Nonlocality is a fundamental trait of quantum many-body systems, both at the level of pure states, as well as at the level of mixed states. Because of nonlocality, mixed states of any two subsystems are correlated in a stronger way than what can be accounted for by considering the correlated probabilities of occupying some microstates. In the case of equilibrium mixed states, we explicitly build two-point quantum correlation functions, which capture the specific, superior correlations of quantum systems at finite temperature, and which are directly accessible to experiments when correlating measurable properties. When nonvanishing, these correlation functions rule out a precise form of separability of the equilibrium state. In particular, we show numerically that quantum correlation functions generically exhibit a finite quantum coherence length, dictating the characteristic distance over which degrees of freedom cannot be considered as separable. This coherence length is completely disconnected from the correlation length of the system—as it remains finite even when the correlation length of the system diverges at finite temperature—and it unveils the unique spatial structure of quantum correlations.

Motivated by limitations and capabilities of neutral atom qubits, we examine whether measurement-free error correction can produce practical error thresholds. We show that this can be achieved by extracting redundant syndrome information, giving our procedure extra fault tolerance and eliminating the need for ancilla verification. The procedure is particularly favorable when multiqubit gates are available for the correction step. Simulations of the bit-flip, Bacon-Shor, and Steane codes indicate that coherent error correction can produce threshold error rates that are on the order of ${10}^{-3}$ to ${10}^{-4}$—comparable with or better than measurement-based values, and much better than previous results for other coherent error correction schemes. This indicates that coherent error correction is worthy of serious consideration for achieving protected logical qubits.

We point out a surprising consequence of the usually assumed initial conditions for cosmological perturbations. Namely, a spectrum of Gaussian, linear, adiabatic, scalar, growing mode perturbations not only creates acoustic oscillations of the kind observed on very large scales today, it also leads to the production of shocks in the radiation fluid of the very early Universe. Shocks cause departures from local thermal equilibrium as well as create vorticity and gravitational waves. For a scale-invariant spectrum and standard model physics, shocks form for temperatures $1\mathrm{GeV}<T<10^7\mathrm{GeV}$. For more general power spectra, such as have been invoked to form primordial black holes, shock formation and the consequent gravitational wave emission provide a signal detectable by current and planned gravitational wave experiments, allowing them to strongly constrain conditions present in the primordial Universe as early as ${10}^{-30}\sec$ after the big bang.

We address a long-standing problem of describing the thermodynamics of an accelerating black hole. We derive a standard first law of black hole thermodynamics, with the usual identification of entropy proportional to the area of the event horizon—even though the event horizon contains a conical singularity. This result not only extends the applicability of black hole thermodynamics to realms previously not anticipated, it also opens a possibility for studying novel properties of an important class of exact radiative solutions of Einstein equations describing accelerated objects. We discuss the thermodynamic volume, stability, and phase structure of these black holes.

We use the conformal bootstrap program to derive the necessary conditions for emergent symmetry enhancement from discrete symmetry (e.g., ${\mathbb{Z}}_n$) to continuous symmetry [e.g., $U(1)$] under the renormalization group flow. In three dimensions, in order for ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ symmetry to be enhanced to $U(1)$ symmetry, the conformal bootstrap program predicts that the scaling dimension of the order parameter field at the infrared conformal fixed point must satisfy ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_1>1.08$. We also obtain the similar necessary conditions for ${\mathbb{Z}}_3$ symmetry with ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_1>0.580$ and ${\mathbb{Z}}_4$ symmetry with ${\mathrm{\Delta }}_1>0.504$ from the simultaneous conformal bootstrap analysis of multiple four-point functions. As applications, we show that our necessary conditions impose severe constraints on the nature of the chiral phase transition in QCD, the deconfinement criticality in Néel valence bond solid transitions, and anisotropic deformations in critical $O(n)$ models. We prove that some fixed points proposed in the literature are unstable under the perturbation that cannot be forbidden by the discrete symmetry. In these situations, the second-order phase transition with enhanced symmetry cannot happen.

We study the entanglement structure of lattice gauge theories from the local operational point of view, and, similar to Soni and Trivedi [J. High Energy Phys. 1 (2016) 1], we show that the usual entanglement entropy for a spatial bipartition can be written as the sum of an undistillable gauge part and of another part corresponding to the local operations and classical communication distillable entanglement, which is obtained by depolarizing the local superselection sectors. We demonstrate that the distillable entanglement is zero for pure Abelian gauge theories at zero gauge coupling, while it is in general nonzero for the non-Abelian case. We also consider gauge theories with matter, and show in a perturbative approach how area laws—including a topological correction—emerge for the distillable entanglement. Finally, we also discuss the entanglement entropy of gauge fixed states and show that it has no relation to the physical distillable entropy.

