Laser-direct-drive symmetric implosions on OMEGA illuminate a target with 60 laser beams and are designed to produce spherical implosions. Each beam is smoothed using orthogonal polarizations obtained by passing the laser beams through distributed polarization rotators (DPRs). Observations of light scattered from OMEGA implosions do not show the expected symmetry and have much larger variation than standard predictions. For the first time, we have quantified the scattered-light nonuniformity from individual beams and identified the DPRs as the source of the enhanced nonuniformity. An instrument was invented that isolated and measured the variation in the intensity and polarization of the light scattered from each OMEGA beam. The asymmetric intensity and polarization measurements are explained when the on-target offsets between the two orthogonal polarizations produced by the DPRs are modeled using a 3D cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) code that tracks the polarizations of each beam. The time-integrated nonuniformity in laser absorption and scattered light due to CBET and the DPR polarization offsets during high-performance OMEGA implosions is predicted to be significant and dominated by low spherical harmonic mode numbers. The nonuniformity is predicted to be greatly reduced by replacing the DPRs with new optics that create smaller offsets.

We report ${}^{51}\mathrm{V}$ NMR and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements on a quasi-1D antiferromagnet ${\mathrm{BaCo}}_2{\mathrm{V}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_8$ under transverse field along the [010] direction. The scaling behavior of the spin-lattice relaxation rate above the Néel temperatures unveils a 1D quantum critical point (QCP) at $H_c^{1\mathrm{D}}\approx 4.7\mathrm{T}$, which is masked by the 3D magnetic order. With the aid of accurate analytical analysis and numerical calculations, we show that the zone center INS spectrum at $H_c^{1\mathrm{D}}$ is precisely described by the pattern of the 1D quantum Ising model in a magnetic field, a class of universality described in terms of the exceptional $E_8$ Lie algebra. These excitations are nondiffusive over a certain field range when the system is away from the 1D QCP. Our results provide an unambiguous experimental realization of the massive $E_8$ phase in the compound, and open a new experimental route for exploring the dynamics of quantum integrable systems as well as physics beyond integrability.

We investigate the role of domain walls in the ultrafast magnon dynamics of an antiferromagnetic NiO single crystal in a pump-probe experiment with variable pump photon energy. Analyzing the amplitude of the energy-dependent photoinduced ultrafast spin dynamics, we detect a yet unreported coupling between the material’s characteristic terahertz- and gigahertz-magnon modes. We explain this unexpected coupling between two orthogonal eigenstates of the corresponding Hamiltonian by modeling the magnetoelastic interaction between spins in different domains. We find that such interaction, in the nonlinear regime, couples the two different magnon modes via the domain walls and it can be optically exploited via the exciton-magnon resonance.

Linear-response time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) can describe excitonic features in the optical spectra of insulators and semiconductors, using exchange-correlation (xc) kernels behaving as $-1/k^2$ to leading order. We show how excitons can be modeled in real-time TDDFT, using an xc vector potential constructed from approximate, long-range corrected xc kernels. We demonstrate, for various materials, that this real-time approach is consistent with frequency-dependent linear response, gives access to femtosecond exciton dynamics following short-pulse excitations, and can be extended with some caution into the nonlinear regime.

We report observations of quasiparticle pair production by a modulational instability in an atomic superfluid and present a measurement technique that enables direct characterization of quasiparticle quantum entanglement. By quenching the atomic interaction to attractive and then back to weakly repulsive, we produce correlated quasiparticles and monitor their evolution in a superfluid through evaluating the in situ density noise power spectrum, which essentially measures a “homodyne” interference between ground-state atoms and quasiparticles of opposite momenta. We observe large amplitude growth in the power spectrum and subsequent coherent oscillations in a wide spatial frequency band within our resolution limit, demonstrating coherent quasiparticle generation and evolution. The spectrum is observed to oscillate below a quantum limit set by the Peres-Horodecki separability criterion of continuous-variable states, thereby confirming quantum entanglement between interaction quench-induced quasiparticles.

