Papers

We investigate fermion production and its cosmological consequences in a warm inflationary scenario with a Yukawa interaction between the inflaton field and Dirac fermions. Treating the produced fermions as a thermalized relativistic fluid, we derive the coupled perturbation equations incorporating dissipative effects and thermal fluctuations. By solving the resulting system through Green's function methods, we identify distinct contributions from thermal noise, thermal-acoustic propagation, and higher-order scattering processes to the scalar perturbations. We show that acoustic propagation of fermionic fluctuations becomes significant in the relativistic regime, where the competition between gravitational attraction and Pauli degeneracy pressure allows collective fermionic modes to influence the primordial spectrum. Furthermore, we calculate the fermion number density and acoustic velocity, revealing that strong Yukawa interactions enhance non-adiabatic fermion production and modify the thermodynamic properties of the fermion bath. The sourced scalar and tensor perturbations are calculated, indicating that fermion production can substantially amplify primordial fluctuations, particularly in the strong-coupling regime. Since scalar perturbations receive more efficient enhancement than tensor modes, the tensor-to-scalar ratio is suppressed relative to the standard single-field warm inflation prediction. Our results show that thermalized fermions provide an additional mechanism for modifying primordial perturbations and offer new insights into the role of particle production in warm inflationary cosmology.

In this paper, we investigate null geodesics in the spacetime of a Reissner-Nordström black hole pierced by a cosmic string. Analysis of the equations of motion reveals that null geodesics in this conical spacetime can be classified into three main categories, with the classification entirely determined by the ratio $|Q|/M$ (where $Q$ and $M$ denote the black hole charge and mass, respectively). Analytical solutions to the null geodesic equations are obtained for each category. Based on these solutions, we numerically simulate light trajectories and analyze in detail the effects of the black hole charge $Q$ and the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$. It is found that the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$ enhances the winding behavior of null geodesics across all three main categories. Finally, we consider light deflection in the equatorial plane and derive an expression for the deflection angle, revealing that the charge $Q$ decreases the deflection angle, whereas the cosmic string parameter $\alpha$ increases it.

We determine the exact local precision limits for single-copy estimation of smooth multiparameter quantum statistical models contained in spin factors, a class of matrix Jordan algebras whose state spaces generalize the qubit Bloch ball. At any parameter point where the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) Fisher information is positive definite, we characterize the entire attainable classical Fisher-information region over all finite-outcome positive-operator-valued measurements. After SLD normalization, this region consists exactly of the real symmetric positive semidefinite matrices with trace at most one, independently of the ambient Hilbert-space dimension. This yields a sharp weighted covariance bound for every positive definite weight, attained by an explicit locally unbiased estimator based on randomized spectral measurements of SLD directions. The proof combines a statistics-preserving positive projection onto the spin factor with the two-eigenvalue structure of its effects, revealing the Jordan-algebraic origin of the tradeoff. The result extends the qubit information tradeoff to models with more than three parameters. Since the optimal measurement depends on the unknown parameter, we simulate an adaptive scheme for a five-parameter model on a four-dimensional Hilbert space and observe performance close to the optimal local benchmark.

Deep learning models are powerful but opaque. As quantum machine learning matures, the field faces a defining choice: build quantum models that are equally opaque, or exploit the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics to make them inherently interpretable. We show that the latter is possible. By tracking quantum mutual information~(MI), entanglement entropy, and state fidelity through the layers of a Quantum Transformer Block (\qtb{}), a fully-coherent variational circuit with quantum analogues of both attention and feedforward, we gain direct insight into how the model processes information: which tokens it attends to, when correlations form, and why predictions fail. On four tasks with known dependency structure we show that (i)~learned MI matrices align with ground-truth task structure (AUC$\,{=}\,0.69$ on lookup), (ii)~disabling entangling gates collapses accuracy from 100% to 15% while MI$\to 0$, proving entanglement is the mechanism, (iii)~accuracy and MI co-evolve during training ($\rho\,{=}\,0.92$ on lookup), and (iv)~per-sample MI predicts prediction correctness on the conditional task with ROC AUC$\,{=}\,0.84$. All results are validated on IBM Quantum hardware (ibm\_kingston, Heron~r2): the circuit's reasoning process, from product state through structured entanglement, is directly observable on a superconducting processor. These proof-of-concept results, obtained on small synthetic tasks, suggest that the physics of quantum computation can provide intrinsic interpretability signals with no direct classical counterpart, motivating study of whether this advantage persists at scale.

