We introduce a spectral approach to characterizing the three-dimensional Edwards-Anderson spin glass. By analyzing the eigenvalue statistics of overlap matrices constructed from two-dimensional cross sections, we identify a crossover from the Wigner semicircle law at high temperatures toward a Gaussian distribution, which is consistently attained near the spin-glass critical point. Visible for different distributions of the random coupling, the Gaussian distribution can potentially serve as a robust spectral indicator of criticality. Remarkably, the spectral density is well described by Tsallis statistics, with the entropic index $q$ evolving from $q=-1$ (semicircle, $T=\infty$) to $q=1$ (Gaussian) at $T_c$, revealing a statistical structure inside the paramagnetic phase. We find $q\le 1$ within numerical precision. While the local level statistics remain consistent with Gaussian orthogonal ensemble statistics, reflecting standard level repulsion, the temperature dependence appears mainly in the global spectral density. Our results present spectral statistics as a computationally efficient complement to multireplica correlator methods and provide a new perspective on cooperative and critical phenomena in disordered systems.

We demonstrate that the stabilizer Rényi entropy (SRE), a computable measure of quantum magic, can serve as an information-theoretic probe for universal properties associated with conformal defects in one-dimensional quantum critical systems. Using boundary conformal field theory, we show that open boundaries manifest as a universal logarithmic correction to the SRE, whereas topological defects yield a universal size-independent term. When multiple defects are present, we find that the universal terms in the SRE faithfully reflect the defect-fusion rules that define a noninvertible symmtery algebra. These analytical predictions are corroborated by numerical calculations of the Ising model, where boundaries and topological defects are described by Cardy states and Verlinde lines, respectively.

The first observation of single top quark production in association with a $W$ and a $Z$ boson in proton-proton collisions is reported. The analysis uses data at center-of-mass energies of 13 and 13.6 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $200{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. Events with three or four charged leptons, which can be electrons or muons, are selected. Advanced machine-learning algorithms and improved reconstruction methods, compared to an earlier analysis, result in an unprecedented sensitivity to $tWZ$ production. The measured cross sections for $tWZ$ production are $248\pm 52\mathrm{fb}$ and $242\pm 77\mathrm{fb}$ for $\sqrt{s}=13$ and 13.6 TeV, respectively. The signal is established with a statistical significance of 5.8 standard deviations, with 3.5 expected, compared to the background-only hypothesis.

I explore a theory of transport and optical properties of strange metallic carriers in strongly correlated systems that follows from assuming that the diffusion constant has reached its quantum limit $D=\hslash /m$, and that such quantum carriers behave as distinguishable particles as they would in an electronic solid. These assumptions immediately lead to $T$-linear resistivities with apparent Planckian scattering rates and, extending to the frequency domain, to the stretched Drude peaks and $\omega /T$ scaling commonly observed in optical absorption experiments in strange metals. This behavior can be rationalized by observing that when the thermal de Broglie length ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{dB}}$ exceeds the mean-free path, the carrier motion can no longer be described in terms of random collisions of classical particles as assumed by Drude-Boltzmann theory and should be viewed instead as a sequence of projective measurements collapsing the wave function.

Superconductivity in the transition-metal dichalcogenide ${\mathrm{PdTe}}_2$ has been attributed to the proximity of a three-dimensional Van Hove singularity to the Fermi level. In isostructural ${\mathrm{NiTe}}_2$, recently used as the weak link in a Josephson diode, a similar Van Hove singularity has been predicted to occur, but superconductivity is mysteriously absent. Using bulk-sensitive soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we reveal that this Van Hove singularity lies even closer to the Fermi level in ${\mathrm{NiTe}}_2$ than in ${\mathrm{PdTe}}_2$. To explain the lack of superconductivity in ${\mathrm{NiTe}}_2$, we perform ab initio calculations incorporating the Kukkonen Overhauser interaction, showing that an incipient magnetic instability suppresses superconductivity at an unprecedented scale. Finally, we present a tight-binding model that links the Van Hove singularity to a sign change in the Josephson diode effect at small magnetic fields, suggesting a new mechanism for Josephson diodes.

