection from orbit. We then review the open science questions that pit and pit-wall investigation is uniquely placed to address, spanning the volcanic stratigraphy of the lunar maria, the structure and lateral variability of the regolith, and the dimensions and accessibility of subsurface conduits. To evaluate how these questions can be tackled in situ, we assess the feasibility and expected performance of geophysical and remote-sensing investigations for subsurface voids and surface exposures, mainly focusing on gravity measurements, ground-penetrating radar, high-resolution imaging, and spectroscopy. Building on this, we present LunarLeaper, a small legged robot mission concept combining a gravimeter, ground-penetrating radar, high-resolution imager, spectrometer, and leg-based geomechanical experiments to deliver the first in situ investigation of a mare pit. The concept targets the Marius Hills Pit and its associated rille, with a mobility architecture optimized for the rugged terrain encountered at pit edges and funnel slopes.
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All authors Anna Mittelholz, Simon C. Stähler, Valentin T. Bickel, Jordan Aaron, Aurelie Cocheril, Alessandro Ghirotto, Matthias Grott, Svein-Erik Hamran, Ozgur Karaketin, Alessandro Maturilli, Birgit Ritter, Alexis Shakas

Quantum Physics

Self-guided certification of nonlocality in quantum networks

Jean Cortés, Luciano Pereira and Aldo Delgado

Bell's theorem shows that quantum theory is incompatible with local hidden-variable models. In recent years, research on nonlocality has moved beyond Bell's original scenario to quantum networks, where multiple independent sources distribute physical systems among distant parties, giving rise to correlations certified by nonlinear rather than standard Bell inequalities. Here, we introduce a self-guided protocol that variationally optimizes each party's measurement to maximize the violation of a network Bell inequality, with the violation evaluated efficiently at each step via local Pauli classical shadows and the search driven by the Complex Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (CSPSA) algorithm. Once converged, the measurement settings it returns are implemented directly and the inequality is re-evaluated without shadows. This two-stage structure separates a device-dependent search from a certificate that depends only on the observed statistics and on the causal structure of the network. We validate the protocol by numerically simulating it on the triangle network using the Wagon-Wheel inequality, recovering the violation achieved by the Fritz distribution, and extending the certification to non-maximally entangled and noisy states.
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High Energy Physics (Theory)

The Casimir effect in Gribov-Zwanziger theory

David Dudal, Philipe De Fabritiis, Sebbe Stouten et al. (+1 more)

We consider Yang-Mills theory with two infinite parallel plates, separated by a distance \(L\), that are perfect magnetic conductors (PMC) or perfect electric conductors (PEC). Recently, it was shown that the Gribov copy problem persists in such a setting. We then study the Gribov-Zwanziger (GZ) action in the presence of those boundaries using functional integral methods. Lagrange multiplier fields allow one to lift the boundary conditions into the action, after which the boundary modifications to the gluon propagator can straightforwardly be determined. In the PEC case, we provide evidence that, even when translation invariance is (partially) broken, the usual horizon term in the GZ action still restricts the functional integral to the Gribov region. We compute the Casimir energy for GZ with PMC or PEC plates, both directly from the functional integral and from the energy-momentum tensor, obtaining consistent results. We compare our analytical results with recent lattice data, in both 4D and 3D. A priori, one might expect that the boundary-modified gluon propagator introduces new \(L\)-dependencies into the GZ gap equation. This would make the Gribov mass \(\gamma\) dynamically dependent on \(L\), implying an interesting interplay with the Casimir energy. However, we show that no such dynamical \(L\)-dependence occurs within the current approximation.
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All authors David Dudal, Philipe De Fabritiis, Sebbe Stouten, David Vercauteren

Materials Science

Vacancy Order and Physical Properties of a Ternary Compound Fe0.68Pd0.80Te with an {\alpha}-Fe1+xTe-Type Structure

Bingxian Shi, Manyu Wang, Chenglin Shang et al. (+14 more)

