Describing the evolution of quantum systems by means of non-Hermitian generators opens a new avenue to explore the dynamical properties naturally emerging in such a picture, e.g. operation at the so-called exceptional points, preservation of parity-time symmetry, or capitalizing on the singular behavior of the dynamics. In this Letter, we focus on the possibility of achieving unbounded sensitivity when using the system to sense linear perturbations away from a singular point. By combining multiparameter estimation theory of Gaussian quantum systems with the one of singular-matrix perturbations, we introduce the necessary tools to study the ultimate limits on the precision attained by such singularity-tuned sensors. We identify under what conditions and at what rate can the resulting sensitivity indeed diverge, in order to show that nuisance parameters should be generally included in the analysis, as their presence may alter the scaling of the error with the estimated parameter.

Using holographic duality, we investigate the impact of finite temperature on the instability and splitting patterns of quadruply quantized vortices, providing the first-ever analysis in this context. Through linear stability analysis, we reveal the occurrence of two consecutive dynamical transitions. At a specific low temperature, the dominant unstable mode transitions from the twofold rotational symmetry mode to the threefold one, followed by a transition from the threefold one to the fourfold one at a higher temperature. As the temperature is increased, we also observe the fivefold and sixfold rotational symmetry unstable modes get excited successively. Employing the full nonlinear numerical simulations, we further demonstrate that these two novel dynamical transitions, along with the temperature-induced instabilities for the fivefold and sixfold rotational symmetry modes, can be identified by examining the resulting distinct splitting patterns, which offers a promising route for the experimental verification in the cold atom gases.

Using an 185-kg NaI[Tl] array, COHERENT has measured the inclusive electron-neutrino charged-current cross section on ${}^{127}\mathrm{I}$ with pion decay-at-rest neutrinos produced by the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Iodine is one the heaviest targets for which low-energy ($\le 50\mathrm{MeV}$) inelastic neutrino-nucleus processes have been measured, and this is the first measurement of its inclusive cross section. After a five-year detector exposure, COHERENT reports a flux-averaged cross section for electron neutrinos of ${9.2}_{-1.8}^{+2.1}\times {10}^{-40}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$. This corresponds to a value that is $\sim 41\%$ lower than predicted using the MARLEY event generator with a measured Gamow-Teller strength distribution. In addition, the observed visible spectrum from charged-current scattering on ${}^{127}\mathrm{I}$ has been measured between 10 and 55 MeV, and the exclusive zero-neutron and one-or-more-neutron emission cross sections are measured to be ${5.2}_{-3.1}^{+3.4}\times {10}^{-40}$ and ${2.2}_{-2.2}^{+3.5}\times {10}^{-40}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$, respectively.

We propose theories of a complete mirror world with parity ($P$) solving the strong $CP$ problem. $P$ exchanges the entire standard model with its mirror copy. We derive bounds on the two new mass scales that arise: $v^{\prime }$ where parity and mirror electroweak symmetry are spontaneously broken, and $v_3$ where the color groups break to the diagonal strong interactions. The strong $CP$ problem is solved even if $v_3\ll v^{\prime }$, when heavy colored states at the scale $v_3$ may be accessible at LHC and future colliders. Furthermore, we argue that the breaking of $P$ introduces negligible contributions to ${\overline{\theta }}_{\mathrm{QCD}}$, starting at three-loop order. The symmetry breaking at $v_3$ can be made dynamical, without introducing an additional hierarchy problem.

We report on the results obtained with the global CUPID-0 background model, which combines the data collected in the two measurement campaigns for a total exposure of $8.82\mathrm{kg}\times \mathrm{yr}$ of ${}^{82}\mathrm{Se}$. We identify with improved precision the background sources within the 3 MeV energy region, where neutrinoless double $\beta$ decay of ${}^{82}\mathrm{Se}$ and ${}^{100}\mathrm{Mo}$ is expected, making more solid the foundations for the background budget of the next-generation CUPID experiment. Relying on the excellent data reconstruction, we measure the two-neutrino double $\beta$-decay half-life of ${}^{82}\mathrm{Se}$ with unprecedented accuracy: $T_{1/2}^{2\nu }=[8.69\pm 0.05(\mathrm{stat}){}_{-0.06}{}^{+0.09}(\mathrm{syst})]\times {10}^{19}\mathrm{yr}$.

