Papers

We propose an unified view to three well known quadratic Hamiltonians widely considered in quantum mechanics, i.e. those of the harmonic oscillator, of the inverted harmonic oscillator, and the Berry-Keating Hamiltonian. We describe an unified approach to determine the discrete spectrum of these operators, and to deduce their (generalized) eigenstates. We also look at these Hamiltonians as the generators of $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$, and of a generalized version of it relevant in presence of non Hermitian generators.

We study the evolution and clustering properties of the star formation rate density (SFR) $\rho_{\rm SFR}$ in the FLAMINGO suite of hydrodynamical simulations, with the aim of exploring the possibility of constraining AGN and stellar feedback prescription, as well as the effect of cosmology, using cross-correlations between the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) and other tracers of the large-scale structure. Specifically, we consider tomographic measurements of the bias-weighted SFR-density $\langle b\rho_{\rm SFR}\rangle$, as well as cross-correlations between the CIB and cosmic shear as a probe of the $\rho_{\rm SFR}$-matter correlation. Most of the FLAMINGO models calibrated against the $z=0$ galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) yield similar predictions for the distribution and clustering of star-forming systems, and thus it is difficult to derive clean conclusions regarding the impact of AGN feedback or cosmology on CIB statistics. However, we show that current measurements of $\langle b\rho_{\rm SFR}\rangle$, as well as CIB-shear cross-correlations clearly disfavour models with strong stellar feedback, as well as simulations with strong kinetic (jet-driven) AGN feedback, even under the fiducial SMF calibration. This study demonstrates the potential of CIB cross-correlations to study aspects of the physics of star and galaxy formation in a cosmological setting.

In general relativity, the geometric optics approximation describes the propagation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves along null geodesics. Beyond this approximation, localized wave packets acquire frequency- and polarization-dependent corrections to null geodesic motion, described by the gravitational spin Hall equations. In this paper, these equations are integrated analytically, to first order in wavelength, in a large class of type D black hole spacetimes, whenever the corresponding null geodesics admit analytic solutions. The same framework yields analytic expressions for the shape of black hole shadows with polarization-dependent corrections.

Nebular emission lines and stellar continua probe the conditions of $\mathrm{H\ II}$ regions. The optical emission line $\mathrm{[O\ III]}\lambda 5007$ is important because it is observable across a wide redshift range, enabling studies of interstellar medium (ISM) conditions across cosmic time. We investigate the equivalent width of $\mathrm{[O\ III]}\lambda 5007$ (EWO3) as an ionization-parameter diagnostic, providing an alternative to the $\mathrm{[O\ III]} \lambda 5007 / \mathrm{[O\ II]} \lambda 3727$ (O32) ratio, which requires broad wavelength coverage and dust corrections that may not be available at high redshift. We employ the MAPPINGS photoionization code with input spectra from BPASS, comparing single-star and binary-inclusive stellar populations. We find that binary-inclusive populations sustain harder ionizing spectra and strong $\mathrm{[O\ III]}\lambda 5007$ emission to later ages than single-star populations. EWO3 is highly sensitive to the ionization parameter and exhibits systematic dependencies on metallicity, gas pressure, and stellar population age. While these dependencies broadly follow those of O32, EWO3 is less sensitive to gas pressure in the low-metallicity, high-ionization regime, making EWO3 well suited for studies of metal-poor and high-redshift galaxies. Comparing the models with observations, we find that local galaxies are reproduced by lower-pressure models, whereas intermediate- and high-redshift galaxies require higher gas pressures, indicating evolving ISM conditions across cosmic time. We present metallicity- and pressure-dependent calibrations of EWO3 as an ionization-parameter diagnostic. When validated against ionization parameters derived from O32, the $\log(P/k)=6$ calibration provides the best agreement for local galaxies, while the $\log(P/k)=7$ calibration best reproduces intermediate- and high-redshift galaxies.