Laser-induced phase transitions offer pathways of phase transitions that are inaccessible by conventional stimuli. In this Letter, we conduct ab initio simulations to numerically demonstrate a novel laser-induced structural transformation: converting a bulk crystal into a layered van der Waals material using intense light pulses. The transition is driven by a nonlinear phononic mechanism, where selectively exciting polar and antipolar phonon modes with polarized terahertz light breaks targeted interlayer bonds while preserving intralayer ones. We identify that strong anisotropy in bond sensitivity—where interlayer bonds are significantly more susceptible to excitation than intralayer bonds—is the critical prerequisite. Our findings pave the way for on-demand transformations from bulk to 2D materials, facilitate the design of advanced phase-change devices, and suggest a potential optical exfoliation method to expand the range of exfoliable 2D materials.

We theoretically study quantum spin transport in a one-dimensional folded XXZ model with an alternating domain-wall initial state via the Bethe ansatz technique, exactly demonstrating that a probability distribution of finding a leftmost up spin with an appropriate scaling variable converges to the Tracy-Widom distribution for the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE), which is a universal distribution for the largest eigenvalue of GUE under a soft-edge scaling limit. Our finding presented here offers a first exact derivation of the GUE Tracy-Widom distribution in the dynamics of the interacting quantum model not being mapped to noninteracting fermions via the Jordan-Wigner transformation. On the basis of the exact solution of the folded XXZ model and our numerical analysis of the XXZ model, we discuss a universal behavior for the probability of finding the leftmost up spin in the XXZ model.

We consider a 2D XY model subjected to time-correlated noise, a model of direct relevance to active crystals, which were shown recently to be able to support very large deformations without melting in the presence of persistent fluctuations. We find that our persistent XY model can remain quasiordered in spite of correlations decaying much faster than allowed in equilibrium. We then investigate theoretically and numerically the order-disorder transition and conclude that it remains of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type, but with scaling exponents that vary with the persistence time of the noise.

We advance “latent entropy” ($L$ entropy) as a novel measure to characterize genuine multipartite entanglement in pure states, applicable to quantum systems with both finite and infinite degrees of freedom. This measure, derived from an upper bound on reflected entropy, attains its maximum for three-party Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states and $n=4$, 5-party 2-uniform states. We establish that it satisfies all essential properties of a genuine multipartite entanglement measure, including being a pure-state entanglement monotone. We further obtain an analog of the Page curve by analyzing the behavior of $L$ entropy in multiboundary wormholes, emphasizing their connection to multipartite entanglement in random states. Specifically, for $n=5$, we show that random states approximate 2-uniform states, exhibiting maximal multipartite entanglement. Extending these ideas to finite temperatures, we introduce the multipartite thermal pure quantum state, a generalization of the thermal pure quantum state to multipartite systems, and demonstrate that the entanglement structure in states of the multicopy Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model exhibits finite-temperature 2-uniform behavior.

Multiphoton correlations from quantum emitters coupled to vibrational environments lie beyond the reach of standard tools such as the quantum regression theorem. Here, we introduce a Markovian framework for computing frequency-resolved $N$-photon correlation functions that overcomes this limitation. Applying our approach to a driven semiconductor quantum dot provides a tractable description of phonon effects on fluorescence beyond the single-photon spectrum. Our method accurately captures the emergence of the phonon sideband, missed by conventional quantum regression theorem treatments, and reveals rich phonon-induced structure in the filtered two-photon spectrum. Strikingly, we find that photons emitted via the phonon sideband inherit second-order coherence properties of the Mollow triplet.

