Papers

Accurate digital maps are essential for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or Autonomous Driving (AD), providing critical information such as road geometry, traffic signs and speed limits required by safety functions including Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA). Maintaining these map layers using traditional surveying methods is costly and difficult to scale. Crowdsourced approaches based on fleets provide a promising alternative for continuously validating and updating map information. However, the relationship between the number of contributing vehicles and the quality of the resulting map remains poorly understood. To address this gap, this paper presents a simulation-based framework for evaluating crowdsourced traffic sign maintenance using a dissimilarity measure called GOSPAM (Generalized Optimal SubPattern Assignment for Maps), which combines localization errors with detection performance by accounting for False Positives (FP) and False Negatives (FN). The proposed system models multivehicle observations with representative sensor noise, detection errors, and semantic recognition uncertainties. Observations from multiple vehicles are aggregated using spatial clustering and semantic filtering to estimate traffic sign locations. Using simulated trajectories generated from data carried out by an experimental vehicle in an area containing ground-truth traffic signs, we assess the influence of fleet size on the performance of crowdsourced mapping. The number of vehicles ranges from 5 to 50, and performance is analyzed using standard evaluation metrics which are compared to the GOSPAM . The results show that GOSPAM can be used to effectively assess the quality of crowdsourced mapping, such as the contributions made by the first vehicles or the improvements made by numerous vehicles.

Conventional centrality measures provide compact descriptions of node importance, but they emphasize specific structural relations and do not directly resolve the temporal and spectral organization of dynamical perturbation responses. Building on the Green function of a linearized networked system, we develop a multidimensional framework for dynamical node characterization. From the same response function, we extract three complementary indicators—Influence, Efficiency, and Distortion—that quantify cumulative response strength, temporal rate of response, and spectral concentration, respectively, together with a contribution matrix that resolves these quantities into source–target pathways. As a numerical demonstration, we apply the framework to weighted Kuramoto–Sakaguchi dynamics on heterogeneous Barabási–Albert networks. The three indicators distinguish implanted dynamical node classes through complementary dimensions of the perturbation response, while remaining strongly coupled to conventional topological centralities. These results demonstrate how a common dynamical response can be decomposed into distinct, physically interpretable characteristics rather than represented by a single aggregate descriptor. We finally discuss the scope and limitations of the linear-response assumption and extensions to time-dependent and nonlinear regimes.

For $0<\kappa\leq4$, we construct a closed response calculus for $\mathrm{SLE}_\kappa$ weldings and a canonical Dirichlet form. The divergence covariance combines the Weil–Petersson and Velling–Kirillov forms. The integrated response gives exact changes of measure and canonical Liouville–capacity increments on conformally removable weldings.

A skyrmion in an altermagnet with \(d\) wave symmetry consists of two elliptical sublattice textures with perpendicular long axes. For each sublattice component $\eta=A,B$, we define an effective skyrmion radius $R_\eta=\sqrt{a_\eta b_\eta}$, where $a_\eta$ and $b_\eta$ are the distances from the skyrmion center to its boundary along $y$ and $x$, respectively. For the anisotropic exchange parameters studied, the equilibrium radius at zero field is smaller than in a reference with parallel sublattice textures and otherwise identical parameters. A magnetic field perpendicular to the film expands one sublattice skyrmion and contracts the other, generating a radius difference $\dR=R_A-R_B$ and a net magnetic moment. The exchange modulation used to represent uniaxial strain also produces a nonzero radius difference at zero field. Because the strong and weak exchange directions are interchanged between the two sublattices, a common directional change of the exchange couplings increases one radius and decreases the other. Unlike the magnetic coupling, this mechanism vanishes when the two sublattice exchange tensors become identical. The radius difference also supports an antisymmetric breathing mode. After a short field pulse, it oscillates in quadrature with the uniform helicity, the common rotation of the wall magnetization within the film plane, at \(49.5\,\mathrm{GHz}\) for the reference parameters.