We investigate the equilibrium structure of electrically charged quark stars within the framework of energy-momentum-squared gravity (EMSG), adopting a unified interacting quark-matter equation of state that incorporates perturbative QCD corrections, color superconductivity, and finite-strange-quark-mass effects. By solving the modified Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations over a broad range of EMSG coupling strengths and interaction parameters, we show that the inclusion of electric charge substantially increases both the maximum mass and radius compared with neutral configurations. For strong negative couplings and pronounced interaction strengths, the resulting stellar models reach masses close to $3,M_{\odot}$ with compactness ratios of order $0.34$, placing them within the mass range inferred for the secondary component of GW190814, whose nature remains observationally undetermined. The presence of charge reduces the central density at maximum mass by approximately $10$–$15\%$ while maintaining full compliance with causality requirements. Furthermore, comparisons with observational constraints from PSR J1614$-$2230, J0348$+$0432, J0740$+$6620, J0952$-$0607, and recent NICER radius measurements indicate that charged EMSG configurations remain consistent with current astrophysical bounds over a wide parameter space. These results demonstrate that a moderate electric charge, when combined with nonlinear matter-geometry coupling, can support quark stars that are significantly more massive than those predicted in general relativity, underscoring the potential observational relevance of charged compact objects in modified gravity and multimessenger astrophysics.

We explore the quasinormal modes of a massless test scalar field in the gravitational background of a non-extremal dilatonic dyonic black hole. The dyon-like black hole solution is considered within a four-dimensional gravitational model that includes two scalar fields and two 2-forms. It is governed by two dilatonic coupling vectors $\vec{\lambda}_s$ (with $s=1,2$) that satisfy $\vec{\lambda}_1 = \vec{\lambda}_2 = \vec{\lambda}$ and $\vec{\lambda}^2 = 1/2$. We derive and examine the quasinormal modes of a massless scalar test field in the eikonal limit. These modes are governed by the solution parameters $\mu > 0$, $P_1 > 0$, and $P_2 > 0$. In the two limiting scenarios – namely $P_1 = P_2 = 0$ and $P_1 = P_2 = P > 0$ – our results reduce exactly to the known (eikonal) quasinormal spectra for the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström black holes, respectively. Numerical higher-order WKB analysis of quasinormal frequencies for two lower levels (for various values of parameters) is also presented.

The no-signalling principle lies at the heart of Bell-type experiments involving spacelike-separated parties. Although not all no-signalling correlations can be realized within quantum theory, the no-sinalling principle itself remains fundamental even for post-quantum theories, since its violation would imply superluminal signalling. In the spirit of device independent nature of the Bell inequalities, there has recently been growing interest in causal inequalities, which identify correlations admitting no causal explanation. Such correlations have been rigorously studied within the process-matrix formalism, which is built upon a constraint analogous to spacelike separation in Bell scenarios. We refer to this constraint as the single-interaction constraint, whereby each party interacts with the environment only once. Despite considerable effort, no fundamental guiding principle is currently known that characterizes the restrictions this constraint imposes on the correlations generated by Process Matrices. In this work, we address this gap by proposing a generalized causality principle for the bipartite case. We show that for certain cases, the generalised causality principle defines a strict subset of the set of all signalling correlations. This principle thus provides a fundamental limit on quantum and even post-quantum theories subject to the single-interaction constraint. By analogy with no-signalling, whose violation excludes certain causal structures among the parties, a violation of the generalised causality principle rules out a corresponding class of causal structures(causal structures with the single interaction constraint). More broadly, our techniques provide a general framework for deriving generalised causal constraints, applicable to a wide class of indefinite-causal-order scenarios.

