Proteins and nucleic acids form non-Newtonian liquids with complex rheological properties that contribute to their function in vivo. Here, we investigate the rheology of the transcription factor NANOG, a key protein to maintain embryonic stem cell pluripotency. We find that, at high concentrations, NANOG forms macroscopic aging gels that are dependent on its intrinsically disordered domain. By combining molecular dynamics simulations, mass photometry, and cryo-EM, we also discover that—in contrast to unbounded condensates formed by other intrinsically disordered proteins—NANOG forms self-limiting micelles with exposed DNA-binding domains. We show that these micelles can stabilize DNA entanglements and, in turn, modulate DNA dynamics. Based on our findings, we conjecture that NANOG may contribute to regulate gene expression by creating local gel-like environments that restrict genome dynamics and that its aging may ingrain mechanical memory in gene regulatory networks.

Midcircuit measurements and feedback operations conditioned on the measurement outcomes are essential for implementing quantum error-correction on quantum hardware. When integrated in quantum many-body dynamics, they can give rise to novel nonequilibrium phase transitions both at the level of each individual quantum trajectory and the averaged quantum channel. Experimentally resolving both transitions on realistic devices has been challenging due to limitations on the fidelity and the significant latency for performing midcircuit measurements and feedback operations in real time. Here, we develop a superconducting quantum processor that enables global midcircuit measurement with an average quantum nondemolition (QND) fidelity of 98.7% and fast conditional feedback with a 200 ns real-time decision latency. Using this platform, we demonstrate the coexistence of an absorbing-state transition in the quantum channel and a measurement-induced entanglement transition at the level of individual quantum trajectories. For the absorbing-state transition, we experimentally extract a set of critical exponents at the transition point, which is in excellent agreement with the directed percolation universality class. Crucially, the two transitions occur at distinct values of the tuning parameter. Our results demonstrate that adaptive quantum circuits provide a powerful platform for exploring nonequilibrium quantum many-body dynamics.

Using the data sample of $2.7\times {10}^9\psi (3686)$ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we present an observation of the $\mathrm{\Xi }(1530{)}^0$ polarization in the decay $\psi (3686)\to \mathrm{\Xi }(1530{)}^0\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}(1530{)}^0$ with a significance larger than $20\sigma$ compared with all other tested hypotheses. The helicity amplitudes for the process $\psi (3686)\to \mathrm{\Xi }(1530{)}^0\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}(1530{)}^0$ and the moduli of form factors including electric charge, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic octupole are measured for the first time by performing an angular distribution analysis. Additionally, the polarization correlations between $\mathrm{\Xi }(1530{)}^0$ and $\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}(1530{)}^0$ are measured.

The multifaceted decay properties of ${}^{116}\mathrm{Cs}$ near the proton drip line have been studied at ISOLDE, CERN. More than six new unbound states of ${}^{116}\mathrm{Xe}$ have been identified. A novel phenomenon of low energy isoscalar octupole resonance has been observed. After proton decay, that state populates both ${11/2}^{+}$ and ${11/2}^{-}$ states of ${}^{115}\mathrm{I}$. First observation of delayed two protons is reported in the medium heavy region and this exotic decay mode is 3 orders of magnitude lower than the delayed single proton events. The fingerprint of long-range proton-proton correlation has been evidenced in the relative momentum of two protons. An indication of rare event, heavy cluster emission (${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$) in medium heavy nucleus is reported.

The nature of superconductivity in the transition metal dichalcogenide family, particularly $2{\mathrm{H}\text{−}\mathrm{NbSe}}_2$ and $2{\mathrm{H}\text{−}\mathrm{TaS}}_2$ in the ultrathin limit, is not fully understood. While tunneling measurements apparently show a single superconducting gap, its detailed shape cannot be reproduced by simple single-band theories of superconductivity. In this work, we present tunneling data into thin exfoliated samples of both materials and show excellent agreement with the McMillan two-band model of superconductivity when the scattering parameters are large with respect to the superconducting gaps, even when only a single gap is apparent. We propose that in thin samples, these highly cross-scattering gaps reside on the $\mathrm{\Gamma }$ and $K$ Fermi surfaces derived from the transition metal atoms. Additionally, we quantitatively analyze pair breaking induced by magnetic field, and find that it is also well described by the two-band McMillan theory. Our results thus suggest that in its bulk thickness, $2{\mathrm{H}\text{−}\mathrm{NbSe}}_2$ is likely a three-band superconductor.