Planet engulfment leads to planetary mass accretion and angular momentum deposition into the stellar envelope. This study uses MESA models to investigate the long-term impact of engulfment on stellar metallicity and rotational velocity, as well as the effect of rotational mixing on metal enrichment. Our models show that engulfment occurring during the late main-sequence (MS) stage yields significantly higher surface enrichment than at the ZAMS. Rotational mixing generally suppresses enrichment; however, metal-poor stars can sustain super-solar abundances for several Gyr, whereas high-metallicity stars remain largely unaffected. Although engulfment causes an instantaneous spin-up, this angular momentum injection is transient, and the star quickly re-converges to its standard rotational evolution. Thus, MS spin-up cannot serve as a long-term observational indicator. Because convective envelope thickness and MS lifetime dictate the magnitude and duration of enrichment, identifying engulfment signatures requires balancing the long-lived but diluted signals in 0.7 M_sun stars against the strong yet short-lived enrichment in 1.2 M_sun stars. Consequently, 1.0 M_sun stars offering both substantial enrichment and a relatively long MS lifetime represent optimal targets for observational searches.

Unconventional superconductivity typically occurs near magnetic instabilities, and the corresponding spin fluctuations are widely believed to play a crucial role in mediating electron pairing. UTe$_2$ is a promising candidate for exhibiting multiple spin-triplet superconducting phases when tuning with applied pressure and magnetic fields, but the nature of the magnetism driving these unconventional pairing states is undetermined. Our measurements of UTe$_2$ under applied pressures and magnetic fields reveal the presence of a magnetic order hidden within the pressure-induced superconducting dome, which vanishes together with the superconductivity once there is sufficiently high pressure to induce the three-dimensional antiferromagnetic phase. Extrapolation of the phase boundary of the hidden magnetic order, which is most likely antiferromagnetic in nature, points to a zero-temperature quantum critical point that coincides with the maximum transition temperature of the pressure-induced superconducting dome, suggesting that it could corresponds to the parent magnetic phase of the critical antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations driving the triplet superconductivity. These findings advance the understanding of the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity in an exemplar candidate triplet superconductor, which is necessary for revealing the microscopic origin of the different unconventional superconducting phases.

Some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are known to show extremely asymmetric broad Balmer lines, with their main peak redshifted or blueshifted by thousands of km s$^{-1}$, severely challenging our understanding of the standard AGN paradigm. We wanted to explore the causes of such asymmetric features by carrying out a spectropolarimetric study of a sample of bright AGNs with known extreme Balmer line profiles. We present optical spectropolarimetry of seven bright (V $<$ 17.5) Seyfert-1 galaxies obtained with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument from March 2012 to January 2013. The main broad Balmer lines (H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$, and H$\gamma$ occasionally) were sampled with a resolving power ranging from 350 to 500. We performed a detailed spectral decomposition of each H$\alpha$ profile to isolate kinematic substructures within the broad line region (BLR) and measured the polarization degree and angle of each component, providing constraints on the inner geometry and scattering properties. The broad H$\alpha$ components exhibit various scattering geometries. Their polarization as a function of full width at half maximum (FWHM) reveals two distinct behaviors, corresponding to either a BLR of roughly constant scale height or a stratified structure with decreasing height at higher velocities. This supports a disk-wind geometry linking equatorial and polar regions.

The acceleration of the Solar System barycenter (SSB) offers a unique precision probe of the local gravitational environment, enabling searches for otherwise invisible gravitating sources such as Planet Nine and nearby (primordial) black holes. Using the binary-pulsar timing measurements, we develop an analysis framework that combines the line-of-sight differential accelerations of 26 binary pulsars to jointly reconstruct the three-dimensional acceleration of the SSB and place directional upper limits. Across three smooth Galactic-potential baselines, the residual acceleration is consistent with zero. We obtain directional 95% upper limits of $0.198$, $0.262$, and $0.693~\mu\mathrm{as}\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ over 50%, 75%, and all sampled directions, respectively. These limits are tighter by factors of 3.5, 3.6, and 1.6 than a matched Gaia EDR3 benchmark and improve previous pulsar constraints by more than an order of magnitude. We further extend the framework to the full SSB–pulsar two-endpoint response, enabling direct position-dependent mass constraints on unknown gravitational sources. A $10\,M_\odot$ object is excluded within 0.39, 0.34, and 0.21 pc over the same sky fractions. Our unknown-mass limits surpass the tidal-equivalent INPOP19a reference beyond 0.2 pc by about an order of magnitude over most of the sky at 1 pc.