We report the identification and characterization of a new compound Fe0.68Pd0.80Te with an {\alpha}-Fe1+xTe prototype structure. Different from the Fe-square net and minor occupancy of interstitial Fe-sites in Fe1+xTe, Fe0.68Pd0.80Te is featured by a Pdsquare net and near 68% occupancy of the corresponding interstitial Fe-sites. Furthermore, noncontact atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction provide evidence for the existence of a 3*3*3 Pd-vacancy order in this layered material. A spin-glass ground state below Tg 40 K is identified via magnetic characterization. Electrical transport measurements show that Fe0.68Pd0.80Te is a semiconductor with a very small band gap below 10 meV. It has weak negative magnetoresistance and holelike charge carriers below room temperature. Our results demonstrate its potentials for further exploring various quantum phenomena.
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All authors Bingxian Shi, Manyu Wang, Chenglin Shang, Yanyan Geng, Yangyang Fan, Xiaoxiao Pei, Li Huang, Daye Xu, Juanjuan Liu, Jinchen Wang, Hongxia Zhang, Hongliang Wang, Lijie Hao, Rui Xu, Zhongyi Lu, Zhihai Cheng, Peng Cheng

Geophysics · Cross-listed from eess.SP

Optimizing GEDI Simulator Configuration for European Temperate Forests

Selim Behloul, Nikola Besic, Steven Hancock et al. (+5 more)

Accurate estimation of aboveground biomass density is essential for quantifying forest carbon stocks. NASA's GEDI mission provides valuable canopy structure data, but its sparse sampling necessitates the use of simulators to calibrate biomass models at field inventory locations. The widely used simulator of Hancock et al. (2019) emulates GEDI waveforms from airborne LiDAR point clouds, yet it has never been validated over European temperate forests. Here, we compare approximately 8,100 pairs of observed and simulated GEDI relative height (RH) profiles across French forests using the national airborne LiDAR program as input. We separate two sources of error: waveform modeling differences, assessed by referencing both simulated and real RH metrics to a common ALS-derived ground elevation, and ground detection bias, evaluated by comparing each GEDI L2A processing algorithm against the ALS reference. Under the baseline configuration, the mean absolute bias across the full RH profile reaches 0.67 m in leaf-on and 1.20 m in leaf-off conditions. Switching to intensity-based return weighting and selecting the a3 L2A algorithm reduces these biases to 0.43 m and 0.42 m respectively. The a3 algorithm also achieves near-unbiased ground detection (+0.04 m versus -0.82 m for the default), directly reducing a previously overlooked source of error. We also show that leaf-off acquisitions and low-sensitivity shots, both typically excluded from standard biomass products, are simulated as reliably as their counterparts, substantially expanding the potential calibration and inference datasets.
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All authors Selim Behloul, Nikola Besic, Steven Hancock, Cedric Vega, Sylvie Durrieu, Jean-Pierre Renaud, Ibrahim Fayad, Philippe Ciais

Fluid Dynamics

DiffSWE2d: a differentiable Shallow Water Equations solver for end-to-end flood and tsunami modelling

Zhonghou Xu

Solving inverse and optimisation problems with traditional shallow water equations (SWE) solvers can be computationally expensive, particularly when gradients with respect to model inputs or parameters must be estimated through repeated forward simulations. In this paper, we introduce DiffSWE2d, an open-source differentiable shallow water equations solver for end-to-end flood and tsunami modelling implemented in PyTorch. By leveraging automatic differentiation, DiffSWE2d represents the time-marching physics as a differentiable computational graph, enabling gradients to be propagated directly through the numerical solver. We validate the solver against two established benchmark cases and demonstrate its application to tsunami waveform inversion, showing its ability to infer model inputs through gradient-based optimisation. DiffSWE2d provides a flexible framework for integrating physics-based hydrodynamic modelling with modern optimisation and machine learning methods. The source code and reproducible examples are publicly available at: https://github.com/ZhonghouXu/DiffSWE2d
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Nuclear Theory