Machine-learning models that relate local atomic structure to the thermodynamic state of metallic glasses typically assess physical consistency after training rather than enforcing it during learning. Here, we develop a multi-task physics-informed neural network (PINN) that predicts temperature directly from Voronoi-motif population histograms while incorporating autograd-derived gradient constraints representing physically motivated relationships between structural motifs, quench rate, and temperature. The model simultaneously classifies each configuration as liquid, supercooled/transition, or glass through an auxiliary classification head. The classification task achieves 96.6% test accuracy with a macro-F1 score of 0.95, while the regression head yields a mean absolute error of 23.4 K on a trajectory-disjoint held-out test set. Five-fold trajectory-grouped cross-validation, deep-ensemble predictions, and Monte Carlo dropout are used to assess model robustness and predictive uncertainty. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate that physics constraints can be incorporated over a broad range of loss weights without compromising predictive accuracy, while substantially improving compliance with the prescribed physical trends. Benchmarking against conventional machine-learning regressors further demonstrates competitive predictive performance. SHAP analysis across the cross-validation ensemble identifies the coupled near-icosahedral motif family, particularly the full icosahedral motif and its single-atom-perturbed counterpart, as the dominant structural fingerprints of the glassy state. These results demonstrate that physically motivated constraints can be embedded directly into motif-based structure-property models, providing a pathway from post-hoc interpretability toward physically constrained machine learning for metallic glasses.

Photochemical hazes play an important role in shaping the spectra and radiative balance of N2-dominated planetary atmospheres. We present newly acquired FTIR and retrieved optical constants (N=n+ik) of laboratory-generated haze analogs from N2/CH4 and N2/CH4/CO gas mixtures under plasma discharge conditions. The retrievals use particle densities newly measured for the CH4-series and previously published particle densities for the CO-series. The experiments systematically explored CH4 concentrations from 0.5% to 10% and CO concentrations from 0% to 5% with fixed 5% CH4. Using measured particle densities together with the Beer-Lambert law and subtractive Kramers-Kronig (SKK) relation, we derived optical constants over the 350-25000 cm-1 (0.4-28.6 {\mu}m) spectral range, with the 0.4-25 {\mu}m results presented in the main text. The infrared spectra reveal prominent absorption features associated with hydrocarbon-, nitrogen-, and oxygen-bearing functional groups. Increasing CH4 abundance enhances aliphatic hydrocarbon features and corresponds to decreasing particle density, whereas increasing CO abundance promotes oxygen incorporation, broader mid-infrared absorptions, and higher particle density. The derived k spectra exhibit strong absorptions near ~3 {\mu}m, ~4.6 {\mu}m, and ~6-10 {\mu}m, while the real refractive index n generally ranges from ~1.2 to 1.7. The controlled CH4- and CO-series establish composition-dependent variations in haze optical properties. A benchmark comparison among Titan-, Pluto-, and Triton-like haze analogs then uses these experimentally identified trends to interpret the optical differences among N2-dominated planetary haze compositions. The density and optical constants provide laboratory constraints for atmospheric radiative transfer models and for interpreting planetary and exoplanetary spectra from spacecraft and telescopes.