Type IIP supernovae (SNe IIP) are the most common subclass of core-collapse SNe in observations. However, SNe IIP with short plateaus of the order of tens of days are rarely observed. The progenitors for this kind of SN can help to address the red supergiant issue in stellar evolution. In this article, we report optical photometry and spectroscopy of SN\,2025aedz, a rapidly post-peak declining SN IIP with a typical short plateau. It exhibits a peak absolute magnitude of $M_r=-17.16\pm0.03$\,mag. The $r$-band light curve shows a steep early post-peak decline of $\sim5\,\mathrm{mag}\,(100\,\mathrm{d})^{-1}$ followed by a relatively short plateau, with a plateau duration of $\sim50\pm3$\,d. The overall spectral evolution is consistent with that of normal SNe~IIP, showing a blue continuum with prominent Balmer P-Cygni profiles during the photospheric phase, followed by the gradual strengthening of hydrogen and metal lines as the ejecta cools down, although the metal lines remain weak and the expansion velocities decline rapidly. SN\,2025aedz is similar to the short-plateau SN\,2018gj in its overall evolution, whereas its pronounced early decline resembles that of SN\,2023ufx, which has the shortest plateau duration known so far. The radioactive tail of the bolometric light curve implies a synthesized $^{56}$Ni mass of $\sim0.03\pm0.01\,M_\odot$. Motivated by the steep early decline, we performed radiation hydrodynamic simulations by exploring different circumstellar material configurations to reproduce its early bolometric light curve. These simulations indicate that SN\,2025aedz originated from a progenitor with a relatively low-mass hydrogen envelope, possibly produced through enhanced mass loss or binary interaction, while the steep early decline is likely explained by additional luminosity from circumstellar interaction.

We study the roles of broken spectra and exceptional points in finite-time driven non-Hermitian fermionic dynamics. We compute the Nambu biorthogonal correlation matrix for this purpose. The imbalanced-pairing Kitaev chain serves as our concrete realization. Transient passage through a broken-spectrum region amplifies preparation memory. The effect survives when the final Hamiltonian returns to a real-spectrum regime. Negative imbalance forces spectral nonpositivity in the static endpoint state. We isolate the genuine drive history by subtracting out this baseline, leaving an excess that is strictly controlled by the accumulated imaginary-energy action and persists over the entire post-ramp time window. A connected longitudinal correlation mirrors this physics. Its slow-ramp growth tracks the corresponding doubled action. Unstable sectors instead continue amplifying post-ramp if the drive halts inside the broken-spectrum region. Exceptional points yield distinct physics. The finite-time propagator and subsystem correlation matrix remain entirely regular near an exceptional endpoint, even as the quasiparticle gap exhibits its characteristic square-root closing. This finite-time regularity reflects the analyticity of the matrix evolution in the endpoint parameter; a diagonalizable endpoint is strictly not required. A diverging long-time crossover eventually reveals the exceptional scale. We halt the drive exactly at the exceptional point to find that the correlation projector and the connected longitudinal correlation share an identical ballisti front. The subsystem saturation length establishes a distinct but comparable spatial scale. Memory and exceptional-endpoint scalings show no divergence across the tested negative-imbalance range. Memory scaling is fixed by the drive and remains insensitive to the specific choice of real-spectrum final endpoint.

