The decay of field-free rotational dynamics is experimentally studied by two complementary methods: laser-induced molecular alignment and terahertz-field-induced molecular orientation. A comparison between the decay rates of different molecular species at various gas pressures reveals that oriented molecular ensembles decay faster than aligned ensembles. The discrepancy in decay rates is attributed to the coherent radiation emitted by the transiently oriented ensembles and is absent from aligned molecules. The experimental results reveal the dramatic contribution of coherent radiative emission to the observed decay of rotational dynamics and underline a general phenomenon expected whenever field-free coherent dipole oscillations are induced.

A very specific ensemble of ground and excited states is shown to yield an exact formula for any excitation energy as a simple correction to the energy difference between orbitals of the Kohn-Sham ground state. This alternative scheme avoids either the need to calculate many unoccupied levels as in time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) or the need for many self-consistent ensemble calculations. The symmetry-eigenstate Hartree-exchange (SEHX) approximation yields results comparable to standard TDDFT for atoms. With this formalism, SEHX yields approximate double excitations, which are missed by adiabatic TDDFT.

We propose a physically realizable space for the polarized light scattering measurement using the Stokes-Mueller formalism by a purity-index–depolarization-index ($\mathrm{PI}-P_{\mathrm{\Delta }}$) plane. The parameter PI is defined from indices of polarimetric purity (IPP), which exhibits the overall magnitude of the polarimetric randomness of a medium, while the depolarization index ($P_{\mathrm{\Delta }}$) delineates a proper global degree of polarimetric purity and may also refer to the average measure of depolarization power of the scattering medium. Subregions and curves connecting the edge points in the plane are obtained by imposing certain constraints on the IPP; consequently any point on the subregion indicates the information related to a decomposition of the Mueller matrix into its components as a convex sum. From the same set of constraints, complete information about the depolarization index versus the entropy [$S(\mathbf{M})-P_{\mathrm{\Delta }}$] diagram is recovered. This work provides a simple geometric representation and a deeper perceptivity of the light scattering media comprising depolarization.

We demonstrate control of a trapped-ion quantum harmonic oscillator in a squeezed Fock state basis, using engineered Hamiltonians analogous to the Jaynes-Cummings and anti-Jaynes-Cummings forms. We demonstrate that for squeezed Fock states with low $n$ the engineered Hamiltonians reproduce the $\sqrt{n}$ scaling of the matrix elements which is typical of Jaynes-Cummings physics, and also examine deviations due to the finite wavelength of our control fields. Starting from a squeezed vacuum state, we apply sequences of alternating transfer pulses which allow us to climb the squeezed Fock state ladder, creating states up to excitations of $n=6$ with up to 8.7 dB of squeezing, as well as demonstrating superpositions of these states. These techniques offer access to new sets of states of the harmonic oscillator which may be applicable for precision metrology or quantum information science.

Inspired by recent demonstrations of metasurfaces in achieving reduced versions of electromagnetic cloaks, we propose and experimentally demonstrate source illusion devices to manipulate flexural waves using metasurfaces. The approach is particularly useful for elastic waves due to the lack of form invariance in usual transformation methods. We demonstrate compact and simple-to-implement metasurfaces for shifting, transforming, and splitting a point source. The effects are measured to be broadband and robust against a change of source positions, with agreement from numerical simulations and the Huygens-Fresnel theory. The proposed method is potentially useful for applications such as nondestructive testing, high-resolution ultrasonography, and advanced signal modulation.

The combination of elliptical deformation of streamlines and vorticity can lead to the destabilization of any rotating flow via the elliptical instability. Such a mechanism has been invoked as a possible source of turbulence in planetary cores subject to tidal deformations. The saturation of the elliptical instability has been shown to generate turbulence composed of nonlinearly interacting waves and strong columnar vortices with varying respective amplitudes, depending on the control parameters and geometry. In this Letter, we present a suite of numerical simulations to investigate the saturation and the transition from vortex-dominated to wave-dominated regimes. This is achieved by simulating the growth and saturation of the elliptical instability in an idealized triply periodic domain, adding a frictional damping to the geostrophic component only, to mimic its interaction with boundaries. We reproduce several experimental observations within one idealized local model and complement them by reaching more extreme flow parameters. In particular, a wave-dominated regime that exhibits many signatures of inertial wave turbulence is characterized for the first time. This regime is expected in planetary interiors.

