Off-axis electron holography is utilized to identify point defect reactions and quantify their dynamics by probing the time and temperature dependence of the Fermi level upon annealing. The methodology is illustrated using implanted carbon (C) in GaN, where a site switching phenomenon of C, from substitutional to interstitial, is found to be responsible for lifting the Fermi-level pinning in the lower part of the band gap. The carbon site switching process has an activation barrier energy of $2.27\pm 0.26\mathrm{eV}$.

We investigate the Hall response of hardcore bosonic atoms on a triangular ladder in a magnetic field. To access the dynamical properties of this many-body quantum system, we employ matrix product states numerical methods. We show that the behavior of the Hall polarization, both in its saturation value and in the short-time dynamics, correlates with the features of the underlying phase diagram, which stem from the interplay of interactions and geometric frustration. This paves the way to employ the Hall response as a sensitive probe of many-body chiral quantum phases in strongly correlated materials.

Building a practical quantum processor involves integrating millions of physical qubits along with the necessary components for individual qubit manipulation and readout. Arrays of gated silicon spins offer a promising route toward achieving this goal. Optimized radio frequency resonators with high internal quality factor are based on superconducting inductors and enable fast spin readout. All-electrical spin control and gate-dispersive readout remove the need for additional device components and simplify scaling. However, superconducting high-Q tank circuits are susceptible to crosstalk-induced ringup from electrical qubit control pulses, which causes fluctuations of the quantum dot potential and is suspected to degrade qubit performance. Here, we report on the coherent and all-electrical control of a hole spin qubit at $1.5\mathrm{K}$, integrated into a silicon fin field-effect transistor and connected to a niobium nitride nanowire inductor gate-sensor. Our experiments show that qubit control pulses with their broad range of higher harmonics ring up the tank when the control pulse spectrum overlaps with the tank resonance. This can cause a reduction of the readout visibility if the tank ringing amplitude exceeds the excited state splitting of the quantum dot, lifting Pauli spin blockade and thus leading to state preparation and measurement errors. We demonstrate how to circumvent these effects by engineering control pulses around the tank resonances. Importantly, we find that the ringup does not limit the spin coherence time, indicating that efficient high-Q resonators in gate-sensing are compatible with all-electrical spin control.

In this work we evaluate whether the gravitational wave background recently observed by a number of different pulsar timing arrays could be due to merging primordial supermassive black hole binaries. We find that for homogeneously distributed primordial black holes this possibility is inconsistent with strong cosmological and astrophysical constraints on their total abundance. If the distribution exhibits some clustering, however, the merger rate will, in general, be enhanced, opening the window for a consistent interpretation of the pulsar timing array data in terms of merging primordial black holes, if $\mu$-distortion constraints associated with the formation mechanism can be evaded.

A Bloch point represents a three-dimensional hedgehog singularity of a magnetic vector field in which the magnetization vanishes. However, standard micromagnetic theory, developed for magnetic moments of fixed lengths, lacks full applicability in studying such singularities. To address this gap, we study a Bloch point in a quantum Heisenberg model for the case of spin-1/2 particles. Performing an exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian as well as using density matrix renormalization group techniques, we obtain the ground state, which can be used to recover the corresponding magnetization profile. Our findings demonstrate a variation of the spin length in the quantum model, leading smoothly to zero magnetization at the Bloch point. Our results indicate the necessity of generalizing the classical micromagnetic model by adding the third degree of freedom of the spins: the ability to change their length. To this end, we introduce a phenomenological micromagnetic ${\mathbb{S}}^3$-model, which enables the description of magnets with and without Bloch point singularities.

Competing interactions in quantum magnets lead to a variety of emergent states, including ordered phases, nematic magnets, and quantum spin liquids. Among them, topological quantum magnets represent a promising platform to create topological excitations protected by the bulk many-body excitation gap. Here we establish the phase diagram of a breathing frustrated antiferromagnetic $J_1\text{−}{J}_2$-Heisenberg model, featuring both ordered states and a higher-order topological quantum magnet state. Using variational many-body methods based on neural network quantum states and tensor networks, we determine the existence of a first-order phase transition between stripe order and the topological quantum magnet and the second-order phase transition between the Néel order and quantum magnet phase, further corroborated by calculations of the many-body gap. Using an auxiliary fermion parton formalism, we show the emergence of topological spinon corner modes stemming from the breathing order parameter of the parent Heisenberg model. Our results establish the breathing frustrated square lattice Heisenberg model as a paradigmatic system to engineer topological quantum magnetism, as recently realized in Ti lattices at MgO.

