We consider continuously monitored quantum systems and introduce definitions of work and heat along individual quantum trajectories that are valid for coherent superposition of energy eigenstates. We use these quantities to extend the first and second laws of stochastic thermodynamics to the quantum domain. We illustrate our results with the case of a weakly measured driven two-level system and show how to distinguish between quantum work and heat contributions. We finally employ quantum feedback control to suppress detector backaction and determine the work statistics.

We propose a quantum algorithm for many-body state preparation. It is especially suited for injective projected entangled pair states and thermal states of local commuting Hamiltonians on a lattice. We show that for a uniform gap and sufficiently smooth paths, an adiabatic runtime and circuit depth of $O(\mathrm{polylog}N)$ can be achieved for $O(N)$ spins. This is an almost exponential improvement over previous bounds. The total number of elementary gates scales as $O(N\mathrm{p}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{g}N)$. This is also faster than the best known upper bound of $O(N^2)$ on the mixing times of Monte Carlo Markov chain algorithms for sampling classical systems in thermal equilibrium.

Most treatments of neutrino flavor evolution, above a surface of the last scattering, take identical angular distributions on this surface for the different initial (unmixed) flavors, and for particles and antiparticles. Differences in these distributions must be present, as a result of the species-dependent scattering cross sections lower in the star. These lead to a new set of nonlinear equations, unstable even at the initial surface with respect to perturbations that break all-over spherical symmetry. There could be important consequences for explosion dynamics as well as for the neutrino pulse in the outer regions.

We propose an exact formula for the energy radiated by an accelerating quark in $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal theories in four dimensions. This formula reproduces the known bremsstrahlung function for $\mathcal{N}=4$ theories and provides a prediction for all the perturbative and instanton corrections in $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories. We perform a perturbative check of our proposal up to three loops.

We present a holographic model of a topological Weyl semimetal. A key ingredient is a time-reversal breaking parameter and a mass deformation. Upon varying the ratio of mass to time-reversal breaking parameter the model undergoes a quantum phase transition from a topologically nontrivial semimetal to a trivial one. The topological nontrivial semimetal is characterized by the presence of an anomalous Hall effect. The results can be interpreted in terms of the holographic renormalization group (RG) flow leading to restoration of time reversal at the end point of the RG flow in the trivial phase.

The first direct measurement of electron neutrino quasielastic and quasielasticlike scattering on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region of incident neutrino energy has been carried out using the MINERvA detector in the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The flux-integrated differential cross sections in the electron production angle, electron energy, and $Q^2$ are presented. The ratio of the quasielastic, flux-integrated differential cross section in $Q^2$ for ${\nu }_e$ with that of similarly selected ${\nu }_{\mu }$-induced events from the same exposure is used to probe assumptions that underpin conventional treatments of charged-current ${\nu }_e$ interactions used by long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The data are found to be consistent with lepton universality and are well described by the predictions of the neutrino event generator GENIE.

We report evidence for the simultaneous production of $J/\psi$ and $\mathrm{\Upsilon }$ mesons in $8.1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of data collected at $\sqrt{s}=1.96\mathrm{TeV}$ by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab $p\overline{p}$ Tevatron Collider. Events with these characteristics are expected to be produced predominantly by gluon-gluon interactions. In this analysis, we extract the effective cross section characterizing the initial parton spatial distribution, ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{eff}}=2.2\pm 0.7(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.9(\mathrm{syst})\mathrm{mb}$.

We present the first complete next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD predictions for differential distributions in the top-quark pair production process at the LHC. Our results are derived from a fully differential partonic Monte Carlo calculation with stable top quarks which involves no approximations beyond the fixed-order truncation of the perturbation series. The NNLO corrections improve the agreement between existing LHC measurements [V. Khachatryan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Eur. Phys. J. C 75, 542 (2015)] and standard model predictions for the top-quark transverse momentum distribution, thus helping alleviate one long-standing discrepancy. The shape of the top-quark pair invariant mass distribution turns out to be stable with respect to radiative corrections beyond NLO which increases the value of this observable as a place to search for physics beyond the standard model. The results presented here provide essential input for parton distribution function fits, implementation of higher-order effects in Monte Carlo generators, as well as top-quark mass and strong coupling determination.

The microscopic dynamics of laser-driven coherent synchrotron emission transmitted through thin foils are investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. For normal incidence interactions, we identify the formation of two distinct electron nanobunches from which emission takes place each half-cycle of the driving laser pulse. These emissions are separated temporally by 130 as and are dominant in different frequency ranges, which is a direct consequence of the distinct characteristics of each electron nanobunch. This may be exploited through spectral filtering to isolate these emissions, generating electromagnetic pulses of duration $\sim 70\mathrm{as}$.

