We use trapped atomic ions forming a hybrid Coulomb crystal and exploit its phonons to study an isolated quantum system composed of a single spin coupled to an engineered bosonic environment. We increase the complexity of the system by adding ions and controlling coherent couplings and, thereby, we observe the emergence of thermalization: Time averages of spin observables approach microcanonical averages while related fluctuations decay. Our platform features precise control of system size, coupling strength, and isolation from the external world to explore the dynamics of equilibration and thermalization.

We present the first next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic resummation for the two-jet rate in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation in the Durham and Cambridge algorithms. The results are obtained by extending the ares method to observables involving any global, recursively infrared and collinear safe jet algorithm in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collisions. As opposed to other methods, this approach does not require a factorization theorem for the observables. We present predictions matched to next-to-next-to-leading order and a comparison to LEP data.

Doubly magic nuclei have a simple structure and are the cornerstones for entire regions of the nuclear chart. Theoretical insights into the supposedly doubly magic ${}^{78}\mathrm{Ni}$ and its neighbors are challenging because of the extreme neutron-to-proton ratio and the proximity of the continuum. We predict the $J^{\pi }=2_1^{+}$ state in ${}^{78}\mathrm{Ni}$ from a correlation with the $J^{\pi }=2_1^{+}$ state in ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ using chiral nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions. Our results confirm that ${}^{78}\mathrm{Ni}$ is doubly magic, and the predicted low-lying states of ${}^{79,80}\mathrm{Ni}$ open the way for shell-model studies of many more rare isotopes.

Liquid-liquid phase separation of charge- and/or aromatic-enriched intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is critical in the biological function of membraneless organelles. Much of the physics of this recent discovery remains to be elucidated. Here, we present a theory in the random phase approximation to account for electrostatic effects in polyampholyte phase separations, yielding predictions consistent with recent experiments on the IDP Ddx4. The theory is applicable to any charge pattern and thus provides a general analytical framework for studying sequence dependence of IDP phase separation.

The ability to live in coherent superpositions is a signature trait of quantum systems and constitutes an irreplaceable resource for quantum-enhanced technologies. However, decoherence effects usually destroy quantum superpositions. It was recently predicted that, in a composite quantum system exposed to dephasing noise, quantum coherence in a transversal reference basis can stay protected for an indefinite time. This can occur for a class of quantum states independently of the measure used to quantify coherence, and it requires no control on the system during the dynamics. Here, such an invariant coherence phenomenon is observed experimentally in two different setups based on nuclear magnetic resonance at room temperature, realizing an effective quantum simulator of two- and four-qubit spin systems. Our study further reveals a novel interplay between coherence and various forms of correlations, and it highlights the natural resilience of quantum effects in complex systems.

The mass ordering of mean transverse momentum $⟨p_T⟩$ and of the Fourier harmonic coefficient $v_2(p_T)$ of azimuthally anisotropic particle distributions in high energy hadron collisions is often interpreted as evidence for the hydrodynamic flow of the matter produced. We investigate an alternative initial state interpretation of this pattern in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The QCD Yang-Mills equations describing the dynamics of saturated gluons are solved numerically with initial conditions obtained from the color-glass-condensate-based impact-parameter-dependent glasma model. The gluons are subsequently fragmented into various hadron species employing the well established Lund string fragmentation algorithm of the pythia event generator. We find that this initial state approach reproduces characteristic features of bulk spectra, in particular, the particle mass dependence of $⟨p_T⟩$ and $v_2(p_T)$.

Theoretical models of low-energy ($d$, $p$) single-neutron transfer reactions are a crucial link between experimentation, nuclear structure, and nuclear astrophysical studies. Whereas reaction models that use local optical potentials are insensitive to short-range physics in the deuteron, we show that including the inherent nonlocality of the nucleon-target interactions and realistic deuteron wave functions generates significant sensitivity to high $n\text{−}p$ relative momenta and to the underlying nucleon-nucleon interaction. We quantify this effect upon the deuteron channel distorting potentials within the framework of the adiabatic deuteron breakup model. The implications for calculated ($d$, $p$) cross sections and spectroscopic information deduced from experiments are discussed.

We perform Ramsey interferometry on an ultracold ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ ensemble confined in an optical dipole trap. We use a $\pi$ pulse set at the middle of the interferometer to restore the coherence of the spin ensemble by canceling out phase inhomogeneities and creating a spin echo in the contrast. However, for high atomic densities, we observe the opposite behavior: the $\pi$ pulse accelerates the dephasing of the spin ensemble leading to a faster contrast decay of the interferometer. We understand this phenomenon as a competition between the spin-echo technique and an exchange-interaction driven spin self-rephasing mechanism based on the identical spin rotation effect. Our experimental data are well reproduced by a numerical model.

High-order harmonic generation (HHG) has been recently proven to produce extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) vortices from the nonlinear conversion of infrared twisted beams. Previous works have demonstrated a linear scaling law of the vortex charge with the harmonic order. We demonstrate that this simple law hides an unexpectedly rich scenario for the buildup of orbital angular momentum (OAM) due to the nonperturbative behavior of HHG. The complexity of these twisted XUV beams appears only when HHG is driven by nonpure vortex modes, where the XUV OAM content is dramatically increased. We explore the underlying mechanisms for this diversity and derive a general conservation rule for the nonperturbative OAM buildup. The simple scaling found in previous works corresponds to the collapse of this scenario for the particular case of pure (single-mode) OAM driving fields.

We measure the absolute dispersion of clouds of monodisperse, phosphorescent droplets in turbulent air by means of high-speed image-intensified video recordings. Laser excitation allows the initial preparation of well-defined, pencil-shaped luminous droplet clouds in a completely nonintrusive way. We find that the dispersion of the clouds is faster than the dispersion of fluid elements. We speculate that preferential concentration of inertial droplet clouds is responsible for the enhanced dispersion.

We investigate growth of the excitable Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in chaotic, time-varying flows. In slow flows, reacted regions tend to lie near vortex edges, whereas fast flows restrict reacted regions to vortex cores. We show that reacted regions travel toward vortex centers faster as flow speed increases, but nonreactive scalars do not. For either slow or fast flows, reaction is promoted by the same optimal range of the local advective stretching, but stronger stretching causes reaction blowout and can hinder reaction from spreading. We hypothesize that optimal stretching and blowout occur in many advection-diffusion-reaction systems, perhaps creating ecological niches for phytoplankton in the ocean.

We investigate tunneling across a single ferromagnetic barrier on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator. In the presence of a magnetization component along the bias direction, a tunneling planar Hall conductance (TPHC), transverse to the applied bias, develops. Electrostatic control of the barrier enables a giant Hall angle, with the TPHC exceeding the longitudinal tunneling conductance. By changing the in-plane magnetization direction, it is possible to change the sign of both the longitudinal and transverse differential conductance without opening a gap in the topological surface state. The transport in a topological-insulator–ferromagnet junction can, thus, be drastically altered from a simple spin valve to an amplifier.