Ferroelastic alloys suffer modulus softening prior to the martensitic transformation, but still exhibit normal cooling-hardening effect below the martensitic transformation finish temperature, $M_{\mathrm{f}}$. Here we report an unprecedented phenomenon that a martensitic state can show nearly temperature-independent modulus (i.e., Elinvar effect) below $M_{\mathrm{f}}$, as exhibited in Ni-Fe-Mn-Ti alloys. The Elinvar martensites have a hierarchical domain structure, where two types of orthorhombic nanomartensites with distinct atomic modulation periods and magnetic states coexist within an individual ferroelastic domain. Their small free-energy difference gives rise to a nanoscale displacive phase transformation from one to another, and the moderate modulus softening compensates for the ever-present elastic hardening, leading to the wide temperature range Elinvar effect. This finding is a new insight of martensitic phase transformation, which might help to discover technically desired properties, such as the temperature-independent modulus and good ductility at cryogenic temperatures.

Motivated by recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments reporting a pair-density modulation (PDM) in flakes of ${\mathrm{FeTe}}_{0.55}{\mathrm{Se}}_{0.45}$, we develop a Landau theory to elucidate its physical origin. We analyze the PDM in terms of screw and glide symmetries, interpreting it as a hybridized state of two order parameters with opposite glide and screw parity. To explain the absence of PDM in the bulk, we argue that the breaking of glide symmetry at the surface allows nematic order to selectively stabilize the PDM in thin flakes. From these symmetry constraints, we show that the opposing glide and screw parities of the condensate favor a site-based, rather than bond-based, pairing mechanism. Thus, the discovery of PDM in superconducting flakes suggests that the pairing in iron-based superconductors is local to the iron atoms, possibly driven by Hunds coupling. We argue that the mismatch in Knight shift between the even and odd parity order parameters will lead to a magnetic-field enhancement of the PDM at low fields, and a reentrant triplet phase at high fields that can be tested in STM experiments.

Plasmonic nanoparticle arrays stand as a versatile platform for enhancing light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Ultrahigh-quality-factor (high-$Q$) resonances are critical for spectrally selective applications such as label-free biosensing, low-threshold lasing, and quantum information processing. However, achieving such resonances in plasmonic systems remains a challenge. Surface lattice resonances (SLRs) and bound states in the continuum (BICs) underlie high-$Q$ behavior. Here, we develop a robust strategy to achieve high-$Q$ resonances in plasmonic nanoparticle lattices by harnessing mirror-induced destructive interference that converts bright SLRs into dark BICs. Experimentally, we demonstrate a $Q$ factor of 3039 at $\sim 880\mathrm{nm}$ in mirror-coupled silver nanoparticle arrays and observe lasing with minimized threshold at critical coupling. By spatially tailoring the orientation of anisotropic nanoparticles within this architecture, we further realize high-$Q$ composite plasmonic microcavities that enable decoupled control over the $Q$ factor and local near-field topology, supporting vectorial lasing modes with programmable topological charges.

Designing heterogeneous, self-assembling systems is a central challenge in soft matter and biology. We present a framework that uses gradient-based optimization to invert an analytical yield calculation, tuning systems toward target equilibrium yields. We design systems ranging from simple dimers to temperature-controlled shells to polymerizing systems, achieving precise control of self- and non-self-limiting assemblies. By operating directly on closed-form calculations, our framework bypasses trajectory-based instabilities and enables efficient optimization in challenging regimes.

We show that even weak nonreciprocal alignment leads to large-scale structure formation in flocking mixtures. By combining numerical simulations of a binary Vicsek model and the analysis of coarse-grained continuum equations, we demonstrate that nonreciprocity destabilizes the ordered phase formed by mutually aligning or antialigning species in a large part of the phase diagram. For aligning populations, this instability results in one species condensing in a single band that travels within a homogeneous liquid of the other species. When interactions are antialigning, both species self-assemble into polar clusters with large-scale chaotic dynamics. In both cases, the emergence of structures is accompanied by the demixing of the two species, despite the absence of repulsive interactions. Our theoretical analysis allows us to elucidate the origin of the instability, and show that it is generic to nonreciprocal flocks.