Highly charged ions (HCIs) offer many opportunities for next-generation clock research due to the vast landscape of available electronic transitions in different charge states. The development of extreme ultraviolet frequency combs has enabled the search for clock transitions based on shorter wavelengths in HCIs. However, without initial knowledge of the energy of the clock states, these narrow transitions are difficult to be probed by lasers. In this Letter, we provide experimental observation and theoretical calculation of a long-lived electronic state in Nb-like ${\mathrm{Pb}}^{41+}$ that could be used as a clock state. With the mass spectrometer PENTATRAP, the excitation energy of this metastable state is directly determined as a mass difference at an energy of 31.2(8) eV, corresponding to one of the most precise relative mass determinations to date with a fractional uncertainty of $4\times {10}^{-12}$. This experimental result agrees within $1\sigma$ with two partially different ab initio multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations of 31.68(13) eV and 31.76(35) eV, respectively. With a calculated lifetime of 26.5(5.3) days, the transition from this metastable state to the ground state bears a quality factor of $1.1\times {10}^{23}$ and allows for the construction of a HCI clock with a fractional frequency instability of $<{10}^{-19}/\sqrt{\tau }$.

Glitches, spin-up events in neutron stars, are of prime interest, as they reveal properties of nuclear matter at subnuclear densities. We numerically investigate the glitch mechanism due to vortex unpinning using analogies between neutron stars and dipolar supersolids. We explore the vortex and crystal dynamics during a glitch and its dependence on the supersolid quality, providing a tool to study glitches from different radial depths of a neutron star. Benchmarking our theory against neutron-star observations, our work will open a new avenue for the quantum simulation of stellar objects from Earth.

We present an approach to achieve zero modes in lattice models that do not rely on any symmetry or topology of the bulk, which are robust against disorder in the bulk of any type and strength. Such symmetry-free zero modes (SFZMs) are formed by attaching a single site or small cluster with zero mode(s) to the bulk, which serves as the “nucleus” that expands to the entire lattice. We identify the requirements on the couplings between this boundary and the bulk, which reveals that this approach is intrinsically non-Hermitian. We then provide several examples with either an arbitrary or structured bulk, forming spectrally embedded zero modes in the bulk continuum, midgap zero modes, and even restoring the “zeroness” of coupling or disorder-shifted topological corner states. Focusing on viable realizations using photonic lattices, we show that the resulting SFZM can be observed as the single lasing mode when optical gain is applied to the boundary.

Symmetries are ubiquitous in condensed matter physics, playing an important role in the appearance of different phases of matter. Nonlinear light matter interactions serve as a coherent probe for resolving symmetries and symmetry breaking via their link to selection rules of the interaction. In the extreme nonlinear regime, high harmonic generation (HHG) spectroscopy offers a unique spectroscopic approach to study this link, probing the crystal spatial properties with high sensitivity while opening new paths for selection rules in the XUV regime. In this Letter we establish an advanced HHG polarimetry scheme, driven by a multicolor strong laser field, to observe the structural symmetries of solids and their interplay with the HHG selection rules. By controlling the crystal symmetries, we resolve nontrivial polarization states associated with new spectral features in the HHG spectrum. Our scheme opens new opportunities in resolving the symmetries of quantum materials, as well as ultrafast light driven symmetries in condensed matter systems.

Transient electron dynamics near the interface of counterstreaming plasmas at the onset of a relativistic collisionless shock (RCS) is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. We identify a slingshotlike injection process induced by the drifting electric field sustained by the flowing focus of backward-moving electrons, which is distinct from the well-known stochastic acceleration. The flowing focus signifies the plasma kinetic transition from a preturbulent laminar motion to a chaotic turbulence. We find a characteristic correlation between the electron dynamics in the slingshot acceleration and the photon emission features. In particular, the integrated radiation from the RCS exhibits a counterintuitive nonmonotonic dependence of the photon polarization degree on the photon energy, which originates from a polarization degradation of relatively high-energy photons emitted by the slingshot-injected electrons. Our results demonstrate the potential of photon polarization as an essential information source in exploring intricate transient dynamics in RCSs with relevance for Earth-based plasma and astrophysical scenarios.

Controlling macroscopic friction is crucial for numerous natural and industrial applications, ranging from forecasting earthquakes to miniaturizing semiconductor devices, but predicting and manipulating friction phenomena remains a challenge due to the unknown relationship between nanoscale and macroscopic friction. Here, we show experimentally that dry friction at multiasperity Si-on-Si interfaces is dominated by the formation of interfacial siloxane ($\mathrm{Si}─\mathrm{O}─\mathrm{Si}$) bonds, the density of which can be precisely regulated by exposing plasma-cleaned silicon surfaces to dry nitrogen. Our results show how the bond density can be used to quantitatively understand and control the macroscopic friction. Our findings establish a unique connection between the molecular scale at which adhesion occurs, and the friction coefficient that is the key macroscopic parameter for industrial and natural tribology challenges.