We investigate the statistical mechanics of a system coupled to multiple heat reservoirs at different temperatures, a setting which typically sustains nontrivial circulation. By applying a canonical transformation, we map the system onto that of a particle coupled to a single reservoir yet driven by a deterministic curl-force—a reversible, velocity-independent non-conservative force with non-vanishing curl—that can be described by a Hamiltonian with an anisotropic kinetic energy term. Despite the Hamiltonian structure, the system does not relax to the corresponding Boltzmann distribution, and is genuinely out of equilibrium. The mapping provides a mechanical interpretation of the currents in multi-temperature systems, as we demonstrate by means of two examples. In particular, the direction of circulation is qualitatively predictable from the deterministic force field. For the exactly solvable case of an $N$-dimensional underdamped Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, we derive explicit expressions for the steady-state distribution and the entropy production rate, highlighting the role of the (generalized) curl of the force field in driving the system out of thermal equilibrium. Finally, we show how a non-conservative force can be used to exactly equilibrate any system coupled to multiple reservoirs, and obtain the corresponding equilibrium distribution.

We report a 3D-printed microwave-resonator Paul trap that operates at the GHz frequencies required for electron confinement while preserving an open geometry suitable for laser access and imaging ion Coulomb crystals. The resonator exhibits moderate quality factors of approximately 1000, enabling large confining electric-field amplitudes at low input power, and is in good agreement with finite-element-method (FEM) predictions despite manufacturing imperfections, which we experimentally characterize. The validated FEM model is then used to calculate the electromagnetic fields in the trapping region. These field distributions, together with surface-roughness measurements, are incorporated into a model of electron spin-qubit decoherence to estimate the coherence time. Our analysis predicts that electron spin-qubit coherence times on the order of 10 ms should be achievable under the assumption that motional heating is dominated by Johnson noise, making such systems relevant for quantum information processing. The method of obtaining the coherence time is applicable to any electron Paul trap.

A recognizer that compares rotation-invariant descriptors sees a surface only up to the fiber of the descriptor. We measure this fiber by its radius in the orbit distance from the enrolled surface. A large radius admits decoys, that is, distant shapes that pass the matcher. A small radius discloses the enrolled shape to anyone who captures the stored value. For star-shaped surfaces truncated to spherical harmonics of degree at most $L$, with $n$ coefficients, a descriptor of generic rank $r$ has generic fibers of dimension $n-3-r$ modulo rotations. The standard pool of band powers, even bispectra, and three invariants of the degree-three band therefore admits decoy families of dimension $5$, $13$, $20$ at $L=4,6,8$. Its rank first reaches $n-3$ at $L=16$, and a mirror decoy remains at every $L$. The odd bispectra remove the mirror decoy generically for $L \geq 4$. Yet at fixed mean radius the same pool determines the enclosed volume exactly, and it does not determine whether a surface meets a clearance requirement. We certify two cases by exact and interval arithmetic. At $L=6$ a decoy matches all $32$ invariants to relative precision $2 \cdot 10^{-18}$ at orbit distance at least $0.87$ times the norm of the enrolled tuple. For the radar shape model of asteroid (101955) Bennu, the pool recovers the modeled volume, misses the handedness, and leaves the keep-out radius uncertain by more than $7 \, \mathrm{m}$.

Large-scale self-supervised pretraining has reshaped modern machine learning, substantially advancing the ability of language and vision models to generalize across downstream tasks. While deep learning has driven considerable progress in modeling atomistic systems in recent years, self-supervised pretraining in this domain has not yet achieved comparable downstream generalization. To address this, we introduce Atom-JEPA, a self-supervised pretraining framework that learns latent representations from unlabeled 3D structures through complementary atom-level and substructure-level objectives inspired by joint-embedding predictive architectures. We pretrain Atom-JEPA on large-scale molecular and crystalline datasets and evaluate its transfer performance by fine-tuning on a diverse set of downstream property prediction tasks. Atom-JEPA achieves state-of-the-art performance on molecular ADMET and quantum-chemical property prediction tasks, and is highly competitive in predicting the physical properties of crystalline materials. These results demonstrate the potential of latent-space predictive pretraining to support broad downstream generalization from structural data alone. Code and pretrained model checkpoints are publicly available at https://github.com/khelverskovp/atom-jepa