Gogny interaction from beginnings to current challenges

Nathalie Pillet, Geoffrey Zietek, Luis Robledo et al. (+2 more)

In the present review, various facets of the phenomenological effective Gogny interaction, which was originally proposed in the 70's, are gathered for the first time in the same place. This involves both nuclear phenomena of interest that led to its creation and evolution as well as highly technical aspects that led the objectives to be achieved. With this in mind, a discussion structured around four key points is proposed. After a general introduction, the history and philosophy of the Gogny interaction is exposed. In particular, one highlights the way followed by D. Gogny to guide the determination of the parameters of its phenomenological interaction with results obtained from a realistic interaction using Hartree-Fock calculations and second order corrections and a G-matrix. One also shows how physical phenomena such as pairing or fission were essential to improve the initial parameterization. The evolution of the original analytical form over the years is then discussed. The second key point concern the emulator that was used for the generation of parameterizations. Its modifications, consistent with the evolution of its analytical form along the decades, are detailed. Other fitting procedures from other groups, more recent, are also evoked. The third key point is dedicated to the role of some nuclear matter properties in the fitting process and the acceptance of a parameterization. The objective of the last key point consists in highlighting some results obtained with the Gogny interaction in various domains such as nuclear structure, fission, reactions and nuclear data that have allowed to interpret many experimental data. Perpsectives are given explaining some paths that will be followed in the future concerning the functional itself as well as N-body approaches.
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All authors Nathalie Pillet, Geoffrey Zietek, Luis Robledo, Marc Dupuis, Tomas R. Rodriguez

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Gravitational lensing in a spacetime with extra dimensions

Mattia Villani

This is the fourth paper of a series in which we consider the possibility to use cosmological extra dimensions to explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe and the rotation curve of spiral galaxies without introducing dark matter and dark energy. Here we study gravitational lensing in this setting; we derive an expression for time delay and present a modified likelihood for the mass reconstruction procedure which takes into account the effect of the expansion or contraction of the extra dimensions.
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Materials Science

Anisotropy of Ultrafast Strain in $V_2O_3$ Thin Films: Out-of-Equilibrium Phase Transitions under Interfacial Clamping

J. Guzman-Brambila, R. Mandal, D. Lea et al. (+9 more)

Ultrafast photoinduced insulator-to-metal transitions in correlated materials are often mediated by lattice distortions, yet the role of interfacial lattice constraints in shaping nonequilibrium pathways remains largely unexplored. We use azimuth-resolved time-resolved X-ray diffraction to track orientation-dependent strain dynamics in granular V$_2$O$_3$ thin films on c-cut sapphire, where thermal-expansion mismatch imposes anisotropic interfacial strain. Across the thermal transition, the azimuthal profile of the (110)$_H$ strain inverts curvature, providing direct evidence of partial clamping of the hexagonal basal-plane lattice (a$_H$,b$_H$). After photoexcitation of the antiferromagnetic insulating phase, the structural response remains clamp-limited: weakly constrained grain families reach the full basal-plane contraction characteristic of the metallic-like state, whereas strongly constrained families exhibit a strongly reduced distortion. Fluence-dependent measurements further disentangle transformed fraction from clamping-limited lattice distortion. Our results show that interfacial clamping acts as a static selector for ultrafast phase switching and provide a general route to quantify anisotropic strain dynamics in heterostructures.
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All authors J. Guzman-Brambila, R. Mandal, D. Lea, E. Trzop, M. Servol, J. C. Ekström, F. Pawula, J. Tranchant, L. Cario, M. Lorenc, E. Janod, C. Mariette

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Gauss Law, Monodromy Defect, Magnetic Lattice Translation, and Lattice Duality

