Single-shot absorption measurements have been performed using the multi-keV x rays generated by a laser-wakefield accelerator. A 200 TW laser was used to drive a laser-wakefield accelerator in a mode which produced broadband electron beams with a maximum energy above 1 GeV and a broad divergence of $\approx 15\mathrm{mrad}$ FWHM. Betatron oscillations of these electrons generated $1.2\pm 0.2\times {10}^6\mathrm{photons}/\mathrm{eV}$ in the 5 keV region, with a signal-to-noise ratio of approximately $300:1$. This was sufficient to allow high-resolution x-ray absorption near-edge structure measurements at the $K$ edge of a titanium sample in a single shot. We demonstrate that this source is capable of single-shot, simultaneous measurements of both the electron and ion distributions in matter heated to eV temperatures by comparison with density functional theory simulations. The unique combination of a high-flux, large bandwidth, few femtosecond duration x-ray pulse synchronized to a high-power laser will enable key advances in the study of ultrafast energetic processes such as electron-ion equilibration.

Applications based on spin currents strongly rely on the control and reduction of their effective damping and their transport properties. We here experimentally observe magnon mediated transport of spin (angular) momentum through a 13.4-nm thin yttrium iron garnet film with full control of the magnetic damping via spin-orbit torque. Above a critical spin-orbit torque, the fully compensated damping manifests itself as an increase of magnon conductivity by almost 2 orders of magnitude. We compare our results to theoretical expectations based on recently predicted current induced magnon condensates and discuss other possible origins of the observed critical behavior.

We derive the strongest constraint on the fraction of dark matter that can be composed of low mass primordial black holes by using the observation of the Galactic Center 511 keV $\gamma$-ray line. Primordial black holes of masses $\lesssim {10}^{15}\mathrm{kg}$ will evaporate to produce $e^{\pm }$ pairs. The positrons will lose energy in the Galactic Center, become nonrelativistic, then annihilate with the ambient electrons. We derive robust and conservative bounds by assuming that the rate of positron injection via primordial black hole evaporation is less than what is required to explain the SPI/INTEGRAL observation of the Galactic Center 511 keV $\gamma$-ray line. Depending on the primordial black hole mass function and other astrophysical uncertainties, these constraints are the most stringent in the literature and show that primordial black holes contribute to less than 1% of the dark matter density. Our technique also probes part of the mass range which was completely unconstrained by previous studies.

Models in which dark matter consists entirely of primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses around $10^{17}\mathrm{g}$ are currently unconstrained. However, if PBHs are a component of the Galactic dark matter density, they will inject a large flux of energetic particles into the Galaxy as they radiate. Positrons produced by these black holes will subsequently propagate throughout the Galaxy and annihilate, contributing to the Galactic 511 keV line. Using measurements of this line by the INTEGRAL satellite as a constraint on PBH positron injection, we place new limits on PBH abundance in the mass range $10^{16}–10^{17}\mathrm{g}$, ruling out models in which these PBHs constitute the entirety of dark matter.

We investigate the role of nonlocal correlations in LiFeAs by exploring an ab initio–derived multiorbital Hubbard model for LiFeAs via the two-particle self-consistent (TPSC) approach. The multiorbital formulation of TPSC approximates the irreducible interaction vertex to be an orbital-dependent constant, which is self-consistently determined from local spin and charge sum rules. Within this approach, we disentangle the contribution of local and nonlocal correlations in LiFeAs and show that in the local approximation one recovers the dynamical mean field theory result. The comparison of our theoretical results to most recent angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and de Haas–van Alphen data shows that nonlocal correlations in LiFeAs are decisive to describe the measured spectral function $A(\overrightarrow{k},\omega )$, Fermi surface, and scattering rates. These findings underline the importance of nonlocal correlations and benchmark different theoretical approaches for iron-based superconductors.

We report on the all-optical production of Bose-Einstein condensates in microgravity using a combination of grey molasses cooling, light-shift engineering and optical trapping in a painted potential. Forced evaporative cooling in a 3-m high Einstein elevator results in $4\times {10}^4$ condensed atoms every 13.5 s, with a temperature as low as 35 nK. In this system, the atomic cloud can expand in weightlessness for up to 400 ms, paving the way for atom interferometry experiments with extended interrogation times and studies of ultracold matter physics at low energies on ground or in Space.

