We propose an innovative design for quantum batteries (QBs) that involves coupling two-level systems to a topological photonic waveguide. Employing the resolvent method, we analytically explore the thermodynamic performance of QBs. First, we demonstrate that in the long-time limit, only bound states significantly contribute to the stored energy of QBs. We observe that near-perfect energy transfer can occur in the topologically nontrivial phase. Moreover, the maximum stored energy exhibits singular behavior at the phase boundaries, where the number of bound states undergoes a transition. Second, when a quantum charger and a quantum battery are coupled at the same sublattice within a unit cell, the ergotropy becomes immune to dissipation at that location, facilitated by a dark state and a topologically robust dressed bound state. Third, we show that as dissipation intensifies along with the emergence of the quantum Zeno effect, the charging power of QBs experiences a temporary boost. Our findings offer valuable guidance for improving quantum battery performance in realistic conditions through structured reservoir engineering.

Chirality is a property of a gapped phase of matter in two spatial dimensions that can be manifested through nonzero thermal or electrical Hall conductance. In this Letter, we prove two no-go theorems that forbid such chirality for a quantum state in a finite dimensional local Hilbert space with strict area law entanglement entropies. We also show that the finite dimensional local Hilbert space condition can be relaxed to the condition that the state has finite local entanglement entropies. As a crucial ingredient in the proofs, we introduce a new quantum information-theoretic primitive called instantaneous modular flow, which has many other potential applications.

Quantum many-body systems provide a unique platform for exploring the rich interplay between chaos, randomness, and complexity. In a recently proposed paradigm known as deep thermalization, random quantum states of system $A$ are generated by performing projective measurements on system $B$ following chaotic Hamiltonian evolution acting jointly on $AB$. In this scheme, the randomness of the projected state ensemble arises from the intrinsic randomness of the outcomes when $B$ is measured. Here, we propose a modified scheme in which classical randomness injected during the protocol is converted by quantum chaos into quantum randomness of the resulting state ensemble. We show that for generic chaotic systems this conversion is optimal in that each bit of injected classical entropy generates as much additional quantum randomness as adding an extra qubit to $B$. This significantly enhances the randomness of the projected ensemble without imposing additional demands on the quantum hardware. Our scheme can be easily implemented on typical analog quantum simulators, providing a more scalable route for generating quantum randomness valuable for many applications. In particular, we demonstrate that the accuracy of a shadow tomography protocol can be substantially improved.

Quantum states encoded in the time-bin degree of freedom of photons represent a fundamental resource for quantum information protocols. Traditional methods for generating and measuring time-bin-encoded quantum states face severe challenges due to optical instabilities, complex setups, and timing resolution requirements. To circumvent these issues, we leverage an approach based on Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and we propose and demonstrate a robust and scalable protocol to generate and measure arbitrary high-dimensional time-bin quantum states. We experimentally implement the protocol in a photonic setup reaching high-fidelity quantum state tomographies of two- and three-dimensional quantum states encoded in time bins with short temporal separation. We also certify intrasystem polarization-time entanglement of single photons through a nonclassicality test. The demonstrated approach enables access to high-dimensional states and tasks that are practically inaccessible with standard schemes, thereby advancing fundamental quantum information science and opening applications in quantum communication.

A magnetically levitated mass couples to gravity and can act as an effective gravitational wave detector. We show that a superconducting sphere levitated in a quadrupolar magnetic field, when excited by a gravitational wave, will produce magnetic field fluctuations that can be read out using a flux tunable microwave resonator. With a readout operating at the standard quantum limit, such a system could achieve broadband strain noise sensitivity of $h\lesssim {10}^{-20}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for frequencies of 1 kHz–1 MHz, opening new corridors for astrophysical probes of new physics.

We present a new gauging of maximal supergravity in five spacetime dimensions with gauge group containing ISO(5), involving the local scaling symmetry of the metric, and admitting a supersymmetric anti–de Sitter vacuum. We show this maximal supergravity to arise by consistent truncation of M theory on the (nonspherical, nonparallelizable) six-dimensional geometry associated to a stack of $N$ M5 branes wrapped on a smooth Riemann surface. The existence of this truncation allows us to holographically determine the complete, universal spectrum of light operators of the dual four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory of class $\mathcal{S}$. We then compute holographically the superconformal index of the dual field theory at large $N$, finding perfect agreement with previously known field theory results in specific limits.

