We report an experimental and theoretical study of the low-temperature specific heat $C$ and magnetic susceptibility $\chi$ of the layered anisotropic triangular-lattice spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets ${\mathrm{Cs}}_2{\mathrm{CuCl}}_{4-x}{\mathrm{Br}}_x$ with $x=0$, 1, 2, and 4. We find that the ratio $J^{\prime }/J$ of the exchange couplings ranges from 0.32 to $\approx 0.78$, implying a change (crossover or quantum phase transition) in the materials’ magnetic properties from one-dimensional (1D) behavior for $J^{\prime }/J<0.6$ to two-dimensional (2D) behavior for $J^{\prime }/J\approx 0.78$. For $J^{\prime }/J<0.6$, realized for $x=0$, 1, and 4, we find a magnetic contribution to the low-temperature specific heat, $C_m\propto T$, consistent with spinon excitations in 1D spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets. Remarkably, for $x=2$, where $J^{\prime }/J\approx 0.78$ implies a 2D magnetic character, we also observe $C_m\propto T$. This finding, which contrasts the prediction of $C_m\propto T^2$ made by standard spin-wave theories, shows that Fermi-like statistics also plays a significant role for the magnetic excitations in spin-$1/2$ frustrated 2D antiferromagnets.

We present an experimental study of spin-torque driven vortex self-oscillations in magnetic nanocontacts. We find that, above a certain threshold in applied currents, the vortex gyration around the nanocontact is modulated by relaxation oscillations, which involve periodic reversals of the vortex core. This modulation leads to the appearance of commensurate but also, more interestingly here, incommensurate states, which are characterized by devil’s staircases in the modulation frequency. We use frequency- and time-domain measurements together with advanced time-series analyses to provide experimental evidence of chaos in incommensurate states of vortex oscillations, in agreement with theoretical predictions.

For soft matter to form quasicrystals an important ingredient is to have two characteristic length scales in the interparticle interactions. To be more precise, for stable quasicrystals, periodic modulations of the local density distribution with two particular wave numbers should be favored, and the ratio of these wave numbers should be close to certain special values. So, for simple models, the answer to the title question is that only these two ingredients are needed. However, for more realistic models, where in principle all wave numbers can be involved, other wave numbers are also important, specifically those of the second and higher reciprocal lattice vectors. We identify features in the particle pair interaction potentials that can suppress or encourage density modes with wave numbers associated with one of the regular crystalline orderings that compete with quasicrystals, enabling either the enhancement or suppression of quasicrystals in a generic class of systems.

Using a Bayesian approach, we combine measurements of neutron star macroscopic observables obtained by astrophysical and gravitational observations to derive joint constraints on the equation of state (EOS) of matter at supranuclear density. In our analysis, we use two sets of data: (i) the masses and tidal deformabilities measured in the binary neutron star event GW170817, detected by LIGO and Virgo, and (ii) the masses and stellar radii measured from observations of nuclear bursts in accreting low-mass x-ray binaries. Using a phenomenological parametrization of the equation of state, we compute the posterior probability distributions of the EOS parameters, using which we infer the posterior distribution for the radius and the mass of the two neutron stars of GW170817. The constraints we set on the radii are tighter than previous bounds.

Scattering processes often inevitably include the production of infrared states, which are highly correlated with the hard scattering event, and decohere the hard states. This can be described using the entropy of the hard reduced density matrix, which is obtained from tracing over infrared states. We determine this entropy for an asymptotically free gauge theory by separating the Hilbert space into hard and infrared states, and calculate it in a leading-logarithmic approximation for jets. We find that the entropy increases when the resolution scales defining the hard radiation are lowered, that this entropy is related to the subjet multiplicity, and explore connections to using jet images for machine learning, and the forward-scattering density matrix of partons in a nucleon probed in deep-inelastic scattering.

