The energy released in solar flares derives from a reconfiguration of magnetic fields to a lower energy state, and is manifested in several forms, including bulk kinetic energy of the coronal mass ejection, acceleration of electrons and ions, and enhanced thermal energy that is ultimately radiated away across the electromagnetic spectrum from optical to x rays. Using an unprecedented set of coordinated observations, from a suite of instruments, we here report on a hitherto largely overlooked energy component—the kinetic energy associated with small-scale turbulent mass motions. We show that the spatial location of, and timing of the peak in, turbulent kinetic energy together provide persuasive evidence that turbulent energy may play a key role in the transfer of energy in solar flares. Although the kinetic energy of turbulent motions accounts, at any given time, for only $\sim (0.5–1)\%$ of the energy released, its relatively rapid ($\sim 1–10\mathrm{s}$) energization and dissipation causes the associated throughput of energy (i.e., power) to rival that of major components of the released energy in solar flares, and thus presumably in other astrophysical acceleration sites.

The classical treatment of plasmonics is insufficient at the nanometer-scale due to quantum mechanical surface phenomena. Here, an extension of the classical paradigm is reported which rigorously remedies this deficiency through the incorporation of first-principles surface response functions—the Feibelman $d$ parameters—in general geometries. Several analytical results for the leading-order plasmonic quantum corrections are obtained in a first-principles setting; particularly, a clear separation of the roles of shape, scale, and material is established. The utility of the formalism is illustrated by the derivation of a modified sum rule for complementary structures, a rigorous reformulation of Kreibig’s phenomenological damping prescription, and an account of the small-scale resonance shifting of simple and noble metal nanostructures.

One of the problems of quantum physics is how a measurement turns quantum, noncopyable data, towards copyable classical knowledge. We use the quantum state discrimination in a central system model to show how its evolution leads to the broadcasting of the information, and how orthogonalization and decoherence factors allow us to monitor the distance of the state in question to the one perfectly broadcasting information, in any moment of time not just asymptotically. We illustrate this in the spin-spin model where the distance is shown to be typically small and provide the related time scales.

We derive a set of composite pulse sequences that generates cnot gates and correct all systematic errors within the logical subspace to arbitrary order. These sequences are applicable for any two-qubit interaction Hamiltonian and make no assumptions about the underlying noise mechanism except that it is constant on the time scale of the operation. We do assume access to high-fidelity single-qubit gates, so single-qubit gate imperfections eventually limit the achievable fidelity. However, since single-qubit gates generally have much higher fidelities than two-qubit gates in practice, these pulse sequences offer useful dynamical correction for a wide range of coupled qubit systems.

We discuss the gravitational wave (GW) emission and the orbital evolution of a hierarchical triple system composed of an inner binary black hole (BBH) and an outer tertiary. Depending on the kick velocity at the merger, the merged BBH could tidally disrupt the tertiary. Even though the fraction of BBH mergers accompanied by such disruptions is expected to be much smaller than unity, the existence of a tertiary and its basic parameters (e.g., semimajor axis, projected mass) can be examined for more than $10^3$ BBHs with the follow-on missions to the space GW detector LISA. This allows us to efficiently prescreen the targets for the follow-up searches for the tidal disruption events (TDEs). The TDE probability would be significantly higher for triple systems with aligned orbital- and spin-angular momenta, compared with random configurations.

The motion of the Solar System with respect to the cosmic rest frame modulates the monopole of the epoch of reionization 21-cm signal into a dipole. This dipole has a characteristic frequency dependence that is dominated by the frequency derivative of the monopole signal. We argue that although the signal is weaker by a factor of $\sim 100$, there are significant benefits in measuring the dipole. Most importantly, the direction of the cosmic velocity vector is known exquisitely well from the cosmic microwave background and is not aligned with the galaxy velocity vector that modulates the foreground monopole. Moreover, an experiment designed to measure a dipole can rely on differencing patches of the sky rather than making an absolute signal measurement, which helps with some systematic effects.

A novel method for deriving energy conditions in stable field theories is described. In a local classical theory with one spatial dimension, a local energy condition always exists. For a relativistic field theory, one obtains the dominant energy condition. In a quantum field theory, there instead exists a quantum energy condition, i.e., a lower bound on the energy density that depends on information-theoretic quantities. Some extensions to higher dimensions are briefly discussed.

Three different noise moments of field strength, intensity, and their correlations are simultaneously measured. For this purpose a homodyne cross-correlation measurement [1] is implemented by superimposing the signal field and a weak local oscillator on an unbalanced beam splitter. The relevant information is obtained via the intensity noise correlation of the output modes. Detection details like quantum efficiencies or uncorrelated dark noise are meaningless for our technique. Yet unknown insight in the quantumness of a squeezed signal field is retrieved from the anomalous moment, correlating field strength with intensity noise. A classical inequality including this moment is violated for almost all signal phases. Precognition on quantum theory is superfluous, as our analysis is solely based on classical physics.

