Papers

Periodic multilayer mirrors for X-rays require a layer period controlled to about 0.1 nm, set by deposition rates held in the laboratory's own notebook. A supervising model session gave a large language model agent a target multilayer specification and calibration constants derived from a laboratory archive. The agent authored recipes in the magnetron sputtering system's native recipe language and submitted them through a Model Context Protocol bridge of 17 tools in three tiers, with enforcement in the control application. The target was a 30-bilayer Ru/C multilayer with a period of 6.85 nm, a pair chosen because each period is fitted as two layers. The agent could read and write only its own working project, so it could alter neither the calibration record nor the measurements that scored it. We scored mirrors by X-ray reflectivity and fixed the 3% acceptance threshold on relative period difference before deposition. Across four scored depositions, the relative period difference fell from 20% on the calibration as given to 2.26% after one measured-feedback iteration and 0.79% after a second. We identified sixteen failure modes of the agent-facing interface. The result is bounded to the period, pair, and chamber observed.

Aeroelastic ?utter is normally a failure mode to be designed against, yet the limit-cycle oscillations (LCOs) that follow it convert flow energy into sustained structural motion that a piezoelectric transducer can turn into electrical power. A transducer is embedded in a three-degree-of-freedom pitch-plunge aerofoil with a finite-mass trailing-edge flap and unsteady strip-theory aerodynamics, giving a fifteen-state electro-aeroelastic system with a cubic hardening pitch spring, and the system is reduced by biorthonormal projection of the Taylor-expanded residual onto eigenvectors of the coupled Jacobian. The testbed is deliberately low order, so that every reduced prediction can be checked against the full-order system it replaces. The degree of freedom that carries the transducer is a first-order design variable, since it sets both the sign of the shift in the flutter boundary and the magnitude of the harvested power. The error of the reduced model is dominated not by the size of the retained basis but by how the reduced operator is made to depend on low speed. Expanding the retained eigenvalues leaves the reduced operator block-diagonal, with no coupling between the retained modes at any order of the expansion, whereas re-projecting the exact Jacobian onto the same frozen basis supplies that coupling and restores the structural response without enlarging the basis. It is found that the error that remains lies in the harvested voltage, which the equilibrium eigenvectors carry in a fixed proportion to the motion, and this is not removed by adding the electrical modes to the basis, whereas the flap detection, which the same basis also misses, is recovered by retaining the flap modes. The accuracy of a harvester reduced-order model must therefore be reported on the harvested quantity itself.

In previous work [Physical Review Letters, 136(6):060807, 2026], we developed a symmetry-based framework for generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and its applications to quantum metrology. Here, we apply this framework to experimentally accessible configurations involving a few photons and explore how it sheds new light on a variety of existing results while suggesting new experimental perspectives. We first reinterpret a two-photon Mach-Zehnder interferometer as a generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment and show how its photon-counting statistics and metrological performance follow from the spatial symmetry of an effective probe state. We then study two coherently pumped parametric photon-pair sources, derive their complete output distribution, and connect source indistinguishability with spatial symmetry. Finally, we extend the discussion to a three-mode interferometer and show that the same symmetry principles provide a natural description of three-photon interference in tritter configurations.

Gravitational-wave observations of compact-binary inspirals offer the opportunity to test deviations from general relativity in both strong and weak-field regimes. In previous work, we developed a theory-independent formalism for describing compact-binary dynamics in metric theories of gravity without preferred frames, using the parametrised post-Newtonian (PPN) couplings together with an additional set of scalar sensitivity parameters that encode violations of the strong equivalence principle. Here, we extend this framework to include preferred-frame effects, of the type that can arise in (for example) vector-tensor theories of gravity. This is achieved by introducing a time-like vector field that identifies the preferred frame, and then by allowing compact body masses to depend on the invariant formed from this field and the body's four-velocity. We calculate the modified equation of motion up to first post-Newtonian order (1PN), where the preferred-frame PPN parameters $\alpha_1$ and $\alpha_2$ acquire contributions from our new vector sensitivities. We further combine scalar and vector sensitivities in a unified formalism, which we validate with an example scalar-vector-tensor theory. This approach provides the orbital dynamics required to extend gravitational-wave constraints on PPN and sensitivity parameters to theories of gravity that admit preferred frames, as well as those that do not.