We investigate strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves from a compact source orbiting a Kerr black hole, motivated by self-lensing in binary extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. In the geometric-optics limit, we construct a point-to-point lens map from null-geodesic integrals and use the Jacobi map to compute the strain magnification of individual images. While lensed signals are generally demagnified, we show that they can be strongly amplified near the extended caustics of the Kerr lens map. For suitable source–observer geometries, the orbit crosses a caustic twice per revolution, producing two amplification peaks. Their arrival-time separation depends on the black-hole spin, observer inclination, and orbital radius through both the source motion and propagation delays. These signatures might offer a means of constraining the source–observer geometry and probing the spacetime of the central black hole.

We develop a computational framework for the quantum relative entropy based on the replica trick and apply it to analyze the evaporation process method of Jackiw-Teitelboim black holes. We show that the relative entropies between the exact radiation state and the Hawking saddle state and the replica wormholes saddle state quantify information-theoretic costs inherent to coarse-grained semiclassical descriptions. During evaporation, the relative entropy for the Hawking saddle increases monotonically, reflecting a progressively higher thermodynamic cost of sustaining the Hawking description. Conversely, the relative entropy associated with the replica wormholes saddle decreases, which indicates that the description of connected geometries becomes progressively more accurate. Moreover, the sign of the difference between the two quantities reverses precisely at the Page time, providing an information-theoretic diagnosis for the transition between competing gravitational saddles. Our results recast the Page transition as a flow of relative entropy costs between competing semi-classical descriptions, revealing an information-theoretic structure underlying the emergence of effective irreversibility in coarse-grained black hole evaporation.

Knowledge of the structure and evolution of cosmic magnetic fields is indispensable to understand how primordial magnetic fields were generated and amplified during the lifetime of the Universe. Polarisation studies over significant redshift ranges are an important tool in understanding cosmic magnetic fields. We aim to understand the structure and evolution of cosmic magnetic fields, utilising the polarised spectra and depolarisation characteristics of (background) radio sources. Using radio polarisation data at two different frequencies from the LOFAR Rotation Measure (RM) grid catalogue at 144\,MHz and new Apertif data at 1.4\,GHz, we investigate the source statistics of a common sample of polarised sources, deriving the depolarisation ratio between these two frequencies. We utilise this to disentangle depolarising effects local to the source from those along the line of sight. We compile a catalogue of 598 polarised radio components, most of which are located in low-density environments. Fractional polarisation decrease for both wavelengths with redshift. We attributed the main depolarisation at 1.4\,GHz to effects occurring close to the sources, while the depolarisation measured at 144\,MHz is most likely generated by cosmic filaments along the line-of-sight. We were able to get a first redshift dependent upper limit estimate of the RM dispersion in cosmic web filaments.

Space-Time Wave Packets (STWPs) have enabled numerous nontrivial properties, such as tunable group velocities, nondiffraction and nonlocal spin textures in optical fields. However, this has not been properly studied in matter waves. Here, we investigate free-electron STWPs, which are propagation-invariant and group-velocity-tunable matter wave packets, constructed by constraining the spatiotemporal spectrum of the electron wavefunction in momentum space. Due to the unique dispersion of free-electrons, the electron STWP can carry two different topologies, and host both meron and skyrmion topological textures in momentum space. We demonstrate the topological phase transitions and tunable skyrmion numbers by spectral geometry tuning. We also show the topologically robust propagation of the electron pulses and corresponding real-space skyrmionic expectation value textures encoded within each single electron wavefunction. Our results open a platform for topological free-electron wavepackets uses in sensing and information transfer.