Exclusive cross sections and momentum distributions have been measured for quasifree one-neutron knockout reactions from a ${}^{54}\mathrm{Ca}$ beam striking on a liquid hydrogen target at $\sim 200\mathrm{MeV}/u$. A significantly larger cross section to the $p_{3/2}$ state compared to the $f_{5/2}$ state observed in the excitation of ${}^{53}\mathrm{Ca}$ provides direct evidence for the nature of the $N=34$ shell closure. This finding corroborates the arising of a new shell closure in neutron-rich calcium isotopes. The distorted-wave impulse approximation reaction formalism with shell model calculations using the effective GXPF1Bs interaction and ab initio calculations concur our experimental findings. Obtained transverse and parallel momentum distributions demonstrate the sensitivity of quasifree one-neutron knockout in inverse kinematics on a thick liquid hydrogen target with the reaction vertex reconstructed to final state spin-parity assignments.

The possibility to manipulate the wave packets of single photons or biphotons has enriched quantum optics and quantum information science, with examples ranging from faithful quantum-state mapping and high-efficiency quantum memory to the purification of single photons. Here we demonstrate another fascinating use of wave packet manipulation on restoring quantum interference. By modulating the photons’ temporal wave packet, we observe the revival of postselected entanglement that would otherwise be degraded or lost due to poor quantum interference. Our study shows that the amount of the restored entanglement is only limited by the forms of modulation and can achieve full recovery if the modulation function is properly designed. Our work has potential applications in long-distance quantum communication and linear optical quantum computation, particularly for quantum repeaters and large cluster states.

We implement a general imaging method by measuring the complex degree of coherence using linear optics and photon number resolving detectors. In the absence of collective or entanglement-assisted measurements, our method is optimal over a large range of practically relevant values of the complex degree of coherence. We measure the size and position of a small distant source of pseudothermal light, and show that our method outperforms the traditional imaging method by an order of magnitude in precision. Finally, we show that a lack of photon-number resolution in the detectors has only a modest detrimental effect on measurement precision and simulate imaging using the new and traditional methods with an array of detectors, showing that the new method improves both image clarity and contrast.

We study the ground states of crystals on spherical surfaces. These ground states consist of positive disclination defects in structures spanning from flat and weakly curved caps to closed shells. Comparing two continuum theories and one discrete-lattice simulation, we first investigate the transition between defect-free caps to single-disclination ground states and show it to be continuous and symmetry breaking. Further, we show that ground states adopt icosahedral subgroup symmetries across the full range of curvatures, even far from the closure of complete shells. While superficially similar to other models of 2D “jellium” (e.g., superconducting disks and 2D Wigner crystals), the interplay between the free edge of caps and the non-Euclidean geometry of its embedding leads to nontrivial ground state behavior that is without counterpart in planar jellium models.

Single-photon emitters play a key role in present and emerging quantum technologies. Several recent measurements have established monolayer ${\mathrm{WSe}}_2$ as a promising candidate for a reliable single-photon source. The origin and underlying microscopic processes have remained, however, largely elusive. We present a multiscale tight-binding simulation for the optical spectra of ${\mathrm{WSe}}_2$ under nonuniform strain and in the presence of point defects employing the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Strain locally shifts excitonic energy levels into the band gap where they overlap with localized intragap defect states. The resulting hybridization allows for efficient filling and subsequent radiative decay of the defect states. We identify intervalley defect excitonic states as the likely candidate for antibunched single-photon emission. This proposed scenario is shown to account for a large variety of experimental observations including brightness, radiative transition rates, the variation of the excitonic energy with applied magnetic and electric fields as well as the variation of the polarization of the emitted photon with the magnetic field.