Pengcheng Wei and Yunqin Zheng

In a Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory, the physical Hilbert space is fixed by the Gauss law, by choosing an eigenspace of the Gauss law operator which generates the gauge transformation. Choosing a non-trivial eigenspace is referred to as the modified Gauss law. In 2+1d dynamical U(1) pure gauge theory, we show that these physical Hilbert spaces are defect Hilbert spaces associated with non-topological monodromy defects for monopole operators and topological defects for U(1) 1-form symmetry, inserted along the time direction. We also construct the corresponding lattice translation operators. Under a nontrivially modified Gauss law, these translations obey a magnetic translation algebra. Finally, we discuss how the modified Gauss laws are manifested in 2+1d compact bosons, via exact duality on the lattice.
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Quantum Physics

The Quantum Plumber's Problem

Nicolas G. Underwood, Holger F. Hofmann and Jonte R. Hance

Recent work quantified the notion of quantum counterfactual gain for an extended Elitzur-Vaidman bomb test style scenario, through a connection to the negativity of the Kirkwood-Dirac quasiprobability distribution. We here extend this work to identifying quantum advantage in a new scenario, which we term the “Quantum Plumber's Problem”. In this scenario, we imagine a “quantum plumber”, who knows that one path of an interferometer is blocked, and wants to find the optimal strategy for identifying with certainty which path this is. We discuss various strategies for a generalised path-encoded interferometer, as well as for the specific case of Hofmann's three-path interferometer, introduced in a recent analysis of the relationship between states in five measurement contexts of a three level system. We support our arguments on the relative merit of competing strategies with data collected over many simulated attempts at locating blockages. We also present results for a variant of the game in which the blockage is replaced by a non-demolition detector.
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Statistical Mechanics

Rare-History Transitions in Temporally Random Integrable Quantum Circuits

Tingfei Li and Jie Gu

We study current fluctuations in a temporally random integrable quantum circuit. Commutativity reduces every drive history exactly to its layer composition, turning annealed fluctuations into a competition between current gain and the large-deviation cost of rare compositions. For each fixed composition, homogeneous thermodynamic Bethe ansatz dressing supplemented by ballistic fluctuation theory yields the conditional current statistics. Their annealed large-deviation contraction predicts a first-order switch between two dominant history classes, terminating on a line of regular cusp endpoints. Finite-time analysis shows how the switch is rounded. Thus temporal randomness can act as an emergent order-parameter-like coordinate in trajectory space.
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Atomic Physics

Non-stick vacuum wall collisions with a laser-coolable molecule

P. Kukreja, L. A. Rautenberg, J. C. Blumenstock et al. (+3 more)

Molecular species that are suitable for direct laser cooling are typically considered lost or destroyed if they collide with an ambient temperature vacuum wall. Here, we study surface collisions with aluminum monofluoride (AlF), a laser-coolable molecule that survives this process with unusually high probability. We detect the outgoing AlF molecules from a single wall collision via Doppler-sensitive laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, using incoming supersonic (pulsed) and thermochemical (continuous) molecular beams. The angular, velocity and rovibrational level distributions of the outgoing molecules show near-complete thermalisation to the wall in a single collision event. We determine an upper limit to the surface residence time of about 5$~\mu$s, and by monitoring the decay in density of pulses of molecules loaded into a small storage volume, we deduce the surface sticking probability for different materials. For a siloxane-coated metallic surface, the sticking probability of AlF is about 0.015, allowing us to accumulate molecules from the thermochemical source into an ambient temperature storage vessel at densities near $10^{8}~$cm$^{-3}$. This provides a route to compact, portable traps for neutral molecules.
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All authors P. Kukreja, L. A. Rautenberg, J. C. Blumenstock, S. Kray, G. Meijer, S. C. Wright

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Instabilities in self-consistent diagrammatic approaches and how to cure them

Marcel Gievers, Herbert Eßl, Stefan Rohshap et al. (+2 more)

