We consider a one-dimensional interacting spinless fermion model, which displays the well-known Luttinger liquid (LL) to charge density wave (CDW) transition as a function of the ratio between the strength of the interaction $U$ and the hopping $J$. We subject this system to a spatially uniform drive which is ramped up over a finite time interval and becomes time periodic in the long-time limit. We show that by using a density matrix renormalization group approach formulated for infinite system sizes, we can access the large-time limit even when the drive induces finite heating. When both the initial and long-time states are in the gapless (LL) phase, the final state has power-law correlations for all ramp speeds. However, when the initial and final state are gapped (CDW phase), we find a pseudothermal state with an effective temperature that depends on the ramp rate, both for the Magnus regime in which the drive frequency is very large compared to other scales in the system and in the opposite limit where the drive frequency is less than the gap. Remarkably, quantum defects (instantons) appear when the drive tunes the system through the quantum critical point, in a realization of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

Nonlinear relaxation dynamics of a vertically vibrated granular pile is experimentally studied. In the experiment, the flux and slope on the relaxing pile are measured by using a high-speed laser profiler. The relation of these quantities can be modeled by the nonlinear transport law assuming the uniform vibrofluidization of an entire pile. The fitting parameter in this model is only the relaxation efficiency, which characterizes the energy conversion rate from vertical vibration into horizontal transport. We demonstrate that this value is a constant independent of experimental conditions. The actual relaxation is successfully reproduced by the continuity equation with the proposed model. Finally, its specific applicability toward an astrophysical phenomenon is shown.

The formation and closure of aqueous pores in lipid bilayers is a key step in various biophysical processes. Large pores are well described by classical nucleation theory, but the free-energy landscape of small, biologically relevant pores has remained largely unexplored. The existence of small and metastable “prepores” was hypothesized decades ago from electroporation experiments, but resolving metastable prepores from theoretical models remained challenging. Using two complementary methods—atomistic simulations and self-consistent field theory of a minimal lipid model—we determine the parameters for which metastable prepores occur in lipid membranes. Both methods consistently suggest that pore metastability depends on the relative volume ratio between the lipid head group and lipid tails: lipids with a larger head-group volume fraction (or shorter saturated tails) form metastable prepores, whereas lipids with a smaller head-group volume fraction (or longer unsaturated tails) form unstable prepores.

The activity of cell membrane inclusions (such as ion channels) is influenced by the host lipid membrane, to which they are elastically coupled. This coupling concerns the hydrophobic thickness of the bilayer (imposed by the length of the channel, as per the hydrophobic matching principle) but also its slope at the boundary of the inclusion. However, this parameter has never been measured so far. We combine small-angle x-ray scattering data and a complete elastic model to measure the slope for the model gramicidin channel and show that it is surprisingly steep in two membrane systems with very different elastic properties. This conclusion is confirmed and generalized by the comparison with recent results in the simulation literature and with conductivity measurements.

In quantum Shannon theory, the way information is encoded and decoded takes advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics, while the way communication channels are interlinked is assumed to be classical. In this Letter, we relax the assumption that quantum channels are combined classically, showing that a quantum communication network where quantum channels are combined in a superposition of different orders can achieve tasks that are impossible in conventional quantum Shannon theory. In particular, we show that two identical copies of a completely depolarizing channel become able to transmit information when they are combined in a quantum superposition of two alternative orders. This finding runs counter to the intuition that if two communication channels are identical, using them in different orders should not make any difference. The failure of such intuition stems from the fact that a single noisy channel can be a random mixture of elementary, noncommuting processes, whose order (or lack thereof) can affect the ability to transmit information.

Quantum systems strongly coupled to many-body systems equilibrate to the reduced state of a global thermal state, deviating from the local thermal state of the system as it occurs in the weak-coupling limit. Taking this insight as a starting point, we study the thermodynamics of systems strongly coupled to thermal baths. First, we provide strong-coupling corrections to the second law applicable to general systems in three of its different readings: As a statement of maximal extractable work, on heat dissipation, and bound to the Carnot efficiency. These corrections become relevant for small quantum systems and vanish in first order in the interaction strength. We then move to the question of power of heat engines, obtaining a bound on the power enhancement due to strong coupling. Our results are exemplified on the paradigmatic non-Markovian quantum Brownian motion.

