We propose a novel coherent freeze-out mechanism where a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) is quadratically coupled to a light axionlike particle (ALP). Although the coupling is too feeble to thermalize the ALP, coherent forward scattering induces medium-dependent mass shifts that significantly modify both WIMP freeze-out and ALP misalignment dynamics. The symmetry of the ALP potential is broken at high temperatures and restored through either a first-order transition or a crossover. In the former, WIMPs alone compose dark matter with annihilation cross sections enhanced by up to 3 orders of magnitude relative to the standard scenario; in the latter, a Planck-suppressed coupling naturally yields an ALP abundance of the order of the observed dark matter density, largely independent of its initial displacement and mass.

We study an $\mathrm{O}(N)$ scalar multiplet nonminimally coupled to gravity and follow its renormalization-group (RG) flow in the vicinity of an interacting, nonperturbatively UV-complete scaling regime of scalar-tensor theory. In the broken phase, the radial mode mediates a universal Yukawa correction to Newtonian gravity, parametrized by a strength ${\alpha }_Y$ and range ${\lambda }_Y$. Imposing UV completeness—regular RG trajectories that reach the UV scaling regime—restricts the infrared data to a finite wedge, which maps to a narrow region in the $({\alpha }_Y,{\lambda }_Y)$ plane. Its complement is, therefore, ruled out by UV completeness alone. Remarkably, part of this theory-excluded domain lies below current experimental exclusion envelopes, so improved fifth-force searches can directly test and potentially falsify this class of UV-complete scalar-tensor models.

We report the decisive resolution of the ground state spin and parity of the proton–drip line nucleus ${}^{22}\mathrm{Al}$, a prime candidate for a proton halo. The resolution stems from the first $\beta$-delayed charged particle emission experiment in the gas stopping area at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), leveraging high-intensity, low-energy beams extracted from the Advanced Cryogenic Gas Stopper (ACGS). The pristine beam quality from FRIB and the ACGS enabled a sensitive particle identification technique using thin silicon detectors, allowing for the suppression of the dominant proton background and the first observation of the weak $\beta$-delayed $\alpha$ transition from the isobaric analog state in ${}^{22}\mathrm{Mg}$ to the ${}^{18}\mathrm{Ne}$ ground state. This observation uniquely fixes the ${}^{22}\mathrm{Al}$ ground state as $4^{+}$. The valence proton is confined by a dominant $d$-wave centrifugal barrier which, combined with the Coulomb repulsion, hinders the tunneling required for halo formation despite the exceptionally low proton separation energy of ${}^{22}\mathrm{Al}$.

The deformation and rupture of a lipid vesicle due to the forced normal approach of an inclusion are essential for optimizing the design of magnetic giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV) [Malik et al., Nanoscale 17, 13720 (2025)], with implications for active colloid-membrane interactions and cellular-scale chemical delivery. Here, we investigate vesicles propelled by a force-driven rigid inclusion and reveal a robust elastohydrodynamic mechanism: the inclusion outpaces the vesicle, sustaining a thinning film that drains symmetrically and self-similarly, largely independent of the initial shape. For soft membranes and small inclusions, the coupling drives a monotonic tension increase that can exceed the lysis tension. Evaluating the maximal tension over a delivery distance, we map an operating window in a vesicle reduced area and size relative to the inclusion.

We explore the role of interfacial Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for the Josephson diode effect in all-metal diffusive Josephson junctions. Devices with Fe/Pt and Cu/Pt weak links between Nb leads reveal a Josephson diode effect in an in-plane magnetic field with magnetochiral anisotropy according to the point symmetry of Rashba SOC. The Rashba SOC originates from inversion symmetry breaking at the metal-metal interfaces. A control sample with a plain Cu layer as weak link, in contrast, exhibits an axis-symmetric diode effect. The Fraunhofer patterns display an apparent inverted hysteresis that can be traced back to stray fields resulting from the conventional hysteretic vortex pinning in the Nb contacts.