The centers of galaxies harbor the densest stellar environments, where a massive black hole (MBH) accelerates stars to such high velocities that direct collisions can result in high-energetic phenomena, such as gravitational wave sources, kilonovae, and supernova-like transients. These collisions can reshape the cluster's density profile and release gas that can be subsequently accreted by the MBH. However, the evolving rates of such phenomena from self-consistent dynamics around mass-growing MBHs remain largely unexplored. In this work, we simulate nuclear star clusters (NSCs) across a range of masses and density profiles by employing the GNC Monte Carlo code, that self-consistently models stellar dynamics and the subsequent accretion of released gas. We find that stellar collisions flatten the density cusp in the innermost regions ($r \lesssim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$ pc) within $\sim 0.1-1$ Gyr. While high initial collision rates in steep cusps quickly decline due to stellar depletion, the interplay between collisions and MBH growth is important only in massive NSCs ($M_\star \sim 10^9 M_\odot$). As MBH grows, increased stellar velocities shift the balance toward destructive collisions of which relative velocities can be $\gtrsim 2500 {\rm \,km\,s^{-1}}$. Consequently, present-day destructive collision rates in massive clusters remain high ($10^{-4}\sim 10^{-3}{\rm yr}^{-1}$), whereas they are smaller in Milky Way-like NSCs or negligible in smaller NSCs. Our results highlight a crucial synergy between stellar dynamics and MBH growth, identifying massive galaxies as prime targets for observing transients from destructive stellar collisions.

Chiral anomalies in baryon and lepton number currents in the GUT-inspired $SO(5) \times U(1) \times SU(3)$ gauge-Higgs unification model in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) warped space are examined. Total anomalies including contributions of all Kaluza-Klein (KK) excited modes of fermions running along internal triangular loops are expressed in terms of the values of wave functions of gauge-boson KK towers at the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) branes in the RS space. The covariant divergence of 5D baryon number current picks up an anomaly term proportional to ${\rm Tr} \,F_{\mu\nu} \tilde F^{\mu\nu} |_{SU(2)_L} - {\rm Tr} \, F_{\mu\nu} \tilde F^{\mu\nu} |_{SU(2)_R}$ at the UV and IR branes where $SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$ is a subgroup of $SO(5)$.

Modeling the full inspiral-merger-ringdown signal requires combining analytically controlled inspiral physics with the nonlinear strong-field information supplied by numerical relativity. We represent the numerical relativity contribution beyond an analytic inspiral waveform as residual amplitude and phase corrections. Retaining the leading-order frequency-domain amplitude and the $3.5$ Post-Newtonian TaylorF2 phase, we use a Kolmogorov-Arnold network to learn these residual corrections from SXS waveforms. After training, the learned corrections are stored as explicit spline functions, so waveform evaluation no longer requires the network itself. On $75$ simulations excluded from training and model selection, the model achieves a median flat-noise mismatch of $2.7\times10^{-5}$. Our results demonstrate a machine learning driven waveform modeling strategy in which numerical relativity augments, rather than replaces, analytically known waveform structure.

Recent stellar-kinematic and neutral-hydrogen observations indicate a dark matter deficit within the central tens of kiloparsecs of nearby galaxies that grows systematically with stellar mass relative to hydrodynamical simulations. We show that this mass dependence can arise from exothermic inelastic dark matter with strongly velocity-dependent scattering. Two nearly degenerate dark matter states interact through vector and scalar mediators with opposite-sign contributions and unequal ranges. The resulting coupled-channel dynamics suppresses $s$-wave conversion at low velocity while retaining a $p$-wave enhancement at several hundred $\rm km/s$, where down-scattering injects kinetic energy and lowers central dark matter densities. At dwarf velocities, conversion remains suppressed while elastic scattering can still drive core formation consistent with the observed dwarf-clustering pattern. A late dark-sector phase transition, along with the low-velocity suppression, preserves a large excited-state fraction until halo formation. Using representative halos spanning the four observed stellar-mass bins, we find that the model accounts for the inferred dark matter deficit in all four bins, including its systematic growth with stellar mass, while its impact weakens toward cluster velocities. The growing discrepancy with hydrodynamical simulations may therefore offer a glimpse of previously hidden dark matter microphysics.