The search for axions sits at the intersection of solving critical problems in fundamental physics, including the strong $CP$ problem in QCD, uncovering the nature of dark matter, and understanding the origin of the Universe’s matter-antimatter asymmetry. The measurement of axion mediated spin-dependent interactions offers a powerful approach for axion detection. However, it has long been restricted to regions outside the “axion window” due to a significant trade-off: the need to effectively suppress the magnetic leakage from highly polarized spin sources while simultaneously detecting subfemtotesla level exotic physics signals at sub-decimeter-scale distances. In this work, we report new experimental results on axion mediated exotic spin-spin interactions using an iron-shielded ${\mathrm{SmCo}}_5$ spin source in combination with a specially designed self-compensation comagnetometer. Employing a composite shielding structure, we achieved a suppression of the magnetic field by up to ${10}^{11}$. This enabled us to establish new constraints on the coupling between electrons and neutrons, improving previous experimental limits by up to 10 000 times within the axion window. Furthermore, we also set the strongest constraints on the coupling between electrons and protons. The proposed method holds substantial potential not only for advancing the search for new physics beyond the standard model but also for enabling transformative applications in biological and chemical research.

Minimal dark matter models feature one neutral particle that serves as a thermal relic dark matter candidate, as well as quasidegenerate charged states with TeV masses. When the charged states are produced at colliders, they can decay into dark matter and a low-momentum (soft) charged particle, which is challenging to reconstruct at hadron colliders. We demonstrate that a 3 TeV muon collider is capable of detecting these soft tracks, enabling the discovery of thermal Higgsinos and similar dark matter candidates that constitute highly motivated scenarios for future collider searches.

We use an ensemble of laser-cooled strontium atoms in a high-finesse cavity to cleanly emulate the technique of rf spectroscopy employed in studies of BEC-BCS physics in fermionic superfluids of degenerate cold gases. Here, we leverage the multilevel internal structure of the atoms to study the physics of Cooper pair breaking in this system. In doing so, we observe and distinguish the properties of two distinct many-body gaps, the BCS pairing gap and the spectral gap, using nondestructive readout techniques. The latter is found to depend on the populations of the internal atomic states, reflecting the chemical potential dependence predicted in fermionic superfluids. This work opens the path for more fully exploiting the rich internal structure of atoms in cavity QED emulators to study both analogous systems and also more exotic states yet to be realized.

The longtime behavior of weakly interacting bosons moving in a two-dimensional optical lattice and coupled to a lossy cavity is investigated numerically via the truncated Wigner method, which allows us to take into full account the dynamics of the cavity mode, quantum fluctuations, cavity-boson correlations, and self-organization of individual runs. We first compare our results for small systems with quasi-exact calculations based on quantum trajectories, finding a remarkably good agreement for experimentally relevant boson fillings that improves further with system size. For large systems, we observe metastability at very long times and superfluid quasi–long range order, in sharp contrast with the true long range order found in the ground state of the approximate Bose-Hubbard model with extended interactions, obtained by adiabatically eliminating the cavity field. As the strength of the light-matter coupling increases, the system first becomes supersolid at the Dicke superradiant transition and then turns into a charge-density wave via the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless mechanism. The two phase transitions are characterized via an accurate finite-size scaling analysis.

Soft materials are ubiquitous in technological applications that require deformability, for instance, in flexible, water-repellent coatings. However, the wetting properties of prestrained soft materials are only beginning to be explored. Here we study the sliding dynamics of droplets on prestrained soft silicone gels, both in tension and in compression. Intriguingly, in compression we find a nonmonotonic strain dependence of the sliding speed: mild compressions decelerate the droplets, but stronger compressions lead again to faster droplet motion. Upon further compression, creases nucleate under the droplets until, finally, the entire surface undergoes the creasing instability, causing a “run-and-stop” motion. We quantitatively elucidate the speed modification for moderate prestrains by incremental viscoelasticity, while the acceleration for larger prestrains turns out to be linked to the solid pressure, presumably through a lubrication effect of expelled oligomers.