Accelerating black holes in General Relativity are described by the C-metric. We study how this geometry is modified by higher-derivative corrections, focusing on cubic curvature terms of even and odd parity. Using a suitable metric ansatz, we obtain closed-form solutions at first order in the coupling constants. The corrected geometries contain new integration constants, which correspond to physical deformations of the C-metric, and exhibit different behavior depending on the parity of the correction. In particular, parity-violating terms generate an off-diagonal metric component and induce rotation. For AdS solutions, we analyze the thermodynamics, including the Hawking temperature, entropy, and string tensions, and discuss the subtleties in defining the mass and thermodynamic string lengths.

We establish the average-case hardness of Betti number estimation on random clique complexes via a reduction from the planted clique problem. We further show that our reduction implies a series of hardness results for many problems in both classical and quantum Topological Data Analysis (qTDA). Under the classical planted clique conjecture, no randomized polynomial-time Betti number estimator achieves additive error below $\tfrac12$ with constant advantage. Under a new quantum planted clique conjecture that we introduce, the same conclusion holds for quantum polynomial-time algorithms. We also obtain related conditional hardness results for homology vanishing, additive approximations with larger error tolerances, preparation of simplex and harmonic states, cycle recovery, and counting eigenvalues at low energy. Our reduction clarifies the structural requirements for quantum advantage in TDA and provides a new lens to investigate the classical and quantum complexity of related problems.

DALI is an axion haloscope consisting of a magnetized phased array backed by a conducting mirror and coupled in the near field to a semi-open Fabry–Pérot resonator. The applied static magnetic field makes both the dielectric interfaces and the conducting mirror sensitive to axion-induced electromagnetic conversion. Each interface acts as a radiating surface, and the resulting fields are projected onto the mode collected by the resonator and delivered to the receiver. We derive the detected power in terms of the power available from the magnetized mirror, the coherent contribution of the dielectric interfaces, the transverse mode overlap, the loaded quality factor, and the receiver-coupling coefficient. This formulation separates two distinct enhancement mechanisms. The dielectric-interface emissions may add coherently, producing a dielectric boost, while the semi-open Fabry–Pérot resonator provides enhancement through resonant storage of the coupled electromagnetic field. These contributions depend differently on the dielectric thicknesses, spacings, and resonant mode, and should therefore be evaluated independently. The same assembly can operate between the limits of a coherently boosted dielectric haloscope and a mirror-sourced, resonantly enhanced Fabry–Pérot haloscope. This combined architecture offers a flexible approach to resonant axion searches at frequencies for which conventional closed microwave cavities become increasingly limited in conversion volume.

An analysis of 36 hours of data from a DALI haloscope reveals no statistically significant excess attributable to dark-photon dark matter. We therefore set new constraints in the 6.88691–6.91792 GHz band, reaching a dark-photon-to-photon kinetic mixing strength of $\chi\lesssim 6.8\times10^{-14}$ at $28.54 \, \mu\mathrm{eV}$. To our knowledge, this result established the strongest laboratory-based exclusion limit in this frequency range.

Pressure anisotropy in relativistic stars is commonly prescribed through a phenomenological closure, obscuring its microscopic origin and relation to stress-energy conservation. Here it is derived directly from the minimally coupled Einstein-complex-Proca theory. For spherical Proca stars, the principal-pressure difference admits an exact on-shell form whose sign is controlled solely by the local mass-shell threshold. The stress is radially dominated in the core, reverses on a surface of fixed gravitational redshift, and becomes tangentially dominated in the envelope. At the first mass maximum, the fractional anisotropy reaches about 21% near the density maximum, whilst the region beyond the reversal contains about 9% of the mass. Its exact atmospheric limit is approximately 24%, equal in magnitude and opposite in sign to the scalar-boson-star limit. Because the usual local fluid variables remain non-zero at the crossing, no sign-definite closure constructed from them can reproduce the profile. These results identify an intrinsically vectorial stress reversal, generated without additional interactions, and provide a first-principles benchmark for anisotropic bosonic compact objects.