Eigenstate thermalization in quantum many-body systems implies that eigenstates at high energy are similar to random vectors. Identifying systems where at least some eigenstates are nonthermal is an outstanding question. In this Letter we show that interacting quantum models that have a nullspace—a degenerate subspace of eigenstates at zero energy (zero modes), which corresponds to infinite temperature, provide a route to nonthermal eigenstates. We analytically show the existence of a zero mode which can be represented as a matrix product state for a certain class of local Hamiltonians. In the more general case we use a subspace disentangling algorithm to generate an orthogonal basis of zero modes characterized by increasing entanglement entropy. We show evidence for an area-law entanglement scaling of the least-entangled zero mode in the broad parameter regime, leading to a conjecture that all local Hamiltonians with the nullspace feature zero modes with area-law entanglement scaling and, as such, break the strong thermalization hypothesis. Finally, we find zero modes in constrained models and propose a setup for observing their experimental signatures.

We present a new paradigm of dark matter freeze-out, where the annihilation of dark matter particles is catalyzed. We discuss in detail the regime in which the depletion of dark matter proceeds via $2\chi \to 2A^{\prime }$ and $3A^{\prime }\to 2\chi$ processes, where $\chi$ and $A^{\prime }$ denote dark matter and the catalyst, respectively. In this regime, the dark matter number density is depleted polynomially rather than exponentially (Boltzmann suppression) as in classical weakly interacting massive particles and strongly interacting massive particles. The paradigm applies for a secluded weakly interacting dark sector with dark matter in the MeV-TeV mass range. The catalyzed annihilation paradigm is compatible with cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis constraints, with enhanced indirect detection signals.

We show that the three-dimensional Thurston geometries are vacuum solutions to the 3D new massive gravity equations of motion. We analyze their Lorentzian counterparts as well.

Mirror sectors have been proposed to address the problems of dark matter, baryogenesis, and the neutron lifetime anomaly. In this work we study a new, powerful probe of mirror neutrons: neutron star temperatures. When neutrons in the neutron star core convert to mirror neutrons during collisions, the vacancies left behind in the nucleon Fermi seas are refilled by more energetic nucleons, releasing immense amounts of heat in the process. We derive a new constraint on the allowed strength of neutron-mirror-neutron mixing from observations of the coldest (sub-40 000 Kelvin) neutron star, PSR $2144-3933$. Our limits compete with laboratory searches for neutron-mirror-neutron transitions but apply to a range of mass splittings between the neutron and mirror neutron that is 19 orders of magnitude larger. This heating mechanism, also pertinent to other neutron disappearance channels such as exotic neutron decay, provides a compelling physics target for upcoming ultraviolet, optical, and infrared telescopes to study thermal emissions of cold neutron stars.

We demonstrate a collectively encoded qubit based on a single Rydberg excitation stored in an ensemble of $N$ entangled atoms. Qubit rotations are performed by applying microwave fields that drive excitations between Rydberg states. Coherent readout is performed by mapping the excitation into a single photon. Ramsey interferometry is used to probe the coherence of the qubit, as well as to test the robustness to external perturbations. We show that qubit coherence is preserved even as we lose atoms from the polariton mode, preserving Ramsey fringe visibility. We show that dephasing due to electric field noise scales as the fourth power of field amplitude. These results show that robust quantum information processing can be achieved via collective encoding using Rydberg polaritons, and hence this system could provide an attractive alternative coding strategy for quantum computation and networking.

We develop a unified framework to characterize one-shot transformations of dynamical quantum resources in terms of resource quantifiers, establishing universal conditions for exact and approximate transformations in general resource theories. Our framework encompasses all dynamical resources represented as quantum channels, including those with a specific structure—such as boxes, assemblages, and measurements—thus immediately applying in a vast range of physical settings. For the particularly important manipulation tasks of distillation and dilution, we show that our conditions become necessary and sufficient for broad classes of important theories, enabling an exact characterization of these tasks and establishing a precise connection between operational problems and resource monotones based on entropic divergences. We exemplify our results by considering explicit applications to quantum communication, where we obtain exact expressions for one-shot quantum capacity and simulation cost assisted by no-signaling, separability-preserving, and positive partial transpose–preserving codes; as well as to nonlocality, contextuality, and measurement incompatibility, where we present operational applications of a number of relevant resource measures.