Recently, two-dimensional transition-metal borides (MBenes) have attracted substantial interest due to their promising properties for electrocatalytic applications. Here, we explore their potential as novel two-dimensional superconductors and topological materials through first-principles calculations on both pristine and surface-functionalized hexagonal MBenes. We conduct a thorough examination of the structural, electronic, phononic, superconducting, and topological properties of 36 compounds with formulas M$_{2}$B$_{2}$ and M$_{2}$B$_{2}$T$_{2}$ (M = Sc, Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta, Mo, W; T = F, O, OH). Our analysis identifies 21 superconducting MBenes, including four with critical temperatures (T$_{c}$) exceeding 10 K, with Ti$_{2}$B$_{2}$O$_{2}$ exhibiting the highest predicted T$_{c}$ of 24 K based on the McMillan formalism. For the two most promising compounds, Ti$_{2}$B$_{2}$O$_{2}$ and V$_{2}$B$_{2}$(OH)$_{2}$, we further solve the anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg equations, obtaining zero-temperature superconducting gaps of 6.1 and 3.6 meV and anisotropic T$_{c}$ values of approximately 32 and 25 K, respectively. Symmetry-indicator-based analysis further reveals nontrivial normal-state band topology in several superconducting MBenes. These results indicate the coexistence of phonon-mediated superconductivity and nontrivial normal-state band topology within this material family, making MBenes promising platforms for future investigations of the possible emergence of topological superconductivity.

General-purpose machine-learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) for organic reactions need to be accurate on both the minimum energy path (MEP) for static evaluation of basic properties and the broader configurational space for simulating reaction dynamics. Existing general datasets for gas-phase organic reactions rely on quasi-static relaxation that confines configurations to the MEP vicinity, so models trained on them could fail on direct molecular-dynamics trajectories; the gap is methodological, not a question of dataset size. We introduce a spatiotemporally resolved, system-independent collective variable (CV): Cartesian RMSD within randomly partitioned local domains against an expanding list of time-averaged reference geometries. The CV drives metadynamics as the main exploration engine, supplemented by structural relaxation towards transition state (TS) to augment the coverage around TS. Within a concurrent-learning workflow, this produces OpenRxn26, a dataset of 1.8~M DFT-labeled configurations covering neutral singlet unimolecular reactions in the H/C/N/O chemical space ($N_\mathrm{heavy} \leq 30$), containing reactive atomic environments underrepresented in community datasets. Trained on OpenRxn26, a DPA3 model (denoted DPA3_rxn) achieves transferable accuracy on barrier heights and reaction energies. On off-MEP reactive trajectories, DPA3_rxn is the only model in the benchmark suite to reach 1.0 kcal/mol energy accuracy compared with the labeling method, where the domain MLIP leading on static benchmarks degrades several-fold (e.g. MACE_OMol25), showing the insufficiency of quasi-static sampling and MEP-anchored benchmarks for guaranteeing dynamics reliability of MLIPs. OpenRxn26 thus provides MD-ready reactive training data for gas-phase neutral singlet organic reactions, verifying the generality and efficiency of the sampling strategy.

Variational quantum algorithm is a leading approach for quantum chemistry and many-body physics on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. The performance depends strongly on the structure of the parameterized quantum circuits. Quantum architecture search (QAS) can automate ansatz design. However, it requires repeated training and evaluation of many candidate circuits, leading to high evaluation cost. In this work, we propose a noise-aware quantum architecture search framework based on ZX-calculus topological reuse (ZX-QAS). The framework encodes the search space with a ternary Gray-code mapping and integrates a noise-aware quantum neural network with a ZX-calculus topological reuse mechanism. The effectiveness of the framework is validated through ground-state energy estimation tasks and one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model tasks under noisy conditions. The results show that the ZX-QAS exhibits stable convergence and remarkably reduces the cost of expensive evaluations under noisy conditions.

