Peer Revenue Publish or profit

Papers

Fresh from arXiv, typeset properly. Highlighted words trade on the market.

Physics

Watch Physics (sign in to use)

Thursday 17 September

Quantum Physics

Quantum Simulation of Dissipative Non-Markovian Coupled Classical Oscillators

We present a quantum algorithm for simulating classical oscillator networks characterized by non-Markovian dissipation and time-varying material properties, extending recent speedups for undamped harmonic systems to viscoacoustic and viscoelastic media. We embed the history-dependent dynamics into a Markovian state space governed by a non-Hermitian operator by approximating memory kernels through a Prony series. We then use linear combination of Hamiltonian simulation to estimate the instantaneous kinetic and potential energy for a subset of oscillators at time $t$ within error $\epsilon$ using a number of queries to the oscillator system that scales as $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\alpha_{\rm tot} t/\epsilon)$, where $\alpha_{\rm tot}$ is polynomial in the strength of the dissipation, spring constants, inverse masses, and sparsity of the connections in the network. We further show that this energy estimation task is in the worst-case classically hard (i.e., a corresponding decision problem is $\mathsf{BQP}$-complete), even in the presence of strong dissipation. For time-dependent materials, we show that changes in material properties appear as effective dissipation or growth in the energy representation. Additionally, we prove the infeasibility of exponential quantum advantages in locally coupled topologies through a novel form of Lieb-Robinson-like bounds that apply to differential equations. This allows our quantum algorithms to provide quartic speedups for locally coupled damped oscillator systems in three dimensions, raising the possibility of practical quantum speedups for realistically damped oscillator networks and approximated wave equations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Malte Schade, Sophia Simon, Nathan Wiebe, Scott Keating, Cyrill Bösch, Andreas Fichtner

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

An invertible map between 3D Breit-frame mechanical distributions and 2D infinite-momentum-frame mechanical densities in spin-1 hadrons

We construct an invertible map between the complete set of 3D Breit-frame pressure and shear force distributions and the constrained space of 2D infinite-momentum-frame pressure and shear force densities in coordinate space for spin-1 hadrons. The correspondence between the two sets of distributions in different frames is established by combining the geometric forward and inverse Abel transformations with recoil operators after separating the Wigner rotation induced mixing effects on the infinite-momentum-frame side. Unlike in the spin-1/2 case, these mixings complicate the coordinate space relations for spin-1 hadrons by introducing additional multipole structures, but the constraints among the form factors propagate into constraints on mechanical densities, so that these additional multipoles do not introduce new mechanical information.
Read the full abstract

Fluid Dynamics

Solutions of the Navier-Stokes Equation Through Affine Transformations: The Triad Triplet

Considering triads in helical decomposition of three dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence, three consecutive triads of the same shape and class, where the reference wave-number appears as the smallest, the middle and the largest wave-numbers respectively, constitutes an interesting object called the triad triplet that allows tracing the local transfer in wave-number space due to a given shape and class of triads. It is shown that, evolution equations for the triad triplet can be obtained from the equations of the three legs of a single triad that are put together via affine transformations involving scaling, rotation and reflection. Known power law solutions corresponding to constant flux of energy and helicity appear as exact solutions of a chain of triad triplets, with particular implications for the triadic phases. More interestingly, an exact, time dependent solution is available on an isolated triad triplet, that can be expressed using what appears to be straightforward generalization of Jacobi elliptic functions. These solutions, constitute novel exact nonlinear solutions of the inviscid limit of the Navier-Stokes equations.
Read the full abstract

Quantum Physics

Proof of a positive coherent-error threshold for topological quantum codes

Threshold analyses of quantum error-correcting codes are well established for stochastic error models, in which errors occur randomly with given probabilities. However, errors in actual devices can also be coherent, such as unwanted $Z$ rotations due to imperfect control, which are not captured by stochastic error models. For the surface code, numerical studies have indicated threshold behavior even under coherent errors, but a rigorous proof of threshold existence is lacking. Here we prove that a positive threshold for coherent $Z$-rotation errors exists for quantum low-density parity-check codes with a bounded number of logical qubits, including the surface code and other topological codes. Specifically, we show that the maximum-likelihood Pauli recovery suppresses the entanglement infidelity exponentially in the code distance up to a prefactor linear in the number of physical qubits whenever the rotation angles lie below a constant that is independent of the code size. The proof combines Fourier analysis to retain the interference among the amplitudes of coherent errors with the cluster expansion of abstract polymer models. Our results expand the theoretical foundation of quantum error correction and offer a statistical-mechanical description of quantum error correction beyond stochastic errors.
Read the full abstract