Neutrino momentum reconstruction at hadron colliders is intrinsically ambiguous because the longitudinal momentum is not directly observed. We study this problem in semileptonic $t\bar{t}$ events using \monster{} (Mixture of Neutrino Solutions with Transformer Event Representation), a mixture density network that predicts a multivariate normal mixture for the conditional distribution of neutrino momentum from reconstructed event objects. The model uses a Transformer-based event encoder and yields a sampling-free point estimate of the neutrino momentum from the closed-form density. On the public benchmark introduced with \nuflows, \monster{} reduces the 68th percentile of the three-momentum residual by 5% and the 95th percentile by 6% relative to the empirical-mode \nuflows{} baseline, with per-variable root-mean-square errors smaller by 2 to 9% at comparable bias, while running 2 to 8.5 times faster at inference, depending on the device and batch size. These results indicate that mixture density networks are a competitive alternative to normalizing flows for neutrino reconstruction.

Weak values are conventionally extracted in the limit of vanishing measurement strength. At finite strength, the corresponding post-selected conditional averages generally acquire nonlinear corrections and need not retain their weak value interpretation. Here we identify a class of measurement protocols for which this expectation fails: the conditional value reconstructed from the measuring probe is exactly independent of the probe strength and therefore coincides with the real part of the weak value. We first analyze this phenomenon in the measurement–disturbance protocol introduced by Lund and Wiseman. We then establish conditions under which this invariance persists, showing that it is determined by the interplay between the probe interaction, a subsequent measurement interaction with an ancillary apparatus, and the final post-selection. These results demonstrate that weak coupling, although generally sufficient for accessing weak values, is not always necessary.

The penguin-dominated $B\to\phi K$ decays provide sensitive probes of physics beyond the Standard Model. Interpreting them at increasing experimental precision requires control of doubly Cabibbo-suppressed hadronic contributions. Using a factorization approach, we obtain Standard Model benchmarks for the branching ratios and CP-violating observables, including the hadronic phase shift in $B_d^0\to\phi K_{\rm S}$. The $B_s^0\to\phi K_{\rm S}$ channel, in which the corresponding penguin effects are not Cabibbo-suppressed, offers additional insight into these contributions. Comparing the neutral and charged $B\to\phi K$ modes further allows the construction of isospin observables. We discuss their Standard-Model expectations and sensitivity to New Physics in the $I=0$ and $I=1$ sectors. The available data are consistent with the Standard Model, while leaving substantial room for New Physics contributions.

Understanding the physical origin of the piecewise-linear computation in deep rectified linear unit (ReLU) networks remains a fundamental challenge. Here we establish an exact statistical-mechanical realization of arbitrary ReLU networks. Starting from a microscopic configuration space and its state multiplicities, we construct a partition function without prescribing a neural-network activation function. The resulting system admits equivalent descriptions in terms of cascaded quantum operations with post selection, or fermionic transport model. We rigorously prove that in $\beta\to+\infty$ limit, the thermodynamic observables of this system exactly reproduce the hidden states, outputs, and loss function of an arbitrary deep ReLU network. Crucially, we demonstrate that the piecewise-linear behavior of the ReLU network emerges from a first-order phase transition in the microscopic system, where the discontinuities precisely coincide with the boundaries of linear regions of ReLU network. This work establishes an exact physical foundation for deep neural computation and provides a novel statistical-mechanical perspective on neural architecture design.

This paper investigates the role of quantum grassroots organizations in The Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), the challenges they face, and how these organizations can be better supported by other players in the ecosystem of quantum technologies. We look into the goals and strategies of ASEAN grassroots organizations and their potential impacts and investigate the obstacles and challenges currently faced by these groups. We propose providing mentors with specialized knowledge to assist in the refinement of technical content and organizational management, building connections between grassroots and key stakeholders in the quantum space, and creating opportunities to obtain stable funding. These can help to mitigate the aforementioned challenges and ensure its longevity, sustainability, and impact on the wider quantum community.

