A detailed theoretical study of the elementary mechanisms occurring during the shear-coupled grain boundary (GB) migration at low temperature is performed focusing on both the energetic and structural characteristics. The migration of a $\Sigma 13(320)$ GB in a copper bicrystal in response to external shear displacements is simulated using a semiempirical potential. The minimum energy path of the shear-coupled GB migration is computed using the nudge elastic band method. The GB migration occurs through the nucleation and motion of GB steps identified as disconnections. Energy barriers for the GB and disconnection migrations are evaluated.

We investigate electromagnetic radiation emitted by a small voltage-biased Josephson junction connected to a superconducting transmission line. At frequencies below the well-known emission peak at the Josephson frequency ($2eV/h$), extra radiation is triggered by quantum fluctuations in the transmission line. For weak tunneling couplings and typical Ohmic transmission lines, the corresponding photon-flux spectrum is symmetric around half the Josephson frequency, indicating that the photons are predominately created in pairs. By establishing an input-output formalism for the microwave field in the transmission line, we give further evidence for this nonclassical photon pair production, demonstrating that it violates the classical Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for two-mode flux cross correlations. In connection to recent experiments, we also consider a stepped transmission line, where resonances increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

We present a minimal one-dimensional model of collective spin excitations in itinerant ferromagnetic superlattices within the regime of parabolic spin-carrier dispersion. We discuss the cases of weakly and strongly modulated magnetic profiles finding evidence of antiferromagnetic correlations for long-wave magnons (especially significant in layered systems), with an insight into the ground state properties. In addition, the presence of local minima in the magnonic dispersion suggests the possibility of (thermal) excitation of spin waves with a relatively well controlled wavelength. Some of these features could be experimentally tested in diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices based on thin doped magnetic layers, acting as natural interfaces between (spin)electronic and magnonic degrees of freedom.

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MA) of Fe-based transition-metal thin films, consisting of only magnetic $3d$ elements, was systematically investigated from full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave calculations. The results predict that giant MA with a perpendicular magnetic easy axis (PMA) can be achieved by tuning the atomic-layer alignments in an Fe-Ni thin film. This giant PMA arises from the spin-orbit coupling interaction between occupied and unoccupied Ni $d_{x^2-y^2,xy}$ bands crossing the Fermi level. A promising $3d$ transition-metal thin film for the MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions with the giant PMA was, thus, demonstrated.

We investigate low-temperature spin correlations in the metallic frustrated magnet $\beta \mathrm{\text{−}}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{Co}}_x$. Single-crystal polarized-neutron scattering experiments reveal the persistence of highly structured magnetic diffuse scattering and the absence of periodic magnetic order to $T=0.05\mathrm{K}$. We employ reverse Monte Carlo refinements and mean-field theory calculations to construct an effective Hamiltonian which accounts for the magnetic scattering. The interactions we identify describe an emergent spin structure which mimics the triangular lattice antiferromagnet, one of the canonical models of frustrated magnetism.

Extensively studied Mn-doped semiconductor nanocrystals have invariably exhibited photoluminescence over a narrow energy window of width $\le 150\mathrm{meV}$ in the orange-red region and a surprisingly large spectral width ($\ge 180\mathrm{meV}$), contrary to its presumed atomic-like origin. Carrying out emission measurements on individual single nanocrystals and supported by ab initio calculations, we show that Mn PL emission, in fact, can (i) vary over a much wider range ($\sim 370\mathrm{meV}$) covering the deep green—deep red region and (ii) exhibit widths substantially lower ($\sim 60–75\mathrm{meV}$) than reported so far, opening newer application possibilities and requiring a fundamental shift in our perception of the emission from Mn-doped semiconductor nanocrystals.

