We propose an extension of the continuum discretized coupled channels (CDCC) method, where the projectile is described by a microscopic cluster model. This microscopic generalization (MCDCC) relies only on nucleon-target interactions, and therefore presents an important predictive power. Core excitations can be included without any further parameter. As an example, we investigate the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ elastic scattering at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=27$ and 35 MeV. The ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ nucleus is known to present an $\alpha +t$ cluster structure, and is well described by the resonating group method. An excellent agreement is obtained for the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ elastic cross sections, provided that breakup channels are properly included. We also present an application to inelastic scattering and discuss future applications of the MCDCC.

We show that light-pulse atom interferometry with atomic point sources and spatially resolved detection enables multiaxis (two rotation, one acceleration) precision inertial sensing at long interrogation times. Using this method, we demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer for ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ with 1.4 cm peak wave packet separation and a duration of $2T=2.3\mathrm{s}$. The inferred acceleration sensitivity of each shot is $6.7\times {10}^{-12}g$, which improves on previous limits by more than 2 orders of magnitude. We also measure Earth’s rotation rate with a precision of $200\mathrm{nrad}/\mathrm{s}$.

The unusual features of quantum mechanics are enabling the development of technologies not possible with classical physics. These devices utilize nonclassical phenomena in the states of atoms, ions, and solid-state media as the basis for many prototypes. Here we investigate molecular states as a distinct alternative. We demonstrate a memory for light based on storing photons in the vibrations of hydrogen molecules. The THz-bandwidth molecular memory is used to store 100-fs pulses for durations up to $\sim 1\mathrm{ns}$, enabling $\sim {10}^4$ operational time bins. The results demonstrate the promise of molecules for constructing compact ultrafast quantum photonic technologies.

An atomic force microscope reveals that the sliding of a nanotip on a graphite surface occurs through a nanoscale stick-slip mechanism. The angle between the sliding direction and a stiff crystallographic axis determines the periodicity of the slip events defining domains of various friction properties. The experimental data are interpreted using the reaction rate theory, with the energy barrier driven by a local deformation of the surface and a thermally activated relaxation.

The structure of (0001) oriented ZnO single crystal surfaces is investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. Depending on the preparation conditions, faceting of the crystals into large areas of $\{10\overline{1}4\}$ surface orientation occurs. This restructuring of the surface is shown to be a consequence of dipole compensation and charge neutralization. A new stabilization mechanism of polar oxide surfaces is found which is based on the formation of vicinal surfaces with special electronic and structural properties.

We investigate the real-time current response of strongly correlated quantum dot systems under sinusoidal driving voltages. By means of an accurate hierarchical equations of motion approach, we demonstrate the presence of prominent memory effects induced by the Kondo resonance on the real-time current response. These memory effects appear as distinctive hysteresis line shapes and self-crossing features in the dynamic current-voltage characteristics, with concomitant excitation of odd-number overtones. They emerge as a cooperative effect of quantum coherence—due to inductive behavior—and electron correlations—due to the Kondo resonance. We also show the suppression of memory effects and the transition to classical behavior as a function of temperature. All these phenomena can be observed in experiments and may lead to novel quantum memory applications.

We present a theory of moving stripes (“polar active smectics”), both with and without number conservation. The latter is described by a compact anisotropic Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, which implies smectic order is quasilong ranged in $d=2$ and long ranged in $d=3$. In $d=2$ the smectic disorders via a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, which can be driven by either increasing the noise or varying certain nonlinearities. For the number-conserving case, giant number fluctuations are greatly suppressed by the smectic order, which is long ranged in $d=3$. Nonlinear effects become important in $d=2$.

We implement the conformal bootstrap for $\mathcal{N}=4$ superconformal field theories in four dimensions. The consistency of the four-point function of the stress-energy tensor multiplet imposes significant upper bounds for the scaling dimensions of unprotected local operators as functions of the central charge of the theory. At the threshold of exclusion, a particular operator spectrum appears to be singled out by the bootstrap constraints. We conjecture that this extremal spectrum is that of $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at an $S$-duality invariant value of the complexified gauge coupling.

