Accidental ground state degeneracies—those not a consequence of global symmetries of the Hamiltonian—are inevitably lifted by fluctuations, often leading to long-range order, a phenomenon known as “order-by-disorder” (ObD). The detection and characterization of ObD in real materials currently lacks clear, qualitative signatures that distinguish ObD from conventional energetic selection. We show that for order by thermal disorder (ObTD) such a signature exists: a characteristic temperature dependence of the fluctuation-induced pseudo-Goldstone gap. We demonstrate this in a minimal two-dimensional model that exhibits ObTD, the ferromagnetic Heisenberg-compass model on a square lattice. Using spin-dynamics simulations and self-consistent mean-field calculations, we determine the pseudo-Goldstone gap, $\mathrm{\Delta }$, and show that at low temperatures it scales as the square root of temperature, $\sqrt{T}$. We establish that a power-law temperature dependence of the gap is a general consequence of ObTD, showing that all key features of this physics can be captured in a simple model of a particle moving in an effective potential generated by the fluctuation-induced free energy.

Experiments have shown that the conductance of conical channels, filled with an aqueous electrolyte, can strongly depend on the history of the applied voltage. These channels hence have a memory and are promising elements in brain-inspired (iontronic) circuits. We show here that the memory of such channels stems from transient concentration polarization over the ionic diffusion time. We derive an analytic approximation for these dynamics which shows good agreement with full finite-element calculations. Using our analytic approximation, we propose an experimentally realizable Hodgkin-Huxley iontronic circuit where micrometer cones take on the role of sodium and potassium channels. Our proposed circuit exhibits key features of neuronal communication such as all-or-none action potentials upon a pulse stimulus and a spike train upon a sustained stimulus.

Many-body localized (MBL) systems fail to reach thermal equilibrium under their own dynamics, even though they are interacting, nonintegrable, and in an extensively excited state. One instability toward thermalization of MBL systems is the so-called “avalanche,” where a locally thermalizing rare region is able to spread thermalization through the full system. The spreading of the avalanche may be modeled and numerically studied in finite one-dimensional MBL systems by weakly coupling an infinite-temperature bath to one end of the system. We find that the avalanche spreads primarily via strong many-body resonances between rare near-resonant eigenstates of the closed system. Thus we find and explore a detailed connection between many-body resonances and avalanches in MBL systems.

We consider the many-body ground state of polarized fermions interacting via zero-range $p$-wave forces in a one-dimensional geometry. We rigorously prove that in the limit of infinite attractions spectral properties of any-order reduced density matrix describing arbitrary subsystem are completely independent of the shape of an external potential. It means that quantum correlations between any two subsystems are in this limit insensitive to the confinement. In addition, we show that the purity of these matrices quantifying the amount of quantum correlations can be obtained analytically for any number of particles without diagonalizing them. This observation may serve as a rigorous benchmark for other models and methods describing strongly interacting $p$-wave fermions.

As a fundamental concept of all crystals, space groups are partitioned into symmorphic groups and nonsymmorphic groups. Each nonsymmorphic group contains glide reflections or screw rotations with fractional lattice translations, which are absent in symmorphic groups. Although nonsymmorphic groups ubiquitously exist on real-space lattices, on the reciprocal lattices in momentum space, the ordinary theory only allows symmorphic groups. In this work, we develop a novel theory for momentum-space nonsymmorphic space groups ($k$-NSGs), utilizing the projective representations of space groups. The theory is quite general: Given any $k$-NSGs in any dimensions, it can identify the real-space symmorphic space groups ($r$-SSGs) and construct the corresponding projective representation of the $r$-SSG that leads to the $k$-NSG. To demonstrate the broad applicability of our theory, we show these projective representations and therefore all $k$-NSGs can be realized by gauge fluxes over real-space lattices. Our work fundamentally extends the framework of crystal symmetry, and therefore can accordingly extend any theory based on crystal symmetry, for instance, the classification crystalline topological phases.