Electrically charged regular black holes in general relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics are known to require a double-valued Lagrangian density $L(F)$, with a branch point at the radius where the electromagnetic invariant attains its extremum. We extend the construction of such black holes to an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions $D\geq4$ and obtain a new family of solutions that unifies the Bardeen and Hayward black holes in a single analytic form, with a single nonlinearity parameter $\gamma$. We show that the Maxwellian weak-field limit is recovered if and only if $\gamma=D-3$, so that the Bardeen and Hayward black holes, which lack this limit in four dimensions, become Maxwellian in five and six dimensions, respectively. The matter sector is written in the dual $P$ framework as a Hamiltonian density $H(P)$ that contains only fixed coupling constants, so that the mass and the charge of the black hole appear as integration constants of a fixed theory; the regular solutions form a one-parameter subfamily in which the mass is tied to the charge. We locate the branch point of $\L(F)$ in closed form and find that it is always hidden inside the event horizon in four dimensions, whereas for $D\geq5$ it emerges from the horizon for near-extremal charges and becomes visible to a distant observer. The null and weak energy conditions are satisfied everywhere, the strong energy condition is violated only inside the horizon, and the dominant energy condition is violated at large distances only for $\gamma>D-3$. Finally, since the theory is fixed, the first law of black hole thermodynamics holds in its standard form; we derive the horizon potential in closed form, the extended first law with the couplings as thermodynamic variables, and the corresponding Smarr formula.

The D-region ionosphere is sluggish in nature while responding to the incoming solar radiation. We study the altitude (h) profile of mid-latitude D-region response time delay (Delta t) during three chosen solar flares, namely, C5.2, M5.2, and X2.2 classes. We solve "electron continuity equation" numerically at each and every h to obtain Delta t-h profile. We investigate the 1) latitudinal variation (over both Northern and Southern hemispheres) and 2) seasonal variation (throughout the year) of Delta t-h profiles of each of these solar flares separately. We go over noteworthy variations of Delta t-h profile for both 1) and 2) with reasonably different results over different hemispheres. Also, we study some contrasting behaviours of Delta t-h profile of X2.2 class for both 1) and 2) in comparison to C5.2 or M5.2 classes. We conclude the outcome with possible explanations.

Circularly polarized light can rectify orbital motion into a static magnetization through the inverse Faraday effect (IFE), but in electron-hole bilayers the electron and hole contributions cancel exactly when their properties are equivalent. We show that electron-hole bilayers in transition-metal dichalcogenide platforms avoid this cancellation through effective-mass asymmetry alone, and that the surviving orbital IFE is sensitive to interlayer coupling. In the weak-coupling regime, a two-component Drude description yields an induced magnetization of order one Bohr magneton per carrier for representative terahertz driving. In the strong-coupling regime, where the carriers bind into interlayer excitons, we treat the relative motion using a hydrogenic model with a Rytova-Keldysh interaction and obtain a reduced but finite response. We give closed-form expressions that allow estimates across a broad parameter range and identify where the response is largest.

The winding number is a simple topological invariant. In the case of chiral symmetry it characterises gapped phases of Fermions. We study statistical properties of this topological index or invariant in a chiral symplectic setting using Random Matrix Theory. We consider ensembles of Hamilton matrices in the symmetry class CII (quaternionic matrices) according to the classification in the tenfold way. We set up a parametric random matrix model and derive expressions for parametric correlations of the winding number density as well as for the discrete winding number distribution. We found a super-universality in the limit of large matrix dimensions for the one- and two-point correlators for the bulk of parameters, meaning that the results agree up to rescaling with those of the class AIII (complex matrices). In this context we employ a new method of unfolding and discover the Gaussian behaviour of the winding number distribution.

We explore a nonequilibrium Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a bosonic Kitaev chain. Within a mean-field framework, we show that bosonic superfluid order develops once the pairing strength exceeds a critical threshold. The condensate order parameter adopts an alternating phase between even and odd sites, giving rise to a spontaneous sublattice ordering. By mapping the emergent sublattice degrees of freedom onto a pseudospin, the elementary Bogoliubov excitation is described by a non-Hermitian Dirac Hamiltonian, displaying two prominent features: a re-entrant bosonic Andreev bound state localized around boundaries, and a macroscopic degeneracy of exceptional Majorana bosons at the critical point.