We present the first study of shear viscosity induced cavitation incorporating transverse expansion alongside chemical non-equilibrium dynamics in the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Chemical non-equilibrium is incorporated through quark and gluon fugacities, whose evolution is coupled to causal dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics in the Gubser geometry. Using phenomenological temperature-dependent shear viscosity parametrizations, we study the evolution of the longitudinal pressure and identify the conditions under which it becomes negative and thereby breaking down the hydrodynamic description. We demonstrate that shear induced cavitation develops first at the centre of the fireball ($r=0$) at early times and subsequently extends towards larger radial distances, with transverse expansion accelerating its onset, while persisting during chemical equilibration. Within our framework, we determine the critical initial shear viscosity $(\eta/s)_{\rm crit}$, below which cavitation does not occur throughout the QGP evolution. Since hydrodynamics is found to successfully describe the phenomenology of heavy-ion collisions, our results provide a constraint on shear viscosity requiring the absence of cavitation during the QGP evolution. We find that the phenomenologically extracted $\eta/s$ from JETSCAPE analyses lie below the critical shear viscosity $(\eta/s)_{\rm crit}$ obtained in our framework.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) can deliver information-theoretic security, but its receivers are still typically assembled from cascaded bulk optics. Metasurfaces offer a radical reduction in this complexity. Here, we make the metasurface function as the QKD measurement device itself. We design wavelength-specific dielectric apertures at 780, 1550, 2000, and 10 600 nm that interweave the linear H/V and circular R/L phase libraries at a 0.44–0.49{\lambda} cell pitch, i.e., below half the operating wavelength, and map the complete passive-BB84 measurement directly onto four detector channels. This subwavelength basis co-location prevents an ordinary propagating-wave aperture mask from isolating one basis without simultaneously attenuating or perturbing the other. Simulated full-wave focal-plane intensities are converted directly into conditional Born probabilities using fitted, calibration-fixed detector regions. The selected designs achieve probability fidelities of 97.96–99.08%, four-port collected efficiencies of 17.43–40.94%, and mean intrinsic quantum bit error rates of 1.42–3.96%. At 1550 nm, the selected design gives an asymptotic device-level yield of 0.151 secret bits per incident photon under an ideal single-photon model. Six-state detector tomography gives positive both-basis security bounds for all six reconstructed receiver models, including their polarization-dependent loss, basis imbalance and crosstalk. These results establish protocol-matched meta-optics as a route to compact, passive QKD receivers.

We present the validation and dynamical characterization of TOI-789 (TIC 300710077), a compact multi-planet system around an M3 dwarf at 43 pc. Using ~7 yr of TESS photometry (42 sectors), public ground-based follow-up (LCOGT, MEarth), and high-resolution imaging (Gemini/Zorro, SOAR), we statistically validate three terrestrial planets with TRICERATOPS: TOI-789 b (Rp = 1.18 Rearth, P = 5.45 d), c (1.15 Rearth, 8.04 d), and d (1.40 Rearth, 12.97 d), with false-positive and nearby-false-positive probabilities below the validation thresholds once resolved neighbours are excluded using the on-target ground-based photometry. Through an iterative Transit Least Squares search we identify a fourth, previously uncatalogued planet candidate (P = 19.74 d, Rp ~ 0.88 Rearth), the outermost and most temperate member (S = 1.71 Searth, Teq ~ 292 K); its low signal-to-noise ratio precludes formal validation, so we report it as a candidate pending confirmation. A dynamical analysis (SPOCK and N-body integrations) indicates a dynamically cold, near-resonant system, stable only for low eccentricities (e < 0.05), eccentricity rather than mass limiting stability; including the fourth candidate tightens this further. The four objects span the Earth-Venus transition across the Venus zone, two validated planets falling in the temperate regime under the equilibrium-temperature criterion, making the system a potential comparative-planetology laboratory anchored on confirmed planets. The low TSM (~3-5) and moderate host brightness place atmospheric characterization beyond reach. TOI-789 exemplifies the numerically dominant population of compact terrestrial-planet systems around M dwarfs whose characterization is limited by host brightness, for which dynamical characterization offers a complementary route.

Negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) centers located a few nanometers below the diamond surface are key quantum defects for nanoscale sensing of external spins. However, the creation of shallow NV$^-$ centers with high yield remains a materials challenge. Here, we demonstrate that high-angle ion implantation enhances the creation efficiency of shallow NV$^-$ centers. By implanting $^{15}$N ions at angles exceeding 60$^\circ$, we achieve high NV$^-$ yields approaching 10% with effective NV$^-$ depths below 10 nm. These yields are significantly higher than those typically reported for shallow NV$^-$ creation. The enhanced NV$^-$ yield is consistent with an increased vacancy-to-nitrogen ratio in the near-surface region, which is expected to promote NV formation during annealing. The created NV$^-$ ensembles show coherence properties comparable to those of single shallow NV$^-$ centers at similar depths, and allow detection of nuclear spins in van der Waals materials attached to the diamond surface. Our results establish geometric control of ion implantation as a simple and broadly applicable approach to engineer shallow vacancy-related quantum defects.

Psychological dynamics unfold across multiple timescales: symptoms and other psychological states can change rapidly, whereas social, environmental, biological, and developmental conditions often evolve more slowly. We formulate this structure as a stochastic slow-fast system in which binary symptom states form a fast interacting network embedded within a slow contextual field. Pairwise symptom coupling governs interactions within the fast layer, while the contextual field shifts symptom-specific activation tendencies and can itself receive feedback from sustained symptom activation. Simulations show that changes in the slow field can shift the macroscopic activation state of the symptom system even when the underlying interaction matrix remains fixed. Perturbations to the field generate transient increases in symptom activation followed by recovery, while feedback between the fast and slow layers delays recovery and, when sufficiently strong, produces dependence on initial conditions. We further show that when between-person variation in the contextual field is omitted from network estimation, the inferred system exhibits stronger total coupling and nonzero couplings between symptom pairs that are uncoupled in the data-generating model. Thus, slowly varying context can alter both the dynamics and the apparent interaction structure of a fast psychological system. The framework connects psychological network models with slow-fast dynamical systems and provides a formal basis for distinguishing changes in activation from changes in coupling.

We investigate an inflationary scenario within a modified gravity theory that extends the Einstein-Hilbert action through a non-minimal coupling between the inflaton $\phi$ and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T$. This $f(\phi)T$ framework is designed to naturally recover the standard general relativity in the post-inflationary universe. Within this theory, we apply the Woods-Saxon potential. The slow-roll dynamics yields a luminal sound speed $c_s^2=1$ for our specific choice of the coupling function. For the model parameters $a \lesssim 1$ and the modest coupling $\beta=0.1$, we obtain a scalar spectral index $n_s\approx0.959$–$0.966$ and a tensor-to-scalar ratio $r<0.01$, which reveal a good agreement with the latest Planck and BICEP/Keck data on the $(n_s, r)$ constraints. Crucially, we shall demonstrate that the $f(\phi)T$ coupling is essential for the observational viability of the model with respect to the CMB two-point statistics. This work establishes a viable inflationary scenario within the scope of the inflationary observables which are considered here.

We discuss the pion gravitational form factors at intermediate and large spacelike momentum transfer in a perturbative-QCD factorization framework. The short-distance kernel is supplemented by the one-loop non-Abelian $TJJ$ correlator, where the energy–momentum tensor couples to two off-shell gluons. Its trace sector contains the QCD conformal anomaly and admits a scalar, dilaton-like pole interpretation. A transverse-momentum-dependent pion wave function, combined with Sudakov resummation and a Gaussian intrinsic-transverse-momentum profile, suppresses endpoints and large transverse separations. The projection on the pion form factors exhibits a characteristic hierarchy: the isolated anomaly cancels in the momentum form factor 4A_\pi$, remains important in the mechanical form factor $D_\pi$, and dominates the $TJJ$ correction to the trace form factor. The result identifies a beta-function-controlled short-distance contribution to pion mechanical structure and clarifies the relation between the perturbative anomaly pole and a correlated scalar partonic channel.