AlN is a promising material for integrated quantum photonics due to its broad transparency window, its compatibility with CMOS technology, and the possibility to host localized light emitters acting as single photon sources. However, little is understood yet about the microscopic nature and formation mechanisms of these light emitters. In this contribution, we demonstrate that their formation efficiency depends significantly on the growth conditions of the AlN thin film. We reveal that localized light emitters with distinct zero-phonon lines in the 600–800~nm range can be efficiently formed in epitaxial AlN thin films grown under N-rich conditions by exposing the AlN to a post-growth treatment consisting in a proton irradiation followed by an annealing process. In contrast, the density of light emitters formed in AlN grown under Al-rich conditions remains low, even after the thin films have been exposed to the post-growth treatment. These results open a pathway toward a better understanding of the microscopic nature of these light emission centers, as well as their engineered integration as quantum light sources in AlN-based optomechanical platforms.

Experiments revealed the discontinuities in the dependence of the crack speeds on the crack driving force. Despite great efforts, until now, previous theoretical methods, such as linear elastic fracture mechanics and molecular dynamics calculations, failed to elucidate the issue of speed gap. Herein, the cleavage plane-crackons model for crack propagation has been proposed. The normalized crack propagation speed of silicon is proportional to the one-fourth power of the quantum numbers. This motion equation is consistent with experimental results of silicon. It clarifies the underlying mechanism of the long-standing issue of the speed gap. The relationship between quantum numbers and the roughness of the surface of the cracks has been established. The critical quantum number for the onset of unstable crack propagation in single-crystal silicon has been determined. The correspondence between the critical quantum number and fracture toughness has been discovered. This methodology lead to insights into the underlying mechanism of the fracture processes. It is not limited to silicon and can be extended to other crystalline material to understand and predict the fracture behaviors.

This study investigates fully developed stratified gas/liquid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of an electrically conducting liquid and a nonconducting gas in inclined rectangular ducts subjected to a vertical magnetic field. Analytical and numerical solutions for the velocity and induced magnetic fields are obtained in terms of the governing dimensionless parameters for concurrent upward, concurrent downward, and countercurrent flows. Unlike single-phase MHD flow, duct inclination strongly affects two-phase flow by altering the liquid holdup and the relative contributions of gravitational, frictional, and electromagnetic forces. The results reveal a complex interplay among gravity, Lorentz forces, and wall and interfacial shear stresses. These interactions govern the liquid holdup, pressure gradient, multiple steady solutions, flooding limits, local backflow, jet-like velocity structures, and pumping requirements. Wall conductivity critically affects the induced magnetic field and Lorentz force distribution and therefore cannot be neglected, even at very small magnetic Reynolds numbers. Fully insulating ducts generally exhibit the weakest electromagnetic effects and behavior closest to non-MHD flow. Configurations with a conducting bottom wall exhibit substantially stronger electromagnetic effects and greater sensitivity to side-wall conductivity, leading to pronounced changes in the velocity field, liquid holdup, pressure gradient, gas-lubrication effect, and overall pumping-power requirements.