While self-consistent diagrammatic approaches are widely used to compute the physical properties of correlated quantum materials, their applicability may get severely hindered precisely in the parameter regions where the most exciting physics is observed. One of the major issues, referred to as "misleading convergence", is the tendency of iterative schemes to converge to unphysical fixed points for intermediate-to-strong electronic interactions, regardless of the numerical accuracy of the computation. Here, we explicitly verify that the origin of this problem in several established self-consistent many-electron approaches, defined in the general diagrammatic framework of the boson-exchange formalism, resides exclusively in the stability condition of the respective iteration schemes, and not in an intrinsic breakdown of their self-consistent diagrammatic description. This insight enables a simple and general remedy, as recently proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 016502 (2026): The redefinition of the iterative procedure, by inverting the unstable eigendirections of the Jacobian associated with the fixed point of the self-consistent algorithm. We illustrate the successful outcome of this procedure by means of systematic calculations performed on exactly solvable testbed models. Our results demonstrate that the physical fixed point of the diagrammatic schemes we considered can be stabilized, de facto, across the entire parameter range, including the most challenging nonperturbative/strong-coupling regimes.
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All authors Marcel Gievers, Herbert Eßl, Stefan Rohshap, Anna Kauch, Alessandro Toschi

Quantum Physics

The Quantum Composition Paradox

Jacob Biamonte

Quantum theory does not generally permit the probability laws obtained from individual unitary steps by the Born rule to be sewn into a consistent genealogy; we classify the exceptions and show that faithful composition can hold from an initial boundary yet fail after an internal restart. For finite-dimensional, composition-closed unitary families, universal composition holds exactly for unitary monomials, the phase-dressed permutations whose Born kernels realize reversible deterministic state machines. Prescribed sequences evade this obstruction. We classify all pairs of qubit unitary steps, give a necessary-and-sufficient criterion for pairs of qutrit unitary steps, and prove that a boundary-stable unitary sequence on a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space contains at most $d$ fully mixing steps, with equality in every prime dimension. We also construct arbitrarily long genuinely mixing sequences that compose from their initial boundary but fail after an internal restart, and a qutrit-controlled two-qubit realization with active interference. We define a Born–Chapman–Kolmogorov current that vanishes exactly when coherent and stepwise-checked endpoint laws agree, together with an associated measure of how many bits the endpoint reveals about the intermediate checking schedule. This state-machine connection provides a foundation for a quantum theory of music, in which unitary operations are notes and temporal boundaries are cues. Musical-transition prediction is proved PromiseBQP-complete, and the stepwise patterns that preserve a genealogy specify rules for rhythm, whereas the exceptional failure of that genealogy from an internal cue is the quantum music paradox.
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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

Ann-Kristin Malz, Gregory Ashton and Nicolo Colombo

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.
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Applied Physics

Influence of magnetic fields on the performance of spin-orbit torque magnetic random-access memory

Jiaxin Liu, Yuqing Zhou, Guoyi Shi et al. (+1 more)

Spin-orbit torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM) offers high speed, ultrahigh endurance, and compatibility with advanced semiconductor processes, making it a promising candidate for next-generation nonvolatile memory. However, intrinsic bias fields in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), originating from reference-layer stray fields and interlayer coupling, cause asymmetric critical switching currents and increased energy consumption. Existing compensation approaches usually introduce additional magnetic layers into the MTJ stack, which increases fabrication complexity and limits wafer-scale integration. Here, we propose a bias-compensation strategy without modifying the MTJ stack by engineering local stray magnetic fields through magnetic filling materials in vertical interconnect access (VIA) channels during the back-end-of-line process. Micromagnetic simulations show that the proposed magnetic filling layer can provide the required auxiliary field for deterministic switching and significantly suppress write-current asymmetry. By optimizing the MTJ position relative to the magnetic filling structure, the write-current bias ratio is reduced from 21.6% in the conventional design to 1.3%. The approach is also applicable to in-plane magnetic anisotropy SOT-MTJs, reducing the bias ratio from 19.8% to -0.2%. Scaling analysis further demonstrates that the compensation effect remains effective when the device size is reduced to 20% of the original dimension (MTJ diameter approximately 10 nm), indicating its potential for high-density SOT-MRAM integration.
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All authors Jiaxin Liu, Yuqing Zhou, Guoyi Shi, Kaiming Cai

