Here we present a new test of the equivalence principle designed to search for the possible violation of gravitational parity using test bodies with different chiralities. The test bodies are a pair of left- and right-handed quartz crystals, whose gravitational acceleration difference is measured by a rotating torsion pendulum. The result shows that the acceleration difference towards Earth $\mathrm{\Delta }{a}_{\text{left}\text{-right}}=[-1.7\pm 4.1(\text{stat})\pm 4.4(\text{syst})]\times {10}^{-15}\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-2}$ ($1\text{−}\sigma$ statistical uncertainty), correspondingly the Eötvös parameter $\eta =[-1.2\pm 2.8(\text{stat})\pm 3.0(\text{syst})]\times {10}^{-13}$. This is the first reported experimental test of the equivalence principle for chiral masses and opens a new way to the search for the possible parity-violating gravitation.

We use holography to analyze relativistic collisions in a one-parameter family of strongly coupled gauge theories with thermal phase transitions. For a critical value of the parameter, the transition is second order, for subcritical values it is first order, and for supercritical values it a smooth crossover. We extract the gauge theory stress tensor from collisions of gravitational shock waves on the dual geometries. Regardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value, almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasistatic blob of energy at midrapidity. This configuration is well described by the constitutive relations of second-order hydrodynamics that include all second-order gradients that are purely spatial in the local rest frame. In contrast, a Müller-Israel-Stewart-type formulation of hydrodynamics fails to provide a good description. We discuss possible implications for searches of the QCD critical point.

We experimentally demonstrate two-photon interference of a time-energy entangled photon pair generated via collective two-photon coherence in Doppler-broadened cascade-type ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms. The two photons originally proposed by J. D. Franson are realized as a photon pair due to collective effects, which are generated from the cascade atomic system with a relatively long lifetime of the initial state and a considerably shorter lifetime of the intermediate state. The achievement of two-photon interference with photon-pair sources generated from inhomogeneous atomic ensembles constitutes an important result for time-energy entanglement based on an atom-photon interaction.

We study spectral features of ion velocity and magnetic field correlations in the magnetosheath and in the solar wind using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. High-resolution MMS observations enable the study of the transition of these correlations between their magnetofluid character at larger scales into the subproton kinetic range, previously unstudied in spacecraft data. Cross-helicity, angular alignment, and energy partitioning is examined over a suitable range of scales, employing measurements based on the Taylor frozen-in approximation as well as direct two-spacecraft correlation measurements. The results demonstrate signatures of alignment at large scales. As kinetic scales are approached, the alignment between $\mathbf{v}$ and $\mathbf{b}$ is destroyed by demagnetization of protons.

Studying the crystallization process of silicon is a challenging task since empirical potentials are not able to reproduce well the properties of both a semiconducting solid and metallic liquid. On the other hand, nucleation is a rare event that occurs in much longer timescales than those achievable by ab initio molecular dynamics. To address this problem, we train a deep neural network potential based on a set of data generated by metadynamics simulations using a classical potential. We show how this is an effective way to collect all the relevant data for the process of interest. In order to efficiently drive the crystallization process, we introduce a new collective variable based on the Debye structure factor. We are able to encode the long-range order information in a local variable which is better suited to describe the nucleation dynamics. The reference energies are then calculated using the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) exchange-correlation functional, which is able to get a better description of the bonding complexity of the Si phase diagram. Finally, we recover the free energy surface with a density functional theory accuracy, and we compute the thermodynamics properties near the melting point, obtaining a good agreement with experimental data. In addition, we study the early stages of the crystallization process, unveiling features of the nucleation mechanism.

The projected electrostatic potential of a thick crystal is reconstructed at atomic resolution from experimental scanning transmission electron microscopy data recorded using a new generation fast-readout electron camera. This practical and deterministic inversion of the equations encapsulating multiple scattering that were written down by Bethe in 1928 removes the restriction of established methods to ultrathin ($\lesssim 50\AA$) samples. Instruments already coming on line can overcome the remaining resolution-limiting effects in this method due to finite probe-forming aperture size, spatial incoherence, and residual lens aberrations.