Conceptual assessments are widely used in physics education research to evaluate changes in student understanding, yet class average measures can obscure how those changes are distributed across students with different levels of initial achievement. We introduce a Learning Contribution Framework that characterizes this distribution through the Learning Contribution Curve (LCC) and Learning Contribution Profile (LCP). For a general contribution measure G, the LCC represents cumulative contribution across students ranked by initial achievement, whereas the LCP describes the local mean contribution relative to the population mean of the individual G values. We apply the framework to the individual Hake normalized gain and develop a statistical model linking LCC and LCP behavior to the joint structure of pretest and posttest scores. Under the central assumption that the conditional mean of the subsequent score is linear in the initial score, we identify a score structure parameter $\beta$ and a critical score structure parameter $\beta_c$. Whether $\beta$ is greater than, less than, or equal to $\beta_c$ determines whether the expected LCP increases, decreases, or remains constant across initial achievement. Given the pretest distribution, the model further yields analytical predictions for the complete LCP and LCC that closely reproduce simulation results. Application to classroom concept-assessment data illustrates how the framework reveals local and cumulative patterns of learning contribution that are not evident from an overall class average revealed by the traditional Hake's normalized gain.

The process of prompt photon production in proton-proton collisions at energies of $\sqrt{s}$=10 GeV at the NICA accelerator complex, modulated using PYTHIA 8.316 and calculated in FeynCalc. The main focus is on three main subprocesses: Compton scattering of a quark-gluon $qg \rightarrow q\gamma$, annihilation of a quark-antiquark pair $q\bar{q} \rightarrow g\gamma$ and bremsstrahlung of quarks $qq \rightarrow qq\gamma$. Main statistical parameters: number of produced prompt photon on photon energy, rapidity and invariant mass photon pairs are determined. The distribution of the number of produced photons by energy$ E_{\gamma } $ and rapidity photons can be mathematically described by the logarithmic-normal and normal law, correspondingly. The analysis shows that Compton scattering of a quark-gluon $qg \rightarrow q\gamma$ makes a dominant contribution to the total cross section of the process, accounting for 51.27%, while the contributions of annihilation of quark-antiquark pair $q\bar{q} \rightarrow g\gamma$ and bremsstrahlung of quarks $qq \rightarrow qq\gamma$, correspondingly are is 47.22% and 0.003%. The difference between the results obtained from the PYTHIA modeling and those calculated by FeynCalc is explained. The use of modern modeling tools such as PYTHIA not only improves the accuracy of experimental predictions, but also plays a key role in the development of new technologies for particle detection and data analysis.

This is an extended version of arXiv:2511.22129. We develop a general construction of the superstrip algebra $\mathbf{sStr}_{\mathscr C}(\mathcal M)$, the fermionic counterpart of the strip algebra, for a gapped $(1+1)$-dimensional system with a fermionic superfusion category $\mathscr C$ and the vacuum structure described by the supermodule category $\mathcal M$. As illustrations, we work out the superstrip algebra for two simple examples: the fermionic variant of the Fibonacci fusion category and the q-type $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We then apply the framework to the gapped IR phases of the $\mathcal N=2$ and $\mathcal N=1$ superconformal minimal models deformed by their least relevant operator and compute the Witten indices. We explain how the particle and soliton spectra, together with their fermion parity, are organized into representations of the corresponding superstrip algebras. A mixed 't Hooft anomaly between the spontaneously broken symmetry and the unbroken fermion parity $(-1)^F$ further forces each $\mathcal N =2$ soliton to carry a fractional fermion number. Finally, we set up the boundary SymTFT for fermionic systems and reproduce the results in several examples studied in this paper.

Recent studies found a number of short-timescale microlensing events that are thought to be produced by free-floating or wide-orbit planets. The microlensing event KMT-2024-BLG-0792/OGLE-2024-BLG-0516 is currently the only free-floating planet candidate with a directly measured mass ($0.73^{+0.25}_{-0.15}$ Saturn masses), derived from joint ground-based and Gaia satellite observations. However, it remains unclear whether the lens is truly isolated or bound to a widely separated host star. Here, we report high-angular-resolution interferometric observations of the event obtained with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer/GRAVITY instrument two years after peak magnification. We detect no luminous host star up to a projected separation of 90 au, supporting the hypothesis that the lens is indeed a free-floating planet. We derive a 5 sigma upper limit on the mass of a putative host star of approximately 0.5-0.6 M_solar. This work demonstrates that interferometry provides a powerful method for directly searching for or constraining host stars in short-duration and planetary microlensing events.

