We show that coupling of ultralight dark matter (UDM) to quarks and gluons would lead to an oscillation of the nuclear charge radius for both the quantum chromodynamic (QCD) axion and scalar dark matter, an effect which is of particular importance for heavy elements. Consequently, the resulting oscillation of electronic energy levels could be resolved with optical atomic clocks, and their comparisons can be used to investigate UDM nuclear couplings, which were previously only accessible with other platforms. We demonstrate this idea using the ${{}^{2}S}_{1/2}(F=0)\leftrightarrow {{}^{2}F}_{7/2}(F=3)$ electric octupole and ${{}^{2}S}_{1/2}(F=0)\leftrightarrow {{}^{2}D}_{3/2}(F=2)$ electric quadrupole transitions in ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$. Based on the derived sensitivity coefficients for these two transitions and a long-term comparison of their frequencies using a single trapped ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$ ion, we find bounds on the scalar UDM-nuclear couplings and the QCD axion decay constant. These results are at a similar level compared to the tightest spectroscopic limits, and future investigations, also with other optical clocks, promise significant improvements.

We propose a framework for topological soliton dynamics in trapped spinor superfluids, decomposing the force acting on the soliton by the surrounding fluid into the buoyancy force and spin corrections arising from the density depletion at soliton core and the coupling between the orbital motion and the spin mixing, respectively. Our formulation applies to large-amplitude soliton motion in general superfluids with spin degrees of freedom under arbitrary external potentials. For ferrodark solitons (FDSs) in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, the spin correction could diverge, change the direction of the total force, and enable mapping the FDS motion in a harmonic trap to the atomic-mass particle dynamics in an emergent quartic potential. Initially placing a type-I FDS near the trap center, a single-sided oscillation happens, which maps to the particle moving around a local minimum of the emergent double-well potential. As the initial distance of a type-II FDS from the trap center increases, the motion exhibits three regimes: trap-centered harmonic and anharmonic oscillations followed by single-sided oscillations. Correspondingly the emergent quartic potential undergoes a transition from a single minimum to a double-well shape, where the particle motion shifts from oscillating around the single minimum to crossing between two minima via the local maximum, then the symmetry-breaking motion around one of the two minima. In a hard-wall trap with linear potential, the FDS motion maps to a harmonic oscillator.

Supersolids formed from dipolar Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) exhibit spontaneous density modulation while maintaining global phase coherence. This state of matter supports gapped amplitude (Higgs) excitations featuring a quadratic dispersion relation. While Higgs modes are typically strongly damped due to coupling with other amplitude and phase modes, imposing an experimentally realistic toroidal geometry allows us to numerically study the time evolution and dispersion of a localized Higgs quasiparticle excitation, with minimal residual coupling to sound modes. Strikingly, the quadratic dispersion leads to the occurrence of (fractional) revivals, similar to those seen in the optical Talbot effect or the so-called quantum carpets. The revival times provide a novel method for determining the effective mass of the Higgs quasiparticle through a nonspectroscopic approach. These results pave the way for further studies of coherent Higgs dynamics and mutual interactions between Higgs quasiparticle.

The propagation properties and the nature of the transverse orbital angular momentum (t-OAM) of spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs) open new scenarios in high harmonic generation (HHG), where the richness of the topological charge and OAM up-conversion are exposed. Through advanced numerical simulations, we demonstrate that HHG driven by spatiospectral optical vortices produces far-field, extreme-ultraviolet STOV harmonics with nonscaling topological charge, i.e., with the same topological charge. This allows for the generation of attosecond STOVs, in contrast to previous works of HHG driven by STOVs, where the topological charge scales with the harmonic order. Our findings evidence that the scaling of the topological charge in HHG driven by spatiotemporal topological fields is not generally connected to that of the up-converted OAM. The up-converted intrinsic OAM does scale with generality with the harmonic order in HHG, although this scaling does not necessarily imply its conservation.