Rotation gates are widely used in various quantum algorithms. To implement fault-tolerant rotation gates, state distillation or gate synthesis is typically employed. However, the overhead of these schemes scales rapidly with increasing Clifford hierarchy levels and required fidelity, limiting their use in large-scale quantum algorithms. In this Letter, we propose a method termed multilevel transversal injection (MLTI) for preparing rotation states at arbitrary Clifford hierarchy levels, which achieves high fidelity while significantly reducing overhead compared to previous methods. Unlike the linear cost scaling of state distillation, the overhead of MLTI drops with Clifford hierarchy levels and then plateaus at higher levels, slashing the required space-time volume by up to several orders of magnitude. Additionally, we introduce a method for eliminating the off-diagonal terms of rotation states without extra overhead, unifying the metrics of infidelity and trace distance. These results efficiently mitigate the prohibitive overhead for high-precision rotation gates, and thus bring the broad adoption of large-scale quantum algorithms a critical step closer to reality.

The fidelity susceptibility serves as a universal probe for quantum phase transitions, offering an order-parameter-free metric that captures ground-state sensitivity to Hamiltonian perturbations and exhibits critical scaling. Classical computation of this quantity, however, is limited by exponential Hilbert space growth and correlation divergence near criticality, restricting analyses to small or specialized systems. Here, we present a quantum algorithm that achieves efficient and Heisenberg-limited estimation of fidelity susceptibility through a novel resolvent reformulation and pseudoinverse block encoding leveraging quantum singular value transformation and amplitude estimation for norm evaluation. This constitutes the first quantum algorithm for fidelity susceptibility with optimal precision scaling. Moreover, for frustration-free Hamiltonians, we show that the resolvent can be approximated with a further quadratic speedup. Beyond fidelity susceptibility, our resolvent-based framework applies broadly to observables expressible through spectral sums or linear response functions, suggesting a systematic approach to quantum algorithm design for many-body physics. Our Letter bridges quantum many-body physics and algorithmic design, enabling scalable exploration of quantum criticality with applications in materials simulation and metrology on fault-tolerant quantum platforms.

Achieving quantum advantage in efficiently estimating collective properties of quantum many-body systems remains a fundamental goal in quantum computing. While the quantum gradient estimation (QGE) algorithm has been shown to achieve doubly quantum enhancement in the precision and the number of observables, it remains unclear whether one benefits in practical applications. In this Letter, we present a generalized framework of the adaptive QGE algorithm and further propose two variants which enable us to estimate the collective properties of fermionic systems using the smallest cost among existing quantum algorithms. The first method utilizes the symmetry inherent in the target state, and the second method enables estimation in a single-shot manner using the parallel scheme. We show that our proposal offers a quadratic speedup compared with prior QGE algorithms in the task of fermionic partial tomography for systems with limited particle numbers. Furthermore, we provide numerical demonstrations showing that, for a problem of estimating 2-body fermionic reduced density matrices, our proposals improve the number of queries to the target state preparation oracle by a factor of 4.4 for the nitrogenase FeMo cofactor and by a factor of 7.8 for Fermi-Hubbard model of 200 sites in chemical accuracy.

Non-Hermitian systems have attracted considerable interest over the last few decades due to their unique spectral and dynamical properties not encountered in Hermitian counterparts. An intensely debated question is whether non-Hermitian systems, described by pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians with real spectra, can offer enhanced sensitivity for parameter estimation when they are operated at or close to exceptional points. However, much of the current analysis and conclusions are based on mathematical formalism developed for Hermitian quantum systems, which is questionable when applied to pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians, whose Hilbert space is intrinsically nonflat. Here, we develop a covariant formulation of quantum Fisher information (QFI) defined on the deformed Hilbert space of pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians. This covariant framework ensures the preservation of the state norm and enables a consistent treatment of parameter sensitivity. We further show that the covariant QFI of pseudo-Hermitian systems is dual to the ordinary QFI of corresponding Hermitian systems. Importantly, this correspondence naturally imposes an upper bound on the covariant QFI and allows one to identify optimal projections which saturate the corresponding classical Fisher information to this ultimate limit. The developed framework also enables to set the criteria under which pseudo-Hermitian sensors can exhibit an advantage over their Hermitian counterparts of the same dimensionality.