The first spectroscopy of excited states in ${}^{52}\mathrm{Ni}$ ($T_z=-2$) and ${}^{51}\mathrm{Co}$ ($T_z=-3/2$) has been obtained using the highly selective two-neutron knockout reaction. Mirror energy differences between isobaric analogue states in these nuclei and their mirror partners are interpreted in terms of isospin nonconserving effects. A comparison between large-scale shell-model calculations and data provides the most compelling evidence to date that both electromagnetic and an additional isospin nonconserving interactions for $J=2$ couplings, of unknown origin, are required to obtain good agreement.

We study the nonlinear driven dissipative quantum dynamics of an array of optomechanical systems. At each site of such an array, a localized mechanical mode interacts with a laser-driven cavity mode via radiation pressure, and both photons and phonons can hop between neighboring sites. The competition between coherent interaction and dissipation gives rise to a rich phase diagram characterizing the optical and mechanical many-body states. For weak intercellular coupling, the mechanical motion at different sites is incoherent due to the influence of quantum noise. When increasing the coupling strength, however, we observe a transition towards a regime of phase-coherent mechanical oscillations. We employ a Gutzwiller ansatz as well as semiclassical Langevin equations on finite lattices, and we propose a realistic experimental implementation in optomechanical crystals.

We demonstrate the time-reversed process of nondegenerate three-wave parametric amplification from three distinct sources in the fully nonlinear regime using a Josephson amplifier. In the reverse process, coherent attenuation, signal and idler beams destructively interfere in the presence of a pump to generate additional pump photons. This effect is observed through the symmetric phase-dependent amplification and attenuation of the signal and idler beams and, in the depleted pump regime, through the phase-dependent modulation of the amplifier gain, directly probing the enhancement of the pump. Results are found to be in good agreement with theory.

Lumped circuit elements (i.e., resistors, capacitors, and inductors) provide the basic building blocks of microelectronic devices ubiquitous in information processing, storage, and communications. The use of these modular quasistatic components can be extended to the nanoscale optical regime to achieve high-density, high-speed analogues of these traditional circuits. We reimagine these devices in the near-infrared (NIR) regime, making use of a simple nanorod geometry and plasmonic transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). We evaluate their equivalent impedance as lumped circuit elements and construct bandpass and band-stop filters operating at NIR wavelengths. Through variation in the TCO nanorod geometry and the addition of PbS nanocrystals in between and NiCr on top of the TCO nanorods, we present the first designable NIR lumped nanocircuits with tailorable response. The experimental results agree with both circuit models and full-wave simulations.

A one-dimensional kinetic theory of sheaths surrounding planar, electron-emitting surfaces is presented which accounts for plasma electrons lost to the surface and the temperature of the emitted electrons. It is shown that ratio of plasma electron temperature to emitted electron temperature significantly affects the sheath potential when the plasma electron temperature is within an order of magnitude of the emitted electron temperature. The sheath potential goes to zero as the plasma electron temperature equals the emitted electron temperature, which can occur in the afterglow of an rf plasma and some low-temperature plasma sources. These results were validated by particle in cell simulations. The theory was tested by making measurements of the sheath surrounding a thermionically emitting cathode in the afterglow of an rf plasma. The measured sheath potential shrunk to zero as the plasma electron temperature cooled to the emitted electron temperature, as predicted by the theory.