Plastic deformation in amorphous solids is carried by localized shear transformations that self-organize into avalanches. In amorphous carbon modeled with a machine-learned interatomic potential, we find that the energetics and organization of these avalanches can be resolved by systematically following the underlying energy landscape. With a pseudoarclength numerical continuation framework, we decompose avalanches into constituent shear transformations and determine their strain-dependent energetics. Our analysis shows that, prior to onset, avalanches have a latent structure that consists of well-separated local minima. We further demonstrate that arclength continuation yields an event driven framework for following avalanche dynamics, eliminating time-step effects on statistical avalanche properties such as distributions of stress drops.

While scandium-doped aluminum nitride (AlScN) exhibits robust ferroelectricity and excellent thermal stability, its utility is limited by an exceptionally high coercive field ($E_c$) for polarization switching. Unraveling the atomistic switching dynamics is therefore critical for tailoring $E_c$. Here, we combine density functional theory and machine-learning molecular dynamics to elucidate the polarization switching mechanisms in AlScN over various Sc concentrations and applied electric fields. We find that excessive lattice strain strictly prohibits collective polarization switching, but the preexisting domain walls relieve strain and lead to a distinct switching dynamics—dictating a field-dependent switching mechanism. At low electric fields, switching occurs via gradual domain-wall propagation consistent with the Kolmogorov-Avrami-Ishibashi model. In contrast, high fields stimulate additional nucleation, driving a rapid, homogeneous reversal process described by the simultaneous nonlinear nucleation and growth model. These findings highlight the critical role of domain-wall dynamics and suggest domain engineering as a viable strategy to tailor coercive fields in AlScN and related ferroelectrics.

We use shear-mode Raman imaging to track ferroelectric switching in multilayer $3R\text{−}{\text{MoS}}_2$. Within a single flake, mechanically segmented regions respond independently and follow distinct pathways. Partially polarized end states indicate that domain walls can reside between selected layer pairs, producing partial stacking transformations. The dwell time of intermediate states varies widely, indicating that pinning sites strongly influence the dynamics. Second-harmonic generation measurements further reveal three characteristic sample-boundary and domain-wall orientations, including a prevalent chiral direction near the zigzag-armchair bisector. These results provide a direct, noninvasive view of domain-wall-mediated switching in a prototypical sliding ferroelectric and identify pinning and exfoliation-created boundaries as key factors governing its dynamics.

Generalized Brillouin zones (GBZs) are integral in the analysis of non-Hermitian band structures. Conventional wisdom suggests that the GBZ should be connected, where each point can be indexed by the real part of the wave vector, similar to the Brillouin zone. Here we demonstrate rich topological features of the GBZs in generic non-Hermitian one-dimensional models. We prove and discuss a set of sufficient conditions for a single-band model to ensure the connectivity of its GBZ. Breaking these conditions allows us to explicitly construct disconnected GBZs, with more connected components than the number of bands in multiband models. This novel GBZ topology is applied to further demonstrate a counterintuitive effect, where the line gap of a two-band open-boundary spectrum with sublattice symmetry may be closed without changing its point-gap topology. Our results challenge the current understanding of bands and gaps in non-Hermitian systems and highlight the need to further investigate the topological effects associated with the GBZ, including topological invariants and open-boundary braiding.

Quasinormal modes universally describe resonances in open non-Hermitian systems. However, a first-principles scattering theory bridging internal Floquet dynamics with external excitation in time-varying open systems has remained elusive. Here, we develop a generalized ab initio Floquet-quasinormal mode theory for open Floquet photonic systems, revealing complex phenomena inaccessible to phenomenological temporal coupled-mode theory. It enables rigorous analysis of the mode coupling induced by time modulation and more importantly, the measurable response of eigenmodes under external excitation. As an example, we calculate the scattering cross section of a spherical particle with a time-modulated shell, demonstrating a case study of photonic Autler-Townes splitting. Our framework allows efficient first-principles simulations by decoupling spectral and spatial evaluations, avoiding costly full-wave resimulations.