Within the framework of the average approach and direct 3D PIC (particle-in-cell) simulations, we demonstrate that the gyrotrons operating in the regime of developed turbulence can sporadically emit “giant” spikes with intensities a factor of $100–150$ greater than the average radiation power and a factor of $6–9$ exceeding the power of the driving electron beams. Together with the statistical features such as a long-tail probability distribution, this allows the interpretation of generated spikes as microwave rogue waves. The mechanism of spikes formation is related to the simultaneous cyclotron interaction of a gyrating electron beam with forward and backward waves near the waveguide cutoff frequency as well as with the longitudinal deceleration of electrons.

Upon loading, atomic networks can feature delayed irreversible relaxation. However, the effect of composition and structure on relaxation remains poorly understood. Herein, relying on accelerated molecular dynamics simulations and topological constraint theory, we investigate the relationship between atomic topology and stress-induced structural relaxation, by taking the example of creep deformations in calcium silicate hydrates ($\mathrm{C}─\mathrm{S}─\mathrm{H}$), the binding phase of concrete. Under constant shear stress, $\mathrm{C}─\mathrm{S}─\mathrm{H}$ is found to feature delayed logarithmic shear deformations. We demonstrate that the propensity for relaxation is minimum for isostatic atomic networks, which are characterized by the simultaneous absence of floppy internal modes of relaxation and eigenstress. This suggests that topological nanoengineering could lead to the discovery of nonaging materials.

We introduce antiferroelectric topological insulators as a new class of functional materials in which an electric field can be used to control topological order and induce topological phase transitions. Using first principles methods, we predict that several alkali-MgBi orthorhombic members of an $ABC$ family of compounds are antiferroelectric topological insulators. We also show that epitaxial strain and hydrostatic pressure can be used to tune the topological order and the band gap of these $ABC$ compounds. Antiferroelectric topological insulators could enable precise control of topology using electric fields, enhancing the applicability of topological materials in electronics and spintronics.

We investigate the interactions of photoexcited carriers with lattice vibrations in thin films of the layered transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) ${\mathrm{WSe}}_2$. Employing femtosecond electron diffraction with monocrystalline samples and first-principles density functional theory calculations, we obtain a momentum-resolved picture of the energy transfer from excited electrons to phonons. The measured momentum-dependent phonon population dynamics are compared to first-principles calculations of the phonon linewidth and can be rationalized in terms of electronic phase-space arguments. The relaxation of excited states in the conduction band is dominated by intervalley scattering between $\mathrm{\Sigma }$ valleys and the emission of zone boundary phonons. Transiently, the momentum-dependent electron-phonon coupling leads to a nonthermal phonon distribution, which, on longer time scales, relaxes to a thermal distribution via electron-phonon and phonon-phonon collisions. Our results constitute a basis for monitoring and predicting out of equilibrium electrical and thermal transport properties for nanoscale applications of TMDCs.

We calculate the charge current generated by a temperature bias between the two ends of a tubular nanowire. We show that in the presence of a transversal magnetic field the current can change sign; i.e., electrons can either flow from the hot to the cold reservoir, or in the opposite direction, when the temperature bias increases. This behavior occurs when the magnetic field is sufficiently strong, such that Landau and snaking states are created, and the energy dispersion is nonmonotonic with respect to the longitudinal wave vector. The sign reversal can survive in the presence of impurities. We predict this result for core-shell nanowires, for uniform nanowires with surface states due to the Fermi level pinning, and for topological insulator nanowires.