Background: The generation of spin distributions in fission fragments has attracted substantial interest in recent years and its mechanism is becoming clear alongside the refined description with microscopic theories. In contrast, the microscopic origin of spin distributions in reaction products remain largely unexplored. Methods: Three-dimensional TDHF calculations are performed for multinucleon transfer processes in the $^{40}\text{Ca} + {}^{124}\text{Sn}$ reaction at $E_{\text{c.m.}} \simeq 128.54\,\text{MeV}$ using the Skyrme SLy5 energy density functional. To obtain spin distributions in each transfer channel, the particle-number projection (PNP) and the angular-momentum projection (AMP) are simultaneously achieved for a reaction product. Results: By performing PNP+AMP for TDHF wave functions after collisions, spin-dependent transfer cross sections are calculated for projectile-like fragments (PLFs). From the results, we find that abundant spin distributions can be obtained from the TDHF wave functions. For one-nucleon addition and removal channels, the calculated spin values agree well with those of single-particle states in the $pf$- and $sd$-shell, respectively. Moreover, for a-few-nucleon transfer channels, we show that the obtained spin distributions can be well explained by combinations of total angular momenta of those single-particle states. Furthermore, as the number of transferred nucleons increases, we find that the calculated spin distributions exhibit a smooth singly-peaked shape with a long tail as a function of $J$, which resembles that of empirical spin distributions for thermally equilibrated fragments. An exploratory calculation for induced fission of $^{240}$Pu is also carried out, obtaining similar results as in multinucleon transfer reactions. (shorted due to the arXiv's word limit)

We report the emergence of an in-plane anomalous Hall effect (IPAHE) and a pronounced third-harmonic Hall response in an easy-plane trigonal magnetic system achieved via tuning of magnetic anisotropy. Angle-dependent Hall measurements reveal a clear departure from conventional sinusoidal behavior, revealing a strong sin(3{\theta}) component at elevated fields, which increases as the magnetic anisotropy is reduced, accompanied by a finite in-plane Hall signal. Consistently, the observed nonlinear Hall signal exhibits a cubic field dependence, indicative of a leading third-order contribution to the transverse conductivity. The enhancement of the third harmonic reflects the evolution toward coherent in-plane magnetization and symmetry-governed nonlinear transport. These observations support an intrinsic, symmetry-controlled transport mechanism enabled by reduced magnetic anisotropy and establish a direct link between anisotropy, crystal symmetry, and higher-order Hall response.

We consider locally driven-dissipative quantum spins that undergo a continuous weak measurement of their collective spin. We show that such a system can exhibit full spin-synchronization in trajectories corresponding to the same measurement record. Mathematically, we demonstrate that this is a general consequence of the irreducibility of the quantum Markov semigroup generated by the Lindbladian, in combination with a transitive symmetry, in particular spin-permutation symmetry. When breaking the irreducibility, e.g. in the absence of local dissipation, the system can exhibit a weaker form of partial synchronization. Given the general origin, this measurement-induced phenomenon arises in a broad class of many-body systems.

Reciprocal flows repeatedly return fluid elements to their initial positions, producing no net advective transport on time average. Nevertheless, their interplay with diffusion gives rise to nontrivial transport. To describe this phenomenon, we develop a general theory of effective diffusion under two-dimensional linear flows with arbitrary time dependence. By analyzing the advection-diffusion equation, we derive exact expressions for the mean square displacement and the effective diffusion coefficients for extensional, simple shear, and rotational flows within a single framework. We show that the reciprocal flows universally induce diffusion enhancement. The diffusion tensor exhibits pronounced anisotropy, which can result in directional diffusion suppression in spite of the direction-averaged diffusion enhancement. Our results provide a general framework for diffusion control by time-dependent flows and can provide new strategies for transport manipulation in microfluidic and biological systems.