In this report we analyze charasteristics of structural symmetry of small AkBlCm nanoclusters (A - Rb, Cs; B - Pb, Sn, Bi; C - Cl, Br, I), binding energies, stability, and, ultimately, applicability as building blocks for construction of larger-size nanoclusters. Preliminary spatial modeling of ternary compound nanoclusters has been carried out on the basics of geometrical approach, namely interatomic distances taken as a sums of corresponding ionic radii. The geometry optimization and binding energies of the modeled structures have been determined through quantum-chemical calculations. Geometry optimization has been performed with Gaussian09 software package using Density Functional Theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation of the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) and hybrid approximation of the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) exchange-correlation functionals. The Stuttgart/Dresden (SDD) and Los Alamos National Laboratory 2 Double Zeta (LANL2DZ) scalar-relativistic effective basic potentials were employed throughout the calculations. As a result of these calculations, a clear relationship between the atomic radii, their ratios within the nanoclusters and their stability has been obtained and analyzed.

Across scientific domains, empirical data often give rise to positive semidefinite matrices that encode similarities, couplings or interactions and induce natural geometries. We investigate whether changing the geometry used to compare the same empirical representations preserves subject-level performance and the local structures from which explanations are derived, a question we term the prediction explanation invariance problem. We address this problem across morphometric MRI, fMRI and EEG data by comparing Frobenius and trace geometries applied to the same empirical matrices. Predictive performance was broadly preserved across geometries, but comparable performance did not imply agreement in subject-level decision scores or predicted labels. Predictive similarity also masked geometry-dependent differences in local neighbourhoods, perturbation sensitivities and explanatory rankings. Dimensionality reduction made the two subject-space geometries progressively more concordant, while classification performance and decision-level agreement declined. These results identify data geometry as a hidden degree of freedom in explainability: similar performance does not guarantee invariant decisions or explanations.

In extensions of the Standard Model with Majorana sterile fermions, additional Dirac and Majorana CP-violating phases can have a significant impact on charged lepton flavour violating (cLFV) transitions and decays. We investigate angular observables associated with polarised $\mu$ and $\tau$ cLFV three-body decays, $\ell_\alpha^+ \to \ell_\beta^+ \ell_\gamma^+ \ell_\delta^-$, including parity- and time-reversal asymmetries. We analyse the correlations between different cLFV observables, showing that sizeable asymmetries can arise over experimentally accessible regions of parameter space. The resulting patterns of angular observables provide powerful probes of this class of Standard Model extensions and, in the event of a cLFV signal, could offer a means to test or potentially falsify the underlying framework.

In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of the in-medium properties and internal structure of pseudoscalar mesons within the light-front quark model (LFQM), employing both Gaussian and power-law (PL) wave functions. We incorporate in-medium quark properties obtained from the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model into the LFQM, thereby providing a unified description in terms of quark degrees of freedom. We investigate the distribution amplitudes (DAs) and parton distribution functions (PDFs) of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $D^{\pm}$, and $B^{\pm}$ mesons in symmetric nuclear matter. We find that the evolved in-medium pion DA and PDF are strongly suppressed at intermediate $x$, indicating substantial medium-induced modifications to the meson structure. The signs and magnitudes of the modified Gegenbauer coefficients $a_n'$, the parameter $\xi$, and the Mellin moments of the DAs and PDFs in nuclear matter are found to be consistent with other theoretical predictions. In particular, the second Gegenbauer coefficient of the pion DA, $a_2^\pi$, increases substantially with nuclear density, from $0.096$ ($0.057$) in vacuum to $0.232$ ($0.202$) at normal nuclear density for the Gaussian (PL) wave function, respectively. This increase indicates a broader pion DA and an enhanced second Gegenbauer moment in the nuclear medium. We further calculate the pion PDF ratio $R_{\rho/0}^{\pi}$ and find that its $x$ dependence exhibits a behavior qualitatively similar to the observed European Muon Collaboration (EMC) effect, highlighting the important role of QCD evolution in shaping the medium-modified partonic structure. Finally, we compare the calculated free-space $\pi^{\pm}$ and $K^{\pm}$ DAs with available free-space lattice QCD results and find reasonable agreement.

