In a Josephson junction, the current phase relation relates the phase variation of the superconducting order parameter $\phi$, between the two superconducting leads connected through a weak link, to the dissipationless current. This relation is the fingerprint of the junction. It is usually dominated by a $\sin (\phi )$ harmonic, however, its precise knowledge is necessary to design superconducting quantum circuits with tailored properties. Here, we directly measure the current phase relation of a superconducting quantum interference device made with gate-tunable graphene Josephson junctions and we show that it can behave as a $\sin (2\phi )$ Josephson element, free of the traditionally dominant $\sin (\phi )$ harmonic. Such element will be instrumental for the development of superconducting quantum bits protected from decoherence.

We propose heterostructures that realize first and second order topological superconductivity with vanishing net magnetization by utilizing altermagnetism. Such platforms may offer a significant improvement over conventional platforms with uniform magnetization since the latter suppresses the superconducting gap. We first introduce a 1D semiconductor-superconductor structure in proximity to an altermagnet that realizes end Majorana zero modes (MZMs) with vanishing net magnetization. Additionally, a coexisting Zeeman term provides a tuning knob to distinguish topological and trivial zero modes. We then propose 2D altermagnetic platforms that can realize chiral Majorana fermions or higher order corner MZMs. Our Letter paves the way toward realizing Majorana boundary states with an alternative source of time-reversal breaking and zero net magnetization.

Quantum geometry plays a pivotal role in the second-order response of $\mathcal{P}T$-symmetric antiferromagnets. Here we study the nonlinear response of 2D altermagnets protected by $C_n\mathcal{T}$ symmetry and show that their leading nonlinear response is third order. Furthermore, we show that the contributions from the quantum metric and Berry curvature enter separately: the longitudinal response for all planar altermagnets only has a contribution from the quantum metric quadrupole (QMQ), while transverse responses in general have contributions from both the Berry curvature quadrupole (BCQ) and QMQ. We show that for the well-known example of $d$-wave altermagnets the Hall response is dominated by the BCQ. Both longitudinal and transverse responses are strongly dependent on the crystalline anisotropy. While altermagnets are strictly defined in the limit of vanishing spin orbit coupling (SOC), real altermagnets exhibit weak SOC, which is essential to observe this response. Specifically, SOC gaps the spin-group protected nodal line, generating a response peak that is sharpest when SOC is weak. Two Dirac nodes also contribute a divergence to the nonlinear response, whose scaling changes as a function of SOC. Finally, we apply our results to thin films of the 3D altermagnet ${\mathrm{RuO}}_2$. Our work uncovers distinct features of altermagnets in nonlinear transport, providing experimental signatures as well as a guide to disentangling the different components of their quantum geometry.

We report on a direct search for scalar field dark matter using data from LIGO’s third observing run. We analyze the coupling of size oscillations of the interferometer’s beam splitter and arm test masses that may be caused by scalar field dark matter. Using new efficient search methods to maximize sensitivity for signatures of such oscillations, we set new upper limits for the coupling constants of scalar field dark matter as a function of its mass, which improve upon bounds from previous direct searches by up to four orders of magnitude in a frequency band from 10 to 180 Hz.

We predict a rich excitation spectrum of a binary dipolar supersolid in a linear crystal geometry, where the ground state consists of two partially immiscible components with alternating, interlocking domains. We identify three Goldstone branches, each with first-sound, second-sound, or spin-sound character. In analogy with a diatomic crystal, the resulting lattice has a two-domain primitive basis and we find that the crystal (first-sound-like) branch is split into optical and acoustic phonons. We also find a spin-Higgs branch that is associated with the supersolid modulation amplitude.

The two-dimensional Gross-Neveu model is anticipated to undergo a crystalline phase transition at high baryon charge densities. This conclusion is drawn from the mean-field approximation, which closely resembles models of Peierls instability. We demonstrate that this transition indeed occurs when both the rank of the symmetry group and the dimension of the particle representation contributing to the baryon density are large (the large $N$ limit). We derive this result through the exact solution of the model, developing the large $N$ limit of the Bethe ansatz. Our analytical construction of the large-$N$ solution of the Bethe ansatz equations aligns perfectly with the periodic (finite-gap) solution of the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) of the mean-field analysis.

We present a data-driven pipeline for model building that combines interpretable machine learning, hydrodynamic theories, and microscopic models. The goal is to uncover the underlying processes governing nonlinear dynamics experiments. We exemplify our method with data from microfluidic experiments where crystals of streaming droplets support the propagation of nonlinear waves absent in passive crystals. By combining physics-inspired neural networks, known as neural operators, with symbolic regression tools, we infer the solution, as well as the mathematical form, of a nonlinear dynamical system that accurately models the experimental data. Finally, we interpret this continuum model from fundamental physics principles. Informed by machine learning, we coarse grain a microscopic model of interacting droplets and discover that nonreciprocal hydrodynamic interactions stabilize and promote nonlinear wave propagation.