Quantum Gases

Microwave-controlled interactions and stripe formation of static-field-shielded polar molecules

Tiziano Arnone Cardinale, Malte Schubert and Stephanie M. Reimann

We study polar molecules where short-range losses are suppressed by a shielding scheme involving a static electric field and an elliptically polarized microwave field. Using perturbation theory, we derive the effective interaction potential and validate it against coupled channel calculations. We identify a parameter regime where two-body losses are strongly suppressed and the extended mean-field description of dilute molecular Bose-Einstein condensates is justified. We calculate the collective excitations and show that intriguingly, supersolidity in quasi-two-dimensional confinement emerges as a stripe phase even at small values of microwave ellipticity.
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Statistical Mechanics

Disordered ground states in one-dimensional exactly solvable fluids

Igor Travěnec and Ladislav Šamaj

One-dimensional fluids of classical hard-core particles of diameter $a$, interacting in pairs via a soft repulsive (monotonically decreasing) potential of finite range $\varphi(x)=\varepsilon \left[ (a'-x)/(a'-a)\right]^{1/\nu}$ $(a\le x\le a')$ with real positive parameters $\varepsilon$ and $\nu$, are studied in an isothermal-isobaric ensemble. If $a'\le 2a$, the pairwise interactions are reduced to nearest-neighbour interactions, which allows for an exact solution of the thermal equilibrium. We focus on the $T\to 0$ ground states, specifically on the equation of state for the mean distance between nearest neighbours $l_0$ and the pair correlation function $g_0(x)$. If $\varphi(x)$ is concave $(\nu\ge 1)$, there exists an “incompressibility” pressure $p_i=\varepsilon/(a'-a)$ such that the ground state is an equidistant chain of particles with spacing $l_0=a'$ for $0<p<p_i$ and with spacing $l_0=a$ for $p>p_i$. If $\nu>1$ (strict concavity), the ground state at $p=p_i$ is disordered with $l_0=\left[ \nu a +(\nu-1)a'\right]/(2\nu-1)$ and $g_0(x)$ being a superposition of weighted Dirac delta functions over discrete positions. If $\nu=1$ (linear ramp), the ground state at $p=p_i$ is disordered with $l_0=(a+a')/2$ and the continuous $g_0(x)$ is a superposition of Heaviside step functions multiplied by polynomials in $x$. The isothermal susceptibility at $T=0$ is nonzero for concave $\varphi(x)$ ($\nu\ge 1$) at $p=p_i$ and, therefore, the corresponding disordered ground states are non-hyperuniform, i.e., they resemble disordered fluids at nonzero temperatures. It turns out that pair correlation functions of disordered ground states, which occur only at a single pressure $p_i$, extend their predictive power to thermodynamic states at nonzero temperatures over a wider range of pressures around $p_i$.
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Plasma Physics

Modeling of plasma transport during edge-localized mode in tokamak using a kinetic Vlasov-Poisson code

Ce Wang, Sven Van Loo and Geert Verdoolaege

A kinetic parallel transport code KOBRA based on a finite-volume method is developed to study edge localized mode (ELM) plasma transport from the mid-plane to divertor targets. The large scale separation between the Debye length (~cm) and the connection length (~10-20 m) leads to prohibitive computational cost in full 6D simulations. To alleviate this, an adaptive-mesh refinement (AMR) strategy is employed. Comparisons with uniform-grid simulations show that AMR accurately reproduces the characteristic ELM dynamics, including the rapid rise and slow decay of divertor fluxes, as well as the early-time peak induced by fast electrons. Analysis of the electron distribution and self-consistent electric field reveals that AMR efficiency is closely linked to phase-space evolution. Overall, AMR achieves comparable physical accuracy while reducing memory usage by 30-40% and accelerating computations by up to a factor of two, demonstrating its effectiveness for high-dimensional kinetic ELM simulations.
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