We show that an x-ray emission signature associated with acceleration phase mass injection [R. C. Shah et al., Phys. Rev. E 103, 023201 (2021)] correlates with poor experimental hot-spot convergence and a reduced neutron production relative to expectations. It is shown that with increased target mass as well as with higher-design adiabats, this signature is reduced, whereas with increased debris on the target, the signature is increased. We estimate that the vapor region in typical best designs may have up to $2\times$ the assumed hydrogen mass at the start of deceleration.

The response of materials under dynamic compression involves a complex interplay of various deformation mechanisms aimed at relieving shear stresses, yielding a remarkable diversity in material behavior. In this Letter, we utilize femtosecond x-ray diffraction coupled with nanosecond laser compression to reveal an intricate competition between multiple shear-relieving mechanisms within an elemental metal. Our observations in shocked-compressed single-crystal Zr indicate a disorder-mediated shear relaxation at lower pressures. Above the phase-transition pressure, we observe the increasing contribution of structural phase transition in relieving shear stress. We detect not one but three concurrent pathways during the transition from the hcp to a hex-3 structure. These complex dynamics are partially corroborated through multimillion-atom molecular dynamics simulations employing a machine-learned interatomic potential. Our observation of multiple concurrent pathways and disorder during shock compression underscore the far greater intricacies in the dynamic response of metals than previously assumed.

We study the effect of the pseudospin ferromagnetism with the aid of an electrically detected electron spin resonance in a wide AlAs quantum well containing a high quality two-dimensional electron system. Here, pseudospin emerges as a two-component degree of freedom, that labels degenerate energy minima in momentum space populated by electrons. The built-in mechanical strain in the sample studied imposes a finite “Zeeman” splitting between the pseudospin “up” and “down” states. Because of the anisotropy of the electron spin splitting we were able to independently measure the electron spin resonances originating from the two in-plane valleys. By analyzing the relative resonance amplitudes, we were able to investigate the ferromagnetic phase transitions taking place at integer filling factors of the quantum Hall effect when the magnetic field is tilted. The pseudospin nature of these transitions is demonstrated.

The traditional dynamical phase transition refers to the appearance of singularities in an observable with respect to a control parameter for a late-time state or singularities in the rate function of the Loschmidt echo with respect to time. Here, we study the many-body dynamics in a continuously monitored free fermion system with conditional feedback under open boundary conditions. We surprisingly find a novel dynamical transition from a logarithmic scaling of the entanglement entropy to an area-law scaling as time evolves. The transition, which is noticeably different from the conventional dynamical phase transition, arises from the competition between the bulk dynamics and boundary skin effects. In addition, we find that while quasidisorder or disorder cannot drive a transition for the steady state, a transition occurs for the maximum entanglement entropy during the time evolution, which agrees well with the entanglement transition for the steady state of the dynamics under periodic boundary conditions.

We propose a quantum information processing platform that utilizes the ultrafast time-bin encoding of photons. This approach offers a pathway to scalability by leveraging the inherent phase stability of collinear temporal interferometric networks at the femtosecond-to-picosecond timescale. The proposed architecture encodes information in ultrafast temporal bins processed using optically induced nonlinearities and birefringent materials while keeping photons in a single spatial mode. We demonstrate the potential for scalable photonic quantum information processing through two independent experiments that showcase the platform’s programmability and scalability, respectively. The scheme’s programmability is demonstrated in the first experiment, where we successfully program 362 different unitary transformations in up to eight dimensions in a temporal circuit. In the second experiment, we show the scalability of ultrafast time-bin encoding by building a passive optical network, with increasing circuit depth, of up to 36 optical modes. In each experiment, fidelities exceed 97%, while the interferometric phase remains passively stable for several days.

We demonstrate that when the field theory Kleiss-Kuijf and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations are imposed on one color ordering of general local bi-adjoint scalar effective field theories, the string monodromy relations must be obeyed by the other color ordering. This is a surprising example of an open string world-sheet property appearing in a purely field theoretic context. As part of the derivation, we show that nonlinear relations among the four-point Wilson coefficients arise from imposing linear symmetries on the six-point amplitude via factorization.