Waterfall-like spectral features observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) are commonly associated with strong electronic correlations or electron-boson coupling. Here, we investigate this connection in the kagome metal LuFe6Ge6, a structurally simple member of the FeGe-derived family, using polarization-dependent ARPES, density functional theory and dynamical mean-field theory. We observe a pronounced vertical spectral feature at the L point extending over several hundred meV in binding energy. Its orbital character is identified as predominantly Fe dyz, and its energy onset coincides with a van Hove singularity located approximately 0.3 eV below EF . Despite the waterfall-like spectral response, dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) reveals only weak electronic correlations, while the calculated electronic structure closely reproduces the experimental bulk bands. We propose that the anomalous spectral weight may arise from inelastic scattering of the outgoing photoelectrons, potentially associated with the large density of states near the van Hove singularity. Our results suggest that waterfall-like features can emerge without strong electronic correlations and highlight the possible role of the underlying band structure and photoelectron energy-loss processes in their interpretation.

Nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) for neutrinoless beta-beta decays (DBD) and inverse-beta decays (IBD) are crucial for studying neutrino properties beyond and within the standard model by using DBDs and IBDs. The charge exchange nuclear reaction (CER) is a realistic probe for studying experimentally these NMEs. The present work shows for the first time an experimental way to extract the Gamow-Teller (GT) and tensor (T) NMEs associated with DBDs and IBDs from the q (momentum transfer) dependence of the CER cross-section by taking into accounts explicitly both the central and tensor interactions. The present method was applied for CERs on 71Ga used for the solar-neutrino and the Ga anomaly and on 100Mo and 128Te used for DBD and IBD. Impacts of the CER with the tensor interaction on the DBD and IBD NME studies are discussed.

Polarization imaging provides physical cues beyond intensity imaging but typically requires specialized hardware. Recent methods infer polarization from RGB-like inputs, yet predict only normalized Stokes components or relative descriptors, from which the radiometric scale needed for full Stokes reconstruction has been divided out. We introduce PolarScale, a benchmark that makes this scale an explicit prediction and evaluation target. Built on existing trichromatic full-Stokes measurements, PolarScale takes the per-scene normalized total-intensity image $s_0$ (a scene-referred linear image, not a consumer sRGB photograph) and asks models to predict normalized Stokes components, AoLP/DoLP/DoCP, and a per-scene scale. Because the scale is divided out of the input, it is not physically identifiable; PolarScale therefore evaluates dataset-conditioned semantic scale estimation against a constant-scale control, together with angular, self-consistency, and physical-bound metrics. Across seven restoration-based and generative backbones and three prediction strategies, the strongest restoration models estimate the scale with 3.6-4.3% mean relative error versus 5.7% for the constant control and violate physical bounds on fewer than 0.25% of pixels, whereas two generative baselines collapse to a near-zero scale; explicit descriptor supervision improves descriptor accuracy (23.66 vs. 18.88 dB PSNR for MAE). Predicted full-Stokes representations improve diffuse/specular separation, material segmentation, and glare classification, although in diffuse/specular separation the learned scale performs only on par with the constant control.