Chaotic size dependence makes it extremely difficult to take the thermodynamic limit in disordered systems. Instead, the metastate, which is a distribution over thermodynamic states, might have a smooth limit. So far, studies of the metastate have been mostly mathematical. We present a numerical construction of the metastate for the $d=3$ Ising spin glass. We work in equilibrium, below the critical temperature. Leveraging recent rigorous results, our numerical analysis gives evidence for a dispersed metastate, supported on many thermodynamic states.

We theoretically predict that a true bilayer exciton condensate, characterized by off-diagonal long-range order and global phase coherence, can be created in one-dimensional solid state electron systems. The mechanism by which this happens is to introduce a single particle hybridization of electron and hole populations, which locks the phase of the relevant mode and hence invalidates the Mermin-Wagner theorem. Electron-hole interactions then amplify this tendency towards off-diagonal long-range order, enhancing the condensate properties by more than an order of magnitude over the noninteracting limit. We show that the temperatures below which a substantial condensate fraction would form could reach hundreds of Kelvin, a benefit of the weak screening in one-dimensional systems.

Recent experiments on Majorana fermions in semiconductor nanowires [S. M. Albrecht, A. P. Higginbotham, M. Madsen, F. Kuemmeth, T. S. Jespersen, J. Nygård, P. Krogstrup, and C. M. Marcus, Nature (London) 531, 206 (2016)] revealed a surprisingly large electronic Landé $g$ factor, several times larger than the bulk value—contrary to the expectation that confinement reduces the $g$ factor. Here we assess the role of orbital contributions to the electron $g$ factor in nanowires and quantum dots. We show that an $\mathbf{L}·\mathbf{S}$ coupling in higher subbands leads to an enhancement of the $g$ factor of an order of magnitude or more for small effective mass semiconductors. We validate our theoretical finding with simulations of InAs and InSb, showing that the effect persists even if cylindrical symmetry is broken. A huge anisotropy of the enhanced $g$ factors under magnetic field rotation allows for a straightforward experimental test of this theory.

Recent studies of active matter have stimulated interest in the driven self-assembly of complex structures. Phenomenological modeling of particular examples has yielded insight, but general thermodynamic principles unifying the rich diversity of behaviors observed have been elusive. Here, we study the stochastic search of a toy chemical space by a collection of reacting Brownian particles subject to periodic forcing. We observe the emergence of an adaptive resonance in the system matched to the drive frequency, and show that the increased work absorption by these resonant structures is key to their stabilization. Our findings are consistent with a recently proposed thermodynamic mechanism for far-from-equilibrium self-organization.

Thermo-osmotic slip—the flow induced by a thermal gradient along a surface—is a well-known phenomenon, but curiously there is a lack of robust molecular-simulation techniques to predict its magnitude. Here, we compare three different molecular-simulation techniques to compute the thermo-osmotic slip at a simple solid-fluid interface. Although we do not expect the different approaches to be in perfect agreement, we find that the differences are barely significant for a range of different physical conditions, suggesting that practical molecular simulations of thermo-osmotic slip are feasible.

We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter (FDM) from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data. Extremely light bosons with a de Broglie wavelength of $\sim 1\mathrm{kpc}$ have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time, we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman-$\alpha$ flux power spectrum in these models and compare it to the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to 5000 K, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of $7.1\times {10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of $14.3\times {10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of $20\times {10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$ ($2\sigma$ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to $37.5\times {10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$ ($2\sigma$ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range $1–10\times {10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$ are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts that FDM helps solve the “small scale crisis” of the cold dark matter models.

We derive a many-particle entanglement criterion for mixed states using a relation between single-mode and many-particle nonclassicalities. The criterion relies on the measurement of collective spin observables. It works very well not only in the vicinity of the Dicke states, but also for the superpositions of Dicke states: superradiant ground states of finite or infinite number of particles and time evolution of single-photon superradiance from an extended sample where random phases appear. We also obtain a criterion for ensemble-field entanglement, which is successful for such kinds of states. We also observe an interesting phenomenon: even though the collective excitation of this many-particle system has a sub-Poissonian character, which results in entanglement, the wave function displays bunching.