Recent experiments reported an unusual nematic behavior of heavily hole-doped pnictides $A{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{As}}_2$, with alkali $A=\mathrm{Rb}$, Cs. In contrast to the $B_{2g}$ nematic order of the parent $Ae{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{As}}_2$ compounds (with alkaline earth $Ae=\mathrm{Sr}$, Ba), characterized by unequal nearest-neighbor Fe-Fe bonds, in the hole-doped systems nematic order is observed in the $B_{1g}$ channel, characterized by unequal next-nearest-neighbor Fe-Fe (diagonal Fe-As-Fe) bonds. In this Letter, using density functional theory, we attribute this behavior to the evolution of the magnetic ground state along the series $A{e}_{1-x}{A}_x{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{As}}_2$, from single stripes for small $x$ to double stripes for large $x$. Our simulations using the reduced Stoner theory show that fluctuations of Fe moments are essential for the stability of the double-stripe configuration. We propose that the change in the nature of the magnetic ground state is responsible for the change in the symmetry of the vestigial nematic order that it supports.

We report muon spin rotation and magnetization measurements under pressure on ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{1+\delta }{\mathrm{Se}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{S}}_x$ with $x\approx 0.11$. Above $p\approx 0.6\mathrm{GPa}$ we find a microscopic coexistence of superconductivity with an extended dome of long range magnetic order that spans a pressure range between previously reported separated magnetic phases. The magnetism initially competes on an atomic scale with the coexisting superconductivity leading to a local maximum and minimum of the superconducting $T_c(p)$. The maximum of $T_c$ corresponds to the onset of magnetism while the minimum coincides with the pressure of strongest competition. A shift of the maximum of $T_c(p)$ for a series of single crystals with $x$ up to 0.14 roughly extrapolates to a putative magnetic and superconducting state at ambient pressure for $x\ge 0.2$.

Topological magnetic textures have attracted considerable interest since they exhibit new properties and might be useful in information technology. Magnetic hopfions are three-dimensional (3D) spatial variations in the magnetization with a nontrivial Hopf index. We find that, in ferromagnetic materials, two types of hopfions, Bloch-type and Néel-type hopfions, can be excited as metastable states in the presence of bulk and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, respectively. We further investigate how hopfions can be driven by currents via spin-transfer torques (STTs) and spin-Hall torques (SHTs). Distinct from 2D ferromagnetic skyrmions, hopfions have a vanishing gyrovector. Consequently, there are no undesirable Hall effects. Néel-type hopfions move along the current direction via both STT and SHT, while Bloch-type hopfions move either transverse to the current direction via SHT or parallel to the current direction via STT. Our findings open the door to utilizing hopfions as information carriers.

We study experimentally and theoretically the thickness of the coating obtained by pulling out a rod from a reservoir of yield-stress fluid. Opposite to Newtonian fluids, the coating thickness for a fluid of large enough yield stress is determined solely by the flow inside the reservoir and not by the flow inside the meniscus. The stress field inside the reservoir determines the thickness of the coating layer. The thickness is observed to increase nonlinearly with the sizes of the rod and of the reservoir. We develop a theoretical framework that describes this behavior and allows us to precisely predict the coating thickness.

While the behavior of vesicles in thermodynamic equilibrium has been studied extensively, how active forces control vesicle shape transformations is not understood. Here, we combine theory and simulations to study the shape behavior of vesicles containing active Brownian particles. We show that the combination of active forces, dimensionality, and membrane bending free energy creates a plethora of novel phase transitions. At low swim pressure, the vesicle exhibits a discontinuous transition from a spherical to a prolate shape, which has no counterpart in two dimensions. At high swim pressure it exhibits stochastic spatiotemporal oscillations. Our work helps researchers to understand and control the shape dynamics of membranes in active-matter systems.

We study a driven, spin-orbit coupled fermionic system in a lattice at the resonant regime where the drive frequency equals the Hubbard repulsion, for which nontrivial constrained dynamics emerge at fast timescales. An effective density-dependent tunneling model is derived, and it is examined in the sparse filling regime in one dimension. The system exhibits entropic self-localization, where while even numbers of atoms propagate ballistically, odd numbers form localized bound states induced by an effective attraction from a higher configurational entropy. These phenomena occur in the strong coupling limit where interactions impose only a constraint with no explicit Hamiltonian term. We show how the constrained dynamics lead to quantum few-body scars and map to an Anderson impurity model with an additional intriguing feature of nonreciprocal scattering. Connections to many-body scars and localization are also discussed.