In this work, we theoretically study the heat flow between two $1+1\mathrm{D}$ chiral gapless systems connected by a point contact. With a small temperature gradient between the two, we find that the ratio between fluctuations of the heat current and the heat current itself is proportional to the scaling dimension—a universal number that characterizes the distribution of the particles tunneling through the point contact. We adopt two different approaches, scattering theory and conformal field theory, to calculate this ratio and see that their results agree. Our findings are useful for probing not only fractional charge excitations in fractional quantum Hall states but also neutral ones.

Analogous to the spin-Hall effect (SHE), ab initio electronic structure calculations reveal that acoustic phonons can induce charge (spin) current flowing along (normal to) its propagation direction. Using the Floquet approach we have calculated the elastodynamically induced charge and spin pumping in bulk Pt and demonstrate that (i) the longitudinal charge pumping originates from the Berry curvature, while the transverse pumped spin current is an odd function of the electronic relaxation time and diverges in the clean limit. (ii) The longitudinal charge current is of nonrelativstic origin, while the transverse spin current is a relativistic effect that to lowest order scales linearly with the spin-orbit coupling strength. (iii) Both charge and spin pumped currents have parabolic dependence on the amplitude of the elastic wave.

Negatively charged boron vacancy ($V_{\mathrm{B}}^{-}$) centers in hexagonal boron nitride ($h$-BN) are promising spin defects in a van der Waals crystal. Understanding the spin properties of the excited state (ES) is critical for realizing dynamic nuclear polarization. Here, we report zero-field splitting in the ES of $D_{\mathrm{ES}}=2160\mathrm{MHz}$ and its associated optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) contrast of 12% at cryogenic temperature. In contrast to nitrogen vacancy ($\mathrm{N}{V}^{-}$) centers in diamond, the ODMR contrast of $V_{\mathrm{B}}^{-}$ centers is more prominent at cryotemperature than at room temperature. The ES has a $g$ factor similar to the ground state. The ES photodynamics is further elucidated by measuring the level anticrossing of the $V_{\mathrm{B}}^{-}$ defects under varying external magnetic fields. Our results provide important information for utilizing the spin defects of $h$-BN in quantum technology.

Inspired by the newly emergent valleytronics, great interest has been attracted to the topological valley transport in classical metacrystals. The presence of nontrivial domain-wall states is interpreted with a concept of valley Chern number, which is well defined only in the limit of small band gap. Here, we propose a new visual angle to track the intricate valley topology in classical systems. Benefiting from the controllability of our acoustic metacrystals, we construct Weyl points in synthetic three-dimensional momentum space through introducing an extra structural parameter (rotation angle here). As such, the two-dimensional valley-projected band topology can be tracked with the strictly quantized topological charge in three-dimensional Weyl crystal, which features open surface arcs connecting the synthetic Weyl points and gapless chiral surface states along specific Weyl paths. All theoretical predictions are conclusively identified by our acoustic experiments. Our findings may promote the development of topological valley physics, which is less well defined yet under hot debate in multiple physical disciplines.

The plateau-to-plateau transition in quantum Hall effect under high magnetic fields is a celebrated quantum phase transition between two topological states. It can be achieved by either sweeping the magnetic field or tuning the carrier density. The recent realization of the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with tunable Chern numbers introduces the channel degree of freedom to the dissipation-free chiral edge transport and makes the study of the quantum phase transition between two topological states under zero magnetic field possible. Here, we synthesized the magnetic topological insulator $(\mathrm{TI})/\mathrm{TI}$ pentalayer heterostructures with different Cr doping concentrations in the middle magnetic TI layers using molecular beam epitaxy. By performing transport measurements, we found a potential plateau phase transition between $C=1$ and $C=2$ QAH states under zero magnetic field. In tuning the transition, the Hall resistance monotonically decreases from $h/e^2$ to $h/2e^2$, concurrently, the longitudinal resistance exhibits a maximum at the critical point. Our results show that the ratio between the Hall resistance and the longitudinal resistance is greater than 1 at the critical point, which indicates that the original chiral edge channel from the $C=1$ QAH state coexists with the dissipative bulk conduction channels. Subsequently, these bulk conduction channels appear to self-organize and form the second chiral edge channel in completing the plateau phase transition. Our study will motivate further investigations of this novel Chern number change-induced quantum phase transition and advance the development of the QAH chiral edge current-based electronic and spintronic devices.

