Whenever the integrand of a gauge-theory loop amplitude can be arranged into a form where the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson duality between color and kinematics is manifest, a corresponding gravity integrand can be obtained simply via the double-copy procedure. However, finding such gauge-theory representations can be challenging, especially at high loop orders. Here, we show that we can, instead, start from generic gauge-theory integrands, where the duality is not manifest, and apply a modified double-copy procedure to obtain gravity integrands that include contact terms generated by violations of dual Jacobi identities. We illustrate this with three-, four- and five-loop examples in $\mathcal{N}=8$ supergravity.

We report on the observation of the coherent enhancement of the return probability [“enhanced return to the origin” (ERO)] in a periodically kicked cold-atom gas. By submitting an atomic wave packet to a pulsed, periodically shifted, laser standing wave, we induce an oscillation of ERO in time that is explained in terms of a periodic, reversible dephasing in the weak-localization interference sequences responsible for ERO. Monitoring the temporal decay of ERO, we exploit its quantum-coherent nature to quantify the decoherence rate of the atomic system.

Measurements of the relaxation of a zonal electrostatic potential perturbation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetically confined plasma are presented. A sudden perturbation of the plasma equilibrium is induced by the injection of a cryogenic hydrogen pellet in the TJ-II stellarator, which is observed to be followed by a damped oscillation in the electrostatic potential. The waveform of the relaxation is consistent with theoretical calculations of zonal potential relaxation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetic geometry. The turbulent transport properties of a magnetic confinement configuration are expected to depend on the features of the collisionless damping of zonal flows, of which the present Letter is the first direct observation.

We show how the topological number of a static Hamiltonian can be measured from a dynamical quench process. We focus on a two-band Chern insulator in two dimension, for instance, the Haldane model, whose dynamical process can be described by a mapping from the $[k_x,k_y,t]$ space to the Bloch sphere, characterized by the Hopf invariant. Such a mapping has been constructed experimentally by measurements in cold atom systems. We show that, taking any two constant vectors on the Bloch sphere, their inverse images of this mapping are two trajectories in the $[k_x,k_y,t]$ space, and the linking number of these two trajectories exactly equals the Chern number of the static Hamiltonian. Applying this result to a recent experiment from the Hamburg group, we show that the linking number of the trajectories of the phase vortices determines the phase boundary of the static Hamiltonian.

We report on the unusual behavior of the in-plane thermal conductivity $\kappa$ and torque $\tau$ response in the Kitaev-Heisenberg material $\alpha \text{−}{\mathrm{RuCl}}_3$. $\kappa$ shows a striking enhancement with linear growth beyond $H=7\mathrm{T}$, where magnetic order disappears, while $\tau$ for both of the in-plane symmetry directions shows an anomaly at the same field. The temperature and field dependence of $\kappa$ are far more complex than conventional phonon and magnon contributions, and require us to invoke the presence of unconventional spin excitations whose properties are characteristic of a field-induced spin-liquid phase related to the enigmatic physics of the Kitaev model in an applied magnetic field.

The uncertainty principle is considered to be one of the most striking features in quantum mechanics. In the textbook literature, uncertainty relations usually refer to the preparation uncertainty which imposes a limitation on the spread of measurement outcomes for a pair of noncommuting observables. In this work, we study the preparation uncertainty for the angular momentum, especially for spin-$1/2$. We derive uncertainty relations encompassing the triple components of angular momentum and show that, compared with the relations involving only two components, a triple constant $2/\sqrt{3}$ often arises. Intriguingly, this constant is the same for the position and momentum case. Experimental verification is carried out on a single spin in diamond, and the results confirm the triple constant in a wide range of experimental parameters.

Gravitational-wave memory manifests as a permanent distortion of an idealized gravitational-wave detector and arises generically from energetic astrophysical events. For example, binary black hole mergers are expected to emit memory bursts a little more than an order of magnitude smaller in strain than the oscillatory parent waves. We introduce the concept of “orphan memory”: gravitational-wave memory for which there is no detectable parent signal. In particular, high-frequency gravitational-wave bursts ($\gtrsim \mathrm{kHz}$) produce orphan memory in the LIGO/Virgo band. We show that Advanced LIGO measurements can place stringent limits on the existence of high-frequency gravitational waves, effectively increasing the LIGO bandwidth by orders of magnitude. We investigate the prospects for and implications of future searches for orphan memory.

A fast Alfvén wave with a finite amplitude is shown to grow by a stimulated emission process that we propose for exploitation in toroidal magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Stimulated emission occurs while the wave propagates inward through the outer midplane plasma, where a population inversion of the energy distribution of fusion-born ions is observed to arise naturally. Fully nonlinear first-principles simulations, which self-consistently evolve particles and fields under the Maxwell-Lorentz system, demonstrate this novel “$\alpha$-particle channeling” scenario for the first time.