Irreversibility is commonly quantified by entropy production. An external observer can estimate it through measuring an observable that is antisymmetric under time reversal like a current. We introduce a general framework that allows us to infer a lower bound on entropy production through measuring the time-resolved statistics of events with any symmetry under time reversal, in particular, time-symmetric instantaneous events. We emphasize Markovianity as a property of certain events rather than of the full system and introduce an operationally accessible criterion for this weakened Markov property. Conceptually, the approach is based on snippets as particular sections of trajectories between two Markovian events, for which a generalized detailed balance relation is discussed.

According to recent new definitions, a multiparty behavior is genuinely multipartite nonlocal (GMNL) if it cannot be modeled by measurements on an underlying network of bipartite-only nonlocal resources, possibly supplemented with local (classical) resources shared by all parties. The new definitions differ on whether to allow entangled measurements upon, and/or superquantum behaviors among, the underlying bipartite resources. Here, we categorize the full hierarchy of these new candidate definitions of GMNL in three-party quantum networks, highlighting the intimate link to device-independent witnesses of network effects. A key finding is the existence of a behavior in the simplest nontrivial multipartite measurement scenario (three parties, two measurement settings, and two outcomes) that cannot be simulated in a bipartite network prohibiting entangled measurements and superquantum resources—thus witnessing the most general form of GMNL—but can be simulated with bipartite-only quantum states with an entangled measurement, indicating an approach to device-independent certification of entangled measurements with fewer settings than in previous protocols. Surprisingly, we also find that this (3,2,2) behavior, as well as the others previously studied as device-independent witnesses of entangled measurements, can all be simulated at a higher echelon of the GMNL hierarchy that allows superquantum bipartite resources while still prohibiting entangled measurements. This poses a challenge to a theory-independent understanding of entangled measurements as an observable phenomenon distinct from bipartite nonlocality.

Above-barrier quantum scattering with truncated real potentials $V(x)=-|x{|}^p$ provides an experimentally accessible platform that exhibits spontaneous parity-time symmetry breaking as $p$ is varied. The unbroken phase has reflectionless states that correspond to bound states in the continuum of the nontruncated potentials at arbitrarily high discrete real energies. In the fully broken phase there are no bound states. There is a mixed phase in which exceptional points occur at specific energies and values of $p$. These effects should be observable in cold-atom scattering experiments.

We develop an error mitigation method for the control-free phase estimation. We prove a theorem that under the first-order correction, the phases of a unitary operator are immune to the noise channels with only Hermitian Kraus operators, and therefore, certain benign types of noise for phase estimation are identified. By further incorporating the randomized compiling protocol, we can convert the generic noise in the phase estimation circuits into stochastic Pauli noise, which satisfies the condition of our theorem. Thus, we achieve a noise-resilient phase estimation without any quantum resource overhead. The simulated experiments show that our method can significantly reduce the estimation error of the phases by up to 2 orders of magnitude. Our method paves the way for the utilization of quantum phase estimation before the advent of fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Minimizing leakage from computational states is a challenge when using many-level systems like superconducting quantum circuits as qubits. We realize and extend the quantum-hardware-efficient, all-microwave leakage reduction unit (LRU) for transmons in a circuit QED architecture proposed by Battistel et al. This LRU effectively reduces leakage in the second- and third-excited transmon states with up to 99% efficacy in 220 ns, with minimum impact on the qubit subspace. As a first application in the context of quantum error correction, we show how multiple simultaneous LRUs can reduce the error detection rate and suppress leakage buildup within 1% in data and ancilla qubits over 50 cycles of a weight-2 stabilizer measurement.

According to the inflationary theory of cosmology, most elementary particles in the current Universe were created during a period of reheating after inflation. In this Letter, we self-consistently couple the Einstein-inflaton equations to a strongly coupled quantum field theory as described by holography. We show that this leads to an inflating universe, a reheating phase, and finally a universe dominated by the quantum field theory in thermal equilibrium.