We provide evidence that the spectrum of the local effective Hamiltonian and the transfer operator in infinite-system matrix product state simulations are identical up to a global rescaling factor, i.e., the speed of light of the system, when the underlying system is described by a $1+1$ dimensional CFT. We provide arguments for this correspondence based on a path integral point of view. This observation turns out to yield very precise estimates for the speed of light in practice, confirming exact results to high precision where available, but also allowing us to finally determine the speed of light of the non-integrable, critical SU(2) Heisenberg chains with half-integer spin $S>1/2$ with unprecedented accuracy. We also show that the same technology applied to doped Hubbard ladders provides highly accurate velocities for a range of dopings. Combined with measurements of compressibilities we present new results for the Luttinger liquid parameter in the Luther-Emery regime of doped Hubbard ladders, outperforming earlier approaches based on the fitting of real-space correlation functions.

For bosons with flat energy dispersion, condensation can occur in different symmetry sectors. Here, we consider bosons in a kagome lattice with $\pi$-flux hopping, which, in the presence of mean-field interactions, exhibit degenerate condensates in the $\mathrm{\Gamma }$ and the $K$ point. We analyze the excitation above both condensates and find strikingly different properties: For the $K$-point condensate, the Bogoliubov–de Gennes (BdG) Hamiltonian has broken particle-hole symmetry and exhibits a topologically trivial quasiparticle band structure. However, band flatness plays a key role in breaking the time-reversal symmetry of the BdG Hamiltonian for a $\mathrm{\Gamma }$-point condensate. Consequently, its quasiparticle band structure exhibits nontrivial topology, characterized by nonzero Chern numbers and by the presence of edge states. Although quantum fluctuations energetically favor the $K$-point condensate, the interesting properties of the $\mathrm{\Gamma }$-point condensate become relevant for anisotropic hopping. The topological properties of the $\mathrm{\Gamma }$-point condensate get even richer in the presence of extended Bose-Hubbard interactions. We find a topological phase transition into a topological condensate characterized by high Chern number and also comment on the realization and detection of such excitations.

The mean first passage time (MFPT) of random walks is a key quantity characterizing dynamic processes on disordered media. In a random fractal embedded in the Euclidean space, the MFPT is known to obey the power law scaling with the distance between a source and a target site with a universal exponent. We find that the scaling law for the MFPT is not determined solely by the distance between a source and a target but also by their locations. The role of a site in the first passage processes is quantified by the random walk centrality. It turns out that the site of highest random walk centrality, dubbed as a hub, intervenes in first passage processes. We show that the MFPT from a departure site to a target site is determined by a competition between direct paths and indirect paths detouring via the hub. Consequently, the MFPT displays a crossover scaling between a short distance regime, where direct paths are dominant, and a long distance regime, where indirect paths are dominant. The two regimes are characterized by power laws with different scaling exponents. The crossover scaling behavior is confirmed by extensive numerical calculations of the MFPTs on the critical percolation cluster in two dimensional square lattices.

Dynamical fluctuations or rare events associated with atypical trajectories in chaotic maps due to specific initial conditions can crucially determine their fate, as the may lead to stability islands or regions in phase space otherwise displaying unusual behavior. Yet, finding such initial conditions is a daunting task precisely because of the chaotic nature of the system. In this Letter, we circumvent this problem by proposing a framework for finding an effective topologically conjugate map whose typical trajectories correspond to atypical ones of the original map. This is illustrated by means of examples which focus on counterbalancing the instability of fixed points and periodic orbits, as well as on the characterization of a dynamical phase transition involving the finite-time Lyapunov exponent. The procedure parallels that of the application of the generalized Doob transform in the stochastic dynamics of Markov chains, diffusive processes, and open quantum systems, which in each case results in a new process having the prescribed statistics in its stationary state. This Letter thus brings chaotic maps into the growing family of systems whose rare fluctuations—sustaining prescribed statistics of dynamical observables—can be characterized and controlled by means of a large-deviation formalism.

From a thermodynamic point of view, all clocks are driven by irreversible processes. Additionally, one can use oscillatory systems to temporally modulate the thermodynamic flux towards equilibrium. Focusing on the most elementary thermalization events, this modulation can be thought of as a temporal probability concentration for these events. There are two fundamental factors limiting the performance of clocks: On the one level, the inevitable drifts of the oscillatory system, which are addressed by finding stable atomic or nuclear transitions that lead to astounding precision of today’s clocks. On the other level, there is the intrinsically stochastic nature of the irreversible events upon which the clock’s operation is based. This becomes relevant when seeking to maximize a clock’s resolution at high accuracy, which is ultimately limited by the number of such stochastic events per reference time unit. We address this essential trade-off between clock accuracy and resolution, proving a universal bound for all clocks whose elementary thermalization events are memoryless.