When a dense granular jet hits a target, it forms a large dead zone and ejects a highly collimated conical sheet with a well-defined opening angle. Using experiments, simulations, and continuum modeling, we find that this opening angle is insensitive to the precise target shape and the dissipation mechanisms in the flow. We show that this surprising insensitivity arises because dense granular jet impact, though highly dissipative, is nonetheless controlled by the limit of perfect fluid flow.

Polyelectrolytes and electrolyte solutions are known to demonstrate a rich array of phase behaviors due to the effects of long-ranged interactions inherent in Coulombic attractions and repulsions. While there is a wealth of literature examining these materials to provide some physical insight into their thermodynamics, all of these methods make strong approximations with regards to the nature of the ionic component. In this investigation we develop a hybrid liquid-state integral equation and self-consistent field theory numerical theory, and systematically demonstrate the ramifications on local ion structure on the overall thermodynamics of segregated polymer blends. We show effects on phase separation such as suppression due to hard sphere interactions and enhancement due to ion cohesion that are not described using traditional Poisson-Boltzmann mean-field theory.

A density matrix $\rho (t)$ yields probabilistic information about the outcome of measurements on a quantum system. We introduce here the past quantum state, which, at time $T$, accounts for the state of a quantum system at earlier times $t<T$. The past quantum state $\Xi (t)$ is composed of two objects, $\rho (t)$ and $E(t)$, conditioned on the dynamics and the probing of the system until $t$ and in the time interval [$t$, $T$], respectively. The past quantum state is characterized by its ability to make better predictions for the unknown outcome of any measurement at $t$ than the conventional quantum state at that time. On the one hand, our formalism shows how smoothing procedures for estimation of past classical signals by a quantum probe [M. Tsang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 250403 (2009)] apply also to describe the past state of the quantum system itself. On the other hand, it generalizes theories of pre- and postselected quantum states [Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman, J. Phys. A 24, 2315 (1991)] to systems subject to any quantum measurement scenario, any coherent evolution, and any Markovian dissipation processes.

We calculate, for the first time using unquenched lattice QCD form factors, the standard model differential branching fractions $d\mathcal{B}/d{q}^2(B\to K{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-})$ for $\ell =e$, $\mu$, $\tau$ and compare with experimental measurements by Belle, BABAR, CDF, and LHCb. We report on $\mathcal{B}(B\to K{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-})$ in $q^2$ bins used by experiment and predict $\mathcal{B}(B\to K{\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-})=(1.41\pm 0.15)\times {10}^{-7}$. We also calculate the ratio of branching fractions $R_e^{\mu }=1.00029(69)$ and predict $R_{\ell }^{\tau }=1.176(40)$, for $\ell =e$, $\mu$. Finally, we calculate the “flat term” in the angular distribution of the differential decay rate $F_H^{e,\mu ,\tau }$ in experimentally motivated $q^2$ bins.

Surface-piercing vegetation often captures particles that flow on the water surface, where surface tension forces contribute to capture. Yet the physics of capillary capture in flow has not been addressed. Here we model the capture of floating particles by surface-piercing collectors at moderately low Reynolds numbers ($\mathrm{Re}<10$). We find a trade-off between the capillary force, which increases with the collector diameter, and the relative size of the meniscus, which decreases with the collector diameter, resulting in an optimal collector diameter of $\sim 1-10\mathrm{mm}$ that corresponds to the regime in which many aquatic plant species operate. For this diameter range the angular distribution of capture events is nearly uniform and capture can be orders of magnitude more efficient than direct interception, showing that capillary forces can be major contributors to the capture of seeds and particulate matter by organisms.

Laser-wakefield acceleration offers the promise of a compact electron accelerator for generating a multi-GeV electron beam using the huge field gradient induced by an intense laser pulse, compared to conventional rf accelerators. However, the energy and quality of the electron beam from the laser-wakefield accelerator have been limited by the power of the driving laser pulses and interaction properties in the target medium. Recent progress in laser technology has resulted in the realization of a petawatt (PW) femtosecond laser, which offers new capabilities for research on laser-wakefield acceleration. Here, we present a significant increase in laser-driven electron energy to the multi-GeV level by utilizing a 30-fs, 1-PW laser system. In particular, a dual-stage laser-wakefield acceleration scheme (injector and accelerator scheme) was applied to boost electron energies to over 3 GeV with a single PW laser pulse. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations corroborate the multi-GeV electron generation from the dual-stage laser-wakefield accelerator driven by PW laser pulses.