We present a new paradigm for the design of exchange-correlation functionals in density-functional theory. Electron pairs are correlated explicitly by means of the recently developed second order Bethe-Goldstone equation (BGE2) approach. Here we propose a screened BGE2 (sBGE2) variant that efficiently regulates the coupling of a given electron pair. sBGE2 correctly dissociates ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$, a problem that has been regarded as a great challenge in density-functional theory for a long time. The sBGE2 functional is then taken as a building block for an orbital-dependent functional, termed ZRPS, which is a natural extension of the PBE0 hybrid functional. While worsening the good performance of sBGE2 in ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$, ZRPS yields a remarkable and consistent improvement over other density functionals across various chemical environments from weak to strong correlation.

An enhancement in Brillouin light scattering of optical photons with magnons is demonstrated in magneto-optical whispering gallery mode resonators tuned to a triple-resonance point. This occurs when both the input and output optical modes are resonant with those of the whispering gallery resonator, with a separation given by the ferromagnetic resonance frequency. The identification and excitation of specific optical modes allows us to gain a clear understanding of the mode-matching conditions. A selection rule due to wave vector matching leads to an intrinsic single-sideband excitation. Strong suppression of one sideband is essential for one-to-one frequency mapping in coherent optical-to-microwave conversion.

A stable nanoscale thermal hot spot, with temperature approaching $100°\mathrm{C}$, is shown to be sustained by localized Ohmic heating of a focused electric field at the tip of a slender conic nanopore. The self-similar (length-independent) conic geometry allows us to match the singular heat source at the tip to the singular radial heat loss from the slender cone to obtain a self-similar steady temperature profile along the cone and the resulting ionic current conductance enhancement due to viscosity reduction. The universal scaling, which depends only on a single dimensionless parameter $Z$, collapses the measured conductance data and computed temperature profiles in ion-track conic nanopores and conic nanopipettes. The collapsed numerical data reveal universal values for the hot-spot location and temperature in an aqueous electrolyte.

New evidence indicates that there is significant 3D variation in density fluctuations near the boundary of weakly 3D tokamak plasmas when resonant magnetic perturbations are applied to suppress transient edge instabilities. The increase in fluctuations is concomitant with an increase in the measured density gradient, suggesting that this toroidally localized gradient increase could be a mechanism for turbulence destabilization in localized flux tubes. Two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic simulations find that, although changes to the magnetic field topology are small, there is a significant 3D variation of the density gradient within the flux surfaces that is extended along field lines. This modeling agrees qualitatively with the measurements. The observed gradient and fluctuation asymmetries are proposed as a mechanism by which global profile gradients in the pedestal could be relaxed due to a local change in the 3D equilibrium. These processes may play an important role in pedestal and scrape-off layer transport in ITER and other future tokamak devices with small applied 3D fields.

Despite the fact that phase-change materials are widely used for data storage, no consensus exists on the unique mechanism of their ultrafast phase change and its accompanied large and rapid optical change. By using the pump-probe observation method combining a femtosecond optical laser and an x-ray free-electron laser, we substantiate experimentally that, in both GeTe and ${\mathrm{Ge}}_2{\mathrm{Sb}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_5$ crystals, rattling motion of mainly Ge atoms takes place with keeping the off-center position just after femtosecond-optical-laser irradiation, which eventually leads to a higher symmetry or disordered state. This very initial rattling motion in the undistorted lattice can be related to instantaneous optical change due to the loss of resonant bonding that characterizes GeTe-based phase change materials. Based on the amorphous structure derived by first-principles molecular dynamics simulation, we infer a plausible ultrafast amorphization mechanism via nonmelting.

From first-principles molecular dynamics, we investigate the relation between the superionic proton conduction and the behavior of the $\mathrm{O}─\mathrm{H}\cdots \mathrm{O}$ bond (ice ${\mathrm{VII}}^{\prime }$ to ice X transition) in body-centered-cubic (bcc) ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ ice between 1300 and 2000 K and up to 300 GPa. We bring evidence that there are three distinct phases in the superionic bcc stability field. A first superionic phase characterized by extremely fast diffusion of highly delocalized protons (denoted ${\mathrm{VII}}^{\prime \prime }$  hereinafter) is stable at low pressures. A first-order transition separates this phase from a superionic ${\mathrm{VII}}^{\prime }$, characterized by a finite degree of localization of protons along the nonsymmetric $\mathrm{O}─\mathrm{H}\cdots \mathrm{O}$ bonds. The transition is identified in structural, energetic, and elastic analysis. Upon further compression a second-order phase transition leads to the superionic ice X with symmetric $\mathrm{O}─\mathrm{H}─\mathrm{O}$ bonds.