Mathematical Physics · Cross-listed from math.PR

Interpolation of Gaussian Free Fields via Random Matrices

In this paper we construct a two parameter family of generalized Gaussian fields which interpolates between the Gaussian Free Field, conditioned Gaussian Free Fields, and Gaussian Free Fields with independent noise. Depending on the values of the parameters, we characterize these generalized Gaussian fields as partial conditionings of a Gaussian Free Field with perturbations of its first two Fourier modes. We show that this family arises as the fluctuations of the height function associated with the corner process of a two parameter variant of Wigner random matrices.
Read the full abstract

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Adiabatic hydrodynamization with transverse spatial gradients in boost-invariant plasmas

The quantitative success of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in describing the short-lived quark–gluon plasma raises a fundamental question: how does far-from-equilibrium QCD matter approach hydrodynamic behavior so rapidly? Microscopic kinetic-theory studies have related this onset to attractor dynamics, but typically assume transverse homogeneity. We relax this assumption by introducing gradient modes with finite transverse wave number $k$, extending the analysis of arXiv:2212.00820. These couple different spherical harmonics of the momentum distribution, and the resulting dynamics is controlled by the competition among the expansion rate $1/\tau$, the collision rate $1/\tau_R$, and the gradient scale $k$. At early times, longitudinal expansion suppresses this coupling, and different spherical harmonic sectors follow their homogeneous attractors. We find that, at later times and sufficiently small $k$, this gradient coupling drives the system toward a global attractor manifold spanned by hydrodynamic sound and shear modes, on a timescale $\tau_D$ that depends on both the azimuthal harmonic $m$ and $k\tau_R$. For sufficiently large $k\tau_R$, the spectral gap closes: perturbations retain finite damping rates and therefore equilibrate, but no longer follow an isolated hydrodynamic attractor or admit a reduced description involving only a few hydrodynamic modes.
Read the full abstract

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Spin-network states for the Bianchi I and IX cosmological models from quantum constrained symmetries

In this work, we implement at the quantum level the gauge-fixing conditions that relate the homogeneous SU(2) gauge theory of Ashtekar variables, describing the classical cosmological sector, to the usual minisuperspace formulation. We impose the so-called divergence constraint, which fixes the gauge to the homogeneous one and, at the classical level, recovers a finite-dimensional phase space, together with the diagonal constraint, which imposes the diagonality of the metric and has already been extensively studied in the literature. We construct the corresponding quantum operators for general cosmological models and provide a suitable regularization in terms of holonomies and fluxes. We then show that a special class of homogeneous spin-network states describing the Bianchi I and Bianchi IX models satisfies the quantum gauge-fixing constraints, using techniques developed in Reduced Quantum Loop Gravity. This provides a quantum-level link between the cosmological theory with full SU(2) gauge symmetry and standard Loop Quantum Cosmology, by reason of the effective Abelian structure of the selected states.
Read the full abstract

Quantum Physics

Multinegativity and single-letter formulas for asymptotic entanglement

The study of entanglement inevitably leads to the concept of regularization, where measures are evaluated on infinitely many copies of a state. Single-letter formulas try to make these asymptotic entanglement quantities accessible through a calculation on one copy of a state, but are rarely available. We introduce a decreasing hierarchy of computable upper bounds on the asymptotic relative entropy of entanglement with respect to positive-partial-transpose (PPT) states. The regularization of every fixed hierarchy level equals this asymptotic quantity. Additivity at any level therefore yields a single-letter formula, even when the usual one-copy relative entropy is nonadditive. We establish such additivity at the first nontrivial level for two broad multiparameter families, both containing all Werner states. The upper-bound construction also extends to sandwiched Renyi divergences. The hierarchy motivates $k$-multinegative states, a generalization of binegative states and the associated $k$-multinegativity, which gives explicit upper bounds on both the asymptotic relative entropy and exact PPT entanglement cost. We construct states which are $k$-multinegative at arbitrarily large depths $k$ that separate consecutive levels of the previously introduced entanglement-cost hierarchy, disproving its conjectured finite collapse. These results provide state-dependent single-letter formulas while identifying a limitation of universal finite-level characterizations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Raphael Brinster, Tulja Varun Kondra, Hermann Kampermann, Dagmar Bruß, Nikolai Wyderka