Graphene and its multilayers have attracted considerable interest because their fourfold spin and valley degeneracy enables a rich variety of broken-symmetry states arising from electron-electron interactions, and raises the prospect of controlled phase transitions among them. Here we report local electronic compressibility measurements of ultraclean suspended graphene that reveal a multitude of fractional quantum Hall states surrounding filling factors $\nu =-1/2$ and $-1/4$. Several of these states exhibit phase transitions that indicate abrupt changes in the underlying order, and we observe many additional oscillations in compressibility as $\nu$ approaches $-1/2$, suggesting further changes in spin and/or valley polarization. We use a simple model based on crossing Landau levels of composite fermions with different internal degrees of freedom to explain many qualitative features of the experimental data. Our results add to the diverse array of many-body states observed in graphene and demonstrate substantial control over their order parameters.

Density-driven phase transformations are a known phenomenon in liquids. Pressure-driven transitions from an open low-density to a higher-density close-packed structure were observed for a number of systems. Here, we show a less intuitive, inverse behavior. We investigated the electronic, atomic, and dynamic structures of liquid Rb along an isothermal line at 573 K, at $1.2–27.4\mathrm{GPa}$, by means of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and inelastic x-ray scattering experiments. The excellent agreement of the simulations with experimental data performed up to 6.6 GPa validates the overall approach. Above 12.5 GPa, the breakdown of the nearly-free-electron model drives a transition of the pure liquid metal towards a less metallic, denser liquid, whose first coordination shell is less compact. Our study unveils the interplay between electronic, structural, and dynamic degrees of freedom along this liquid-liquid phase transition. In view of its electronic nature, we believe that this behavior is general for the first group elements, thus shedding new light into the high-pressure properties of alkali metals.

While convective flows are implicated in many granular segregation processes, the associated particle-scale rearrangements are not well understood. A three-dimensional bidisperse mixture segregates under steady shear, but the cyclically driven system either remains mixed or segregates slowly. Individual grain motion shows no signs of particle-scale segregation dynamics that precede bulk segregation. Instead, we find that the transition from nonsegregating to segregating flow is accompanied by significantly less reversible particle trajectories and the emergence of a convective flow field.

We study the simultaneous estimation of multiple phases as a discretized model for the imaging of a phase object. We identify quantum probe states that provide an enhancement compared to the best quantum scheme for the estimation of each individual phase separately as well as improvements over classical strategies. Our strategy provides an advantage in the variance of the estimation over individual quantum estimation schemes that scales as $\mathcal{O}(d)$, where $d$ is the number of phases. Finally, we study the attainability of this limit using realistic probes and photon-number-resolving detectors. This is a problem in which an intrinsic advantage is derived from the estimation of multiple parameters simultaneously.

Fisher matrix and related studies have suggested that, with second-generation gravitational-wave detectors, it may be possible to infer the equation of state of neutron stars using tidal effects in a binary inspiral. Here, we present the first fully Bayesian investigation of this problem. We simulate a realistic data analysis setting by performing a series of numerical experiments of binary neutron-star signals hidden in detector noise, assuming the projected final design sensitivity of the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network. With an astrophysical distribution of events (in particular, uniform in comoving volume), we find that only a few tens of detections will be required to arrive at strong constraints, even for some of the softest equations of state in the literature. Thus, direct gravitational-wave detection will provide a unique probe of neutron-star structure.

We decompose the energy error of any variational density functional theory calculation into a contribution due to the approximate functional and that due to the approximate density. Typically, the functional error dominates, but in many interesting situations the density-driven error dominates. Examples range from calculations of electron affinities to preferred geometries of ions and radicals in solution. In these abnormal cases, the error in density functional theory can be greatly reduced by using a more accurate density. A small orbital gap often indicates a substantial density-driven error.

We present a scalable and tunable framework for the quantum simulation of critical dissipative models based on a circuit QED cavity array interacting with driven superconducting qubits. We will show that the strongly correlated many-body state of the cavities can be mapped into the state of propagating photons in a transmission line. This allows not only for an efficient way of accessing the correlations in the many-body system, but also provides a bright source of chiral entangled light where directionality and entanglement are assisted by collective phenomena and breaking of reflection symmetry.