While nonreciprocal couplings are ubiquitous in classical systems, their impact on quantum many-body criticality and entanglement remains largely unexplored. Using exact numerical simulations, we study an interacting fermionic chain subject to nonreciprocal gain and loss. We show that the interplay between dissipation and interactions drives a dissipative phase transition, marked by the opening of a many-body gap and a crossover from power law to exponential relaxation. The weakly interacting regime displays nonreciprocal signatures, including nonzero currents and directional charge accumulation reminiscent of the skin effect. Notably, despite this localization, quantum trajectories exhibit volume-law entanglement. Finally, reciprocity is dynamically restored above a critical interaction strength.

Continuous time-translation symmetry is often spontaneously broken in open quantum systems, and the condition for their emergence has been actively investigated. However, there are only a few cases in which its condition for appearance has been fully elucidated. In this Letter, we show that a Lindbladian parity-time ($\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$) symmetry can generically produce persistent periodic oscillations in a wide class of systems. This includes one-collective spin models, which have been studied thoroughly in the context of dissipative continuous time crystals, and spatially extended bipartite bosonic systems with a conserved particle number. By making an analogy to nonreciprocal phase transitions, we demonstrate that a transition point from the dynamical phase is associated with spontaneous PT symmetry breaking that typically corresponds to a critical exceptional point. Interestingly, the periodic orbits in the PT symmetric phase are found to be center type, implying an initial state dependence. These results are established by proving that the Lindbladian $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry at the microscopic level implies a nonlinear PT symmetry and by performing a linear stability analysis near the transition point. This research will further our understanding of novel nonequilibrium phases of matter and phase transitions with spontaneous antiunitary symmetry breaking.

We investigate crystallinelike behavior of the spectral form factor in unitary quantum systems with extremely strong eigenvalue repulsion. Using a low-temperature Coulomb gas as a model of repulsive eigenvalues, we derive the Debye-Waller factor suppressing periodic oscillations of the spectral form factor and estimate the order of its singularities at multiples of the Heisenberg time. We also reproduce this crystallinelike behavior using perturbed permutation circuits and random matrix ensembles associated with Lax matrices. Our results lay a foundation for future studies of quantum systems that exhibit intermediate level statistics between standard random matrix ensembles and permutation circuits.

We investigate the scattered field from $N$ identical two-level atoms resonantly driven by a weak coherent field in a one-dimensional waveguide. For atoms separated by the drive wavelength, increasing the number of atoms suppresses transmission while enhancing photon bunching. Transmission becomes a superbunched ($N+1$)-photon scattering process that is predominantly incoherent. Remarkably, we find that transmission occurs through a process where all $N$ atoms are excited, enabling novel heralded multiphoton state generation with applications in long-distance entanglement and quantum metrology.

We present a unified many-body perturbation theory for open quantum systems that treats dissipation, correlations, and external driving on equal footing. Using a Keldysh-Lindblad formalism, we introduce a diagrammatic treatment of dissipative interaction lines representing quasiparticle flows and fluctuations. Two new Feynman rules render the evaluation of dissipative diagrams compact and systematically improvable, while preserving the Keldysh and anti-Hermitian symmetries of the closed-system theory. Consequently, the structure of the Kadanoff-Baym equations remains unchanged, enabling existing numerical methods to be directly applied. To illustrate this, we derive dissipative versions of the second Born and $GW$ approximations and identify the physical content of the self-energy components. Moreover, we demonstrate that time-linear approximations to the full Kadanoff-Baym equations retain their closed-form structure and can be efficiently used to simulate relaxation and decoherence dynamics. The impact of dissipation-induced correlations is illustrated in the driven Haldane model, where quasiparticles exhibit nontrivial stabilization and acquire lifetimes that far exceed those of the bare system. This framework establishes a general route toward first-principles modeling of correlated, driven, and dissipative quantum materials.

Magnetism in narrow-band systems arises from the interplay between electronic correlations, quantum geometry, and band dispersion. In particular, both ferro and antiferro magnets are known to occur as ground states of (different) models featuring narrow bands. This poses the question of which is favored and under what conditions. In this Letter, we present a unified theoretical framework to investigate spin physics within narrow bands. By deriving an effective spin model, we show that the nonatomic wave function (quantum geometry) of the narrow bands generally favors ferromagnetic ordering, while band dispersion promotes antiferromagnetic correlations. We find that the competition between these effects gives rise to a tunable magnetic phase and rich spin phenomena. Our approach offers a systematic way to study the magnetic properties of narrow-band systems, integrating the roles of wave function, band structure, and correlation effects.