A non-linear, non-Bayesian method called sequential bound estimation (SBE) derived 100% confidence intervals of location (CIL) for 219 explosions in the ocean from measurements of their time differences of arrivals among five widely-spaced time-unsynchronized receivers on the ocean bottom. The explosion's locations were measured with the global positioning system. A blind evaluation revealed all 219 explosions were within their CIL. The probability this could happen by chance is $4 \times 10^{-116}$. The explosions were detonated in shallow water on the eastern continental shelf of the U.S. over the so-called New England Mud Patch.

Context: Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are particularly rare in low-metallicity galaxies and remain poorly understood. Detailed studies of the presumably complete population of WR stars in the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy led to perplexing results. Aims: The nearby galaxy NGC 6822 has a similar metallicity to the SMC, and hence provides an excellent laboratory for a comparative study. We aim to derive the stellar and wind parameters of each known WR star in NGC 6822 by means of quantitative spectroscopy. The results are compared with the WR population of the SMC. Methods: New optical and UV spectroscopic observations have been obtained with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We employ the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmosphere code for our analysis, consistently fitting synthetic spectra to the observed spectral energy distribution, and optical and UV spectra. Results: We spectroscopically confirm all four stars in our sample belong to the nitrogen sequence with early subtypes (WN3-WN6). All stars show indications of binarity. Only one star in our sample has a high fraction of hydrogen in its atmosphere, as typical for the WN population in the SMC, and two other stars in our sample are hydrogen-free. Finally, the spectrum and parameters of the fourth object closely resemble those of the qWR-type strongly magnetic merger-product star in the HD 45166 binary. Conclusions: The stellar properties of our sample are diverse. We have identified the first H-free WN-type stars at metallicities $\sim$ 1/7Z$_\odot$. According to evolutionary calculations, the WR stars in NGC 6822 stem from progenitors with initial masses below 40 M$_\odot$. We report a discovery of a low luminosity stripped qWR star in NGC 6822, and conclude that the WR star population in NGC 6822 and the SMC are distinct despite similar metallicities of their host galaxies.

We resolve an existing question concerning dynamical and structural stability of the E {\times} B staircases in magnetically confined fusion plasma. The problem has stirred considerable interest in the literature due to a unique combination of its scientific and practical aspects. Here, we report a new approach to the problem by combining the paradigmatic Hasegawa-Wakatani model of electrostatic drift-wave turbulence with an idea of interaction renormalization, imported from quantum field theory. It is shown based on the Schrödinger-Newton equation with renormalized interaction constant that the plasma staircase is robust and stable as soon as the nonadiabaticity parameter, {\delta}, goes above a certain critical value, and is unstable otherwise. This critical value is an exact result of the interaction model and is found to be {\delta}c = {\pi}. For {\delta} < {\delta}c , the unstable system expands in the radial direction, resulting in a radial second moment that grows with time t as t^(2/3). The results obtained bear important implications with regard to the implementation of arrays of semipermeable transport barriers in tokamaks, suggesting a threshold condition for their generation.

We study finite-time singularity formation for a nonlocal Boussinesq system arising in cold-plasma dynamics. We show that smooth, symmetric initial data with strictly positive total density and a sufficiently negative velocity slope at the origin lead to finite-time blow-up. More precisely, we give an explicit upper bound for the lifespan and show that the velocity gradient becomes unbounded.