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Toward a Unique Filter for the Gravitational Path Integral

In recent work, McNamara and Wang demonstrated that the failure of factorization for a gravitational path integral (GPI) can be understood as an incompleteness of its spectrum of states by constructing a unitary quantum field theory (QFT) into which the GPI embeds. We examine this construction from an algebraic point of view, and use it to verify a conjecture of the author concerning the existence and uniqueness of a unitary completion for the GPI by means of the theory of conditional expectations. We explore how the unitary QFT can be regarded as a single coherent theory in which the quantitative signatures of ensemble averaging emerge purely from projecting to the underlying, smooth GPI. The conditional expectation relating the two theories may therefore be interpreted as a filter in the sense of Liu. The factorizing theory differs from a more standard QFT in the sense that it is reducible, meaning the Hilbert space associated with the empty set is non-trivial. We explain how the structure of reducible QFTs are generically encoded in weak Hopf algebraic symmetries and demonstrate how the weak structure allows for generalized $\alpha$-sectors and half wormholes to coexist within a single Hilbert space.
Read the full abstract

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Young Gerard storming high energy physics

On the occasion of Gerard 't Hooft's 80th birthday, I present my personal recollections of a scientific meeting held in the Orsay Campus of the University of Paris in January 1972. In this meeting Gerard gave for the first time a detailed account of his groundbreaking work on the renormalization properties of Yang-Mills theories, both in the massless phase as well as in the phase with spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Read the full abstract

Quantum Physics

TetrisCNN for interpretable detection of phases of matter from experimental quantum simulator data

Detecting phases of matter in general relies on identifying the correct order parameter - a task that remains notoriously difficult for unknown transitions and traditionally is guided by physical intuition and educated guess. Neural networks have recently offered an alternative route by locating phase transitions in known models without any a priori physical knowledge. Yet these approaches remain black boxes and only identify phases without elucidating their properties. Moreover, they often struggle when confronted with realistic, noisy experimental data, which constitute the ultimate testbed for automated methods in physics. Here, we bridge these perspectives by introducing TetrisCNN, a convolutional architecture with parallel branches of differently shaped filters, reminiscent of Tetris blocks, that learns sparse, interpretable latent representations directly in terms of spin correlators. Applied to experimental snapshots of two-dimensional Ising and XY quantum simulators measured in multiple bases, the network not only detects phase transitions and crossovers but also expresses its latent representation and decision boundaries as symbolic formulas built from experimentally measurable spin correlators. This framework opens the way to integrating interpretable neural networks with quantum simulators to uncover and understand new phases of matter.
Read the full abstract

All authors Kacper Cybiński, Björn van Zwol, James Enouen, Guillaume Bornet, Thierry Lahaye, Antoine Browaeys, Antoine Georges, Anna Dawid

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math.CO

A counterexample to the quantum Hedetniemi conjecture

Godsil, Roberson, Šámal and Severini conjectured that the quantum chromatic number of the categorical product of two graphs equals the minimum of the quantum chromatic numbers of the factors. We disprove this conjecture: we construct explicit finite graphs $G,H$ with \[ \chi(G\times H) \leq 1538 < 1539 = \min(\chi_q(G),\chi_q(H)).\]The graphs are obtained from Zhu's counterexample to Hedetniemi's conjecture by using a base graph for which the Lovász theta number of the complement, and not only the fractional chromatic number, is large. The lower bound for the first factor is the theta bound. For the second factor we adapt Zhu's argument to projections that do not commute: the step that fixes the colors of a clique is replaced by identities between operators. Both lower bounds hold for colorings by projections in an arbitrary nonzero unital $C^*$-algebra. Hence the conjecture also fails for the spatial, approximate, commuting-operator and $C^*$-algebraic variants of the quantum chromatic number. We also give smaller counterexamples certified by exact integer data. The graph constructions, the certificates and the counterexample statements in the projective formulation are formalized in Lean~4.
Read the full abstract