We provide analytical arguments showing that the “nonperturbative” approximation scheme to Wilson’s renormalization group known as the derivative expansion has a finite radius of convergence. We also provide guidelines for choosing the regulator function at the heart of the procedure and propose empirical rules for selecting an optimal one, without prior knowledge of the problem at stake. Using the Ising model in three dimensions as a testing ground and the derivative expansion at order six, we find fast convergence of critical exponents to their exact values, irrespective of the well-behaved regulator used, in full agreement with our general arguments. We hope these findings will put an end to disputes regarding this type of nonperturbative methods.

The detection of the high-energy neutrino event, IceCube-170922A, demonstrated that multimessenger particle astrophysics triggered by neutrino alerts is feasible. We consider time delay signatures caused by secret neutrino interactions with the cosmic neutrino background and dark matter and suggest that these can be used as a novel probe of neutrino interactions beyond the standard model (BSM). The tests with BSM-induced neutrino echoes are distinct from existing constraints from the spectral modification and will be enabled by multimessenger observations of bright neutrino transients with future experiments such as IceCube-Gen2, KM3Net, and Hyper-Kamiokande. The constraints are complementary to those from accelerator and laboratory experiments and powerful for testing various particle models that explain tensions prevailing in the cosmological data.

Direct dark matter detection experiments based on a liquid xenon target are leading the search for dark matter particles with masses above $\sim 5\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, but have limited sensitivity to lighter masses because of the small momentum transfer in dark matter-nucleus elastic scattering. However, there is an irreducible contribution from inelastic processes accompanying the elastic scattering, which leads to the excitation and ionization of the recoiling atom (the Migdal effect) or the emission of a bremsstrahlung photon. In this Letter, we report on a probe of low-mass dark matter with masses down to about $85\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$ by looking for electronic recoils induced by the Migdal effect and bremsstrahlung using data from the XENON1T experiment. Besides the approach of detecting both scintillation and ionization signals, we exploit an approach that uses ionization signals only, which allows for a lower detection threshold. This analysis significantly enhances the sensitivity of XENON1T to light dark matter previously beyond its reach.

Using the formulation of electrodynamics in rotating media, we put into explicit quantitative form the effect of rotation on interference and diffraction patterns as observed in the rotating medium’s rest frame. As a paradigm experiment we focus the interference generated by a linear array of sources in a homogeneous medium. The interference is distorted due to rotation; the maxima now follow curved trajectories. Unlike the classical Sagnac effect in which the rotation induced phase is independent of the refraction index $n$, here the maxima bending increases when $n$ decreases, suggesting that $\epsilon$-near-zero metamaterials can enhance optical gyroscopes and rotation-induced nonreciprocal devices. This result is counterintuitive as one may expect that a wave that travels faster would bend less. The apparent contradiction is clarified via the Minkowski momentum picture for a quasiparticle model of the interference that introduces the action of a Coriolis force, and by the Abraham picture of the wave-only momentum. Our results may also shed light on the Abraham-Minkowski controversy as examined in noninertial electrodynamics.

We demonstrate a peculiar mechanism for the formation of bound states of light pulses of substantially different optical frequencies, in which pulses are strongly bound across a vast frequency gap. This is enabled by a propagation constant with two separate regions of anomalous dispersion. The resulting soliton compound exhibits moleculelike binding energy, vibration, and radiation and can be understood as a mutual trapping providing a striking analogy to quantum mechanics. The phenomenon constitutes an intriguing case of two light waves mutually affecting and controlling each other.

Hyperbolic metasurfaces, supporting extreme anisotropy of the surface impedance tensor, have recently been explored in nanophotonic systems for robust diffractionless propagation over a surface, offering interesting opportunities for subdiffraction imaging and enhanced Purcell emission. In acoustics, due to the longitudinal nature of sound transport in fluids, these phenomena are forbidden by symmetry, requiring the acoustic surface impedance to be inherently isotropic. Here we show that nonlocalities produced by strong coupling between neighboring impedance elements enable extreme anisotropic responses for sound traveling over a surface, supporting negative phase and energy velocities, as well as hyperbolic propagation for acoustic surface waves.