We investigate notions of complexity of states in continuous many-body quantum systems. We focus on Gaussian states which include ground states of free quantum field theories and their approximations encountered in the context of the continuous version of the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz. Our proposal for quantifying state complexity is based on the Fubini-Study metric. It leads to counting the number of applications of each gate (infinitesimal generator) in the transformation, subject to a state-dependent metric. We minimize the defined complexity with respect to momentum-preserving quadratic generators which form $\mathfrak{s}\mathfrak{u}(1,1)$ algebras. On the manifold of Gaussian states generated by these operations, the Fubini-Study metric factorizes into hyperbolic planes with minimal complexity circuits reducing to known geodesics. Despite working with quantum field theories far outside the regime where Einstein gravity duals exist, we find striking similarities between our results and those of holographic complexity proposals.

We report accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculations of nuclei up to $A=16$ based on local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading order. We examine the theoretical uncertainties associated with the chiral expansion and the cutoff in the theory, as well as the associated operator choices in the three-nucleon interactions. While in light nuclei the cutoff variation and systematic uncertainties are rather small, in ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ these can be significant for large coordinate-space cutoffs. Overall, we show that chiral interactions constructed to reproduce properties of very light systems and nucleon-nucleon scattering give an excellent description of binding energies, charge radii, and form factors for all these nuclei, including open-shell systems in $A=6$ and 12.

We demonstrate one-dimensional sub-Doppler laser cooling of a beam of YbF molecules to $100\mu \mathrm{K}$. This is a key step towards a measurement of the electron’s electric dipole moment using ultracold molecules. We compare the effectiveness of magnetically assisted and polarization-gradient sub-Doppler cooling mechanisms. We model the experiment and find good agreement with our data.

Atomic excitation in strong optical laser fields has been found to take place even at intensities exceeding saturation. The concomitant acceleration of the atom in the focused laser field has been considered a strong link to, if not proof of, the existence of the so-called Kramers-Henneberger (KH) atom, a bound atomic system in an intense laser field. Recent findings have moved the importance of the KH atom from being purely of theoretical interest toward real world applications; for instance, in the context of laser filamentation. Considering this increasing importance, we explore the limits of strong-field excitation in optical fields, which are basically imposed by ionization through the spatial field envelope and the field propagation.

We introduce an optical system (a coupler) obeying parity-time ($\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$) symmetry with odd-time reversal, ${\mathcal{T}}^2=-1$. It is implemented with two birefringent waveguides embedded in an anti-$\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric medium. The system possesses properties that are untypical for most physical systems with the conventional even-time reversal. Having a symmetry-protected degeneracy of the linear modes, the coupler allows for the realization of a coherent switch operating with a superposition of binary states that are distinguished by their polarizations. When a Kerr nonlinearity is taken into account, each linear state, being doubly degenerated, bifurcates into several distinct nonlinear modes, some of which are dynamically stable. The nonlinear modes are characterized by amplitude and by polarization and come in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-conjugate pairs.

We report an observation of a dynamical super Efimovian expansion in a strongly interacting Fermi gas by engineering time dependent external harmonic trap frequencies. When the trap frequency is tailored as $[1/4t^2+1/t^2\lambda {\log }^2(t/t_{*}){]}^{1/2}$, where $t_{*}$ and $\lambda$ are two controllable parameters, and the change is faster than a critical value, the expansion of such a quantum gas shows novel dynamics that share the same characteristics as the super Efimov effect. A clear double-log periodicity with discrete geometric scaling emerges for the cloud size in the expansion. The universality of such scaling dynamics is verified both in the noninteracting and in the unitarity limit of Fermi gas. Moreover, the measured energy scaling reveals that the potential and internal energy also show double-log periodicity with a $\pi /2$ phase difference, but the total energy is monotonically decreased. Observing super Efimovian evolution represents a paradigm in probing universal properties and allows us in a new way to study many-body nonequilibrium dynamics with experiments.