We present the first experimentally measured oscillator strengths for Ni II 3d$^8$4d - 3d$^8$4p transitions. High-resolution Fourier transform spectra were recorded of Ni-He hollow cathode lamps, and intensity calibrated using deuterium standard lamps to determine relative intensities of Ni II emission lines between 200 and 395 nm. Branching fractions were determined for observed lines from 35 3d$^8$4d upper levels in total, and account for at least 95% of the predicted transition probability for 31 of these levels, with sufficient completeness to give reliable branching fractions. Combining our measured branching fractions with four experimental and 27 theoretically calculated energy level lifetimes provided absolute oscillator strengths for 174 lines, for which no previous experimental values exist. We compare the results with three sets of previously published theoretical calculations, illustrating the improvement of laboratory measurements for these atomic data. Please note: The transition probability datasets are withheld from this pre-print to ensure that only the peer-reviewed, definitive versions are released. This approach prevents the propagation of duplicate or inconsistent data across widely used atomic databases and modelling frameworks.

The complementary prism $G\overline{G}$ of a graph $G$ is obtained from the disjoint union of $G$ and its complement $\overline{G}$ by adding an edge between each vertex $a$ in $G$ and its copy $a'$ in $\overline{G}.$ This paper explores a general framework for studying fractional revival with respect to real symmetric matrices with a block structure. The framework is then used to show that, for a fixed state $\mathbf{u}$ in $G$ orthogonal to the all-one vector, the complementary prism $G\overline{G}$ exhibits fractional revival from the state $[\mathbf{u},\mathbf{0}]^T$ with respect to the adjacency, Laplacian, and signless Laplacian matrices. We further characterize perfect pair state transfer in the complementary prism of a complete graph and establish the existence of perfect pair and plus state transfer in the complementary prism of a complete bipartite graph.

We consider defect conformal field theories (DCFTs) at finite temperature, where a $p$-dimensional conformal defect wraps the thermal circle. Extending the previous study of line defects to defects of general dimensions, we determine the general forms of the thermal one-point functions of bulk scalars, conserved currents and the stress tensor by imposing the residual symmetry and the conservation laws. The low temperature expansion of the thermal one-point functions is shown to be reproduced by the bulk-defect operator expansion, allowing us to read off the thermal one-point coefficients of defect operators. We examine the general results in four classes of examples with free bulk theories: the trivial defect, free scalar and fermion theories with a boundary, the free scalar theory with a localized $\phi$ deformation in $d=2\,p+2$ dimensions and the free $\mathrm{O}(N)$ model with a localized $\phi^2$ deformation in $d=p+2-\epsilon$ dimensions. In the last example with $\epsilon = 1$, where the defect becomes an interface, we find that the thermal one-point functions coincide with those of the free scalar theory with the Dirichlet boundary condition, in accordance with the conjectured factorization of an interface CFT into two decoupled boundary CFTs.

Understanding and inferring dislocation microstructures from diffraction patterns remains an open challenge in materials characterization, as diffraction measurements provide only indirect information about the underlying dislocation structure. In this work, a cross-modal learning framework is developed to enable the prediction of 3D dislocation structures directly from diffraction data. Dislocation density fields generated from discrete dislocation dynamics simulations are paired with corresponding virtual X-ray diffraction patterns and embedded into a shared 2D latent space using contrastive learning. The alignment between structural and diffraction representations of dislocation structures is evaluated directly in the learned latent space using correlations between corresponding latent features. To estimate the role of dataset size for this approach, farthest point sampling is employed to construct representative and diverse training subsets of varying sizes. The results show strong cross-modal alignment and that model performance improves rapidly with increasing dataset size. Near-saturation is achieved with approximately 500 representative observations from a dataset of 10,000 observations, enabling accurate prediction of dislocation density fields from previously unseen diffraction data of the same distribution. Qualitative comparisons confirm that the predicted structures capture the dominant spatial features of the underlying dislocation microstructures. These findings demonstrate an efficient approach for learning structure-diffraction relationships and highlight the potential for inferring structural characteristics of dislocation networks directly from diffraction patterns, providing a pathway toward diffraction-based structural analysis and future extension to experimental data.

