We propose a time-reversal-even spin generation in second order of electric fields, which dominates the current induced spin polarization in a wide class of centrosymmetric nonmagnetic materials, and leads to a novel nonlinear spin-orbit torque in magnets. We reveal a quantum origin of this effect from the momentum space dipole of the anomalous spin polarizability. First-principles calculations predict sizable spin generations in several nonmagnetic hcp metals, in monolayer ${\mathrm{TiTe}}_2$, and in ferromagnetic monolayer ${\mathrm{MnSe}}_2$, which can be detected in experiment. Our work opens up the broad vista of nonlinear spintronics in both nonmagnetic and magnetic systems.

In the quest for efficient thermoelectrics, semiconducting behavior is a targeted property. Yet, this is often difficult to achieve due to the complex interplay between electronic structure, temperature, and disorder. We find this to be the case for the thermoelectric clathrate ${\mathrm{Ba}}_8{\mathrm{Al}}_{16}{\mathrm{Si}}_{30}$: Although this material exhibits a band gap in its ground state, a temperature-driven partial order-disorder transition leads to its effective closing. This finding is enabled by a novel approach to calculate the temperature-dependent effective band structure of alloys. Our method fully accounts for the effects of short-range order and can be applied to complex alloys with many atoms in the primitive cell, without relying on effective medium approximations.

Spiral spin liquids are an exotic class of correlated paramagnets with an enigmatic magnetic ground state composed of a degenerate manifold of fluctuating spin spirals. Experimental realizations of the spiral spin liquid are scarce, mainly due to the prominence of structural distortions in candidate materials that can trigger order-by-disorder transitions to more conventionally ordered magnetic ground states. Expanding the pool of candidate materials that may host a spiral spin liquid is therefore crucial to realizing this novel magnetic ground state and understanding its robustness against perturbations that arise in real materials. Here, we show that the material ${\mathrm{LiYbO}}_2$ is the first experimental realization of a spiral spin liquid predicted to emerge from the $J_1\text{−}{J}_2$ Heisenberg model on an elongated diamond lattice. Through a complementary combination of high-resolution and diffuse neutron magnetic scattering studies on a polycrystalline sample, we demonstrate that ${\mathrm{LiYbO}}_2$ fulfills the requirements for the experimental realization of the spiral spin liquid and reconstruct single-crystal diffuse neutron magnetic scattering maps that reveal continuous spiral spin contours—a characteristic experimental hallmark of this exotic magnetic phase.

Neutral silicon vacancy centers (${\mathrm{SiV}}^0$) in diamond are promising candidates for quantum applications; however, stabilizing ${\mathrm{SiV}}^0$ requires high-purity, boron-doped diamond, which is not a readily available material. Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach via chemical control of the diamond surface. We use low-damage chemical processing and annealing in a hydrogen environment to realize reversible and highly stable charge state tuning in undoped diamond. The resulting ${\mathrm{SiV}}^0$ centers display optically detected magnetic resonance and bulklike optical properties. Controlling the charge state tuning via surface termination offers a route for scalable technologies based on ${\mathrm{SiV}}^0$ centers, as well as charge state engineering of other defects.

Anomalous high-harmonic generation (HHG) arises in certain solids when irradiated by an intense laser field, originating from a Berry-curvature-induced perpendicular anomalous current. The observation of pure anomalous harmonics is, however, often prohibited by contamination from harmonics stemming from interband coherences. Here, we fully characterize the anomalous HHG mechanism, via development of an ab initio methodology for strong-field laser-solid interaction that allows a rigorous decomposition of the total current. We identify two unique properties of the anomalous harmonic yields: an overall yield increase with laser wavelength; and pronounced minima at certain laser wavelengths and laser intensities around which the spectral phases drastically change. Such signatures can be exploited to disentangle the anomalous harmonics from competing HHG mechanisms, and thus pave the way for the experimental identification and time-domain control of pure anomalous harmonics, as well as reconstruction of Berry curvatures.