Bound states in structured reservoirs require exact interference conditions and are therefore sensitive to imperfections in the coupling geometry. In this paper, we study a two-level giant atom coupled at multiple points to a mirror-terminated semi-infinite waveguide. The exact atom-photon bound state requires both cancellation of the outgoing radiation amplitude and dispersive matching to the atomic detuning. Generalized delay-equation dynamics, continued-pole spectra, and real-space photon fields verify this criterion for coupling-strength, position, and coupling-phase imperfections. For representative realizations, retuning restores one-, two-, and three-root responses after strength errors and one- and two-root responses after position errors. The specified position-imperfect three-root configuration fails because its $2\pi$ root is no longer dark, consistent with a $58.77\%$ spectral mismatch. Ensembles of 1000 realizations at each error amplitude show near-unity target-state recovery for strength errors, unity recovery of the specified one- and two-root targets but no three-root recovery for position errors, and no nontrivial exact recovery for independent phase errors. Optimized phase-imperfect responses instead retain finite linewidths. Root matching with realization-dependent control retuning therefore constitutes a compensation procedure, rather than generic passive robustness against arbitrary disorder.

We study the universal properties of near-threshold $s$-wave eigenstates in systems with Coulomb plus short-range interactions by analyzing their compositeness. Using a nonrelativistic effective field theory, we derive a relation between the compositeness of near-threshold states and the Coulomb scattering length, the Coulomb effective range, and the Bohr radius. We find that the long-range Coulomb interaction modifies the threshold behavior expected from the low-energy universality of purely short-range systems. When the Coulomb interaction is relatively weak compared with the short-range interaction, a remnant of the low-energy universality associated with the short-range interaction survives, leading to composite-dominant near-threshold eigenstates. In contrast, in the strong-Coulomb regime, this remnant disappears.

Beyond the frozen-pairing contribution, the superfluid weight of a multiband superconductor contains a correction from the self-consistent relaxation of the pairing amplitudes under a phase twist. We show that this correction has a quantum-geometric origin, not in the space of Bloch states but in the space of collective pairing fields. For an attractive multiband Hubbard model at the mean-field level, the thermodynamic Hessian governing the pairing response coincides with the static Gaussian pair-fluctuation kernel at zero momentum at every temperature below $T_c$. Since gauge invariance relates a phase twist to a finite center-of-mass momentum of the pair field, the superfluid weight is set by the small-momentum curvature of the eigenvalue branch that evolves from the Goldstone mode, and the relaxation correction is a stiffness-weighted quantum metric of the corresponding soft eigenvector on the manifold of pairing configurations. The same construction yields the Ginzburg-Landau gradient coefficient with the identical geometric correction, hence the coherence-length tensor, and, with the low-frequency dynamics of the kernel, the pair-mass tensor. Lieb-lattice calculations verify the equivalence of the thermodynamic, fluctuation-kernel, and soft-mode formulations and the independence of the superfluid weight from the orbital embedding.

For perfect state transfer (PST) on unweighted mixed graphs, we classify the normalized transfer times of complete PST classes. A finite set $\Lambda\subset\mathbb R/\mathbb Z$ containing zero occurs at a nonstationary periodic vertex if and only if $\cos(2\pi(x-y))\in\mathbb Q$ for all $x,y\in\Lambda$. Every admissible set has a connected oriented realization. We also classify the possible return phases of oriented realizations at the minimum vertex period. Transfers at rational multiples of the common minimum vertex period partition a complete class into sets of size at most six, or at most three in an oriented graph with return phase $-1$; both bounds are sharp. We construct complete classes of every finite size, including classes in which all transfers between distinct vertices occur at irrational multiples of the period and no switching automorphism maps a class vertex to a distinct class vertex. We also characterize simultaneous realization in connected oriented graphs with prescribed relative minimum vertex periods and return phases. The proof combines an imaginary quadratic field restriction with an unweighted construction that selects the complete target set.