The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been demonstrated in two-dimensional topological insulator systems incorporated with ferromagnetism. However, a comprehensive understanding of mesoscopic transport in submicron QAH devices has not yet been established. Here we fabricated miniaturized QAH devices with channel widths down to 600 nm, where the QAH features are still preserved. A backscattering channel is formed in narrow QAH devices through percolative hopping between 2D compressible puddles. Large resistance fluctuations are observed in narrow devices near the coercive field, which is associated with collective interference between intersecting paths along domain walls when the device geometry is smaller than the phase coherence length $L_{\varphi }$. Through measurement of size-dependent breakdown current, we confirmed that the chiral edge states are confined at the physical boundary with its width on the order of Fermi wavelength.

Large density fluctuations observed in active systems and hyperuniformity are two seemingly incompatible phenomena. However, the formation of hyperuniform states has been recently predicted in nonequilibrium fluids formed by chiral particles performing circular motion with the same handedness. Here we report evidence of hyperuniformity realized in a chiral active fluid comprised of pear-shaped Quincke rollers of arbitrary handedness. We show that hyperuniformity and large density fluctuations, triggered by dynamic clustering, coexist in this system at different length scales. The system loses its hyperuniformity as the curvature of particles’ motion increases, transforming them into localized spinners. Our results experimentally demonstrate a novel hyperuniform active fluid and provide new insights into an interplay between chirality, activity, and hyperuniformity.

Resolution of the intrinsic conflict between the reproduction of single cells and the homeostasis of a multicellular organism is central to animal biology and has direct impact on aging and cancer. Intercellular competition is indispensable in multicellular organisms because it weeds out senescent cells, thereby increasing the organism’s fitness and delaying aging. In this Letter, we describe the growth dynamics of multicellular organisms in the presence of intercellular competition and show that the lifespan of organisms can be extended and the onset of cancer can be delayed if cells alternate between competition (a fair strategy) and noncompetitive growth, or cooperation (a losing strategy). This effect recapitulates the weak form of the game-theoretic Parrondo’s paradox, whereby strategies that are individually fair or losing achieve a winning outcome when alternated. We show in a population model that periodic and stochastic switching between competitive and cooperative cellular strategies substantially extends the organism lifespan and reduces cancer incidence, which cannot be achieved simply by optimizing the competitive ability of the cells. These results indicate that cells could have evolved to optimally mix competitive and cooperative strategies, and that periodic intercellular competition could potentially be exploited and tuned to delay aging.

Black hole (BH) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful approach to extracting spacetime information from gravitational wave (GW) observed signals. Yet, quasinormal mode (QNM) spectral instability under small scale perturbations has been recently shown to be a common classical general relativistic phenomenon [J. L. Jaramillo et al., Phys. Rev. X 11, 031003 (2021)]. This requires assessing its impact on the BH QNM spectrum, in particular on BH QNM overtone frequencies. We conclude (i) perturbed BH QNM overtones are indeed potentially observable in the GW waveform, providing information on small-scale environment BH physics, and (ii) their detection poses a challenging data analysis problem of singular interest for LISA astrophysics. We adopt a twofold approach, combining theoretical results from scattering theory with a fine-tuned data analysis on a highly accurate numerical GW ringdown signal. The former introduces a set of effective parameters (partially relying on a BH Weyl law) to characterize QNM instability physics. The latter provides a proof of principle demonstrating that the QNM spectral instability is indeed accessible in the time-domain GW waveform, though certainly requiring large signal-to-noise ratios. Particular attention is devoted to discussing the patterns of isospectrality loss under QNM instability, since the disentanglement between axial and polar GW parities may already occur within the near-future detection range.

A combination of low temperature atomic force microcopy and molecular dynamic simulations is used to demonstrate that soft designer molecules realize a sidewinding motion when dragged over a gold surface. Exploiting their longitudinal flexibility, pyrenylene chains are indeed able to lower diffusion energy barriers via on-surface directional locking and molecular strain. The resulting ultralow friction reaches values on the order of tens of pN reported so far only for rigid chains sliding on an incommensurate surface. Therefore, we demonstrate how molecular flexibility can be harnessed to realize complex nanomotion while retaining a superlubric character. This is in contrast with the paradigm guiding the design of most superlubric nanocontacts (mismatched rigid contacting surfaces).