Adopting a spintronics-inspired approach, we study the reciprocal coupling between ionic charge currents and nematic texture dynamics in a uniaxial nematic electrolyte. Assuming quenched fluid dynamics, we develop equations of motion analogously to spin torque and spin pumping. Based on the principle of least dissipation of energy, we derive the adiabatic “nematic torque” exerted by ionic currents on the nematic director field as well as the reciprocal motive force on ions due to the orientational dynamics of the director. We discuss several simple examples that illustrate the potential functionality of this coupling. Furthermore, using our phenomenological framework, we propose a practical means to extract the coupling strength through impedance measurements on a nematic cell. Exploring further applications based on this physics could foster the development of nematronics—nematic iontronics.

From an open system perspective non-Markovian effects due to a nearby bath or neighboring qubits are dynamically equivalent. However, there is a conceptual distinction to account for: neighboring qubits may be controlled. We combine recent advances in non-Markovian quantum process tomography with the framework of classical shadows to characterize spatiotemporal quantum correlations. Observables here constitute operations applied to the system, where the free operation is the maximally depolarizing channel. Using this as a causal break, we systematically erase causal pathways to narrow down the progenitors of temporal correlations. We show that one application of this is to filter out the effects of crosstalk and probe only non-Markovianity from an inaccessible bath. It also provides a lens on spatiotemporally spreading correlated noise throughout a lattice from common environments. We demonstrate both examples on synthetic data. Owing to the scaling of classical shadows, we can erase arbitrarily many neighboring qubits at no extra cost. Our procedure is thus efficient and amenable to systems even with all-to-all interactions.

In this Letter, we show that by combining quantum metrology and networking tools, it is possible to extend the baseline of an interferometric optical telescope and thus improve diffraction-limited imaging of point source positions. The quantum interferometer is based on single-photon sources, linear optical circuits, and efficient photon number counters. Surprisingly, with thermal (stellar) sources of low photon number per mode and high transmission losses across the baseline, the detected photon probability distribution still retains a large amount of Fisher information about the source position, allowing for a significant improvement in the resolution of positioning point sources, on the order of $10\mu \mathrm{as}$. Our proposal can be implemented with current technology. In particular, our proposal does not require experimental optical quantum memories.

We construct data-driven solutions to the Hubble tension which are perturbative modifications to the fiducial $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ cosmology, using the Fisher bias formalism. Taking as proof of principle the case of a time-varying electron mass and fine structure constant, and focusing first on Planck CMB data, we demonstrate that a modified recombination can solve the Hubble tension and lower $S_8$ to match weak lensing measurements. Once baryonic acoustic oscillation and uncalibrated supernovae data are included, however, it is not possible to fully solve the tension with perturbative modifications to recombination.

This Letter presents the first simultaneous measurement of the quasielasticlike neutrino-nucleus cross sections on C, water, Fe, Pb, and scintillator (hydrocarbon or CH) as a function of longitudinal and transverse muon momentum. The ratio of cross sections per nucleon between Pb and CH is always above unity and has a characteristic shape as a function of transverse muon momentum that evolves slowly as a function of longitudinal muon momentum. The ratio is constant versus longitudinal momentum within uncertainties above a longitudinal momentum of $4.5\mathrm{GeV}/c$. The cross section ratios to CH for C, water, and Fe remain roughly constant with increasing longitudinal momentum, and the ratios between water or C to CH do not have any significant deviation from unity. Both the overall cross section level and the shape for Pb and Fe as a function of transverse muon momentum are not reproduced by current neutrino event generators. These measurements provide a direct test of nuclear effects in quasielasticlike interactions, which are major contributors to long-baseline neutrino oscillation data samples.

We propose a general approach to freezing out fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions using the principle of maximum entropy. We find the results naturally expressed as a direct relationship between the irreducible relative correlators quantifying the deviations of hydrodynamic as well as hadron gas fluctuations from the ideal hadron gas baseline. The method also allows us to determine heretofore unknown parameters crucial for the freeze-out of fluctuations near the QCD critical point in terms of the QCD equation of state.