We consider the propagation of breathers along a quantized superfluid vortex. Using the correspondence between the local induction approximation (LIA) and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, we identify a set of initial conditions corresponding to breather solutions of vortex motion governed by the LIA. These initial conditions, which give rise to a long-wavelength modulational instability, result in the emergence of large amplitude perturbations that are localized in both space and time. The emergent structures on the vortex filament are analogous to loop solitons but arise from the dual action of bending and twisting of the vortex. Although the breather solutions we study are exact solutions of the LIA equations, we demonstrate through full numerical simulations that their key emergent attributes carry over to vortex dynamics governed by the Biot-Savart law and to quantized vortices described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The breather excitations can lead to self-reconnections, a mechanism that can play an important role within the crossover range of scales in superfluid turbulence. Moreover, the observation of breather solutions on vortices in a field model suggests that these solutions are expected to arise in a wide range of other physical contexts from classical vortices to cosmological strings.

A two-dimensional system of soft particles interacting via a two-length-scale potential is studied. Density functional theory and Brownian dynamics simulations reveal a fluid phase and two crystalline phases with different lattice spacing. Of these the larger lattice spacing phase can form an exotic periodic state with a fraction of highly mobile particles: a crystal liquid. Near the transition between this phase and the smaller lattice spacing phase, quasicrystalline structures may be created by a competition between linear instability at one scale and nonlinear selection of the other.

The stable crystal structures of two cuprous chalcogenides of ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}X$ ($X=\mathrm{Te}$ or Se) are predicted using an adaptive genetic algorithm in combination with first-principles density functional theory calculations. Both systems are found to prefer a unique and previously unrecognized layered structure, with the total energies much lower than all structures proposed in the literature so far. The newly discovered structures are further shown to be dynamically and mechanically stable, and possess electronic properties consistent with existing experimental observations. In particular, their layered nature is expected to prevail over other structural forms at the interfaces of thin-film solar cells, and knowledge about the precise atomic structures of the interfaces is a prerequisite for achieving long-term stability and high efficiency of CdTe and $\mathrm{Cu}(\mathrm{In},\mathrm{Ga}){\mathrm{Se}}_2$ solar cells.

Using magnetic endohedral fullerenes for molecular spintronics requires control over their encapsulated magnetic moments. We show by field-dependent x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements of ${\mathrm{Gd}}_3\mathrm{N}@{\mathrm{C}}_{80}$ endohedral fullerenes adsorbed on a Cu surface that the magnetic moments of the encapsulated Gd atoms lie in a $4f^7$ ground state and couple ferromagnetically to each other. When the molecules are in contact with a ferromagnetic Ni substrate, we detect two different Gd species. The more abundant one couples antiferromagnetically to the Ni, whereas the other one exhibits a stronger and ferromagnetic coupling to the substrate. Both of these couplings to the substrate can be explained by an indirect exchange mechanism mediated by the carbon cage. The origin of the distinctly different behavior may be attributed to different orientations and thus electronic coupling of the carbon cage to the substrate, as revealed by scanning tunneling microscopy of the fullerenes on Cu.

We report an experimental realization of the Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model using the internal and radial phonon states of two trapped ions. An adiabatic transfer corresponding to a quantum phase transition from a localized insulator ground state to a delocalized superfluid (SF) ground state is demonstrated. The SF phase of polaritonic excitations characteristic of the interconnected Jaynes-Cummings (JC) system is experimentally explored, where a polaritonic excitation refers to a combination of an atomic excitation and a phonon interchanged via a JC coupling.

We study one-dimensional quantum walks in a homogenous electric field. The field is given by a phase which depends linearly on position and is applied after each step. The long time propagation properties of this system, such as revivals, ballistic expansion, and Anderson localization, depend very sensitively on the value of the electric field, $\Phi$, e.g., on whether $\Phi /(2\pi )$ is rational or irrational. We relate these properties to the continued fraction expansion of the field. When the field is given only with finite accuracy, the beginning of the expansion allows analogous conclusions about the behavior on finite time scales.