Polycrystalline SrTiO3 is employed as a model system to investigate microstructural evolution under applied electric currents. Under a substantial current density, well-aligned, elongated abnormal grains develop near the anode following a flash event, in contrast to previously reported cathode-side enhanced grain growth under negligible currents. The equivalent diameter of the abnormal grains increases linearly with time, deviating from classical parabolic grain growth kinetics. The applied current drives elemental redistribution near the anode, producing a Ti-rich region adjacent to a Sr-rich belt that migrates toward the cathode, from which the abnormal grains nucleate. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy reveal that the fast-moving grain boundaries (GBs) within the Ti-rich bulk region are Sr-enriched, O-depleted, and Ti-reduced. An analysis based on the Brouwer diagram suggests the formation of p-i-n regions under the applied electric field. Conversion between electronic and ionic currents at the p-i and i-n junctions, field-driven precipitation and dissolution of the Sr-rich Ruddlesden-Popper phase, and field-driven migration of Sr and O vacancies collectively explain the elemental redistribution and redox-modulated migration of the Sr-rich belt. Incomplete redox reactions at the moving junctions create the moving Sr-rich belt and generate a locally reducing environment, consequently producing fast-moving, Sr-rich, reduced GBs. These findings reveal new mechanisms of electric current-driven defect-mediated microstructural evolution.

Pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations have reported evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background in the nHz band. Should scalar-induced GWs, sourced at second order by enhanced primordial curvature perturbations, contribute to this signal, a coincidence of scales makes them directly sensitive to the softening of the equation of state around the QCD crossover. We solve the tensor and scalar equations of motion across the Standard Model (SM) thermal history and tabulate the transfer functions for direct use in present and future PTA analyses. We show that this SM effect modifies the height of the induced spectrum by up to $\approx55\%$ across the PTA band relative to the radiation-domination expectation, with either sign depending on whether the source modes cross the horizon before or after the crossover. Fitting the NANOGrav 15-year data with a broken-power-law curvature power spectrum, we find that including the crossover shifts the inferred peak amplitude and scale by an amount that could already be relevant for the comparison with primordial black hole overproduction bounds. The importance of this SM effect will grow as the statistical uncertainty on the amplitude and scale shrinks with future, more sensitive PTA datasets, at which point neglecting it could significantly bias the inference.

We show that the angular structure of the leading radiation around a bound state in the continuum (BIC) directly encodes its topology. This angular information can be determined from the BIC itself and used to design prescribed topological polarization textures. As examples, we identify BICs carrying high topological charges $q=4$ and $q=-5$ in $C_{6v}$ photonic crystal slabs, addressing the question of whether high-charge BICs exist and how they can be systematically realized. We further show that zeros of the leading radiation can drive both topological transitions and the bifurcation of new BIC families. These findings may enable new approaches to polarization engineering in structured light and resonant photonics.

The exploration of the early Universe is being transformed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which delivers unprecedented angular resolution at infrared wavelengths and opens a unique window redward of the K band (2um). Thanks to NIRCam, NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI instruments, which provide both imaging and spectroscopy with exquisite efficiency, new classes of sources have emerged within the first years of operations. The first half-Gyr of cosmic time is now routinely probed, revealing massive blue/red galaxies and a population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) appearing as "little red dots" together with a rest-frame near-infrared/optical view of sources across the reionization and post-reionization epochs. Angular resolution will remain pivotal in the 2030s - 2040s, when extreme adaptive optics (AO) facilities will be deployed on both (8 - 10)m (e.g., the VLT Multi-Conjugate-Adaptive-Optics (MCAO) - Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph, MAVIS) and on extremely large telescopes, like the 39m ELT (e.g., Multi-conjugate adaptive Optics Relay For ELT Observation, MORFEO). Operating at the diffraction limit, these facilities will improve JWST's resolution, with ELT achieving a factor of ~ 6 smaller Point-Spread-Function (PSF). An ELT diffraction-limited PSF (with a Full Width Half Maximum, FWHM ~ 8-12 mas) in the near infrared will resolve spatial scales <100 pc at any redshift (z ~< 18), revealing abundant star-forming clumps with sufficient sensitivity. Leveraging gravitational lensing as a cosmic telescope, even with moderate magnification factors (mu ~ 4-8), diffraction-limited 8m and 39m telescopes will probe physical scales ~< 25 pc, enabling systematic studies of star formation down to star-cluster scale at cosmological distances. Such observations are poised to become routine in the 2030s - 2040s.