Despite considerable efforts, accurate computations of electron-phonon and carrier transport properties of low-dimensional materials from first principles have remained elusive. By building on recent advances in the description of long-range electrostatics, we develop a general approach to the calculation of electron-phonon couplings in two-dimensional materials. We show that the nonanalytic behavior of the electron-phonon matrix elements depends on the Wannier gauge, but that a missing Berry connection restores invariance to quadrupolar order. We showcase these contributions in a ${\mathrm{MoS}}_2$ monolayer, calculating intrinsic drift and Hall mobilities with precise Wannier interpolations. We also find that the contributions of dynamical quadrupoles to the scattering potential are essential, and that their neglect leads to errors of 23% and 76% in the room-temperature electron and hole Hall mobilities, respectively.

Cold gas forms a significant mass fraction of the Milky Way disk, but is its most uncertain baryonic component. The density and distribution of cold gas is of critical importance for Milky Way dynamics, as well as models of stellar and galactic evolution. Previous studies have used correlations between gas and dust to obtain high-resolution measurements of cold gas, but with large normalization uncertainties. We present a novel approach that uses Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray data to measure the total gas density, achieving a similar precision as previous works, but with independent systematic uncertainties. Notably, our results have sufficient precision to probe the range of results obtained by current world-leading experiments.

Holographic braneworlds are used to present a higher-dimensional origin of extended black hole thermodynamics. In this framework, classical, asymptotically anti–de Sitter black holes map to quantum black holes in one dimension less, with a conformal matter sector that backreacts on the brane geometry. Varying the brane tension alone leads to a dynamical cosmological constant on the brane, and, correspondingly, a variable pressure attributed to the brane black hole. Thus, standard thermodynamics in the bulk, including a work term coming from the brane, induces extended thermodynamics on the brane, exactly, to all orders in the backreaction. A microsopic interpretation of the extended thermodynamics of specific quantum black holes is given via double holography.

While dissipative Rydberg gases exhibit unique possibilities to tune dissipation and interaction properties, very little is known about the quantum many-body physics of such long-range interacting open quantum systems. We theoretically analyze the steady state of a van der Waals interacting Rydberg gas in an optical lattice based on a variational treatment that also includes long-range correlations necessary to describe the physics of the Rydberg blockade, i.e., the inhibition of neighboring Rydberg excitations by strong interactions. In contrast to the ground state phase diagram, we find that the steady state undergoes a single first order phase transition from a blockaded Rydberg gas to a facilitation phase where the blockade is lifted. The first order line terminates in a critical point when including sufficiently strong dephasing, enabling a highly promising route to study dissipative criticality in these systems. In some regimes, we also find good quantitative agreement of the phase boundaries with previously employed short-range models, however, with the actual steady states exhibiting strikingly different behavior.

Interstitial electron density ${\rho }_o$ is offered as a direct metric for maximum strength in metals, arising from universal properties derived from an electron gas. ${\rho }_o$ sets the exchange-correlation parameter $r_s$ in density-functional theory. It holds also for maximum shear strength ${\tau }_{\max }$ in polycrystals [M. Chandross and N. Argibay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 125501 (2020)]. Elastic moduli and ${\tau }_{\max }$ for polycrystalline (amorphous) metals are linear with ${\rho }_o$ and melting $T_m$ (glass-transition ${\mathrm{T}}_g$) temperature. ${\rho }_o$ or $r_s$, even with rule-of-mixture estimate, predicts relative strength for rapid, reliable selection of high-strength alloys with ductility, as confirmed for elements to steels to complex solid solutions, and validated experimentally.

Full quantum dynamics of molecules and materials is of fundamental importance, which requires a faithful description of simultaneous quantum motions of the electron and nuclei. A new scheme is developed for nonadiabatic simulations of coupled electron-nuclear quantum dynamics with electronic transitions based on the Ehrenfest theorem and ring polymer molecular dynamics. Built upon the isomorphic ring polymer Hamiltonian, time-dependent multistate electronic Schrödinger equations are solved self-consistently with approximate equation of motions for nuclei. Each bead bears a distinct electronic configuration and thus moves on a specific effective potential. This independent-bead approach provides an accurate description of the real-time electronic population and quantum nuclear trajectory, maintaining a good agreement with the exact quantum solution. Implementation of first-principles calculations enables us to simulate photoinduced proton transfer in ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\text{−}{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{O}}^{+}$ where we find a good agreement with experiment.