This document presents the theory, implementation, and verification of Motif, a two-dimensional incompressible flow solver developed as a teaching and research framework. The governing equations are discretized using the finite-volume method on staggered Cartesian grids. Convection is treated explicitly using the second-order Adams–Bashforth method, diffusion implicitly using the Crank–Nicolson method, and pressure–velocity coupling using projection methods. Both the Standard projection and the approximate second-order projection of Perot (1993) are considered. Particular attention is given to the discrete operators, boundary conditions, temporal treatment of pressure, conservation properties, and numerical dissipation and dispersion. The implementation is verified using a sequence of periodic, wall-bounded, and inlet–outlet flow problems on uniform and smoothly stretched grids. Spatial and temporal convergence, discrete mass conservation, kinetic-energy behavior, enstrophy, and energy spectra are examined. The results demonstrate the expected accuracy of the spatial discretization and distinguish the temporal behavior of the two projection approaches. The document is intended both to describe Motif in sufficient detail for independent implementation and to examine the numerical properties relevant to its continued development toward direct numerical simulation.

Stimulated electron-optical-near-field interactions imprint a coherent, phase-coherent modulation on the wave function of a free electron, of which the free-space dispersion subsequently converts into a train of attosecond density peaks. Light thereby becomes a tool for synthesizing the electron wave function itself, setting when, where, and how narrowly the electron density concentrates. Here we study photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM) to gain control over that synthesis in two stages: first for a single PINEM interaction, whose design parameters we obtain in closed form, and then for multiple PINEM interactions acting in parallel, which extends the control across space and time. The design rules follow from decomposing the propagated density into temporal harmonics, which we classify into three: (i) the arrival time of the attosecond train, fixed by the optical phase of the coupling; (ii) the distance at which the train forms, set by diffraction at the point where all classical trajectories converge; and (iii) the pulse duration, fixed by the imprinted energy spread. We evaluate these parameters for a scanning-electron-microscope (SEM) configuration at 10~keV, where the compression completes within tens of micrometers from the interaction region, with results 20% better than previous approaches. Letting the electron then interact with several spatially separated near fields in parallel, normal to the trajectory, each pathway carrying its own coupling strength and optical phase, we show that retaining or erasing which-path information changes both the propagated density and the measurable energy spectrum, the latter providing in turn a measure of the mutual coherence of the driving fields. These results establish PINEM as a quantitative synthesis tool for free-electron wave functions in compact, low-voltage electron microscopes.

Temporal variations in the dispersion measure (DM) of pulsars probe fluctuations in the free-electron density of the ionized interstellar medium (IISM). While DM variations have been studied extensively in millisecond pulsars, young pulsars provide a complementary probe due to their lines of sight (LoSs) intersecting supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and other turbulent environments. However, systematic studies of DM variability in young pulsars remain limited. In this paper, We characterize the temporal DM variations of a large population of young pulsars to constrain the turbulence of the IISM along their LoSs and to investigate the physical origins of the observed variability. We analyzed 18 years of timing observations of 364 young pulsars obtained with the Murriyang/Parkes radio telescope, combining legacy data from the 21 cm Multibeam receiver with recent observations from the ultra-wideband low-frequency (UWL) receiver. Epoch-wise DM measurements were derived from sub-banded times of arrival, and the variability was characterized using linear trends and DM structure functions, which were compared with expectations for a Kolmogorov turbulence. Significant DM variations are detected in 89 pulsars in the UWL data and in 23 pulsars in the multibeam data, with 16 in the combined dataset showing significant trends. This represents one of the largest long-baseline studies of DM variability in pulsars. We find tentative evidence that the observed DM variations are predominantly consistent with Kolmogorov turbulence. PSRs J1105-6107 and J1829-1751 show estimated DM variations driven by periodic profile variability. We also identify 21 bright, slow pulsars exhibiting short-term DM variations that exceed expectations from the IISM.