Filling-enforced Dirac semimetals, or those required at specific fillings by the combination of crystalline and time-reversal symmetries, have been proposed in numerous materials. However, Dirac points in these materials are not generally robust against breaking or modifying time-reversal symmetry. We present a new class of two-dimensional Dirac semimetal protected by the combination of crystal symmetries and a special, antiferromagnetic time-reversal symmetry. Systems in this class of magnetic layer groups, while having broken time-reversal symmetry, still respect the operation of time-reversal followed by a half-lattice translation. In contrast to 2D time-reversal-symmetric Dirac semimetal phases, this magnetic Dirac phase is capable of hosting just a single isolated Dirac point at the Fermi level, one that can be stabilized solely by symmorphic crystal symmetries. We find that this Dirac point represents a new quantum critical point, existing at the boundary between Chern insulating, antiferromagnetic topological crystalline insulating, and trivial insulating phases, and we discuss its relationship with condensed matter fermion doubling theorems. We present density functional theoretic calculations which demonstrate the presence of these 2D magnetic Dirac points in FeSe monolayers and discuss the implications for engineering quantum phase transitions in these materials.

We introduce a technique for gravitational-wave analysis, where Gaussian process regression is used to emulate the strain spectrum of a stochastic background by training on population-synthesis simulations. This leads to direct Bayesian inference on astrophysical parameters. For pulsar timing arrays specifically, we interpolate over the parameter space of supermassive black-hole binary environments, including three-body stellar scattering, and evolving orbital eccentricity. We illustrate our approach on mock data, and assess the prospects for inference with data similar to the NANOGrav 9-yr data release.

We study the shock waves in relativistic chiral matter. We argue that the conventional Rankine-Hugoinot relations are modified due to the presence of chiral transport phenomena. We show that the entropy discontinuity in a weak shock wave is quadratic in the pressure discontinuity when the effect of chiral transport becomes sufficiently large. We also show that rarefaction shock waves, which do not exist in usual nonchiral fluids, can appear in chiral matter. The direction of shock wave propagation is found to be completely determined by the direction of the vorticity and the chirality of fermions. These features are exemplified by shock propagation in dense neutrino matter in the hydrodynamic regime.

An extension of the ideal hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is constructed which includes the attractive and repulsive van der Waals (VDW) interactions between baryons. This VDW-HRG model yields the nuclear liquid-gas transition at low temperatures and high baryon densities. The VDW parameters $a$ and $b$ are fixed by the ground state properties of nuclear matter, and the temperature dependence of various thermodynamic observables at zero chemical potential are calculated within the VDW-HRG model. Compared to the ideal HRG model, the inclusion of VDW interactions between baryons leads to a qualitatively different behavior of second and higher moments of fluctuations of conserved charges, in particular in the so-called crossover region $T\sim 140–190\mathrm{MeV}$. For many observables this behavior resembles closely the results obtained from lattice QCD simulations. This hadronic model also predicts nontrivial behavior of net-baryon fluctuations in the region of phase diagram probed by heavy-ion collision experiments. These results imply that VDW interactions play a crucial role in the thermodynamics of hadron gas. Thus, the commonly performed comparisons of the ideal HRG model with the lattice and heavy-ion data may lead to misconceptions and misleading conclusions.

We propose the use of nonlinear periodic waveguides for direct and fully integrated generation of counterpropagating photon pairs by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Using the unique properties of Bloch modes in such periodic structures, we furthermore show that two counterpropagating phase-matching conditions can be fulfilled simultaneously, allowing for the generation of path-entangled Bell states in a single periodic waveguide. To demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal, we design a photonic crystal slab waveguide made of lithium niobate and numerically demonstrate Bell-state generation.

We study fixed points of the easy-plane $\mathbb{C}{\mathbb{P}}^{N-1}$ field theory by combining quantum Monte Carlo simulations of lattice models of easy-plane $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ superfluids with field theoretic renormalization group calculations, by using ideas of deconfined criticality. From our simulations, we present evidence that at small $N$ our lattice model has a first-order phase transition which progressively weakens as $N$ increases, eventually becoming continuous for large values of $N$. Renormalization group calculations in $4-\epsilon$ dimensions provide an explanation of these results as arising due to the existence of an $N_{\mathrm{ep}}$ that separates the fate of the flows with easy-plane anisotropy. When $N<N_{\mathrm{ep}}$, the renormalization group flows to a discontinuity fixed point, and hence a first-order transition arises. On the other hand, for $N>N_{\mathrm{ep}}$, the flows are to a new easy-plane $\mathbb{C}{\mathbb{P}}^{N-1}$ fixed point that describes the quantum criticality in the lattice model at large $N$. Our lattice model at its critical point, thus, gives efficient numerical access to a new strongly coupled gauge-matter field theory.