We have investigated the microwave response of a transmon qubit coupled directly to a transmission line. In a transmon qubit, owing to its weak anharmonicity, a single driving field may generate dressed states involving more than two bare states. We confirmed the formation of three-state dressed states by observing all of the six associated Rabi sidebands, which appear as either amplification or attenuation of the probe field. The experimental results are reproduced with good precision by a theoretical model incorporating the radiative coupling between the qubit and the microwave.

The longitudinal space-charge amplifier has been recently proposed by Schneidmiller and Yurkov as an alternative to the free-electron laser instability for the generation of intense broadband radiation pulses [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 13, 110701 (2010)]. In this Letter, we report on the experimental demonstration of a cascaded longitudinal space-charge amplifier at optical wavelengths. Although seeded by electron beam shot noise, the strong compression of the electron beam along the three amplification stages leads to emission of coherent undulator radiation pulses exhibiting a single spectral spike and a single transverse mode. The on-axis gain is estimated to exceed 4 orders of magnitude with respect to spontaneous emission.

A mechanism for turbulent acceleration of parallel rotation is discovered using gyrokinetic theory. This new turbulent acceleration term cannot be written as a divergence of parallel Reynolds stress. Therefore, turbulent acceleration acts as a local source or sink of parallel rotation. The physics of turbulent acceleration is intrinsically different from the Reynolds stress. For symmetry breaking by positive intensity gradient, a positive turbulent acceleration, i.e., cocurrent rotation, is predicted. The turbulent acceleration is independent of mean rotation and mean rotation gradient, and so constitutes a new candidate for the origin of spontaneous rotation. A quasilinear estimate for ion temperature gradient turbulence shows that the turbulent acceleration of parallel rotation is explicitly linked to the ion temperature gradient scale length and temperature ratio $T_{i0}/T_{e0}$. Methods for testing the effects of turbulent parallel acceleration by gyrokinetic simulation and experiment are proposed.

Postprocessing of diffraction patterns of completely randomly oriented helical particles, as measured, for example, in so-called “diffract-and-destroy” experiments with an x-ray free electron laser can yield “fiber diffraction” patterns expected of fibrous bundles of the particles. This will allow “single-axis alignment” to be performed computationally, thus obviating the need to do this by experimental means such as forming fibers and laser or flow alignment. The structure of such particles may then be found by either iterative phasing methods or standard methods of fiber diffraction.

Activity rhythms in animal groups arise both from external changes in the environment, as well as from internal group dynamics. These cycles are reminiscent of physical and chemical systems with quasiperiodic and even chaotic behavior resulting from “autocatalytic” mechanisms. We use nonlinear differential equations to model how the coupling between the self-excitatory interactions of individuals and external forcing can produce four different types of activity rhythms: quasiperiodic, chaotic, phase locked, and displaying over or under shooting. At the transition between quasiperiodic and chaotic regimes, activity cycles are asymmetrical, with rapid activity increases and slower decreases and a phase shift between external forcing and activity. We find similar activity patterns in ant colonies in response to varying temperature during the day. Thus foraging ants operate in a region of quasiperiodicity close to a cascade of transitions leading to chaos. The model suggests that a wide range of temporal structures and irregularities seen in the activity of animal and human groups might be accounted for by the coupling between collectively generated internal clocks and external forcings.

We study the entanglement spectrum (ES) of the Bose-Hubbard model on the two-dimensional square lattice at unit filling, both in the Mott insulating and in the superfluid phase. In the Mott phase, we demonstrate that the ES is dominated by the physics at the boundary between the two subsystems. On top of the boundary-local (perturbative) structure, the ES exhibits substructures arising from one-dimensional dispersions along the boundary. In the superfluid phase, the structure of the ES is qualitatively different, and reflects the spontaneously broken $U(1)$ symmetry of the phase. We attribute the basic low-lying structure to the “tower of states” Hamiltonian of the model. We then discuss how these characteristic structures evolve across the superfluid to Mott insulator transition and their influence on the behavior of the entanglement entropies. We briefly outline the implications of the ES structure on the efficiency of matrix-product-state based algorithms in two dimensions.