We study the quasinormal mode spectrum and wave-scattering properties of the four-dimensional rational regular black hole recently obtained in non-polynomial (quasi-topological) gravity. Using third-order WKB together with two independent cross-checks a Frobenius–Riccati shooting method and a time-domain evolution we compute the fundamental scalar, electromagnetic, and axial gravitational-type quasinormal frequencies, validating our approach against known Schwarzschild results. We find that as the geometry approaches extremality, its dimensionless ringing frequency is systematically suppressed relative to the Schwarzschild value, a direct and quantifiable imprint of the non-polynomial regularization that we trace, via the photon-sphere correspondence, to the response of the effective potential near the horizon. A Fisher-matrix estimate indicates that this suppression could in principle be resolved by a space-based detector such as LISA for a sufficiently massive and nearby source. We further compute, for the first time, the axial gravitational-type ringdown spectrum of this geometry using the Regge–Wheeler master equation, while noting that a full stability analysis of the underlying gravity theory remains an open problem requiring the linearized field equations of the modified action. Finally, we examine the greybody transmission factors across spins $s=0,1,2$ and show that they follow the same systematic ordering and near-extremal enhancement as the ringing-frequency suppression, pointing to a common physical origin. Together, these results give one of the first quantitative characterizations of the observational signatures and the remaining open theoretical questions of a regular black hole in modified gravity.

This research establishes a connection between macroscopic urban commuting flows and thermal equilibrium. Using mobility data from around 30 million records across six Japanese cities over one year, we introduce the Gravity-based Home Swapping Model (GHSM). This model applies Metropolis dynamics to urban commuting by treating individuals as interacting particles. Within this framework, total commuting time dictates the system energy, and temperature controls how strongly mobility responds to cost savings. Consequently, urban commuting can be analyzed through an evaluable free energy and simulated similarly to physical systems of matter. The maximumentropy doubly constrained gravity model serves as the stationary state. We find that the residential dynamics exhibit glassy characteristics. Through calibration to observed data, we reveal that the system demonstrates signatures of kinetically constrained models, specifically ageing, hysteresis, and freezing near equilibrium. Simulations initialized from arbitrary states converge to empirical origin-destination matrices. This demonstrates that minimal physical mechanisms can reconstruct complex urban realities.

Several hundreds of gravitational wave events have been detected. They are good tools to investigate various fundamental problems, including tests of general relativity (GR) theory. Among the GR test schemes based on gravitational wave data, the parameterized scheme has been extensively studied by many groups including the LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA collaboration (LVK). Existing results indicate that the deviation parameters from GR are small. In the current paper, we would like to estimate whether these deviation parameters are small enough to confirm GR. We transform the deviation parameters into mass–mass relations and, by comparing the resulting mass–mass relations from different parameters, we can estimate the probabilities that the data favor the GR theory. Applying our null test scheme to five O1/O2 binary black hole events, we find some GR deviation signatures but they are not conclusive yet. We also find no monotonic correlation between the network SNR and the strength of GR deviation, suggesting that the observed tensions are not simply driven by signal strength. Our null test scheme can be easily generalized and applied to all gravitational wave observation data.

Spatial correlations can suppress scattering in disordered chains and produce perfectly transmitting resonances. The practical value of this protection, however, depends not on the resonance peak itself but on the width of the surrounding transmission window and its sensitivity to local ordering errors. We show that a resonance can remain exactly transparent at its center while arbitrarily rare adjacent-swap errors restore an inverse localization length proportional to the square of the energy detuning. For lossless single-channel chains assembled from independent blocks of fixed length and composition, this positive quadratic term is guaranteed by a local scattering invariant and holds for every arrangement and every fixed swap probability between zero and one. With exact tuning and matched contacts, the central transmission remains unity. A microscopic quantum chain exhibits both higher-order suppression of scattering in the ideal recursive arrangement and the predicted response to local exchanges. These results reveal a limitation of spatial ordering that is invisible to a measurement at the resonance alone: spatial ordering protects the resonance peak, not the transport around it. The effect can therefore be tested experimentally by measuring transmission spectra before and after exchanges, without identifying microscopic defects.