Chaotic Dynamics

Experimental detection of energy transfer into the antiphase mode in a branched double pendulum

Multiple pendulum with branching is proposed as a convenient platform to study energy transfer between different modes. The antiphase oscillation mode is localized to the "child" links, which makes it easy to prepare initial conditions without exciting the antiphase mode. A manageable expression for the energy transfer is derived theoretically and evaluated with experimental data.
Read the full abstract

Optics

Volumetric Evanescent Edge Coupling for Fiber-to-Chip Optical I/O

Scaling optical input/output for co-packaged optics is limited by the fiber-to-chip interface. Conventional edge coupling offers low loss and broad bandwidth but confines channels to a single row along the chip facet. On the other hand, surface couplers are either narrowband or difficult to fabricate with high yield and, importantly, compete with back-end metal routing. In this work, we introduce volumetric edge coupling, in which the chip edge is structured in three dimensions so that optical coupling can occur over a two-dimensional region rather than along a single line, providing a route toward interfacing multiple waveguides with multiple cores of a multicore fiber while preserving optical access from the chip perimeter. We investigate a single-channel realization based on total-internal-reflection (TIR)-mediated evanescent coupling through the 54.7$^\circ$ sidewall of a KOH-etched silicon cavity, with the coupling profile shaped by a wedged buried-oxide ridge. Finite-difference time-domain simulations predict a peak coupling efficiency of 88% (-0.56 dB) at 1550 nm and a 1-dB bandwidth of 86.45 nm spanning the C-band. The design further exhibits a vertical alignment tolerance of approximately $\pm$2 $\mu$m, weak sensitivity to transverse offsets up to 5 $\mu$m, and a $\pm$0.8$^\circ$ 1-dB angular tolerance. The reflected optical field also provides a potential alignment signal, offering a path toward reduced active alignment overhead in future multicore implementations.
Read the full abstract

All authors Hamdy Elshehaby, Omar Bakheet, Mohamed A. Swillam, Mohamed Elkabbash

Mathematical Physics

Phase transitions in non-Hermitian spherical integrals

We study the large-$N$ asymptotics of a constrained spherical integral for non-Hermitian random matrices, in which the norms and mutual scalar product of two vectors are fixed. In the delocalized regime, the asymptotics are governed by the non-Hermitian transforms $\mathcal R_1$ and $\mathcal R_2$. At saddle-point level, the constrained integral exhibits a transition to a localized regime controlled by the largest singular value of a shifted matrix and by the overlap of its associated left and right singular vectors. Motivated by the Hermitian spherical-integral mechanism and by the Coulomb-gas picture, we formulate conjectures for one-eigenvalue large deviations and boundary fluctuations. Throughout, our analysis is carried out in the spirit of mathematical physics.
Read the full abstract

Statistical Mechanics

Martingale theory for heat and phase-space contraction in heterogeneous diffusions

We investigate martingale properties of heat dissipated by generic non-equilibrium overdamped Langevin dynamics with multiple dimensions and transport coefficients that may depend explicitly on time and/or space. We find quantitative criteria that establish that heat dissipation may exhibit transient martingale (time-conserved), submartingale (time increasing), and supermartingale (time decreasing) properties in Langevin dynamics with drift coefficients with spatial non-linear dependencies. Furthermore, we reveal a tight link between the heat statistics at stopping (e.g. first-passage) times with that of a functional quantifying the phase-space contraction in the system dynamics. The theoretical results are used to predict the statistical properties of the heat dissipated by a spherical microscopic particle subject to gravity and double-layer forces and hydrodynamically interacting with a rigid wall, whose validity is confirmed by numerical simulations. These results extend the scope of stochastic energetics by revealing a non-trivial relation between heat fluctuations' statistical properties and the non-linear features of non-equilibrium processes.
Read the full abstract

Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems

Integrability of the deformed Toda systems

In 2020 M. Mucciconi and L. Petrov introduced a long-range deformation of the quantum open non-relativistic Toda system. We prove the integrability of the deformed Toda system by constructing a $2 \times 2$ Lax operator, which produces the commutative family of differential operators containing the Hamiltonian of the deformed Toda system. Moreover, we show that the same integrable deformation exists on both classical and quantum levels and can be applied to both non-relativistic and relativistic Toda systems. For the open non-relativistic deformed Toda systems we also present an $n \times n$ Lax matrix and prove that it produces the same family of Hamiltonians. We also show how to obtain the van Diejen-type deformed Toda system. Lastly, we show that on the quantum level the algebraic Bethe ansatz technique can be applied to the deformed Toda system.
Read the full abstract

Quantum Physics · Cross-listed from math.CO

Schrijver-Delsarte rigidity in association schemes and undecidability of quantum graph homomorphism

We prove RE-completeness of the quantum homomorphism problem parameterised by families of graphs derived from the classic metric association schemes. These include Kneser graphs, $q$-Kneser graphs, and the complements of Johnson, Grassmann, and Hamming graphs. Our proof develops a spectral method for establishing non-contextuality of quantum polymorphisms. It combines an equality analysis of Roberson's bound on the projective packing number in terms of Schrijver's theta with a structural argument inspired by Erdős-Ko-Rado theory.
Read the full abstract

All authors Lorenzo Ciardo, Iris Hebbeker, Gideo Joubert, Jana Kreiß, Antoine Mottet

Astrophysics of Galaxies

Local constraints on alcohol–thioalcohol analogs in G35.2N

The chemistry of sulfur-bearing complex organic molecules in dense star-forming environments remains uncertain, partly because the dominant sulfur reservoirs in dense gas and ices are poorly identified. Alcohol–thioalcohol pairs allow direct comparisons of structurally related O- and S-bearing molecules. We present ALMA Band 6 observations of CH$_3$OH/CH$_3$SH and C$_2$H$_5$OH/C$_2$H$_5$SH toward three spectral-extraction positions (MM3-pos, MM4-pos, and MM5-pos) in the MM3–MM5 region of G35.2N. Local thermodynamic equilibrium modeling yields column densities and abundance ratios. CH$_3$OH column densities were inferred from $^{13}$CH$_3$OH assuming $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C = 50 to mitigate optical-depth effects. CH$_3$OH, CH$_3$SH, and C$_2$H$_5$OH are robustly constrained at all three positions; C$_2$H$_5$SH is robustly constrained at MM3-pos and MM5-pos but remains tentative at MM4-pos. The corresponding adopted column-density ranges are $(1.8-2.7)\times10^{18}$, $(1.7-2.6)\times10^{16}$, $(5.7-8.5)\times10^{16}$, and $(2.4-4.6)\times10^{15}$ cm$^{-2}$. The CH$_3$OH/C$_2$H$_5$OH and CH$_3$OH/CH$_3$SH ratios are consistent across the positions within uncertainties, with nominal values of 31–32 and 100–110, respectively. Comparisons with chemically rich sources and warm-up chemical models show that CH$_3$OH/C$_2$H$_5$OH lies within the range measured elsewhere, whereas CH$_3$OH/CH$_3$SH exhibits greater source-to-source variation. The ethyl-level O/S comparison remains less certain because many literature C$_2$H$_5$SH measurements provide only lower limits. CH$_3$OH/CH$_3$SH is thus the best-constrained O/S alcohol–thioalcohol ratio in these data and provides an empirical probe of source-dependent sulfur-bearing organic chemistry. More sensitive C$_2$H$_5$SH observations are needed to test C$_2$H$_5$OH/C$_2$H$_5$SH.
Read the full abstract

All authors Xuefang Xu, Shanghuo Li, Qian Gou, Chunguo Duan, Laurent Pagani, Di Li, Jun Kang, Jiaxin Du, Jiaxiang Jiao

High Energy Physics (Theory)