We report on the first successful proof-of-principle experiment to manipulate laser-matter interactions on microscales using highly ordered Si microwire arrays. The interaction of a high-contrast short-pulse laser with a flat target via periodic Si microwires yields a substantial enhancement in both the total and cutoff energies of the produced electron beam. The self-generated electric and magnetic fields behave as an electromagnetic lens that confines and guides electrons between the microwires as they acquire relativistic energies via direct laser acceleration.

An important unresolved question in plasma physics concerns the effect of strong electron emission on plasma-surface interactions. Previous papers reported solutions with negative and positive floating potentials relative to the plasma edge. The two models give very different predictions for particle and energy balance. Here we show that the positive potential state is the only possible equilibrium in general. Even if a negative floating potential existed at $t=0$, the ionization collisions near the surface will force a transition to the positive floating potential state. This transition is demonstrated with a new simulation code.

We show how a singly quantized vortex can exhibit energetically stable defect cores with different symmetries in an atomic spin-1 polar Bose-Einstein condensate, and how a stable topologically nontrivial Skyrmion texture of lower dimensionality can be confined inside the core. The core isotropy and the stability of the confined texture are sensitive to Zeeman level shifts. The observed structures have analogies, respectively, in pressure-dependent symmetries of superfluid liquid ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ vortices and in the models of superconducting cosmic strings.

A novel kind of crystal order in high-density nanoconfined bilayer ice is proposed from molecular dynamics and density-functional theory simulations. A first-order transition is observed between a low-temperature proton-ordered solid and a high-temperature proton-disordered solid. The latter is shown to possess crystalline order for the oxygen positions, arranged on a close-packed triangular lattice with $AA$ stacking. Uniquely among the ice phases, the triangular bilayer is characterized by two levels of disorder (for the bonding network and for the protons) which results in a configurational entropy twice that of bulk ice.

Understanding charge transfer at electrochemical interfaces requires consistent treatment of electronic energy levels in solids and in water at the same level of the electronic structure theory. Using density-functional-theory-based molecular dynamics and thermodynamic integration, the free energy levels of six redox couples in water are calculated at the level of the random phase approximation and a double hybrid density functional. The redox levels, together with the water band positions, are aligned against a computational standard hydrogen electrode, allowing for critical analysis of errors compared to the experiment. It is encouraging that both methods offer a good description of the electronic structures of the solutes and water, showing promise for a full treatment of electrochemical interfaces.

The combination of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and potential disorder induces a random current operator for the edge states of a 2D topological insulator. We prove that charge transport through such an edge is ballistic at any temperature, with or without Luttinger liquid interactions. The solution exploits a mapping to a spin $1/2$ in a time-dependent field that preserves the projection along one randomly undulating component (integrable dynamics). Our result is exact and rules out random Rashba backscattering as a source of temperature-dependent transport, absent integrability-breaking terms.

We experimentally demonstrate a tunable hybrid qubit in a five-electron GaAs double quantum dot. The qubit is encoded in the (1,4) charge regime of the double dot and can be manipulated completely electrically. More importantly, dot anharmonicity leads to quasiparallel energy levels and a new anticrossing, which help preserve quantum coherence of the qubit and yield a useful working point. We have performed Larmor precession and Ramsey fringe experiments near the new working point and find that the qubit decoherence time is significantly improved over a charge qubit. This work shows a new way to encode a semiconductor qubit that is controllable and coherent.

We argue that tetragonal CuO (T-CuO) has the potential to finally settle long-standing modeling issues for cuprate physics. We compare the one-hole quasiparticle (qp) dispersion of T-CuO to that of cuprates, in the framework of the strongly correlated ($U_{dd}\to \infty$) limit of the three-band Emery model. Unlike in ${\mathrm{CuO}}_2$, magnetic frustration in T-CuO breaks the $C_4$ rotational symmetry and leads to strong deviations from the Zhang-Rice singlet picture in parts of the reciprocal space. Our results are consistent with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data but in sharp contradiction to those of a one-band model previously suggested for them. These differences identify T-CuO as an ideal material to test a variety of scenarios proposed for explaining cuprate phenomenology.

We investigate the dependence of decoherence on the mode number $M$ in a multiple-mode Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer. The design of the AB interferometer allows us to precisely determine $M$ by the additivity rule of ballistic conductors; meanwhile, the decoherence rate is simultaneously deduced by the variance of the AB oscillation amplitude. The AB amplitude decreases and fluctuates with depopulating $M$. Moreover, the normalized amplitude exhibits a maximum at a specific $M$ ($\sim 9$). Data analysis reveals that the charge-fluctuation-induced dephasing, which depends on the geometry and the charge relaxation resistance of the system, could play an essential role in the decoherence process. Our results suggest that the phase coherence, in principle, can be optimized using a deliberated design and pave one of the ways toward the engineering of quantum coherence.