The first complete estimation of the compressible energy cascade rate $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{C}}|$ at magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and subion scales is obtained in Earth’s magnetosheath using Magnetospheric MultiScale spacecraft data and an exact law derived recently for compressible Hall MHD turbulence. A multispacecraft technique is used to compute the velocity and magnetic gradients, and then all the correlation functions involved in the exact relation. It is shown that when the density fluctuations are relatively small, $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{C}}|$ identifies well with its incompressible analog $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{I}}|$ at MHD scales but becomes much larger than $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{I}}|$ at subion scales. For larger density fluctuations, $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{C}}|$ is larger than $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{I}}|$ at every scale with a value significantly higher than for smaller density fluctuations. Our study reveals also that for both small and large density fluctuations, the nonflux terms remain always negligible with respect to the flux terms and that the major contribution to $|{ϵ}_{\mathrm{C}}|$ at subion scales comes from the compressible Hall flux.

Molecular hydrogen is a fascinating candidate for novel bosonic and fermionic superfluids. We have studied diffusion dynamics of thin films of ${\mathrm{H}}_2$, HD, and ${\mathrm{D}}_2$ adsorbed on a glass substrate by measurements of elasticity. The elasticity shows multiple anomalies well below the bulk triple point temperature. They are attributed to three different diffusion mechanisms of admolecules and their “freezing” into a localized state: classical thermal diffusion of vacancies, quantum tunneling of vacancies, and diffusion of molecules in the uppermost surface. The surface diffusion is active down to 1 K, below which the molecules become localized. This suggests that the surface layer of hydrogen films is on the verge of quantum phase transition to a superfluid state.

While condensed matter systems host both fermionic and bosonic quasiparticles, reliably predicting and empirically verifying topological states is only mature for Fermionic electronic structures, leaving topological Bosonic excitations sporadically explored. This is unfortunate, as Bosonic systems such as phonons offer the opportunity to assess spinless band structures where nodal lines can be realized without invoking special additional symetries to protect against spin-orbit coupling. Here we combine first-principles calculations and meV-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering to demonstrate the first realization of parity-time reversal symmetry protected helical nodal lines in the phonon spectrum of ${\mathrm{MoB}}_2$. This structure is unique to phononic systems as the spin-orbit coupling present in electronic systems tends to lift the degeneracy away from high-symmetry locations. Our study establishes a protocol to accurately identify topological Bosonic excitations, opening a new route to explore exotic topological states in crystalline materials.

We present molecular dynamics simulations of shock and release in micron-scale tantalum crystals that exhibit postbreakout temperatures far exceeding those expected under the standard assumption of isentropic release. We show via an energy-budget analysis that this is due to plastic-work heating from material strength that largely counters thermoelastic cooling. The simulations are corroborated by experiments where the release temperatures of laser-shocked tantalum foils are deduced from their thermal strains via in situ x-ray diffraction and are found to be close to those behind the shock.

The investigation of the microscopic processes underlying structural phase transformations in solids is extremely challenging for both simulation and experiment. Atomistic simulations of solid-solid phase transitions require extensive sampling of the corresponding high-dimensional and often rugged energy landscape. Here, we propose a rigorous construction of a 1D path collective variable that is used in combination with enhanced sampling techniques for efficient exploration of the transformation mechanisms. The path collective variable is defined in a space spanned by global classifiers that are derived from local structural units. A reliable identification of the local structural environments is achieved by employing a neural-network-based classification scheme. The proposed path collective variable is generally applicable and enables the investigation of both transformation mechanisms and kinetics.

Bimetallic catalysts can undergo segregation or redistribution of the metals driven by oxidizing and reducing environments. Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) was used to relate displacement fields to compositional distributions in crystalline Pt-Rh alloy nanoparticles. Three-dimensional images of internal composition showed that the radial distribution of compositions reverses partially between the surface shell and the core when gas flow changes between ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{H}}_2$. Our observation suggests that the elemental segregation of nanoparticle catalysts should be highly active during heterogeneous catalysis and can be a controlling factor in synthesis of electrocatalysts. In addition, our study exemplifies applications of BCDI for in situ 3D imaging of internal equilibrium compositions in other bimetallic alloy nanoparticles.