Stability of matter is the property that the ground state energy of $N$ charged quantum particles is bounded below by $-CN$, with $C$ independent of $N$. We ask whether this holds for colour-charged fermions interacting with a classical non-abelian gauge field. The field is a dynamical variable on the same footing as the matter, and the energy is minimized over both. The charges are matrices, and every pair of particles has an attractive colour channel. Non-relativistic spinless fermions are stable for every value of the coupling constant $\alpha$. Relativistic spinless fermions and non-relativistic spin-$\frac12$ fermions are stable for small $\alpha$ and unstable for large $\alpha$. For Dirac fermions the choice of positive-energy subspace decides: with that of the full Dirac operator they are stable for small $\alpha$, with the free one unstable for every $\alpha$. Two species of bosons are unstable. In every case the outcome is the same as for electric charges, although essential steps of the abelian proofs fail. The key tool is an electrostatic inequality for matrix-valued charges, uniform in the field, which replaces the uniformly charged sphere of Newton's theorem by the surface charge of a covariant harmonic extension. The stability results hold for every compact gauge group, and most of them for non-smooth fields of finite energy.

We compute analytically the leading beyond-ring corrections to the static irreducible polarizability of the two-dimensional (2D) electron gas, namely the two exchange self-energy diagrams and the exchange vertex diagram, each of first order in the Coulomb coupling, and insert the resulting polarizability into the RPA geometric series to obtain the static dielectric function and screened interaction. The self-energy and vertex contributions individually diverge; we obtain both divergent pieces in closed form. Their sum is finite and reproduces exactly the Hartree-Fock compressibility, which renormalizes the Thomas-Fermi wave vector. We show that exchange converts the one-sided 2D Kohn kink at 2k_F into a sharp two-sided peak, a qualitative improvement over Thomas-Fermi and RPA screening. In real space this makes the Friedel oscillations around a charged impurity 2-3 times larger than in RPA, with an amplitude that increases with distance over the range studied; implications for Kohn-Luttinger pairing are discussed. Relation to earlier works on the same diagrams is discussed.

We present a spectral and timing analysis of X-ray emission from the actively accreting supermassive black hole (SMBH) in RX~J1301.9+2747 with prominent quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) using ASCA, ROSAT, XMM-Newton, and NICER observations. NICER detected renewed QPE activity from this source in 2024. We examined in detail the X-ray spectrum formation in this source during QPE outbursts applying the first-principal model, Bulk Motion Comptonization. We find an increase of the photon index $\Gamma$ with a mass accretion rate $\dot M$, the index saturation at $\Gamma_{sat}=2.7\pm 0.1$ at high $\dot M$ value during outburst peaks. Based on the derived $\Gamma-\dot M$ correlation, we apply the scaling technique for the first time to measure the black hole mass in RX~J1301.9+2747. The SMBH mass in this source was estimated to be between $4\times 10^5$ M$_ {\odot}$ and $7\times 10^6$ M$_ {\odot}$ for the inclination range from 0$^{\circ}$ to 70$^{\circ}$, which is adopted as a plausible range based on the AGN unified model assumption, applying HLX–1~ESO 243–49, OJ~287, and 1H~0707–495 as reference scaling sources. We also estimate a BH mass in RX~J1301.9+2747 applying a timing analysis, in which the Compton cloud size to be $\sim 10^{11}$ cm, estimated from the quasi-periodic oscillation frequency, $\nu\sim 10^{-4}$ Hz, indicates SMBH mass in RX~J1301.9+2747 is of order of $10^6$ M$_{\odot}$. Overall, the BH mass obtained by the scaling method in this source is consistent with previous measurements using other methods.

We study the interplay between symmetry defects insertion and the phenomena of quantum many body scarring. We exploit a class of models obtained from an embedding mechanism that defines a stochastic matrix form hamiltonian, hosting zero energy many body scarred states. Such models display an interesting playground to explore the consequences of dualities, half-gauging operations and so on. We first show that inside this class of models, what are the conditions to still have scared states after defect insertion. The main result of our work is a detailed analysis of half-gauging in such chains, which introduces a non-trivial interface in our system, leading to scarred states protected by the underlying symmetries. The conclusions for half-gauged scarred systems are general and may lead to fruitful directions for higher dimension scarred physics and their robustness.