A physics-based empirical formula is derived to predict the ionization lag in underdense plasmas generated by an intense laser. Time-dependent nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium calculations demonstrate significantly delayed ionization, due to rapid changes in plasma conditions, which critically impacts plasma properties such as opacity, emissivity, and heat transport. The reduced model, based on these calculations, enables the estimation of ionization lag without requiring in-depth knowledge of nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium modeling. Furthermore, modeling reveals that the two-step ionization process—collisional excitation followed by photoionization—plays a crucial role in this ionization delay, with collisional excitation setting the timescale for ionization. Simulations across a range of elements, from beryllium to germanium, demonstrate that ionization lag is a widespread phenomenon, underscoring the importance of incorporating such processes into ionization modeling in radiation hydrodynamic simulations for various laser-plasma experiments.

Electron-phonon coupling often dominates the electron spectral functions and carrier transport properties. However, studies of this effect in real materials have largely relied on perturbative one-shot methods due to the lack of a first-principles theoretical and computational framework. Here, we present a self-consistent theory and implementation for the nonperturbative calculations of spectral functions and conductivity due to electron-phonon coupling. Applying this method to monolayer InSe, we demonstrate that self-consistency qualitatively affects the spectral function and transport properties compared to state-of-the-art one-shot calculations and allow one to reconcile calculations with angle-resolved photoemission experiments. The developed method can be widely applied to materials with dominant electron-phonon coupling at moderate computational cost.

Two-dimensional (2D) kagome metals offer a unique platform for exploring electron correlation phenomena derived from quantum many-body effects. Here, we report a combined study of electrical magnetotransport and neutron scattering on ${\mathrm{YbFe}}_6{\mathrm{Ge}}_6$, where the Fe moments in the 2D kagome layers exhibit an $A$-type collinear antiferromagnetic order below $T_{\mathrm{N}}\approx 500\mathrm{K}$. Interactions between the Fe ions in the layers and the localized Yb magnetic ions in between reorient the $c$-axis-aligned Fe moments to the kagome plane below $T_{\mathrm{SR}}\approx 63\mathrm{K}$. Our magnetotransport measurements show an intriguing anomalous Hall effect (AHE) that emerges in the spin-reorientated collinear state, accompanied by the closing of the spin anisotropy gap as revealed from inelastic neutron scattering. The gapless spin excitations and the Yb-Fe interaction are able to support a dynamic scalar spin chirality, which explains the observed AHE. Therefore, our Letter demonstrates that spin fluctuations may provide an additional scattering channel for the conduction electrons and give rise to AHE even in a collinear antiferromagnet.

We develop an effective gauge theory for three-flavored magnons in frustrated magnets hosting topological textures with the aid of the quaternion representation of the SO(3) order parameter. We find that the effect of topological solitons on magnons is captured generally by the non-Abelian emergent electromagnetic fields, distinct from the previously established gauge theory for magnons in collinear magnets where the gauge theory is often restricted to be Abelian. As concrete examples, $4\pi$ vortices in two- and three-dimensional magnets and Shankar skyrmions in three-dimensional magnets are discussed in detail, which are shown to induce, respectively, the Abelian and the non-Abelian topological magnetic field on magnons, and thereby engender the topological Hall transport in textured frustrated magnets. We also discuss the effect of magnon-magnon interactions on our effective theory. Our work is applicable to a broad class of magnetic materials whose low-energy manifold is described by the SO(3) order parameter. We envision that the discovery of the non-Abelian magnonic gauge theory will enrich the field of magnonics as well as prompt the study of magnon transport in textured frustrated magnets.

Symmetry plays a central role in fundamental physics. Here we identify a phase-jump phenomenon in high-order harmonic generation in symmetry-breaking crystals. This phenomenon originates from the singularity in the effective mass of electron-hole pairs at nonzero-distance collisions, a factor usually ignored in the literature. However, it determines the basic properties of harmonic emissions. This phase-jump phenomenon results in a suppression of the harmonic spectrum by orders, which is strongly orientation dependent. It is universal and not limited to a specific crystal. Clues to this can be found in published ab initio simulations and experimental results, but not interpreted. Our findings pave the way for a better understanding of the ultrafast dynamics of electron-hole pairs in XUV photon emission.

The response of driven frustrated media stems from interacting hysteretic elements. We derive explicit mappings from networks of hysteretic springs to their abstract representation as interacting hysterons. These mappings reveal how the physical network controls the signs, magnitudes, symmetries, and pairwise nature of the hysteron interactions. In addition, strong geometric nonlinearities can produce pathways that require excess hysterons or even break hysteron models. Our results pave the way for metamaterials with geometrically controlled interactions, pathways, and functionalities, and highlight fundamental limitations of abstract hysterons in modeling disordered systems.