When multiple quantum emitters radiate, their emission rate may be enhanced or suppressed due to collective interference in a process known as super- or subradiance. Such processes are well known to occur also in light emission from free electrons, known as coherent cathodoluminescence. Unlike atomic systems, free electrons have an unbounded energy spectrum, and, thus, all their emission mechanisms rely on electron recoil, in addition to the classical properties of the dielectric medium. To date, all experimental and theoretical studies of super- and subradiance from free electrons assumed only classical correlations between particles. However, dependence on quantum correlations, such as entanglement between free electrons, has not been studied. Recent advances in coherent shaping of free-electron wave functions motivate the investigation of such quantum regimes of super- and subradiance. In this Letter, we show how a pair of coincident path-entangled electrons can demonstrate either super- or subradiant light emission, depending on the two-particle wave function. By choosing different free-electron Bell states, the spectrum and emission pattern of the light can be reshaped, in a manner that cannot be accounted for by a classical mixed state. We show these results for light emission in any optical medium and discuss their generalization to many-body quantum states. Our findings suggest that light emission can be sensitive to the explicit quantum state of the emitting matter wave and possibly serve as a nondestructive measurement scheme for measuring the quantum state of many-body systems.

Cross-resonance (CR) gates have emerged as a promising scheme for fault-tolerant quantum computation with fixed-frequency qubits. We experimentally implement an entangling CR gate by using a microwave-only control in a tunable coupling superconducting circuit, where the tunable coupler provides extra degrees of freedom to verify optimal conditions for constructing a CR gate. By developing a three-qubit Hamiltonian tomography protocol, we systematically investigate the dependency of gate fidelities on spurious qubit interactions and present the first experimental approach to the evaluation of the perturbation impact arising from spectator qubits. Our results reveal that the spectator qubits lead to reductions in CR gate fidelity dependent on $ZZ$ interactions and particular frequency detunings between spectator and gate qubits. The target spectator demonstrates a more serious impact than the control spectator under a standard echo pulse scheme, whereas the degradation of gate fidelity is observed up to 22.5% as both the spectators are present with a modest ZZ coupling to the computational qubits. Our experiments uncover an optimal CR operation regime, and the method we develop here can readily be applied to improving other kinds of two-qubit gates in large-scale quantum circuits.

QED perturbation theory has been conjectured to break down in sufficiently strong backgrounds, obstructing the analysis of strong-field physics. We show that the breakdown occurs even in classical electrodynamics, at lower field strengths than previously considered, and that it may be cured by resummation. As a consequence, an analogous resummation is required in QED. A detailed investigation shows, for a range of observables, that unitarity removes diagrams previously believed to be responsible for the breakdown of QED perturbation theory.

A recent analysis of experimental data [J. Wilson et al., Nature (London) 590, 566 (2021)] found that the angular momenta of nuclear fission fragments are uncorrelated. Based on this finding, the authors concluded that the spins are therefore determined only after scission has occurred. We show here that the nucleon-exchange mechanism, as implemented in the well-established event-by-event fission model freya, while agitating collective rotational modes in which the two spins are highly correlated, nevertheless leads to fragment spins that are largely uncorrelated. This counterexample invalidates the conclusion in [J. Wilson et al.] that uncorrelated spins must necessarily have been generated after scission (a potentious conclusion that would rule out all models that generate the fragment spins prior to scission). Furthermore, it was reported [J. Wilson et al.] that the mass dependence of the average fragment spin has a sawtooth structure. We demonstrate that such a behavior naturally emerges when shell and deformation effects are included in the moments of inertia of the fragments at scission.

The interaction of the contact line with topographical or chemical defects at the nanometer scale sets the macroscopic wetting properties of a liquid on a solid substrate. Based on specific atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments, we demonstrate that molecules physically sorbed on a surface are removed by a dynamic contact line. The mechanism of molecules desorption is directly determined by the capillary force exerted at the contact line on the molecules. We also emphasize the potential of AFM to clearly decorrelate the effects of topographical and chemical defects and monitor, with a subsecond time resolution, the dynamics of molecules adsorption on a surface.