Quantum non-Gaussian mechanical states are already required in a range of applications. The discrete building blocks of such states are the energy eigenstates—Fock states. Despite progress in their preparation, the remaining imperfections can still invisibly cause loss of the aspects critical for their applications. We derive and apply the most challenging hierarchy of quantum non-Gaussian criteria on the characterization of single trapped-ion oscillator mechanical Fock states with up to 10 phonons. We analyze the depth of these quantum non-Gaussian features under intrinsic mechanical heating and predict their requirement for reaching quantum advantage in the sensing of a mechanical force.

We proposed a photonic approach to a lasing mode supported by low-loss oscillation of polarized bound electrons in an active nano-slit-waveguide cavity, which circumvents the confinement-loss trade-off of nanoplasmonics, and offers an optical confinement down to sub-1-nm level with a peak-to-background ratio of $\sim 30\mathrm{dB}$. Experimentally, the extremely confined lasing field is realized as the dominant peak of a ${\mathrm{TE}}_0$-like lasing mode around 720-nm wavelength, in 1-nm-level width slit-waveguide cavities in coupled CdSe nanowire pairs. The measured lasing characteristics agree well with the theoretical calculations. Our results may pave a way towards new regions for nanolasers and light-matter interaction.

We explore the properties of chiral superfluid thin films coating a curved surface. Because of the vector nature of the order parameter, a geometric gauge field emerges and leads to a number of observable effects such as anomalous vortex-geometric interaction and curvature-induced mass and spin supercurrents. We apply our theory to several well-known phases of chiral superfluid ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ and derive experimentally observable signatures. We further discuss the cases of flexible geometries where a soft surface can adapt itself to compensate for the strain from the chiral superfluid. The proposed interplay between geometry and chiral superfluid order provides a fascinating avenue to control and manipulate quantum states with strain.

We theoretically study spin and charge excitations of skyrmion crystals stabilized by conduction-electron-mediated magnetic interactions via spin-charge coupling in a centrosymmetric Kondo-lattice model by large-scale spin-dynamics simulations combined with the kernel polynomial method. We reveal clear segregation of spin and charge excitation channels and nonreciprocal nature of the spin excitations governed by the Fermi-surface geometry, which are unique to the skyrmion crystals in centrosymmetric itinerant hosts and can be a source of novel physical phenomena.

Ferroelectricity in crystals is associated with the displacement of ions or rotations of polar units. Here we consider the dipole created by donor doping ($D^{+}$) and the corresponding bound polaron ($e^{-}$). A dipole of 6.15 Debye is predicted, from Berry phase analysis, in the Ruddlesden-Popper phase of ${\mathrm{Sr}}_3{\mathrm{Ti}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$. A characteristic double-well potential is formed, which persists for high doping densities. The effective Hubbard $U$ interaction can vary the defect state from metallic, a two-dimensional polaron, through to a zero-dimensional polaron. The ferroelectriclike behavior reported here is localized and distinct from conventional spontaneous lattice polarization.

When subjected to sufficiently strong velocity gradients, solutions of long, flexible polymers exhibit flow instabilities and chaotic motion, often referred to as elastic turbulence. Its mechanism differs from the familiar, inertia-driven turbulence in Newtonian fluids and is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that the dynamics of purely elastic pressure-driven channel flows of dilute polymer solutions are organized by exact coherent structures that take the form of two-dimensional traveling waves. Our results demonstrate that no linear instability is required to sustain such traveling wave solutions and that their origin is purely elastic in nature. We show that the associated stress profiles are characterized by thin, filamentlike arrangements of polymer stretch, which is sustained by a solitary pair of vortices. We discuss the implications of the traveling wave solutions for the transition to elastic turbulence in straight channels and propose ways for their detection in experiments.