Shear transformation is the elementary process for plastic deformation of metallic glasses, the prediction of the occurrence of the shear transformation events is therefore of vital importance to understand the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses. In this Letter, from the view of the potential energy landscape, we find that the protocol-dependent behavior of shear transformation is governed by the stress gradient along its minimum energy path and we propose a framework as well as an atomistic approach to predict the triggering strains, locations, and structural transformations of the shear transformation events under different shear protocols in metallic glasses. Verification with a model ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{64}{\mathrm{Zr}}_{36}$ metallic glass reveals that the prediction agrees well with athermal quasistatic shear simulations. The proposed framework is believed to provide an important tool for developing a quantitative understanding of the deformation processes that control mechanical behavior of metallic glasses.

The interaction between an edge dislocation and a sessile vacancy cluster in bcc Fe is investigated over a wide range of strain rates from ${10}^8$ down to ${10}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, which is enabled by employing an energy landscape-based atomistic modeling algorithm. It is observed that, at low strain rates regime less than ${10}^5{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, such interaction leads to a surprising negative strain rate sensitivity behavior because of the different intermediate microstructures emerged under the complex interplays between thermal activation and applied strain rate. Implications of our findings regarding the previously established global diffusion model are also discussed.

We apply classical density functional theory to study how salt changes the microphase morphology of diblock copolymers. Polymers are freely jointed and one monomer type favorably interacts with ions, to account for the selective solvation that arises from different dielectric constants of the microphases. By including correlations from liquid state theory of an unbound reference fluid, the theory can treat chain behavior, microphase separation, ion correlations, and preferential solvation, at the same coarse-grained level. We show good agreement with molecular dynamics simulations.

We achieve long-range and continuous optical pulling in a periodic photonic crystal background, which supports a unique Bloch mode with the self-collimation effect. Most interestingly, the pulling force reported here is mainly contributed by the intensity gradient force originating from the self-induced backaction of the object to the self-collimation mode. This force is sharply distinguished from the widely held conception of optical tractor beams based on the scattering force. Also, this pulling force is insensitive to the angle of incidence and can pull multiple objects simultaneously.

Despite the use of glasses for thousands of years, the nature of the glass transition is still mysterious. On approaching the glass transition, the growth of dynamic heterogeneity has long been thought to play a key role in explaining the abrupt slowdown of structural relaxation. However, it still remains elusive whether there is an underlying link between structural relaxation and dynamic heterogeneity. Here, we unravel the link by introducing a characteristic time scale hiding behind an identical dynamic heterogeneity for various model glass-forming liquids. We find that the time scale corresponds to the kinetic fragility of liquids. Moreover, it leads to scaling collapse of both the structural relaxation time and dynamic heterogeneity for all liquids studied, together with a characteristic temperature associated with the same dynamic heterogeneity. Our findings imply that studying the glass transition from the viewpoint of dynamic heterogeneity is more informative than expected.

Charge transfer in transduction of light to electrical or chemical energy at heterojunctions of metals with semiconductors or semimetals is believed to occur by photogenerated hot electrons in metal undergoing incoherent internal photoemission through the heterojunction interface. Charge transfer, however, can also occur coherently by dipole coupling of electronic bands at the heterojunction interface. Microscopic physical insights into how transfer occurs can be elucidated by following the coherent polarization of the donor and acceptor states on the time scale of electronic dephasing. By time-resolved multiphoton photoemission spectroscopy (MPP), we investigate the coherent electron transfer from an interface state that forms upon chemisorption of Ag nanoclusters onto graphite to a $\sigma$ symmetry interlayer band of graphite. Multidimensional MPP spectroscopy reveals a resonant two-photon transition, which dephases within 10 fs completing the coherent transfer.