We present a pure sample of 231 massive, passively evolving elliptical galaxies as cosmic chronometer candidates selected from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey between $0.03<z<0.4$. The goal of this work is to increase the pool of high-purity cosmic chronometer candidates available in the literature and assess the effect of purity on statistical uncertainty to make $H(z)$ and $H_0$ calculations more robust in future studies. We use traditional selection criteria to identify cosmic chronometers using photometry and spectroscopy in conjunction with modelled parameters such as stellar mass and velocity dispersion. We use an NUVrJ photometric selection to identify quiescent galaxies and identify a number of spectral features, including H$\alpha$, [OII] and H$\delta$ to use as tracers for ongoing or recently halted star formation. Additionally, as part of the selection, we calculate the ratio between the Ca II H and K lines to determine whether a galaxy's stellar population is dominated by older or younger stars. We confirm CC candidacy by selecting only the most massive galaxies and perform a visual inspection of the spectra and images of CC candidates. We provide an analysis of the parent sample in comparison to the CC sample and confirm CCs have much lower sSFR, with a median sSFR of $10^{-12}~\text{Myr}^{-1}$. Additionally, we find their median ages are $\sim2~\text{Gyr}$ older than the parent sample.

Scalar and spinor Kink fluctuations are summarized in the Jackiw-Rebbi model. Canonical quantization is conventionally achieved by promoting the coefficients of the scalar and spinor field expansions to bosonic/fermionic creation/annihilation operators. One-particle states for bosons, respectively for fermions, are supplied by the scalar eigenfunctions of the Schr$\ddot{\rm o}$dinger, respectively, the eigenspinors of the Dirac Hamiltonian, evaluated either on the ground state or the Kink background. One-loop kink mass shifts are computed induced either by bosons or fermions. Both bound and scattering states contribute when the quanta are trapped by or scattered off the Kink. Zero modes of Kink fluctuations bosonic and fermionic do not modify the Kink mass at one-loop order. The Dashed-Hasslacher-Neveu prescription, derived in the canonical quantization framework, is generalized to the fermionic realm. Alternatively, quantization à la Feynman of the Jackiw-Rebbi model in the spaces of Kink scalar and spinor fluctuations is developed. It is ensured that Berezin integration over the Grassmann coefficients of the Kink spinor fluctuations leads to identical scenario as that revealed by including Fermi statistics in the DHN paradigm, at least with respect to the computation of the Kink Casimir energy.

Terahertz (THz) imaging has emerged as a promising non-ionizing modality for breast cancer assessment owing to its intrinsic sensitivity to tissue hydration. However, existing dielectric descriptions of biological tissue, largely restricted to single- or double-Debye models, fail to capture the multiscale relaxation dynamics governing broadband THz dispersion and absorption, thereby limiting the quantitative interpretation of reflected pulse signatures.Here, a physics based triple Debye dielectric framework is developed to quantitatively predict broadband THz-tissue interactions. The proposed model explicitly incorporates three physically distinct relaxation processes associated with free-water rotational dynamics, bound-water relaxation ({\tau}_2), and ultrafast interfacial/macromolecular polarization ({\tau}_3). Model parameters are obtained by nonlinear least-squares fitting to experimentally measured refractive-index data digitized from published THz time-domain spectroscopy measurements of ex vivo human breast tissue. Compared with conventional Debye formulations, the proposed model substantially improves the fitting accuracy, reducing the root-mean-square error from 0.7773 (single Debye) and 0.2976 (double Debye) to only 0.0199 for the triple-Debye model. Fullwave FDTD ADE simulations of realistic multilayer breast structures further demonstrate that reflected THz pulses encode tissue hydration through reproducible temporal signatures, including increased reflection amplitude, delayed pulse arrival, and enhanced waveform broadening in malignant tissue. Polarization and angle resolved Fresnel analysis further indicates that hydration-dependent pseudo-Brewster minima provide an additional contrast mechanism by selectively suppressing reflections from low hydration normal and adipose tissues.