We analyze diffusion equations in strongly coupled Coulomb mixtures of ions in dense stellar matter. Strong coupling of ions in the presence of gravitational forces and electric fields (induced by plasma polarization in the presence of gravity) produces a specific diffusion current which can separate ions with the same $A/Z$ (mass to charge number) ratios but different $Z$. This Coulomb separation of ions can be important for the evolution of white dwarfs and neutron stars.

Time evolution of a black hole lattice toy model universe is simulated. The vacuum Einstein equations in a cubic box with a black hole at the origin are numerically solved with periodic boundary conditions on all pairs of faces opposite to each other. Defining effective scale factors by using the area of a surface and the length of an edge of the cubic box, we compare them with that in the Einstein–de Sitter universe. It is found that the behavior of the effective scale factors is well approximated by that in the Einstein–de Sitter universe. In our model, if the box size is sufficiently larger than the horizon radius, local inhomogeneities do not significantly affect the global expansion law of the Universe even though the inhomogeneity is extremely nonlinear.

We perform a metastudy of recently published redshift space distortion (RSD) measurements of the cosmological growth rate, $f(z){\sigma }_8(z)$. We analyze the latest results from the 6dFGS, BOSS, LRG, WiggleZ, and VIPERS galaxy redshift surveys, and compare the measurements to expectations from Planck. In this Letter we point out that the RSD measurements are consistently lower than the values expected from Planck, and the relative scatter between the RSD measurements is lower than expected. A full resolution of this issue may require a more robust treatment of nonlinear effects in RSD models, although the trend for a low ${\sigma }_8$ agrees with recent constraints on ${\sigma }_8$ and ${\Omega }_m$ from Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts identified in Planck.

A Fermi surface threaded by a Berry phase can be described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. After gauging, it produces a five-dimensional Chern-Simons term in the action. We show how this Chern-Simons term captures the essence of the Abelian, non-Abelian, and mixed gravitational anomalies in describing both in- and off-equilibrium phenomena. In particular, we derive a novel contribution to the chiral vortical effect that arises when a temperature gradient is present. We also discuss the issue of universality of the anomalous currents.

On the basis of lattice simulations using highly improved staggered quarks for twelve-flavor QCD with several bare fermion masses, we observe a flavor-singlet scalar state lighter than the pion in the correlators of fermionic interpolating operators. The same state is also investigated using correlators of gluonic interpolating operators. Combined with our previous study that showed twelve-flavor QCD to be consistent with being in the conformal window, we infer that the lightness of the scalar state is due to infrared conformality. This result shed some light on the possibility of a light composite Higgs boson (“technidilaton”) in walking technicolor theories.

We employ spontaneous Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy and detailed theoretical calculations to reveal and identify elastic excitations inside the band gap of hypersonic hybrid superlattices. Surface and cavity modes, their strength and anticrossing are unambiguously documented and fully controlled by layer thickness, elasticity, and sequence design. This new soft matter based superlattice platform allows facile engineering of the density of states and opens new pathways to tunable phoxonic crystals.

The results of simultaneous radio and gamma emission measurements during thunderstorms are presented. A gamma detector situated at the height 3840 m and two radio detectors of Tien-Shan Mountain Scientific Station (altitude 3340 m) registered intensive gamma flashes and radio pulses during the time of lightning initiation. The radio-gamma correlation grows abruptly at the initial moment (a few hundred microseconds), and the correlation coefficient reaches 0.9–0.95. The gamma-energy spectrum measured during lightning initiation is close to the characteristic spectrum of runaway breakdown. Radio pulses observed at the same time have highest amplitudes. Combined observation of gamma and radio emissions confirm the conception of lightning initiation due to multiple simultaneous electric discharges at hydrometeors stimulated and synchronized by low-energy electrons generated in the runaway breakdown process.

The dramatic dynamic slowing down associated with the glass transition is considered by many to be related to the existence of a static length scale that grows when temperature decreases. Defining, identifying, and measuring such a length is a subtle problem. Recently, two proposals, based on very different insights regarding the relevant physics, were put forward. One approach is based on the point-to-set correlation technique and the other on the scale where the lowest eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix becomes sensitive to disorder. Here we present numerical evidence that the two approaches might result in the same identical length scale. This provides mutual support for their relevance and, at the same time, raises interesting theoretical questions, discussed in the conclusion.