A coherent broadband ultraviolet light source is essential for both fundamental research and industrial applications, yet its generation remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate microjoule-level ultraviolet emission spanning 300–450 nm from carbon dioxide ions (${\mathrm{CO}}_2^{+}$), driven by carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-stabilized, near-single-cycle light pulses. The radiation arises from transitions between the first excited and ground cationic states, created by strong-field ionization with near-infrared pulses, and self-seeded by either self-phase modulation (SPM) or third-harmonic (TH) generation in the ultraviolet range. Interestingly, while TH-seeded stimulated emission is unaffected by CEP, SPM-seeded ultraviolet radiation shows strong CEP dependence. This arises from a Ramsey-type interference, where the relative phase between the SPM and the strong-field-prepared ionic polarization controls the constructive or destructive interference of the superposition between two ionic states, directly modulating the ionic dipole strength. Leveraging this CEP-sensitive lasing, we demonstrate a single-shot CEP tagging technique with remarkable resolution and simplicity. Our Letter establishes a powerful method for generating and controlling broadband ultraviolet stimulated emission in molecular ions using strong, waveform-stabilized ultrashort pulses, highlighting new possibilities in strong-field ionic quantum optics.

Coupled 2D fluid-kinetic simulations of a DIII-D high confinement tokamak plasma show that plasma rotation coupled with drift effects near the plasma edge play a significant role in the creation of the observed poloidal distribution of neutrals. It is observed that including either drift or rotation effects enhances particle flux at the inner target in the case of ion $B\times \nabla B$ drift toward the $X$-point. However, the particle flux asymmetry is significantly higher with the combination of drifts and rotation than either effect alone. The heightened particle flux asymmetry allows for improved simulation of the strong in-out asymmetry of the Lyman-$\alpha$ brightness profiles measured in the experiment. Enhancement of radial transport of parallel momentum changes the upstream scrape-off layer flow pattern, increasing the fraction of deuterium flux that reaches the inboard divertor entrance while lowering that which arrives at the outboard. This Letter indicates that by combining drifts, rotation, and viscous coupling, existing boundary plasma models can achieve a satisfactory agreement with experimentally measured neutral asymmetries.

We introduce a new class of first-passage time optimization driven by threshold resetting, inspired by many natural processes where crossing a critical limit triggers failure, degradation, or transition. Here, search agents are collectively reset when a threshold is reached, creating event-driven, system-coupled simultaneous resets that induce long-range interactions. We develop a unified framework to compute mean search times for these correlated stochastic processes, with ballistic and diffusive searchers as key examples uncovering diverse optimization behaviors. A cost function, akin to breakdown penalties, reveals that optimal resetting can forestall larger losses. This formalism generalizes to broader stochastic systems with multiple degrees of freedom.

We explore the dynamics of two-dimensional Rydberg atom arrays coupled to a single-mode optical cavity, employing nonequilibrium diagrammatic techniques to capture nonlinearities and fluctuations beyond mean-field theory. We discover a novel prethermalization regime driven by the interplay between short-range Rydberg interactions and long-range photon-mediated interactions. In this regime, matter and light equilibrate at distinct—and in some cases opposite—effective temperatures, resembling the original concept of prethermalization from particle physics. Our results establish strongly correlated AMO platforms as tools to investigate fundamental questions in statistical mechanics, including quantum thermalization in higher-dimensional systems.

Radiofrequency (RF) traps enable highly controlled interactions between charged particles, including reactions between cold molecular ions, sympathetic cooling of one ion species with another, and quantum logic spectroscopy. However, the charge-to-mass ($Q/m$) selectivity of RF traps limits the range of objects that can be confined simultaneously in the same trap. Here, we confine two particles—a nanoparticle and an atomic ion—in the same radiofrequency trap although their charge-to-mass ratios differ by six orders of magnitude. The confinement is enabled by a dual-frequency voltage applied to the trap electrodes. We introduce a robust loading procedure under ultrahigh vacuum and characterize the stability of both particles. It is observed that slow-field micromotion, an effect specific to the dual-field setting, plays a crucial role for ion localization. Our results lay the groundwork for controlled interactions between diverse charged particles, regardless of the difference in their charge or mass, with applications from antimatter synthesis to the generation of macroscopic quantum states of motion.

Optical frequency combs and their spectra of evenly spaced discrete laser lines are essential to modern time and frequency metrology. Recent advances in integrated photonic waveguides enable efficient nonlinear broadening of an initially narrowband frequency comb to multi-octave bandwidth. Here, we study the nonlinear dynamics in the generation of such ultrabroadband spectra where different harmonics of the comb can overlap. We show that a set of interleaved combs with different offset frequencies extending across the entire spectrum can emerge, which can be arranged into a practically evenly spaced ultrabroadband frequency comb when the initial comb is offset-free.

