A Berry phase is revealed for circularly polarized light when it is Bragg reflected by a chiral liquid-crystal medium of the same handedness. By using a chiral nematic layer we demonstrate that if the input plane of the layer is rotated with respect to a fixed reference frame, a geometric phase effect occurs for the circularly polarized light reflected by the periodic helical structure of the medium. Theory and numerical simulations are supported by an experimental observation, disclosing novel applications in the field of optical manipulation and fundamental optical phenomena.

We present a theoretical investigation of the electronic structure of rutile (metallic) and $M_1$ and $M_2$ monoclinic (insulating) phases of ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$ employing a fully self-consistent combination of density functional theory and embedded dynamical mean field theory calculations. We describe the electronic structure of the metallic and both insulating phases of ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$, and propose a distinct mechanism for the gap opening. We show that Mott physics plays an essential role in all phases of ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$: undimerized vanadium atoms undergo classical Mott transition through local moment formation (in the $M_2$ phase), while strong superexchange within V dimers adds significant dynamic intersite correlations, which remove the singularity of self-energy for dimerized V atoms. The resulting transition from rutile to dimerized $M_1$ phase is adiabatically connected to the Peierls-like transition, but is better characterized as the Mott transition in the presence of strong intersite exchange. As a consequence of Mott physics, the gap in the dimerized $M_1$ phase is temperature dependent. The sole increase of electronic temperature collapses the gap, reminiscent of recent experiments.

We theoretically investigate the localization mechanism of the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) in the presence of spin-flip disorders. We show that the QAHE stays quantized at weak disorders, then enters a Berry-curvature mediated metallic phase at moderate disorders, and finally goes into the Anderson insulating phase at strong disorders. From the phase diagram, we find that at the charge neutrality point although the QAHE is most robust against disorders, the corresponding metallic phase is much easier to be localized into the Anderson insulating phase due to the interchange of Berry curvatures carried, respectively, by the conduction and valence bands. In the end, we provide a phenomenological picture related to the topological charges to better understand the underlying physical origin of the QAHE Anderson localization.

The strong coupling regime is observed in a system of two-dimensional electrons whose cyclotron motion is coupled to an electromagnetic mode in a Fabry-Perot cavity resonator. Rabi splitting of eigenfrequencies of the coupled motion is observed both in the cavity reflection spectrum and ac current of the electrons, the latter probed by measuring their bolometric photoresponse. Despite the fact that similar observations of Rabi splitting in many-particle systems have been described as a quantum-mechanical effect, we show that the observed splitting can be explained completely by a model based on classical electrodynamics.

The quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) is a fundamental quantum transport phenomenon that manifests as a quantized transverse conductance in response to a longitudinally applied electric field in the absence of an external magnetic field, and it promises to have immense application potential in future dissipationless quantum electronics. Here, we present a novel kinetic pathway to realize the QAHE at high temperatures by $n\text{−}p$ codoping of three-dimensional topological insulators. We provide a proof-of-principle numerical demonstration of this approach using vanadium-iodine (V-I) codoped ${\mathrm{Sb}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_3$ and demonstrate that, strikingly, even at low concentrations of $\sim 2\%\mathrm{V}$ and $\sim 1\%$ I, the system exhibits a quantized Hall conductance, the telltale hallmark of QAHE, at temperatures of at least $\sim 50\mathrm{K}$, which is 3 orders of magnitude higher than the typical temperatures at which it has been realized to date. The underlying physical factor enabling this dramatic improvement is tied to the largely preserved intrinsic band gap of the host system upon compensated $n\text{−}p$ codoping. The proposed approach is conceptually general and may shed new light in experimental realization of high-temperature QAHE.

We report the existence of Weyl points in a class of noncentral symmetric metamaterials, which has time reversal symmetry, but does not have inversion symmetry due to chiral coupling between electric and magnetic fields. This class of metamaterial exhibits either type-I or type-II Weyl points depending on its nonlocal response. We also provide a physical realization of such metamaterial consisting of an array of metal wires in the shape of elliptical helices which exhibits type-II Weyl points.

Suspended droplets of cholesteric (chiral nematic) liquid crystals spontaneously rotate in the presence of a heat flux due to a temperature gradient, a phenomenon known as the Lehmann effect. So far, it is not clear whether this effect is due to the chirality of the phase and the molecules or only to the chirality of the director field. Here, we report the continuous rotation in a temperature gradient of nematic droplets of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal featuring a twisted bipolar configuration. The achiral nature of the molecular components leads to a random handedness of the spontaneous twist, resulting in the coexistence of droplets rotating in the two senses, with speeds proportional to the temperature gradient and inversely proportional to the droplet radius. This result shows that a macroscopic twist of the director field is sufficient to induce a rotation of the droplets, and that the phase and the molecules do not need to be chiral. This suggests that one can also explain the Lehmann rotation in cholesteric liquid crystals without introducing the Leslie thermomechanical coupling—only present in chiral mesophases. An explanation based on the Akopyan and Zeldovich theory of thermomechanical effects in nematics is proposed and discussed.

A tailored-pulse-imploded core with a diameter of $70\mu \mathrm{m}$ is flashed by counterirradiating 110 fs, 7 TW laser pulses. Photon emission ($>40\mathrm{eV}$) from the core exceeds the emission from the imploded core by 6 times, even though the heating pulse energies are only one seventh of the implosion energy. The coupling efficiency from the heating laser to the core using counterirradiation is 14% from the enhancement of photon emission. Neutrons are also produced by counterpropagating fast deuterons accelerated by the photon pressure of the heating pulses. A collisional two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation reveals that the collisionless two counterpropagating fast-electron currents induce mega-Gauss magnetic filaments in the center of the core due to the Weibel instability. The counterpropagating fast-electron currents are absolutely unstable and independent of the core density and resistivity. Fast electrons with energy below a few MeV are trapped by these filaments in the core region, inducing an additional coupling. This might lead to the observed bright photon emissions.