We perform high-resolution 2.5D single-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to explore the development of cool-dense structures within plasmoids during chromospheric magnetic reconnection. The model incorporates temperature-dependent ionization degrees of hydrogen and helium, resulting in improved diffusivities and viscosity, as well as adequate radiative cooling. The numerical results show that plasma is significantly hot with temperatures reaching several tens of thousands of Kelvin in newly developed plasmoids in the low initial plasma-$\beta$ cases, $\beta_0$ = 0.05. Later, the localized accumulation of plasma and decreasing temperature result in an explosive much stronger radiative cooling process. Radiative cooling peaks over the temperature range 8000 K$-$20,000 K. The co-spatial density enhancement, substantial radiative cooling, shorter radiative cooling timescales, and a significant temperature decrease support the existence of thermal-instability-like condensation within the plasmoids. Similar cool-dense structures are identified in all low-$\beta_0$ cases at different chromospheric altitudes, suggesting that this occurrence is not limited to a single chromospheric layer. In contrast, in the high initial plasma-$\beta$, $\beta_0$ = 0.5 case, the maximum temperature inside the dense plasmoids is only about 8000 K. Therefore, the radiative cooling has never entered into the explosive increasing stage and the thermal-instability-like condensation does not happen. These findings reveal that plasmoid-trapped condensation may develop in chromospheric reconnection once radiative losses become self-amplifying under low-$\beta_0$ conditions.

Fault-tolerant preparation of non-Clifford resource states is a major contributor to the overhead of quantum computation, motivating protocols that achieve high output fidelity with minimal qubit and circuit costs. We introduce a low-cost magic-state preparation protocol in which the choice of stabilizer generators is co-designed with the flag gadgets, allowing the syndrome-extraction circuit itself to filter correlated faults across a non-Clifford layer. The protocol prepares a logical plus state in the 15-qubit quantum Reed-Muller code, applies a transversal T gate, and gauge-fixes the same register into the seven-qubit Steane code. By reorganizing equivalent Z-type stabilizer generators into jointly flagged measurement groups, the protocol eliminates all accepted logical-error contributions arising from one or two circuit faults under destructive error detection. Under a uniform circuit-level depolarizing noise model, the postselected infidelity is $210.2p^3+O(p^4)$. At $p=10^{-3}$, exact low-order enumeration combined with stratified sampling bounds the infidelity by $2.2\times10^{-7}$ at 99.9% joint confidence, while retaining an acceptance probability of 86.9%. The complete circuit requires only 19 qubits and 82 CNOT gates. These results demonstrate that stabilizer-generator design can substantially reduce the cost of postselected magic-state preparation, although corrected operation and the fidelity of an unmeasured output block require separate analysis.

Global estimates of access to health care treat every facility alike. Drive time was routed on the OpenStreetMap network from all 217,841 of its hospitals and 15-, 30- and 60-minute isochrones dissolved for nested capability tiers, weighted with GHS-POP 2025. 96.2% of the world's population lives within an hour's drive of a hospital, 78.5% of a hospital with a documented emergency department, and 40.3% of one with a helipad or university name marking tertiary care. The 1.45 billion people within an hour of a hospital but not of an emergency hospital live mainly in South and East Asia and Nigeria; the 312 million beyond an hour of any hospital lie in a belt from the Sahel to Madagascar. Defining the tertiary tier by helipad alone leaves its estimate unchanged, and the isochrone construction shifts the 60-minute figures by a few percent. Counting every facility as equivalent overstates access to time-critical care.