The pressure effects on plastic deformation and phase transformation mechanisms of materials are of great importance to both Earth science and technological applications. Zircon-type materials are abundant in both nature and the industrial field; however, there is still no in situ study of their deformation behavior. Here, by employing radial x-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell, we investigate the dislocation-induced texture evolution of zircon-type gadolinium vanadate (${\mathrm{GdVO}}_4$) in situ under pressure and across its phase transitions to its high-pressure polymorphs. Zircon-type ${\mathrm{GdVO}}_4$ develops a (001) compression texture associated with dominant slip along $⟨100⟩\{001\}$ starting from 5 GPa. This (001) texture transforms into a (110) texture during the zircon-scheelite phase transition. Our observation demonstrates a martensitic mechanism for the zircon-scheelite transformation. This work will help us understand the local deformation history in the upper mantle and transition zone and provides fundamental guidance on material design and processing for zircon-type materials.

The avoidance of water freezing is the holy grail in the cryopreservation of biological samples, food, and organs. Fast cooling rates are used to beat ice nucleation and avoid cell damage. This strategy can be enhanced by applying high pressures to decrease the nucleation rate, but the physics behind this procedure has not been fully understood yet. We perform computer experiments to investigate ice nucleation at high pressures consisting in embedding ice seeds in supercooled water. We find that the slowing down of the nucleation rate is mainly due to an increase of the ice $I$-water interfacial free energy with pressure. Our work also clarifies the molecular mechanism of ice nucleation for a wide pressure range. This study is not only relevant to cryopreservation, but also to water amorphization and climate change modeling.

We demonstrate that topological Dirac semimetals, which possess two Dirac nodes, separated in momentum space along a rotation axis and protected by rotational symmetry, exhibit an additional quantum anomaly, distinct from the chiral anomaly. This anomaly, which we call the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ anomaly, is a consequence of the fact that the Dirac nodes in topological Dirac semimetals carry a ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ topological charge. The ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ anomaly refers to nonconservation of this charge in the presence of external fields due to quantum effects and has observable consequences due to its interplay with the chiral anomaly. We discuss possible implications of this for the interpretation of magnetotransport experiments on topological Dirac semimetals. We also provide a possible explanation for the magnetic field dependent angular narrowing of the negative longitudinal magnetoresistance, observed in a recent experiment on ${\mathrm{Na}}_3\mathrm{Bi}$.

We study the glass formation in two- and three-dimensional Ising and Heisenberg spin systems subject to competing interactions and uniaxial anisotropy with a mean-field approach. In three dimensions, for sufficiently strong anisotropy the systems always modulate in a striped phase. Below a critical strength of the anisotropy, a glassy phase exists in a finite range of temperature, and it becomes more stable as the system becomes more isotropic. In two dimensions the criticality is always avoided and the glassy phase always exists.

We construct an exact map between a tight-binding model on any bipartite lattice in the presence of dephasing noise and a Hubbard model with imaginary interaction strength. In one dimension, the exact many-body Liouvillian spectrum can be obtained by application of the Bethe ansatz method. We find that both the nonequilibrium steady state and the leading decay modes describing the relaxation at late times are related to the $\eta$-pairing symmetry of the Hubbard model. We show that there is a remarkable relation between the time evolution of an arbitrary $k$-point correlation function in the dissipative system and $k$-particle states of the corresponding Hubbard model.

We present the first materials specific ab initio theory of the magnetization induced by circularly polarized laser light in metals. Our calculations are based on nonlinear density matrix theory and include the effect of absorption. We show that the induced magnetization, commonly referred to as inverse Faraday effect, is strongly materials and frequency dependent, and demonstrate the existence of both spin and orbital induced magnetizations which exhibit a surprisingly different behavior. We show that for nonmagnetic metals (such as Cu, Au, Pd, Pt) and antiferromagnetic metals the induced magnetization is antisymmetric in the light’s helicity, whereas for ferromagnetic metals (Fe, Co, Ni, FePt) the imparted magnetization is only asymmetric in the helicity. We compute effective optomagnetic fields that correspond to the induced magnetizations and provide guidelines for achieving all-optical helicity-dependent switching.