Recent baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) are mildly discrepant ($2.2\sigma$) with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) when interpreted within $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$. When analyzing these data with extended cosmologies this inconsistency manifests as a $\simeq 3\sigma$ preference for subminimal neutrino mass or evolving dark energy. It is known that the preference for subminimal neutrino mass from the suppression of structure growth could be alleviated by increasing the optical depth to reionization $\tau$. We show that, because the CMB-inferred $\tau$ is negatively correlated with the matter fraction, a larger optical depth resolves a similar preference from geometric constraints. Optical depths large enough to resolve the neutrino mass tension ($\tau \sim 0.09$) reduce the preference for evolving dark energy from $\simeq 3\sigma$ to $\simeq 1.5\sigma$ and increase the CMB-inferred values of $n_s$ and $H_0$ to $0.968\pm 0.004$ and $67.94\pm 0.44\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{Mpc}$, respectively. Conversely, within $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ the combination of DESI BAO, high-$\ell$ CMB, and CMB lensing yields $\tau =0.090\pm 0.012$, which is in $\simeq 3–5\sigma$ tension with Planck low-$\ell$ polarization data when taken at face value. Essentially all current CMB analyses—including recent results from WMAP + ACT and SPT—adopt the Planck measurement of $\tau$; thus a systematic in large-scale Planck polarization would serve as a “single-point failure” for most modern cosmological analyses that include CMB data. While there is no evidence for systematics in the large-scale Planck data, $\tau$ remains the least well-constrained $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ parameter and is far from its cosmic variance limit. This strengthens the case for future large-scale CMB experiments as well as direct probes of the epoch of reionization.

We point out that relic neutrinos from the Big Bang may induce the parametric fluorescence in atomic or molecular systems, which offers a novel way to discover cosmic neutrino background. By coherently scattering with molecular energy levels, a massive neutrino can spontaneously “decay” into a lighter neutrino and an infrared signal photon; i.e., ${\nu }_i+M\to {\nu }_j+{\gamma }_{\mathrm{S}}+M$, where the molecular state $M$ remains unchanged after the scattering. Because the amplitudes of different radiants are matched in phase, the rate is coherently enhanced and proportional to the squared density of ambient dipoles. When the energy transfer from neutrinos coincides with the energy-level difference, the fluorescence will be on resonance. Near the resonance, the rate is proportional to the square of the coherence time $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ of the ensemble. For a nominal target volume of $5{\mathrm{m}}^3$ (or $5{\mathrm{cm}}^3$), the signal rate can reach $1{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ for $T_{\mathrm{c}}=10\mathrm{ns}$ (or $T_{\mathrm{c}}=10\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{s}$). This event rate appears to be very promising in consideration of an even longer coherence time that is achievable in solid systems.

We compute the potential-graviton contributions to the conservative scattering angle of two nonspinning bodies in maximal supergravity at fifth order in Newton’s constant, including second-order self-force effects. Our goal is to tackle the challenging integrals arising at this order in Einstein gravity, but within the technically simpler framework of supergravity. The calculation employs the scattering-amplitude framework, effective field theory, and multiloop integration techniques based on integration by parts and differential equations. The final result is expressed as a series expansion around the static limit, thereby avoiding the explicit evaluation of intricate special functions. This series solution for the master integrals applies, as well, to the corresponding computation in general relativity. Remarkably, we observe nontrivial cancellations among contributions associated with Calabi-Yau integrals, alongside a distinct contribution governed by a Heun differential equation.

We show that Langer’s rate of bubble nucleation is quantitatively correct up to small higher-loop corrections, in comparison to lattice simulations. These results are a significant advancement on decades of lattice studies showing only qualitative trends, and the first showing agreement for any conservative field theory. We confirm that the failure to fully thermalize the metastable phase explains discrepancies with recent lattice studies that found disagreement with Langer’s rate. The key theoretical development is the translation of Langer’s perturbative definition of a thermal metastable phase into a nonperturbative statement that can be implemented on the lattice. Our statistical and systematic errors are small enough to allow us to measure on the lattice the coefficient of the two-loop contribution, missing from the perturbative prediction. Our conclusions also exclude a possible systematic uncertainty in ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ experiments.