The laws of quantum physics endow superior performance and security for information processing: quantum sensing harnesses nonclassical resources to enable measurement precision unmatched by classical sensing, whereas quantum cryptography aims to unconditionally protect the secrecy of the processed information. Here, we present the theory and experiment for entanglement-enhanced covert sensing, a paradigm that simultaneously offers high measurement precision and data integrity by concealing the probe signal in an ambient noise background so that the execution of the protocol is undetectable with a high probability. We show that entanglement offers a performance boost in estimating the imparted phase by a probed object, as compared to a classical protocol at the same covertness level. The implemented entanglement-enhanced covert sensing protocol operates close to the fundamental quantum limit by virtue of its near-optimum entanglement source and quantum receiver. Our work is expected to create ample opportunities for quantum information processing at unprecedented security and performance levels.

Using dual theories embedded into a larger unphysical Hilbert space along entanglement cuts, we study the entanglement structure of ${\mathbf{Z}}_2$ lattice gauge theory in ($2+1$) spacetime dimensions. We demonstrate Li and Haldane’s conjecture, and show consistency of the entanglement Hamiltonian with the Bisognano-Wichmann theorem. Studying nonequilibrium dynamics after a quench, we provide an extensive description of thermalization in ${\mathbf{Z}}_2$ gauge theory which proceeds in a characteristic sequence: Maximization of the Schmidt rank and spreading of level repulsion at early times, self-similar evolution with scaling coefficients $\alpha =0.8\pm 0.2$ and $\beta =0.0\pm 0.1$ at intermediate times, and finally thermal saturation of the von Neumann entropy.

Although the viscosity of a fluid ranges over several orders of magnitude and is extremely sensitive to microscopic structure and molecular interactions, it has been conjectured that its (opportunely normalized) minimum displays a universal value which is experimentally approached in strongly coupled fluids such as the quark-gluon plasma. At the same time, recent findings suggest that hydrodynamics could serve as a universal attractor even when the deformation gradients are large and that dissipative transport coefficients, such as viscosity, could still display a universal behavior far from equilibrium. Motivated by these observations, we consider the real-time dissipative dynamics of several holographic models under large shear deformations. In all the cases considered, we observe that at late time both the viscosity-entropy density ratio and the dimensionless ratio between energy density and entropy density approach a constant value. Whenever the shear rate in units of the energy density is small at late time, these values coincide with the expectations from near equilibrium hydrodynamics. Surprisingly, even when this is not the case, and the system at late time is far from equilibrium, the viscosity-to-entropy ratio approaches a constant which decreases monotonically with the dimensionless shear rate and can be parametrically smaller than the hydrodynamic result.

We show that the matrix element of a local operator between hadronic states can be used to unambiguously define the associated spatial density. As an explicit example, we consider the charge density of a spinless particle and clarify its relationship to the electric form factor. Our results lead to an unconventional interpretation of the spatial densities of local operators and their moments.

We demonstrate that final states of ultracold molecules by scattering with atoms can be selectively produced using dynamic magnetic fields of multiple frequencies. We develop a multifrequency Floquet coupled channel method to study the channel selection by dynamic magnetic field control, which can be interpreted by a generalized quantum Zeno effect for the selected scattering channels. In particular, we use an atom-molecule spin-flip scattering to show that the transition to certain final states of the molecules in the inelastic scattering can be suppressed by engineered coupling between the Floquet states.

Exceptional points (EPs)—spectral singularities of non-Hermitian linear systems—have recently attracted interest for sensing. While initial proposals and experiments focused on enhanced sensitivities neglecting noise, subsequent studies revealed issues with EP sensors in noisy environments. Here we propose a single-mode Kerr-nonlinear resonator for exceptional sensing in noisy environments. Based on the resonator’s dynamic hysteresis, we define a signal that displays a square-root singularity reminiscent of an EP. However, our sensor has crucial fundamental and practical advantages over EP sensors: the signal-to-noise ratio increases with the measurement speed, the square-root singularity is easily detected through intensity measurements, and both sensing precision and information content of the signal are enhanced around the singularity. Our sensor also overcomes the fundamental trade-off between precision and averaging time characterizing all linear sensors. All these unconventional features open up new opportunities for fast and precise sensing using hysteretic resonators.

We show that the simultaneous driving of a polariton condensate with both nonresonant and $n$th order resonant pump frequencies allows for a generic mechanism of breather formation. From this we construct for the second order resonance a family of exotic breathers with nontrivial discrete order of rotational symmetry. Finally, we demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of both crystalline and glassy orderings of lattices of polygonal breathers, depending on the degree of polygonal excitations at the lattice sites.