The saturation of a recently proposed universal bound on the Lyapunov exponent has been conjectured to signal the existence of a gravity dual. This saturation occurs in the low-temperature limit of the dense Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, $N$ Majorana fermions with $q$ body ($q>2$) infinite-range interactions. We calculate certain out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) for $N\le 64$ fermions for a highly sparse SYK model and find no significant dependence of the Lyapunov exponent on sparsity up to near the percolation limit where the Hamiltonian breaks up into blocks. This provides strong support to the saturation of the Lyapunov exponent in the low-temperature limit of the sparse SYK. A key ingredient to reaching $N=64$ is the development of a novel quantum spin model simulation library that implements highly optimized matrix-free Krylov subspace methods on graphical processing units. This leads to a significantly lower simulation time as well as vastly reduced memory usage over previous approaches, while using modest computational resources. Strong sparsity-driven statistical fluctuations require both the use of a much larger number of disorder realizations with respect to the dense limit and a careful finite size scaling analysis. The saturation of the bound in the sparse SYK points to the existence of a gravity analog that would enlarge substantially the number of field theories with this feature.

This Letter presents the most precise measurement to date of the matter-antimatter imbalance at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$. Using the Statistical Hadronization framework, it is possible to obtain the value of the electric charge and baryon chemical potentials, ${\mu }_Q=-0.18\pm 0.90\mathrm{MeV}$ and ${\mu }_B=0.71\pm 0.45\mathrm{MeV}$, with unprecedented precision. A centrality-differential study of the antiparticle-to-particle yield ratios of charged pions, protons, $\mathrm{\Omega }$ baryons, and light (hyper)nuclei is performed. These results indicate that the system created in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC is on average baryon-free and electrically neutral at midrapidity.

We study driven atomic Josephson junctions realized by coupling two two-dimensional atomic clouds with a tunneling barrier. By moving the barrier at a constant velocity, dc and ac Josephson regimes are characterized by a zero and nonzero atomic density difference across the junction, respectively. Here, we monitor the dynamics resulting in the system when, in addition to the above constant velocity protocol, the position of the barrier is periodically driven. We demonstrate that the time-averaged particle imbalance features a plateau behavior that is the analog of Shapiro steps observed in driven superconducting Josephson junctions. The underlying dynamics reveals an intriguing interplay of the vortex and phonon excitations, where Shapiro steps are induced via suppression of vortex growth. We study the system with a classical-field dynamics method, and benchmark our findings with a driven circuit dynamics.

We extend the powerful formalism of multichannel quantum defect theory combined with a frame transformation to ultracold atom-molecule collisions in magnetic fields. By solving the coupled-channel equations with hyperfine and Zeeman interactions omitted at short range, the extended theory enables a drastically simplified description of the intricate quantum dynamics of ultracold molecular collisions in terms of a small number of short-range parameters. We apply the formalism to ultracold $\mathrm{Mg}+\mathrm{NH}$ collisions in a magnetic field, achieving a ${10}^4$-fold reduction in computational effort.

Conventional approaches for scattering manipulations largely rely on the technique of field expansions into spherical harmonics (electromagnetic multipoles), which nevertheless is not only nongeneric (expansion coefficients depend on the origin position of the coordinate system) but also more descriptive than predictive. Here, we explore this classical topic from a different perspective of controlled excitations and interferences of quasinormal modes (QNMs) supported by the scattering system. Scattered waves are expanded into coherent additions of QNMs, among which the relative amplitudes and phases are crucial factors to architect for scattering manipulations. Relying on the electromagnetic reciprocity, we provide full geometric representations based on the Poincaré sphere for those factors, and discover the hidden geometric phase of QNMs that drives the scattering evolutions. Further synchronous exploitations of the incident polarization-dependent geometric phase and excitation amplitudes enable efficient manipulations of both scattering intensities and polarizations. Continuous geometric phase spanning $2\pi$ is directly manifest through scattering variations, even in the rather elementary configuration of an individual particle scattering waves of varying polarizations. We have essentially established a profoundly all-encompassing framework for the calculations of geometric phase in arbitrary scattering systems that are reciprocal. Our theoretical model will greatly broaden horizons of many disciplines not only in photonics but also in general wave physics where geometric phase is generic and ubiquitous.