Exploring multi-parameter optimization in FRG

The use of nonperturbative Wilsonian functional renormalization group (FRG) equations within an unavoidable approximation scheme produces physical results that depend on the choice of the coarse-graining regulator. This dependence of physical observables on the regulator can be minimized according to the principle of minimal sensitivity (PMS). For the 1PI formulation based on the Wetterich-Morris equation, we propose to investigate the optimal choice within a space of compactly supported polynomial regulators parametrized by a set of variables. We test this approach using the derivative expansion of the effective average action up to fourth order, applying it to the scalar field theory representing the three-dimensional Ising universality class and minimizing the dependence of the anomalous dimension on the regulator. At fourth order, we find appreciable corrections to the critical exponents that improve the predictions, compared to previous one parameter analyses. We also observe families of compact regulators that rapidly converge towards an optimal functional form as a small number of parameters is progressively introduced.
Read the full abstract

Chemical Physics

Human Language Shapes the Emerging Physical Reasoning in Large Language Models

Whether large language models (LLMs) acquire adequate representations of physical reality by predicting the next token remains unresolved. Molecular conformations provide a quantitative test: we asked 28 LLMs to rank 810 geometries of 27 molecules from atomic coordinates alone. Frontier LLMs approach the accuracy of specialized force fields, but their ability is bound to well-defined chemical concepts. They rank conformers with more hydrogen bonds as more stable, inverting the true order when the hydrogen-bonded conformer is less stable. On pairs with equal hydrogen-bond counts, they are most accurate for molecules whose explanations invoke hydrogen bonding, whereas molecules governed by ring strain remain difficult. Thus, the physical understanding emerging in LLMs inherits the structure and blind spots of human scientific discourse, a machine analogue of linguistic relativity.
Read the full abstract

All authors Gregorii A. Semakin, Timofey V. Losev, Ilya V. Prolomov, Stepan N. Ostarkov, Igor V. Alabugin, Michael G. Medvedev

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Water Cloud and Chemical Modulations in the Coldest Brown Dwarf

We present high signal-to-noise, medium resolution (R ~ 1000), time-series JWST/NIRSpec spectra of WISE 0855 (265K), the coldest known brown dwarf. Medium resolution, time-series spectroscopy gives us the power to disentangle the effects of chemistry, temperature, and condensates on this cool world. Our observations span 11 hours with a 15 minute cadence covering 2.87 - 5.27 $\mu$m. The strongest time variable spectroscopic feature is carbon monoxide gas absorption producing modulations with a peak-to-peak amplitude up to 10% at some wavelengths. Using principal component analysis, we show that the variations in carbon monoxide and phosphine correlate with one another. By comparing our data to atmospheric and structure models we present evidence of patchy water clouds within the atmosphere of WISE 0855. We find that variations in CO and PH$_{3}$ abundances must originate from quenched atmospheric pressures while variations in water cloud thickness occurs at lower pressures.
Read the full abstract

All authors Brittany E. Miles, James Mang, Caroline V. Morley, Andrew J. I. Skemer, Melanie Rowland, Brianna Lacy, Genaro Suarez, Channon Visscher, Dániel Apai, Gordon Bjoraker, Aarynn L. Carter, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Jonathan J. Fortney, Nguyen Fuda, Thomas Geballe, Harshil Kothari, Mary Anne Limbach, Mark Marley, Allison M. McCarthy, Adam Schneider, Johanna Vos, Michael Cushing, Richard Freedman, Michael Line, Roxana Lupu, Emily Martin, Mikayla J. Wilson

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Entropy, area, and the choice of regulator during gravitational collapse

We present a real time formalism to numerically describe the gravitational collapse of a scalar quantum field in the spherically symmetric case. We employ a Pauli-Villars regulator that is specifically designed to cancel the ultraviolet divergences in the energy-momentum tensor identified by covariant point splitting, including the logarithmic ones. Using this regulator, we find that the leading term of the entanglement entropy, which is proportional to the surface area, vanishes for a spherical region of flat spacetime. First numerical results for the dynamical case indicate that for a collapsing shell of a massless scalar field, the area normalized entropy is concentrated on the shell and has an approximately constant maximum value during time evolution. This maximum value appears to be finite in the continuum limit and only mildly dependent on the regulator mass.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jana N. Guenther, Christian Hoelbling, Sophie Mutzel, Lukas Varnhorst

High Energy Physics (Phenomenology)

Line shapes of $\Omega(2012)$ production in the $\Xi \bar K $ and $\Xi \pi \bar K$ decay channels