We construct the hydrodynamic theory for spin-$1/2$ Bose gases at arbitrary temperatures. This theory describes the coupling between the magnetization and the normal and superfluid components of the gas. In particular, our theory contains the geometric forces on the particles that arise from their spin’s adiabatic following of the magnetization texture. The phenomenological parameters of the hydrodynamic theory are calculated in the Bogoliubov approximation and using the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation-time approximation. We consider the topological Hall effect due to the presence of a Skyrmion, and show that this effect manifests itself in the collective modes of the system. The dissipative coupling between the magnetization and the normal component is shown to give rise to magnetization relaxation that is fourth order in spatial gradients of the magnetization direction.

In their well-known paper, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen called the nonlocal correlation in quantum entanglement a “spooky action at a distance.” If the spooky action does exist, what is its speed? All previous experiments along this direction have locality and freedom-of-choice loopholes. Here, we strictly closed the loopholes by observing a 12 h continuous violation of the Bell inequality and concluded that the lower bound speed of spooky action was 4 orders of magnitude of the speed of light if Earth’s speed in any inertial reference frame was less than ${10}^{-3}$ time the speed of light.

It is argued that exotic mesons consisting of two quarks and two antiquarks are not ruled out in quantum chromodynamics with a large number $N$ of colors, as generally thought. Tetraquarks of one class are typically long-lived, with decay rates proportional to $1/N$.

I show that the parton physics related to correlations of quarks and gluons on the light cone can be studied through the matrix elements of frame-dependent, equal-time correlators in the large momentum limit. This observation allows practical calculations of parton properties on a Euclidean lattice. As an example, I demonstrate how to recover the leading-twist quark distribution by boosting an equal-time correlator to a large momentum.

We study the exact time-dependent potential energy surface (TDPES) in the presence of strong nonadiabatic coupling between the electronic and nuclear motion. The concept of the TDPES emerges from the exact factorization of the full electron-nuclear wave function [A. Abedi, N. T. Maitra, and E. K. U. Gross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 123002 (2010)]. Employing a one-dimensional model system, we show that the TDPES exhibits a dynamical step that bridges between piecewise adiabatic shapes. We analytically investigate the position of the steps and the nature of the switching between the adiabatic pieces of the TDPES.

We demonstrate a trapped-ion entangling-gate scheme proposed by Bermudez et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 040302 (2012)]. Simultaneous excitation of a strong carrier and a single-sideband transition enables deterministic creation of entangled states. The method works for magnetic field-insensitive states, is robust against thermal excitations, includes dynamical decoupling from qubit dephasing errors, and provides simplifications in experimental implementation compared to some other entangling gates with trapped ions. We achieve a Bell state fidelity of 0.974(4) and identify the main sources of error.

Relaxation of the Larmor magnetic moment by spin-exchange collisions has been shown to diminish for high alkali densities, resulting from the linear part of the collisional interaction. In contrast, we demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically the elimination of spin-exchange relaxation of high magnetic moments (birefringence) in alkali vapor. This elimination originates from the nonlinear part of the spin-exchange interaction, as a scattering process of the Larmor magnetic moment. We find counterintuitively that the threshold magnetic field is the same as in the Larmor case, despite the fact that the precession frequency is twice as large.

A wide variety of molecular systems that have recently come into the reach of experimental and theoretical investigation is dominated by quantum phenomena. However, even state of the art quantum propagation techniques are either unsuitable for general application to molecular systems with strong interference and tunneling characteristics or are computationally prohibitive for systems with more than a few degrees of freedom. In this Letter, we introduce a novel quantum propagation technique with wide applicability, controllable accuracy, and efficient utilization of computational resources. Its performance is validated for tunneling and dissociating systems with 1, 2, and 3 degrees of freedom, and the scaling behavior with respect to system dimensionality and requested accuracy is discussed.