Triple bonding in the nitrogen molecule (${\mathrm{N}}_2$) is among the strongest chemical bonds with a dissociation enthalpy of $9.8\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{molecule}$. Nitrogen is therefore an excellent test bed for theoretical and numerical methods aimed at understanding how bonding evolves under the influence of the extreme pressures and temperatures of the warm dense matter regime. Here, we report laser-driven shock experiments on fluid molecular nitrogen up to 800 GPa and $4.0\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{cm}}^3$. Line-imaging velocimetry measurements and impedance matching method with a quartz reference yield shock equation of state data of initially precompressed nitrogen. Comparison with numerical simulations using path integral Monte Carlo and density functional theory molecular dynamics reveals clear signatures of chemical dissociation and the onset of $L$-shell ionization. Combining data along multiple shock Hugoniot curves starting from densities between 0.76 and $1.29\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{cm}}^3$, our study documents how pressure and density affect these changes in chemical bonding and provides benchmarks for future theoretical developments in this regime, with applications for planetary interior modeling, high energy density science, and inertial confinement fusion research.

Valence transition could induce structural, insulator-metal, nonmagnetic-magnetic and superconducting transitions in rare-earth metals and compounds, while the underlying physics remains unclear due to the complex interaction of localized $4f$ electrons as well as their coupling with itinerant electrons. The valence transition in the elemental metal europium (Eu) still has remained as a matter of debate. Using resonant x-ray emission scattering and x-ray diffraction, we pressurize the states of $4f$ electrons in Eu and study its valence and structure transitions up to 160 GPa. We provide compelling evidence for a valence transition around 80 GPa, which coincides with a structural transition from a monoclinic ($C2/c$) to an orthorhombic phase ($Pnma$). We show that the valence transition occurs when the pressure-dependent energy gap between $4f$ and $5d$ electrons approaches the Coulomb interaction. Our discovery is critical for understanding the electrodynamics of Eu, including magnetism and high-pressure superconductivity.

We develop a microscopic theory for the two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy of one-dimensional topological superconductors. We consider a ring geometry of an archetypal topological superconductor with periodic boundary conditions, bypassing energy-specific differences caused by topologically protected or trivial boundary modes that are hard to distinguish. We show numerically and analytically that the cross-peak structure of the 2D spectra carries unique signatures of the topological phases of the chain. Our work reveals how 2D spectroscopy can identify topological phases in bulk properties.

In most quantum technologies, measurements need to be performed on the parametrized quantum states to transform the quantum information to classical information. The measurements, however, inevitably distort the information. The characterization of the discrepancy is an important subject in quantum information science, which plays a key role in understanding the difference between the structures of quantum and classical informations. Here we analyze the difference in terms of the Fisher information metric and present a framework that can provide analytical bounds on the discrepancy under hierarchical quantum measurements. Specifically, we present a set of analytical bounds on the difference between the quantum and classical Fisher information metric under hierarchical $p$-local quantum measurements, which are measurements that can be performed collectively on at most $p$ copies of quantum states. The results can be directly transformed to the precision limit in multiparameter quantum metrology, which leads to characterizations of the trade-off among the precision of different parameters. The framework also provides a coherent picture for various existing results by including them as special cases.

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) effects, such as Rabi splitting, Rabi oscillations, and superradiance, have been demonstrated with nitrogen vacancy (NV) center spins in diamond coupled to microwave resonators at cryogenic temperature. In this Letter, we explore the possibility to realize strong collective coupling and CQED effects with ensembles of NV spins at room temperature. Our calculations show that thermal excitation of the individual NV spins leads to population of collective Dicke states with low symmetry and a reduced collective coupling to the microwave resonators. Optical pumping can be applied to counteract the thermal excitation of the NV centers and to prepare the spin ensemble in Dicke states with high symmetry. The resulting strong coupling with high-quality resonators enables the study of intriguing CQED effects across the weak-to-strong coupling regime, and may have applications in quantum sensing and quantum information processing.