We theoretically investigate the role of spatial dimension and driving frequency in a nonequilibrium phase transition of a driven-dissipative interacting bosonic system. In this setting, spatial dimension is dictated by the shape of the external driving field. We consider both homogeneous driving configurations, which correspond to standard integer-dimensional systems, and fractal driving patterns, which give rise to a noninteger Hausdorff dimension for the spatial density. The onset of criticality is characterized by critical slowing down in the excited density dynamics as the system asymptotically approaches the steady state. By analyzing the system-size dependence of the asymptotic decay rate using numerical simulations of the full multimode dynamics, complemented by an analytical statistical mean-field treatment, we determine the lower critical dimension of the nonequilibrium phase transition. We show that this dimension can be noninteger and fractal in nature, and that it can be tuned continuously via the frequency detuning of the driving field.

Dark matter (DM) models with a conserved particle-antiparticle number, $n_{\chi }-n_{\tilde{\chi }}$, and the asymmetry in the cosmological abundance $n_{\chi }\ne n_{\tilde{\chi }}$, are known to be challenged by the existence of old neutron stars (NSs), as the sufficient accumulation of DM will lead to the collapse of NSs into black holes. We demonstrate that the applicability of these constraints is much wider and covers models with symmetric populations of DM, $n_{\chi }=n_{\tilde{\chi }}$, as the process of DM capture regulated by a nucleon-DM scattering can be inherently asymmetric, ${\sigma }_{\chi n}\ne {\sigma }_{\tilde{\chi }n}$. The asymmetry is induced by the interference of different types of $\chi \text{−}n$ interactions, provided that their combination is odd under charge conjugation in the DM sector, $C_{\chi }$, and even under combined parity $P_{\chi +n}$. We provide a complete analysis of DM-nucleon bilinear $\chi \text{−}n$ interactions and find that this asymmetry is very generic. Using canonical NS parameters and local DM halo inputs, we exclude spin-averaged scattering cross sections down to ${\sigma }_{n\chi }\gtrsim {10}^{-46}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ at DM mass $m_{\chi }\lesssim {10}^{10}\mathrm{GeV}$ for the maximally asymmetric capture rate and show that the constraints persist down to very small values of the cross-section asymmetry, $\mathcal{A}=({\sigma }_{\chi n}-{\sigma }_{\tilde{\chi }n})/({\sigma }_{\chi n}+{\sigma }_{\tilde{\chi }n})\gtrsim {10}^{-5}$.

We introduce a novel class of bosonic dark matter candidates that we dub wallions, featuring boundaries in field space. The wallion mass is exponentially suppressed when the separation between boundaries far exceeds their intrinsic width and remains radiatively stable under self-interactions. We study the early universe evolution of wallions and the associated cosmological signatures. Finally, we show that instanton effects can dynamically generate field-space boundaries and discuss possible experimental probes once the wallion couples to standard model fields.

We establish universal relations between surface defect Weyl anomalies, the ground state energy, and entanglement structure in higher-dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theories. As a concrete example, we show that for surface defects in $6d$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs), the defect contribution to supersymmetric Casimir energy is determined by the combination of $b$ and $d_2$, where $b$ and $d_2$ are the surface defect Weyl anomalies. A similar closed-form expression is also derived for the defect contribution to supersymmetric Rényi entropy. The comprehensive method we develop here combines supersymmetric localization, anomaly polynomials, and holography, with applications to broader SCFTs with defects.

Electric dipole moment (EDM) measurements using paramagnetic molecules have significantly advanced over the last decade. Traditionally, these experiments have been analyzed in terms of the electron EDM. However, paramagnetic molecules are also sensitive to hadronic sources of charge-parity ($CP$) violation, highlighting the need for a new framework to interpret the experimental results. In this Letter, we introduce an effective field theory framework to relate molecular EDMs to the EDMs of neutrons and protons. We identify the dominant contributions through power counting and pinpoint the necessary nuclear matrix elements. As a practical application, we employ the nuclear shell model to calculate these nuclear matrix elements for the polar molecule BaF. Finally, we estimate the limits on the nucleon EDMs set by current molecular EDM experiments.