The ground state phase diagram of the Shastry-Sutherland model remains controversial. In particular, the nature of the transition between the plaquette valence bond solid (PVBS) phase and the Néel antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase is still under debate. While some studies suggest a direct transition between the two phases, others propose the existence of a narrow intermediate quantum spin liquid regime. To address this issue, we perform large-scale Density Matrix Renormalization Group calculations to determine the Néel AFM phase boundary in the Shastry-Sutherland model. By applying staggered boundary pinning fields and directly measuring the bulk staggered magnetization, and through systematic extrapolations with respect to truncation error as well as careful finite-size scaling, we find that the staggered magnetization remains finite across the controversial region $0.78 \lesssim J_{1}/J_{2} \leq 0.81$, which was suggested to host a quantum spin liquid phase in some studies. Together with the previously established consensus placing the PVBS phase boundary at $J_{1}/J_{2} \approx 0.78$, these results provide evidence against the existence of an intermediate quantum spin liquid phase and support a direct PVBS–Néel AFM transition in the Shastry-Sutherland model.

We consider pulse propagation in a saturable nonlinear coupler whose other arm is dissipative and other is transparent. A flow of energy from transparent to dissipative arm takes place for weak value of dissipation and the coupler losses its energy. The energy loss of the coupler reduces for strong dissipation. This energy loss depends on the saturable nonlinearity. We find that the flow of relative energy at the output of a finite-sized coupler has a peak at a particular value of nonlinear strength. The peak value decreases with the increase of dissipation and it vanishes for stronger dissipation due to Zeno effect.

Local unitary (LU) equivalent states are crucial for understanding the structure of quantum entanglement. We investigate the LU equivalence based on the LU Bargmann invariants (LUBIs). We consider for which states the LUBIs are sufficient to ensure the LU equivalence. We focus on a class of multipartite states with complete local commutativity, called CLC states. We first show that for multipartite CLC states, all the LUBIs are sufficient to ensure the local permutation equivalence, if their single-party marginals are diagonal and non-degenerate. By virtue of the fact that the CLC property remains unchanged under local operations, we verify that the LUBIs are also sufficient to ensure the LU equivalence of multipartite CLC states whose single-party marginals are non-degenerate. Furthermore, when the single-party marginals are degenerate, we propose concrete examples of two-qudit and three-qubit systems, showing that there are states which share all the LUBIs but are not LU equivalent.

We develop an operator-level framework for reconstructing the angular structure of small-$x$ diffractive amplitudes from energy-flow measurements. Focusing on coherent diffractive dijet production in the leading-eikonal approximation, we establish the relation between the angular multipoles of the dipole amplitude, the gluon Wigner distribution, and the diffractive scattering amplitude, while keeping their distinct radial transforms explicit. We show that, in the real common-phase sector and away from diffractive zeros, the normalized scattering amplitude can be reconstructed directly, up to a global sign convention, from the square root of the normalized energy-flow distribution. For generic complex amplitudes, the measured intensity instead determines autocorrelations of the amplitude spectrum and phase retrieval is not unique without additional information. We further discuss corrections arising from harmonic-dependent phases, practical conditions for an EIC extraction, and effects beyond the leading-eikonal approximation.

The problem of time in quantum gravity is often presented as a consequence of applying quantum theory to general relativity. These notes adopt a broader perspective. We first examine how time enters classical mechanics, relativity, quantum theory, and quantum field theory, distinguishing three principal aspects: causal order, temporal duration, and the present. This analysis shows that the conceptual difficulties associated with time do not arise only when gravity is quantised. Tensions between causal structure, clocks, observables, and measurement are already present in the theories from which quantum gravity is constructed. We then survey responses to the problem of time across the principal approaches to quantum gravity. These include canonical and Wheeler-DeWitt quantisation, path-integral and histories formulations, perturbative and background-dependent approaches, causal sets, and twistor theory. The programmes are compared according to whether they retain an external time, render time problematic through quantisation, or incorporate causal or temporal structure into their foundations. Particular emphasis is placed on questions arising from quantum foundations and relativistic quantum information. We conclude by examining linearised gravity and weak-gravity quantum systems. This regime shows that the problem of time is not confined to Planck-scale physics, but arises already in attempts to provide a predictive and operationally meaningful quantum description of spacetime near flat geometry.