Discovering novel emergent behavior in quantum many-body systems is a main objective of contemporary research. In this Letter, we explore the effects on phases and phase transitions of the proximity to a Ruelle-Fisher instability, marking the transition to a collapsed state. To accomplish this, we study by quantum Monte Carlo simulations a two-dimensional system of soft-core bosons interacting through an isotropic finite-ranged attraction, with a parameter $\eta$ describing its strength. If $\eta$ exceeds a characteristic value ${\eta }_c$, the thermodynamic limit is lost, as the system becomes unstable against collapse. We investigate the phase diagram of the model for $\eta \lesssim {\eta }_c$, finding—in addition to a liquid-vapor transition—a first-order transition between two liquid phases. Upon cooling, the high-density liquid turns superfluid, possibly above the vapor-liquid-liquid triple temperature. As $\eta$ approaches ${\eta }_c$, the stability region of the high-density liquid is shifted to increasingly higher densities, a behavior at variance with distinguishable quantum or classical particles. Finally, for $\eta$ larger than ${\eta }_c$ our simulations yield evidence of collapse of the low-temperature fluid for any density; the collapsed system forms a circular cluster whose radius is insensitive to the number of particles.

The quantum Hall (QH) effect is one of the most widely studied physical phenomenon in two dimensions. The plateau-plateau transition within this effect can be comprehensively described by the scaling theory, which encompasses three pivotal exponents: the critical exponent $\mathit{\kappa }$, the inelastic scattering exponent $\mathit{p}$, and the universal exponent $\mathit{\gamma }$. Prior studies have focused on measuring $\mathit{\kappa }$ and estimating $\mathit{\gamma }$, assuming a constant $\mathit{p}$ value of 2 across magnetic fields. Here, our work marks a significant advancement by measuring all three exponents within a single graphene device and a conventional two-dimensional electron system. This study uniquely determines $\mathit{p}$ at low magnetic fields (weak localization region and well outside the QH regime) and high magnetic fields (in the vicinity of the QH regime). Employing a comprehensive analytical approach that includes weak localization, plateau-plateau transitions, and variable range hopping, we have directly determined $\mathit{\kappa }$, $\mathit{p}$, and $\mathit{\gamma }$. Our findings reveal a distinct variation in $\mathit{p}$, shifting from 1 in the low magnetic field regime to 2 in the QH regime in graphene.

We propose a scheme for producing and manipulating quantized exciton-polariton vortices in the higher-order topological corner modes of a two-dimensional array of micropillars. By nonresonantly exciting $p$-orbital condensates with different orientations at two input corners, polariton vortices carrying the required topological charges can be controllably created at output corners away from the pumping spots. Besides, polariton vortices formed at input corners can be copied to the output corners through the topological edge states. Our scheme provides topological double insurance for intrinsic binary information memory and holds potential applications in remote information processing.

AI algorithms have proven to be excellent predictors of protein structure, but whether and how much these algorithms can capture the underlying physics remains an open question. Here, we aim to test this question using the Alphafold2 (AF) algorithm: We use AF to predict the subtle structural deformation induced by single mutations, quantified by strain, and compare with experimental datasets of corresponding perturbations in folding free energy $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }G$. Unexpectedly, we find that physical strain alone—without any additional data or computation—correlates almost as well with $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }G$ as state-of-the-art energy-based and machine-learning predictors. This indicates that the AF-predicted structures alone encode fine details about the energy landscape. In particular, the structures encode significant information on stability, enough to estimate (de-)stabilizing effects of mutations, thus paving the way for the development of novel, structure-based stability predictors for protein design and evolution.

We present an exact Ansatz for the eigenstate problem of mixed fermion-boson systems that can be implemented on quantum devices. Based on a generalization of the electronic contracted Schrödinger equation (CSE), our approach guides a trial wave function to the ground state of any arbitrary mixed Hamiltonian by directly measuring residuals of the mixed CSE on a quantum device. Unlike density functional and coupled cluster theories applied to electron-phonon or electron-photon systems, the accuracy of our approach is not limited by the unknown exchange-correlation functional or the uncontrolled form of the exponential Ansatz. To test the performance of the method, we study the Tavis-Cummings model, commonly used in polaritonic quantum chemistry. Our results demonstrate that the CSE is a powerful tool in the development of quantum algorithms for solving general fermion-boson many-body problems.