We explored the physics of efficient proton acceleration in a nanometer-thick polymer foil irradiated by an ultrahigh-contrast petawatt laser pulse. The longitudinal proton dynamics were experimentally investigated, indicating the acceleration of protons to over 90 MeV by a novel scheme associated with sheet crossing. Experimental evidence, such as a ringlike distribution of the most energetic protons and a reduced proton cutoff energy from diamondlike carbon foils, revealed that the highest-energy protons originated from the target forepart. Then, after a sheet crossing process inside a drifting longitudinal electric field induced by the laser, they overtook the protons from the rear surface. Such novel longitudinal dynamics of protons, supporting a favorable beam stability and a promising energy scaling, could prompt extensive applications of laser-accelerated protons.

We develop a theoretical framework for inertial spin-wave dynamics in three-dimensional twisted soft-magnetic nanostrips, where curvature and torsion couple with magnetic inertia to generate terahertz (THz) magnetic oscillations. The resulting spin-wave spectra exhibit pronounced nonreciprocity due to effective symmetry breaking arising from geometric chirality and inertial effects. We show that this behavior is governed by a curvature-induced geometric (Berry) phase, which we analytically capture through compact expressions for dispersion relations and spectral linewidths in both nutational (THz) and precessional (GHz) regimes. Topological variations, including Möbius and helical geometries, impose distinct wave number quantization rules, elucidating the role of topology in spin-wave transport. These results position twisted magnetic strips as a viable platform for curvilinear THz magnonics and nonreciprocal spintronic applications.

The variation of absorption coefficient with the direction of light propagation in a solid is called nonreciprocal directional dichroism (NDD). In polar magnets with polarization $\mathit{P}$ and magnetization $\mathit{M}$, NDD depends on the direction of $\mathit{P}\times \mathit{M}$; its magnitude is expected to be controlled via a change in $\mathit{P}\times \mathit{M}$ by simultaneously applying electric and magnetic fields. Here, we show that the ultrafast control of NDD can be achieved using a strong terahertz pulse in an antipolar antiferromagnet, ${\text{Bi}}_2{\text{CuO}}_4$, in which no macroscopic polarization and magnetization appear. By measuring the dependence of the absorption changes on the incident directions of the terahertz pump and visible probe pulses, as well as on the phase of magnetic domains, the primary component of the NDD changes induced by the terahertz pulse is demonstrated to be proportional to the product of its orthogonal electric field $E_{\mathrm{THz}}$ and magnetic field $B_{\mathrm{THz}}$. This is ascribed to the magnetoelectric effect modulation by the electromagnetic fields.

Living systems relay information across membrane interfaces to coordinate compartment functions. We identify a physical mechanism for selective information transmission that arises from the sigmoidal response of surface-bound particle densities to spatial features in adjacent external structures through a nonuniform binding energy. This mechanism implements a form of spatial thresholding, enabling the binary classification of external cues. Expansion microscopy measurements of nuclear pore complex distributions in S. arctica show signatures of such physical thresholding.

We introduce a method that generates ground-state Ansätze for quantum many-body systems that are both analytically tractable and accurate over wide parameter regimes. Our approach leverages a custom symbolic language to construct tensor network states via an evolutionary algorithm. This language provides operations that allow the generated tensor network states to automatically scale with system size. Consequently, we can evaluate Ansatz fitness for small systems, which is computationally efficient, while favoring structures that continue to perform well with increasing system size. This ensures that the Ansatz captures robust features of the ground-state structure. Remarkably, we find analytically tractable Ansätze with a degree of universality, which encode correlations, capture finite-size effects, accurately predict ground-state energies, and offer a good description of critical phenomena. We demonstrate this method on the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model and the quantum transverse-field Ising model, where the same Ansatz was independently generated for both. The simple structure of the Ansatz allows us to obtain exact expressions for the expectation values of local observables as well as for correlation functions. In addition, it permits symmetries that are broken in the Ansatz to be restored, which provides a systematic means of improving the accuracy of the Ansatz.

We propose an architecture for bit-flip error correction of Andreev spins that is protected by Kramers’ degeneracy. Specifically, we show that a coupling network of linear inductors and Andreev spin qubits results in a static Hamiltonian composed of the stabilizers of a bit-flip code. The electrodynamics of the many-body spin states also respect these stabilizers, and we show how reflectometry off a single coupled resonator can thereby accomplish their projective measurement. We further show how circuit-mediated spin couplings enable error correction operations and a complete set of single- and two-module logical quantum gates. The concept, which we dub the “Ising molecule qubit,” is experimentally feasible and provides a path for compact noise-biased qubits.