We theoretically study the line shape of the experiment for $\Omega(2012)$ production in the $\Xi^- \pi^+ K^-$ and $\Xi^0 K^-$ decay modes, reflecting the $\Xi^* \bar K$ and $\Xi \bar K$ decay modes, from the perspective that the $\Omega(2012)$ is a molecular state dynamically generated from the interaction of the $\Xi^* \bar K $ and $\Omega \eta$, coupled channels with $\Xi \bar K$ as a decay channel. We show the consistency of the picture with the experimental mass distributions, giving support to the molecular picture for the $\Omega(2012)$ state. We also call the attention to the sensitivity of the results to the cut imposed on the $\pi \Xi$ invariant mass, and suggest a different method to obtain the ratio $R^{\Xi \pi \bar K}_{\Xi \bar K}$ of the three-body to two-body decay widths used so far as a test of the molecular picture. We stress that the direct comparison with the experimental mass distributions done here is a more stringent test of the molecular nature of the $\Omega(2012)$ state than the comparison of the ratio $R^{\Xi \pi \bar K}_{\Xi \bar K}$ which has been so far obtained using different criteria.
Read the full abstract

Quantum Physics

Hardness of Pathfinding in a Welded Tree

Starting from the entrance of a welded tree, a quantum walk algorithm can find its exit vertex exponentially faster than any classical algorithm. However, it has been an open question whether any quantum algorithm is able to efficiently find a path from the entrance to the exit. We answer this by proving an exponential quantum query lower bound for finding such path. Specifically, for trees of height $n$, any quantum query algorithm requires at least $\Omega(2^{n/24})$ queries in order to succeed with constant probability. Our proof uses the compressed permutation oracle technique in order to construct databases which track the graph information an algorithm has learned and forgotten, and show that no efficient quantum algorithm can build an entrance-to-exit path in these records.
Read the full abstract

Materials Science

A Gaussian process coarse-grained potential for Na-montmorillonite

Hydraulic transport in compacted bentonite is diffusion-controlled and governed by the hydration and microstructure of sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT). Experiments cannot resolve how platelet interactions govern pore structure, transport and stiffness, while existing coarse-grained models smooth hydration oscillations or require manual corrections. We develop a tabulated potential combining Morse interactions between platelet centre and edge sites with a Gaussian process regression correction trained on all-atom potentials of mean force. It captures the hydration-induced complexity of the potential-of-mean-force profiles, including the three-water (3-W) hydration minimum and transfers across geometries, layer-charge variants and unseen configurations. Applied to monodisperse and polydisperse Na-MMT assemblies at dry densities of 0.8-1.3 g cm^-3, the model captures the 3-W to 1-W transition, loss of non-interlayer porosity and evolution of pore structure, random-walk tortuosity, diffusion and stiffness. Predicted diffusion agrees with compacted Na-bentonite measurements.
Read the full abstract

All authors Yalda Pedram, Yaoting Zhang, Laurent Brochard, Chang Seok Kim, Laurent Karim Béland

Quantum Physics

Quantum Noise Limited Nonlinear Phase-Preserving Amplification of a Bosonic Mode

Does quantum mechanics allow for deterministic amplification schemes that simultaneously behave uniformly for all angles of bosonic phase space (i.e. phase preserving) and are nonlinear in the underlying field operators? Would such a scheme have some utility to quantum information science? In this paper we answer both questions with a resounding yes. Such amplifiers exist, but their form is highly constrained compared to the more general set of noise limited nonlinear amplifiers previously studied in the literature. This enables us to characterize the entire class of bosonic noise-limited nonlinear phase preserving amplifiers, and identify their utility: namely, the optimal amplification of Yurke-Stoler cat states and Kerr kitten states.
Read the full abstract

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

All-Fiber Broadband Wavelength-Division Multiplexing using Heterogeneous Photonic Lanterns