Unconventional responses upon breaking discrete or crystal symmetries open avenues for exploring emergent physical systems and materials. By breaking inversion symmetry, a nonlinear Hall signal can be observed, even in the presence of time-reversal symmetry, quite different from the conventional Hall effects. Low-symmetry two-dimensional materials are promising candidates for the nonlinear Hall effect, but it is less known when a strong nonlinear Hall signal can be measured, in particular, its connections with the band-structure properties. By using model analysis, we find prominent nonlinear Hall signals near tilted band anticrossings and band inversions. These band signatures can be used to explain the strong nonlinear Hall effect in the recent experiments on two-dimensional ${\mathrm{WTe}}_2$. This Letter will be instructive not only for analyzing the transport signatures of the nonlinear Hall effect but also for exploring unconventional responses in emergent materials.

Ultrafast terahertz (THz) pump-probe spectroscopy reveals an unusual out-of-equilibrium Cooper pair nonlinear dynamics and a nonequilibrium state driven by femtosecond (fs) photoexcitation of superconductivity (SC) in iron pnictides. Following fast SC quench via hot-phonon scattering, a second, abnormally slow (many hundreds of picoseconds), SC quench regime is observed prior to any recovery. Importantly, a nonlinear pump fluence dependence is identified for this remarkably long prebottleneck dynamics that are sensitive to both doping and temperature. Using quantum kinetic modeling we argue that the buildup of excitonic interpocket correlation between electron-hole ($e\text{−}h$) quasiparticles (QP) quenches SC after fs photoexcitation leading to a long-lived, many-QP excitonic state.

The exciting discovery of bidimensional systems in condensed matter physics has triggered the search of their photonic analogues. In this Letter, we describe a general scheme to reproduce some of the systems ruled by a tight-binding Hamiltonian in a locally resonant metamaterial; by specifically controlling the structure and the composition it is possible to engineer the band structure at will. We numerically and experimentally demonstrate this assertion in the microwave domain by reproducing the band structure of graphene, the most famous example of those 2D systems, and by accurately extracting the Dirac cones. This is direct evidence that opting for a crystalline description of those subwavelength scaled systems, as opposed to the usual description in terms of effective parameters, makes them a really convenient tabletop platform to investigate the tantalizing challenges that solid-state physics offer.

We study the process of nonlinear stimulated Raman adiabatic passage within a classical mean-field framework. Depending on the sign of interaction, the breakdown of adiabaticity in the interacting nonintegrable system is not related to bifurcations in the energy landscape, but rather to the emergence of quasistochastic motion that drains the followed quasistationary state. Consequently, faster sweep rate, rather than quasistatic variation of parameters, is better for adiabaticity.

Entangled-photon sources with simultaneously near-unity heralding efficiency and indistinguishability are the fundamental elements for scalable photonic quantum technologies. We design and realize a degenerate telecommunication wavelength entangled-photon source from an ultrafast pulsed laser pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), which shows simultaneously 97% heralding efficiency and 96% indistinguishability between independent single photons without narrow-band filtering. Such a beamlike and frequency-uncorrelated SPDC source allows generation of the first 12-photon genuine entanglement with a state fidelity of $0.572\pm 0.024$. We further demonstrate a blueprint of scalable scattershot boson sampling using 12 SPDC sources and a $12\times 12$ mode interferometer for three-, four-, and five-boson sampling, which yields count rates more than 4 orders of magnitude higher than all previous SPDC experiments.

Device-independent certification refers to the characterization of an apparatus without reference to the internal description of other devices. It is a trustworthy certification method, free of assumption on the underlying Hilbert space dimension and on calibration methods. We show how it can be used to quantify the quality of a Bell-state measurement, whether deterministic, partial, or probabilistic. Our certification is noise resistant and opens the way towards the device-independent self-testing of Bell-state measurements in existing experiments.

Self-testing refers to the possibility of characterizing an unknown quantum device based only on the observed statistics. Here we develop methods for self-testing entangled quantum measurements, a key element for quantum networks. Our approach is based on the natural assumption that separated physical sources in a network should be considered independent. This provides a natural formulation of the problem of certifying entangled measurements. Considering the setup of entanglement swapping, we derive a robust self-test for the Bell-state measurement, tolerating noise levels up to $\sim 5\%$. We also discuss generalizations to other entangled measurements.