We study the phase separation of binary lipid mixtures that form bicontinuous cubic phases. The competition between the nonuniform Gaussian membrane curvature and line tension leads to a very rich phase diagram, where we observe symmetry breaking of the membrane morphologies and reentrant phenomena due to the formation of bridges between segregated domains. Upon increasing the line tension contribution, we also find faceting of lipid domains that we explain using a simple argument based on the symmetry of the underlying surface and topology.

The study of quantum correlations is important for fundamental reasons as well as for quantum communication and information processing tasks. On the one hand, it is of tremendous interest to derive the correlations produced by measurements on separated composite quantum systems from within the set of all correlations obeying the no-signaling principle of relativity, by means of information-theoretic principles. On the other hand, an important ongoing research program concerns the formulation of device-independent cryptographic protocols based on quantum nonlocal correlations for the generation of secure keys, and the amplification and expansion of random bits against general no-signaling adversaries. In both these research programs, a fundamental question arises: Can any measurements on quantum states realize the correlations present in pure extremal no-signaling boxes? Here, we answer this question in full generality showing that no nontrivial (not local realistic) extremal boxes of general no-signaling theories can be realized in quantum theory. We then explore some important consequences of this fact.

We study far-from-equilibrium physics of strongly interacting plasmas at criticality and zero charge density for a wide range of dynamical scaling exponents $z$ in $d$ dimensions using holographic methods. In particular, we consider homogeneous isotropization of asymptotically Lifshitz black branes with full backreaction. We find stable evolution and equilibration times that exhibit small dependence of $z$ and are of the order of the inverse temperature. Performing a quasinormal mode analysis, we find a corresponding narrow range of relaxation times, fully characterized by the fraction $z/(d-1)$. For $z\ge d-1$, equilibration is overdamped, whereas for $z<d-1$, we find oscillatory behavior. Finally, and most interestingly, we observe that also the nonlinear evolution, although differing significantly from a quasinormal mode fit, is to a high degree of precision characterized by the fraction $z/(d-1)$.

We experimentally generate and characterize eigenstates of the Wigner-Smith time-delay matrix, called principal modes, in a multimode fiber with strong mode coupling. The unique spectral and temporal properties of principal modes enable global control of temporal dynamics of optical pulses transmitted through the fiber, despite random mode mixing. Our analysis reveals that well-defined delay times of the eigenstates are formed by multipath interference, which can be effectively manipulated by spatial degrees of freedom of input wave fronts. This study is essential to controlling dynamics of wave scattering, paving the way for coherent control of pulse propagation through complex media.

Symmetry breaking and the emergence of order is one of the most fascinating phenomena in condensed matter physics. It leads to a plethora of intriguing ground states found in antiferromagnets, Mott insulators, superconductors, and density-wave systems. Exploiting states of matter far from equilibrium can provide even more striking routes to symmetry-lowered, ordered states. Here, we demonstrate for the case of elemental chromium that moderate ultrafast photoexcitation can transiently enhance the charge-density-wave (CDW) amplitude by up to 30% above its equilibrium value, while strong excitations lead to an oscillating, large-amplitude CDW state that persists above the equilibrium transition temperature. Both effects result from dynamic electron-phonon interactions, providing an efficient mechanism to selectively transform a broad excitation of the electronic order into a well-defined, long-lived coherent lattice vibration. This mechanism may be exploited to transiently enhance order parameters in other systems with coupled degrees of freedom.

We investigate the nonclassical states of light that emerge in a microwave resonator coupled to a periodically driven electron in a nanowire double quantum dot (DQD). Under certain drive configurations, we find that the resonator approaches a thermal state at the temperature of the surrounding substrate with a chemical potential given by a harmonic of the drive frequency. Away from these thermal regions we find regions of gain and loss, where the system can lase, or regions where the DQD acts as a single-photon source. These effects are observable in current devices and have broad utility for quantum optics with microwave photons.

We study high temperature spin transport in a disordered Heisenberg chain in the ergodic regime. By employing a density matrix renormalization group technique for the study of the stationary states of the boundary-driven Lindblad equation we are able to study extremely large systems (400 spins). We find both a diffusive and a subdiffusive phase depending on the strength of the disorder and on the anisotropy parameter of the Heisenberg chain. Studying finite-size effects, we show numerically and theoretically that a very large crossover length exists that controls the passage of a clean-system dominated dynamics to one observed in the thermodynamic limit. Such a large length scale, being larger than the sizes studied before, explains previous conflicting results. We also predict spatial profiles of magnetization in steady states of generic nondiffusive systems.

Streaking of photoelectrons has long been used for the temporal characterization of attosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses. When the time-resolved photoelectrons originate from a coherent superposition of electronic states, they carry additional phase information, which can be retrieved by the streaking technique. In this contribution we extend the streaking formalism to include coupled electron and nuclear dynamics in molecules as well as initial coherences. We demonstrate how streaked photoelectrons offer a novel tool for monitoring nonadiabatic dynamics as it occurs in the vicinity of conical intersections and avoided crossings. Streaking can provide high time resolution direct signatures of electronic coherences, which affect many primary photochemical and biological events.