This work presents an all-fiber broadband wavelength-division multiplexing architecture using 1x7 heterogeneous photonic lanterns (PLs), specifically PL-(6+1) and PL-(4+3). By combining mismatched single-mode cores, namely SM450 and SMF28, without rigid geometric constraints, these devices break system degeneracy and enable passive, wavelength-selective spatial routing. Experimental characterization reveals distinct dual-regime performance across a wide spectral range. In the visible band (350-740 nm), the devices function as multi-channel broadband collectors, effectively guiding light across all channels without spatial separation. Conversely, in the H-band (1520-1610 nm), core asymmetries lift mode degeneracy and maximize propagation constant (beta) matching conditions, thereby enabling passive spectral sorting. These results confirm that unconstrained, free-packaged heterogeneous fiber bundles can meet adiabatic transition criteria, showcasing their potential for next-generation astronomical facilities that require simultaneous multi-wavelength capabilities to feed separate, band-optimized spectrographs.
Read the full abstract

All authors Abani Shankar Nayak, Julius Goehring, Martin M. Roth, Kalaga Madhav

Materials Science

First-principles theory of phonon renormalization from nonlinear electron-phonon interactions

Electron-phonon interactions renormalize phonon frequencies and lifetimes and are central to the dynamical properties of solids. While these effects are usually described within linear electron-phonon coupling, the role of nonlinear electron-phonon interactions for phonon properties remains largely unexplored. In this work, we study phonon renormalization arising from the long-range linear one-electron-one-phonon and the nonlinear one-electron-two-phonon interactions within a diagrammatic framework. We derive the corresponding self-energy diagrams, which depend on the chemical potential and temperature, and evaluate them from first principles for the two polar semiconductors LiF and KTaO$_3$. In both materials, the two interaction channels renormalize the phonon spectrum in qualitatively distinct ways. The linear contribution is sharply localized near the Brillouin-zone center, whereas the nonlinear process couples an incoming phonon to other branches throughout the spectrum. As a result, it renormalizes phonons across the entire Brillouin-zone, with a pronounced temperature dependence governed by the thermal occupation of those branches. This behavior provides a clean experimental signature of the one-electron-two-phonon coupling. While the nonlinear phonon renormalization is small in LiF, it is somewhat larger in KTaO$_3$, which we attribute to its greater number of thermally populated phonon branches at room temperature. Our results establish a general framework to assess nonlinear electron-phonon effects on the phonon properties in materials with stronger lattice fluctuations, including soft semiconductors such as lead-halide perovskites.
Read the full abstract

All authors Florian Kluibenschedl, Matthew Houtput, Jacques Tempere, Cesare Franchini, Mikhail Lemeshko, Ragheed Alhyder

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Offline vs Real-Time Validation and Performance Assessment of Heimdall Detection Pipeline for Fast Radio Bursts

Data rates from current radio telescopes are of $\sim$O(10)PB/y and we expect a growth of an order of magnitude for future radio telescopes, e.g. SKA. Coping with these data flows requires a paradigm change in data management: building pipelines with intense I/O between their modules (offline mode) is becoming unsustainable, leading to a transition to a real-time paradigm, where data are moved to RAM, e.g.,through PSRDADA ring buffers. Our objective is to obtain a compact pipeline to efficiently manage data in the real-time flow, while minimizing HPC resources. We employ Heimdall, an open source detection pipeline that performs incoherent de-dispersion, to detect single pulses in radio astronomy data, such as FRBs, astrophysical signals whose origin has not been completely explained. Heimdall currently processes a single beam on a single GPU and can operate both in offline and real-time modes, reading in input either a SIGPROC filterbank file or a PSRDADA ring buffer. We run a test pipeline with data collected from 16 cylinders of the NS arm of the Northern Cross radio telescope near Medicina, both in offline and real-time modes, to compare the obtained results and performance. To corroborate these tests, we employ different input data and explore the problem's parameter space. PSRDADA and SIGPROC results generally agree within 3% for the most important quantities characterizing a FRB (TOA and DM) and within 10% for the SNR. Execution times in PSRDADA mode stay in the real-time flow for most runs from data containing true FRBs but they are still generally comparable with SIGPROC mode in this testbed setup. This test provides an important preliminary comparison in terms of accuracy and performance: this work is functional and preparatory for the next integration of the beamformer with the Heimdall pipeline, having the same logical structure as the test pipeline, work already in progress.
Read the full abstract

All authors Valentina Cesare, Giovanni Naldi, Francesco Fiori, Andrea Geminardi, Adrian De Barro, Alessio Magro, Hayley Camilleri