The effects of scalar and pseudoscalar ultralight bosonic dark matter (UBDM) were searched for by comparing the frequency of a quartz oscillator to that of a hyperfine-structure transition in ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$, and an electronic transition in ${}^{164}\mathrm{Dy}$. We constrain linear interactions between a scalar UBDM field and standard-model (SM) fields for an underlying UBDM particle mass in the range $1\times {10}^{-17}–8.3\times {10}^{-13}\mathrm{eV}$ and quadratic interactions between a pseudoscalar UBDM field and SM fields in the range $5\times {10}^{-18}–4.1\times {10}^{-13}\mathrm{eV}$. Within regions of the respective ranges, our constraints on linear interactions significantly improve on results from previous, direct searches for oscillations in atomic parameters, while constraints on quadratic interactions surpass limits imposed by such direct searches as well as by astrophysical observations.

We study the strong-field ionization driven by quantum lights. Developing a quantum-optical-corrected strong-field approximation model, we simulate the photoelectron momentum distribution with squeezed-state light, which manifests as notably different interference structures from that with coherent-state (classical) light. With the saddle-point method, we analyze the electron dynamics and reveal that the photon statistics of squeezed-state light fields endows the tunneling electron wave packets with a time-varying phase uncertainty and modulates the photoelectron intracycle and intercycle interferences. Moreover, it is found the fluctuation of quantum light imprints significant influence on the propagation of tunneling electron wave packets, in which the ionization probability of electrons is considerably modified in time domain.

Interferometers are highly sensitive to phase differences and are utilized in numerous schemes. Of special interest is the quantum SU(1,1) interferometer which is able to improve the sensitivity of classical interferometers. We theoretically develop and experimentally demonstrate a temporal SU(1,1) interferometer based on two time lenses in a $4f$ configuration. This temporal SU(1,1) interferometer has a high temporal resolution, imposes interference on both time and spectral domains, and is sensitive to the phase derivative which is important for detecting ultrafast phase changes. Therefore, this interferometer can be utilized for temporal mode encoding, imaging, and studying the ultrafast temporal structure of quantum light.

It is shown that the quantum intensity noise of a single-emitter nanolaser can be accurately computed by adopting a stochastic interpretation of the standard rate equation model. The only assumption made is that the emitter excitation and photon number are stochastic variables with integer values. This extends the validity of rate equations beyond the mean-field limit and avoids using the standard Langevin approach, which is shown to fail for few emitters. The model is validated by comparison to full quantum simulations of the relative intensity noise and second-order intensity correlation function, $g^{(2)}(0)$. Surprisingly, even when the full quantum model displays vacuum Rabi oscillations, which are not accounted for by rate equations, the intensity quantum noise is correctly predicted by the stochastic approach. Adopting a simple discretization of the emitter and photon populations, thus, goes a long way in describing quantum noise in lasers. Besides providing a versatile and easy-to-use tool for modeling emerging nanolasers, these results provide insight into the fundamental nature of quantum noise in lasers.

Direct numerical simulation and theoretical analyses showed that the probability density functions (PDFs) of the energy dissipation rate and enstrophy in turbulence are asymptotically stretched gamma distributions with the same stretching exponent, and both the left and right tails of the enstrophy PDF are longer than those of the energy dissipation rate regardless of the Reynolds number. The differences in PDF tails arise due to the kinematics, with differences in the number of terms contributing to the dissipation rate and enstrophy. Meanwhile, the stretching exponent is determined by the dynamics and likeliness of singularities.

Electrothermal instability plays an important role in applications of current-driven metal, creating striations (which seed the magneto–Rayleigh-Taylor instability) and filaments (which provide a more rapid path to plasma formation). However, the initial formation of both structures is not well understood. Simulations show for the first time how a commonly occurring isolated defect transforms into the larger striation and filament, through a feedback loop connecting current and electrical conductivity. Simulations have been experimentally validated using defect-driven self-emission patterns.