We present a scheme for investigating arbitrary thermal observables in spatially inhomogeneous equilibrium many-body systems. Extending the grand canonical ensemble yields any given observable as an explicit hyperdensity functional. Associated local fluctuation profiles follow from an exact hyper-Ornstein-Zernike equation. While the local compressibility and simple observables permit analytic treatment, complex order parameters are accessible via simulation-based supervised machine learning of neural hyperdirect correlation functionals. We exemplify efficient and accurate neural predictions for the cluster statistics of hard rods, square-well rods, and hard spheres. The theory allows one to treat complex observables, as is impossible in standard density functional theory.

We use one-photon excitation to promote $K$-shell electrons of formic acid (which has a planar equilibrium structure) to an antibonding ${\pi }^{*}$ orbital. The excited molecule is known to have a (chiral) pyramidal equilibrium structure. In our experiment, we determine the handedness of the excited molecule by imaging the momenta of charged fragments, which occur after its Coulomb explosion triggered by Auger-Meitner decay cascades succeeding the excitation. We find that the handedness of the excited molecule depends on its spatial orientation with respect to the propagation (or polarization) direction of the exciting photon. The effect is largely independent of the exact polarization properties of the light driving the $1s\to {\pi }^{*}$ excitation.

In systems with a real Bloch Hamiltonian band nodes can be characterized by a non-Abelian frame-rotation charge. The ability of these band nodes to annihilate pairwise is path dependent, since by braiding nodes in adjacent gaps the sign of their charges can be changed. Here, we theoretically construct and numerically confirm two concrete methods to experimentally probe these non-Abelian braiding processes and charges in ultracold atomic systems. We consider a coherent superposition of two bands that can be created by moving atoms through the band singularities at some angle in momentum space. Analyzing the dependency of excitations on the frame charges, we demonstrate an interferometry scheme passing through two band nodes, which reveals the relative frame charges and allows for measuring the multigap topological invariant. The second method relies on a single wave packet probing two nodes sequentially, where the frame charges can be determined from the band populations. Our results present a feasible avenue for measuring non-Abelian charges of band nodes and the direct experimental verification of braiding procedures, which can be applied in a variety of settings including the recently discovered anomalous non-Abelian phases arising under periodic driving.

Weyl semimetals are defined by their unique Fermi surface, comprising pairs of Weyl points of opposite chirality, connected through topological surface states. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been used to verify the existence of the Weyl points and the Fermi arcs. However, ARPES is limited in resolution, leading to significant uncertainty when characterizing the shape of the Fermi surface of semimetals and measuring features such as the distance between the Weyl points. Here, to surpass the resolution of ARPES, we combine quantum oscillation measurements with transverse electron focusing experiments. These techniques offer complementary information, enabling the reconstruction of the distinctive peanut-shaped cross section of the Weyl Fermi surface and accurately determining the separation between Weyl points in the Weyl semimetal NbP. Our Letter showcases the integration of quantum oscillations and transverse electron focusing, allowing for the measurements of complex Fermi surface geometries, concurrently with carriers’ transport properties, in high-mobility quantum materials.

Rabi oscillations have long been thought to be out of reach in simulations using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), a prominent symptom of the failure of the adiabatic approximation for nonperturbative dynamics. We present a reformulation of TDDFT which requires response quantities only, thus enabling an adiabatic approximation to predict such dynamics accurately because the functional is evaluated on a density close to the ground state, instead of on the fully nonperturbative density. Our reformulation applies to any real-time dynamics, redeeming TDDFT far from equilibrium. Examples of a resonantly-driven local excitation in a model He atom, and charge-transfer in the LiCN molecule are given.

New phases or new phenomena are often observed near-zero temperature phase transitions. These new effects represent nature’s way of avoiding quantum critical phase transitions. Here, we look at the quantum tricritical point (QTCP), the special case where two transitions are driven to zero temperature at the same time. Unlike the case of quantum critical points, the avoidance of quantum tricritical points has yet to be demonstrated. Using chemical substitution and a magnetic field, we drive ${\mathrm{LaCrSb}}_3$ toward a quantum tricritical point. For the first time near a QTCP, we observe the emergence of a new magnetic phase and the avoidance of the QTCP via a first order phase transition.

The neutron-rich unbound fluorine isotope ${}^{30}{\mathrm{F}}_{21}$ has been observed for the first time by measuring its neutron decay at the SAMURAI spectrometer (RIBF, RIKEN) in the quasifree proton knockout reaction of ${}^{31}\mathrm{Ne}$ nuclei at $235\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{nucleon}$. The mass and thus one-neutron-separation energy of ${}^{30}\mathrm{F}$ has been determined to be $S_n=-472\pm 58(\mathrm{stat})\pm 33(\mathrm{sys})\mathrm{keV}$ from the measurement of its invariant-mass spectrum. The absence of a sharp drop in $S_n({}^{30}\mathrm{F})$ shows that the “magic” $N=20$ shell gap is not restored close to ${}^{28}\mathrm{O}$, which is in agreement with our shell-model calculations that predict a near degeneracy between the neutron $d$ and $fp$ orbitals, with the $1p_{3/2}$ and $1p_{1/2}$ orbitals becoming more bound than the $0f_{7/2}$ one. This degeneracy and reordering of orbitals has two potential consequences: ${}^{28}\mathrm{O}$ behaves like a strongly superfluid nucleus with neutron pairs scattering across shells, and both ${}^{29,31}\mathrm{F}$ appear to be good two-neutron halo-nucleus candidates.