The treatment of electronic correlations in open-shell systems is among the most challenging problems of condensed matter theory. Current approximations are only partly successful. Ligand-field multiplet theory has been widely successful in describing intra-atomic correlation effects in x-ray spectra, but typically ignores itinerant states. The cumulant expansion for the one-electron Green’s function has been successful in describing shake-up effects but ignores atomic multiplets. More complete methods, such as dynamic mean-field theory can be computationally demanding. Here, we show that separating the dynamic Coulomb interactions into local and longer-range parts with ab initio parameters yields a combined multiplet-plus-cumulant approach that accounts for both local atomic multiplets and satellite excitations. The approach is illustrated in transition metal oxides and explains the multiplet peaks, charge-transfer satellites, and distributed background features observed in XPS experiment.

The existence of long-range magnetic order in low-dimensional magnetic systems, such as the quasi-two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) magnets, has attracted intensive studies of new physical phenomena. The vdW ${\mathrm{Fe}}_N{\mathrm{GeTe}}_2$ ($N=3$, 4, 5; FGT) family is exceptional, owing to its vast tunability of magnetic properties. In particular, a ferromagnetic ordering temperature ($T_C$) above room temperature at $N=5$ (F5GT) is observed. Here, our study shows that, by nickel (Ni) substitution of iron in F5GT, a record high $T_C=478(6)\mathrm{K}$ is achieved. Importantly, pervasive, beyond room-temperature ferromagnetism exists in almost the entire doping range of the phase diagram of Ni-F5GT. We argue that this striking observation in Ni-F5GT can be possibly due to several contributing factors, including increased 3D magnetic couplings due to the structural alterations.

Recent work with laser-cooled molecules in attractive optical traps has shown that the differential ac Stark shifts arising from the trap light itself can become problematic, limiting collisional shielding efficiencies, rotational coherence times, and laser-cooling temperatures. In this Letter, we explore trapping and laser cooling of CaF molecules in a ring-shaped repulsive optical trap. The observed dependences of loss rates on temperature and barrier height show characteristic behavior of repulsive traps and indicate strongly suppressed average ac Stark shifts. Within the trap, we find that $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-enhanced gray molasses cooling is effective, producing similar minimum temperatures as those obtained in free space. By combining in-trap laser cooling with dynamical reshaping of the trap, we also present a method that allows highly efficient and rapid transfer from molecular magneto-optical traps into conventional attractive optical traps, which has been an outstanding challenge for experiments to date. Notably, our method could allow nearly lossless transfer over millisecond timescales.

We present a method to measure the optical torque applied to particles of arbitrary shape such as micrometer-sized micro-organisms or cells held in an optical trap, inferred from the change of angular momentum of light induced by the particle. All torque components can be determined from a single interference pattern recorded by a camera in the back focal plane of a high-NA condenser lens provided that most of the scattered light is collected. We derive explicit expressions mapping the measured complex field in this plane to the torque components. The required phase is retrieved by an iterative algorithm, using the known position of the optical traps as constraints. The torque pertaining to individual particles is accessible, as well as separate spin or orbital parts of the total torque.

In this Letter we begin the study of visible dark sector signals coming from binary neutron star mergers. We focus on dark photons emitted in the 10 ms–1 s after the merger, and show how they can lead to bright transient $\gamma$-ray signals. The signal will be approximately isotropic, and for much of the interesting parameter space will be close to thermal, with an apparent temperature of $\sim 100\mathrm{keV}$. These features can distinguish the dark photon signal from the expected short $\gamma$-ray bursts produced in neutron star mergers, which are beamed in a small angle and nonthermal. We calculate the expected signal strength and show that for dark photon masses in the 1–100 MeV range it can easily lead to total luminosities larger than ${10}^{46}\mathrm{ergs}$ for much of the unconstrained parameter space. This signal can be used to probe a large fraction of the unconstrained parameter space motivated by freeze-in dark matter scenarios with interactions mediated by a dark photon in that mass range. We also comment on future improvements when proposed telescopes and midband gravitational detectors become operational.