Cosmic ray electrons and positrons are tracers of particle propagation in the interstellar medium (ISM). A recent measurement performed using the High Energy Stereoscopic System extends the all-electron ($\mathrm{electron}+\mathrm{positron}$) spectrum up to 20 TeV, probing very local sources and transport due to the $\sim 10\mathrm{kyr}$ cooling time of these particles. An additional key local measurement was the recent estimation of the ISM diffusion coefficient around Geminga performed using the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory. The inferred diffusion coefficient is much lower than typically assumed values. It has been argued that if this diffusion coefficient is representative of the local ISM, pulsars would not be able to account for the all-electron spectrum measured at Earth. Here we show that a low diffusion coefficient in the local ISM is compatible with a pulsar wind nebula origin of the highest energy electrons, if a so-far-undiscovered pulsar with spin-down power $\sim 10^{33–34}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}$ exists within 30–80 pc of Earth. The existence of such a pulsar is broadly consistent with the known population and may be detected in near future survey observations.

We use Holevo information in the two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with a large central charge $c$ to distinguish microstates from the underlying thermal state. Holographically, the CFT microstates of a thermal state are dual to black hole microstate geometries in anti–de Sitter space. It was found recently that holographic Holevo information shows plateau behaviors at both short and long interval regions. This indicates that the black hole microstates are indistinguishable from the thermal state by measuring over a small region, and perfectly distinguishable over a region with its size comparable to the whole system. In this Letter, we demonstrate that the plateaus are lifted by including the $1/c$ corrections from both the vacuum and nonvacuum conformal families of CFT in either the canonical ensemble or microcanonical ensemble thermal state. Our results imply that the aforementioned indistinguishability and distinguishability of black hole microstate geometries from the underlying black hole are spoiled by higher order Newton constant $G_N$ corrections of quantum gravity.

In this Letter, we study the equivalence between planar Ising networks and cells in the positive orthogonal Grassmannian. We present a microscopic construction based on amalgamation, which establishes the correspondence for any planar Ising network. The equivalence allows us to introduce two recursive methods for computing correlators of Ising networks. The first is based on duality moves, which generate networks belonging to the same cell in the Grassmannian. This leads to fractal lattices where the recursion formulas become the exact renormalization group equations of the effective couplings. The second, we use an amalgamation in which each iteration doubles the size of the seed lattice. This leads to an efficient way of computing the correlator where the complexity scales logarithmically with respect to the number of spin sites.

Laser-induced electron tunneling ionization from atoms and molecules plays as the trigger for a broad class of interesting strong-field phenomena in attosecond community. Understanding the time of electron tunneling ionization is vital to achieving the ultimate accuracy in attosecond metrology. We propose a novel attosecond photoelectron interferometer, which is based on the interference of the direct and near-forward rescattering electron wave packets, to determine the time information characterizing the tunneling process. Adding a weak perturbation in orthogonal to the strong fundamental field, the phases of the direct and the near-forward rescattering electron wave packets are modified, leading to the shift of the interferogram in the photoelectron momentum distributions. By analyzing the response of the interferogram to the perturbation, the real part of the ionization time, which denotes the instant when the electron exits the potential barrier, and the associated rescattering time are precisely retrieved. Moreover, the imaginary part of the ionization time, which has been interpreted as a quantity related to electron motion under the potential barrier, is also unambiguously determined.

We realize a mechanical analogue of the Dicke model, achieved by coupling the spin of individual neutral atoms to their quantized motion in an optical trapping potential. The atomic spin states play the role of the electronic states of the atomic ensemble considered in the Dicke model, and the in-trap motional states of the atoms correspond to the states of the electromagnetic field mode. The coupling between spin and motion is induced by an inherent polarization gradient of the trapping light fields, which leads to a spatially varying vector light shift. We experimentally show that our system reaches the ultrastrong coupling regime; i.e., we obtain a coupling strength that is a significant fraction of the trap frequency. Moreover, with the help of an additional light field, we demonstrate the in situ tuning of the coupling strength. Beyond its fundamental interest, the demonstrated one-to-one mapping between the physics of optically trapped cold atoms and the Dicke model paves the way for implementing protocols and applications that exploit extreme coupling strengths.