Constructing fast and accurate surrogate models is a key ingredient for making robust predictions in many topics. We introduce a new model, the multiparameter eigenvalue problem (MEP) emulator. The new method connects emulators and can make predictions directly from observables to observables. We show that the MEP emulator can be trained with data from eigenvector continuation and parametric matrix model emulators. A simple simulation on a one-dimensional lattice confirms the performance of the MEP emulator. Using ${}^{28}\mathrm{O}$ as an example, we also demonstrate that the predictive probability distribution of the target observables can be straightforwardly obtained through the new emulator.

Nuclear spin comagnetometers offer exceptional precision in measurements of spin energy levels and exhibit long-term stability, making them powerful tools for probing spin-dependent physics beyond the standard model as well as for inertial rotation sensing. We describe a new ${}^3\mathrm{He}\text{−}{}^{21}\mathrm{Ne}$ Ramsey comagnetometer operating with an in situ ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ magnetometer for initialization and sensing of nuclear spins. During free precession of nuclear spins we turn off all lasers and introduce a microwave field to suppress back action from Rb atoms. We demonstrate that scalar and dipolar interactions between nuclear spins can be eliminated via control of the polarized sample geometry. These improvements result in a bias-free measurement with a frequency sensitivity of 0.6 nHz after six hours of integration.

We derive an analog of the Lellouch-Lüscher (LL) relation for few-body bosonic systems, linking few-body scattering loss rates to the energies and widths of the corresponding harmonically trapped few-body states. Three-body numerical simulations show that the LL relation applies across a broad range of interaction strengths and energies and allows the determination of scattering rates within a single partial wave. Our Letter establishes a robust theoretical framework for understanding the role of the finite-volume effect in few-body observables in optical lattice and tweezer experiments, enabling precise determination of multibody scattering rates.

Oxide heterostructures provide excellent playgrounds to investigate novel transport phenomena emerging at interfaces due to broken inversion symmetry, in stark contrast to constituent compounds. Here, we fabricate ${\mathrm{GdTiO}}_3/{\mathrm{EuTiO}}_3$ heterostructures, where a two-dimensional electron system emerges due to the ${\mathrm{Ti}}^{3+}/{\mathrm{Ti}}^{4+}$ valence-mismatch interface in the background of a large magnetic moment from half-filled $4f$ electrons on ${\mathrm{Gd}}^{3+}$ and ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ ions. Reflecting the coexistence of electric polarization and magnetism at the interface, nonreciprocal transport properties are observed, with distinct dependencies on temperature and magnetic field, originating from the scattering by chiral magnons. We discovered that, despite the extremely small Rashba band splitting, the nonreciprocal conduction is surprisingly large, presenting a promising route to the materials design of polar-magnetic metals composed of transition metal oxides.

We investigate displacive short-range order in pyrochlore ${\mathrm{Y}}_2{\mathrm{Nb}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$, which exhibits a nonmagnetic insulating state despite the presence of formally tetravalent ${\mathrm{Nb}}^{4+}$ ($S=1/2$) ions on the pyrochlore network. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction on a single crystal reveals a characteristic x-ray diffuse scattering (XDS) pattern primarily around $\mathit{q}=\{0.5,0.5,2\}$. Reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) simulations uncover local Nb displacements along the $⟨111⟩$ axes, leading to the formation of linear ${\mathrm{Nb}}_4$ tetramers. Our findings highlight a crucial role of molecular orbital degrees of freedom in stabilizing the nonmagnetic insulating state. This study demonstrates that RMC analysis of XDS provides a powerful approach for elucidating short-range correlations and the underlying mechanisms governing the physical properties of crystalline materials.