Persistent currents circulate continuously without requiring external power sources. Here, we extend their theory to include dissipation within the framework of non-Hermitian quantum Hamiltonians. Using Green’s function formalism, we introduce a non-Hermitian Fermi-Dirac distribution and derive an analytical expression for the persistent current that relies solely on the complex spectrum. We apply our formula to two dissipative models supporting persistent currents: (i) a phase-biased superconducting-normal-superconducting junction; (ii) a normal ring threaded by a magnetic flux. We show that the persistent currents in both systems exhibit no anomalies at any emergent exceptional points, whose signatures are only discernible in the current susceptibility. We validate our findings by exact diagonalization and extend them to account for finite temperatures and interaction effects. Our formalism offers a general framework for computing quantum many-body observables of non-Hermitian systems in equilibrium, with potential extensions to nonequilibrium scenarios.

While altermagnetic materials are characterized by a vanishing net magnetic moment, their symmetry in principle allows for the existence of an anomalous Hall effect. Here, we introduce a model with altermagnetism in which the emergence of an anomalous Hall effect is driven by interactions. This model is grounded in a modified Kane-Mele framework with antiferromagnetic spin-spin correlations. Quantum Monte Carlo simulations show that the system undergoes a finite temperature phase transition governed by a primary antiferromagnetic order parameter accompanied by a secondary one of Haldane type. The emergence of both orders turns the metallic state of the system, away from half-filling, to an altermagnet with a finite anomalous Hall conductivity. A mean field ansatz corroborates these results, which pave the way into the study of correlation induced altermagnets with finite Berry curvature.

Understanding the interface between quantum and relativistic theories is crucial for fundamental and practical advances, especially given that key physical concepts such as causality take different forms in these theories. Bell’s no-go theorem reveals limits on classical processes, arising from relativistic causality principles. Considering whether similar fundamental limits exist on quantum processes, we derive no-go theorems for quantum experiments realizable in classical background spacetimes. We account for general processes allowed by quantum theory, including those with indefinite causal order (ICO), which have also been the subject of recent experiments. Our first theorem implies that realizations of ICO processes that do not violate relativistic causality must involve the nonlocalization of systems in spacetime. The second theorem shows that for any such realization of an ICO process, there exists a more fine-grained description in terms of a definite and acyclic causal order process. This enables a general reconciliation of quantum and relativistic notions of causality and, in particular, applies to experimental realizations of the quantum switch, a prominent ICO process. By showing what is impossible to achieve in classical spacetimes, these no-go results also offer insights into how causality and information processing may differ in future quantum experiments in relativistic regimes beyond classical spacetimes.

A quantum emitter interacting with photons in a single optical-mode constitutes a one-dimensional atom. A coherent and efficiently coupled one-dimensional atom provides a large nonlinearity, enabling photonic quantum gates. Achieving a high coupling efficiency ($\beta$ factor) and low dephasing is challenging. Here, we use a semiconductor quantum dot in an open microcavity as an implementation of a one-dimensional atom. With a weak laser input, we achieve an extinction of 99.2% in transmission and a concomitant bunching in the photon statistics of $g^{(2)}(0)=587$, showcasing the reflection of the single-photon component and the transmission of the multi-photon components of the coherent input. The tunable nature of the microcavity allows $\beta$ to be adjusted and gives control over the photon statistics—from strong bunching to antibunching—and the phase of the transmitted photons. We obtain excellent agreement between experiment and theory by going beyond the single-mode Jaynes-Cummings model. Our results pave the way towards the creation of exotic photonic states and two-photon phase gates.

The rheology of suspensions of non-Brownian soft spheres is studied across jamming but also across the viscous and inertial regimes using a custom pressure- and volume-imposed rheometer. The study shows that the granular rheology found for suspensions of hard spheres can be extended to a soft granular rheology (SGranR) by renormalizing the critical volume fraction and friction coefficient to pressure-dependent values and using the addition of the viscous and inertial stress scales. This SGranR encompasses rheological behaviors on both sides of the jamming transition, resulting in an approximate collapse of the rheological data into two branches when scaled with the distance to jamming, as observed for soft colloids. This research suggests that suspensions of soft particles across flow regimes can be described by a unified SGranR framework around the jamming transition.

Anti–de Sitter space acts as an infrared cutoff for asymptotically free theories, allowing interpolation between a weakly coupled small-sized regime and a strongly coupled flat-space regime. We scrutinize the interpolation for theories in two dimensions from the perspective of boundary conformal theories. We show that the appearance of a singlet marginal operator destabilizes a gapless phase existing at a small size, triggering a boundary renormalization group flow to a gapped phase that smoothly connects to flat space. We conjecture a similar mechanism for confinement in gauge theories.