We examine a dipolar-gas model to address fundamental issues regarding the correspondence between classical chaos and quantum observations in ultracold dipolar collisions. The theoretical model consists of a short-range Lennard-Jones potential well with an anisotropic, long-range dipole-dipole interaction between two atoms. Both the classical and quantum dynamics are explored for the same Hamiltonian of the system. The classical chaotic scattering is revealed by the fractals developed in the scattering function (defined as the final atom separation as a function of initial conditions), while the quantum chaotic features lead to the repulsion of the eigenphases from the corresponding quantum $S$ matrix. The nearest-eigenphase-spacing statistics have an intermediate behavior between the Poisson and the Wigner-Dyson distributions. The character of the distribution can be controlled by changing an effective Planck constant or the dipole moment. The degree of quantum chaos shows a good correspondence with the overall average of the classical scattering function. The results presented here also provide helpful insights for understanding the role of the inherent dipole-dipole interaction in the currently ongoing experiments on ultracold collisions of highly magnetic atoms.

The envelope instability near the 90° phase advance in periodically focused space charge dominated beams is a well-known phenomenon in linear transport sections or linacs. The corresponding stop band is usually avoided because of the resulting strong mismatch oscillations and beam loss. We show that in circular accelerators or transport sections including bending magnets the instability is modified due to the effect of dispersion. Using the two-dimensional envelope equations extended by the dispersion equation we identify an additional stop band above 120°. For periodic focusing the stop band results from the confluence of an envelope mode with the newly identified coherent dispersion mode. Results from perturbation theory are compared with the full envelope model and particle-in-cell simulation, which all show good agreement. The newly identified mode has several implications and applications for the characterization of intense beams in circular machines.

Three-dimensional extended-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the stagnation phase of inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments at the National Ignition Facility are presented, showing self-generated magnetic fields over ${10}^4\mathrm{T}$. Angular high mode-number perturbations develop large magnetic fields, but are localized to the cold, dense hot-spot surface, which is hard to magnetize. When low-mode perturbations are also present, the magnetic fields are injected into the hot core, reaching significant magnetizations, with peak local thermal conductivity reductions greater than 90%. However, Righi-Leduc heat transport effectively cools the hot spot and lowers the neutron spectra-inferred ion temperatures compared to the unmagnetized case. The Nernst effect qualitatively changes the results by demagnetizing the hot-spot core, while increasing magnetizations at the edge and near regions of large heat loss.

We study a topological phase transition between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator in two-dimensional (2D) systems with time-reversal and twofold rotation symmetries. Contrary to the case of ordinary time-reversal invariant systems, where a direct transition between two insulators is generally predicted, we find that the topological phase transition in systems with an additional twofold rotation symmetry is mediated by an emergent stable 2D Weyl semimetal phase between two insulators. Here the central role is played by the so-called space-time inversion symmetry, the combination of time-reversal and twofold rotation symmetries, which guarantees the quantization of the Berry phase around a 2D Weyl point even in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. Pair creation and pair annihilation of Weyl points accompanying partner exchange between different pairs induces a jump of a 2D $Z_2$ topological invariant leading to a topological phase transition. According to our theory, the topological phase transition in $\mathrm{HgTe}/\mathrm{CdTe}$ quantum well structure is mediated by a stable 2D Weyl semimetal phase because the quantum well, lacking inversion symmetry intrinsically, has twofold rotation about the growth direction. Namely, the $\mathrm{HgTe}/\mathrm{CdTe}$ quantum well can show 2D Weyl semimetallic behavior within a small but finite interval in the thickness of HgTe layers between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator. We also propose that few-layer black phosphorus under perpendicular electric field is another candidate system to observe the unconventional topological phase transition mechanism accompanied by the emerging 2D Weyl semimetal phase protected by space-time inversion symmetry.

The superconducting properties of small metallic grains has been a topic of active research for half a century now. Early experiments demonstrated a remarkable rise in the critical temperature, $T_c$, with reducing grain size in a variety of materials. In two-dimensional diffusive superconductors, $T_c$ is decreased due to enhanced Coulomb repulsion. We propose that in finite-size grains the diffusive enhancement of the Coulomb repulsion is weakened and leads ultimately to an increase in $T_c$ in isolated, disordered two-dimensional grains. Our mechanism is superimposed on the possible enhancement in $T_c$ due to the change in the density of states of finite-size systems.