This paper presents the design and experimental commissioning of a noninvasive electron bunch length monitor based on the detection of coherent Cherenkov diffraction radiation (ChDR). The measurement technique effectively eliminates the influence of bunch-by-bunch charge fluctuations, as each detector measures the signal from the same bunch while mitigating the impact of bunch position jitter on the measurements, providing a potential real-time diagnostic tool with significant operational advantages. The sensitivity of the measurements to both bunch length and longitudinal bunch profile was experimentally demonstrated, with results validated against invasive radio frequency deflector measurements at the CLEAR electron test facility at CERN. The ChDR bunch length monitor can be applied to accelerators operating with ultrashort bunches.

Quantum sensors have notably advanced high-sensitivity magnetic field detection. Here, we report quantum sensors constructed from polarized spin-triplet electrons in photoexcited organic chromophores, specifically focusing on pentacene-doped para-terphenyl $(\approx 0.1\%)$. We demonstrate essential quantum sensing properties at room temperature (RT): optically generated electronic polarization and state-dependent fluorescence contrast by leveraging differential pumping and relaxation rates between triplet and ground states. We measure high optically detected magnetic resonance contrast $\approx 16.8\%$ of the triplet states at RT, along with long coherence times under spin echo and Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequences, $T_2=2.7\mu \mathrm{s}$ and $T_2^{\text{DD}}=18.4\mu \mathrm{s}$, respectively, limited only by the triplet lifetimes. The material offers several advantages for quantum sensing, including the ability to grow large (cm scale) crystals at low cost, absence of paramagnetic impurities, and electronic diamagnetism when not optically illuminated. Utilizing pentacene as a representative of a broader class of spin triplet- polarizable organic molecules, this paper highlights the potential for quantum sensing in chemical systems.

The performance of quantum algorithms for eigenvalue problems, such as computing Hamiltonian spectra, depends strongly on the overlap of the initial wave function and the target eigenvector. In a basis of Slater determinants, the representation of energy eigenstates of systems with $N$ strongly correlated electrons requires a number of determinants that scales exponentially with $N$. On classical processors, this restricts simulations to systems where $N$ is small. Here, we show that quantum computers can efficiently simulate strongly correlated molecular systems by directly encoding the dominant entanglement structure in the form of spin-coupled initial states. This avoids resorting to expensive classical or quantum state preparation heuristics and instead exploits symmetries in the wave function. We provide quantum circuits for deterministic preparation of a family of spin eigenfunctions with $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{N}{N/2}\right)$ Slater determinants with depth $\mathcal{O}\left(N\right)$ and $\mathcal{O}\left(N^2\right)$ local gates. Their use as highly entangled initial states in quantum algorithms reduces the total runtime of quantum phase estimation and related fault-tolerant methods by orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we assess the application of spin-coupled wave functions as initial states for a range of heuristic quantum algorithms, namely, the variational quantum eigensolver, adiabatic state preparation, and different versions of quantum subspace diagonalization (QSD) including QSD based on real-time-evolved states. We also propose a QSD algorithm that exploits states obtained through adaptive quantum eigensolvers. For all algorithms, we demonstrate that using spin-coupled initial states drastically reduces the quantum resources required to simulate strongly correlated ground and excited states. Our work provides a crucial component for enabling scalable quantum simulation of classically challenging electronic systems.

Two-photon interference is an indispensable resource in quantum photonics, but it is not straightforward to achieve. The cascaded generation of photon pairs contains intrinsic temporal correlations that negatively affect the ability of such sources to perform two-photon interference, thus hindering applications. We report on how such correlation interplays with decoherence and temporal postselection, and under which conditions temporal postselection could improve two-photon interference visibility. Our study identifies crucial parameters and points the way to a source with optimal performance.

In this paper, we investigate the local effects of a single impurity on the electron system of a short ballistic graphene Josephson junction. Within the Dirac–Bogoliubov–de Gennes approach, we systematically analyze the local electron density of states. Its behavior at subgap energies allows one to distinguish elastic and inelastic scattering processes and to identify the magnetic nature of the impurity. Moreover, the spatial dependence of the local density of states is a sensitive probe of microscopic processes yielding subgap impurity-induced bound states. The Fourier analysis allows one to recognize the wave vectors related to the momenta of the high-transmissive channels in ballistic graphene.

Biological systems with many components often exhibit seemingly critical behaviors, characterized by atypically large correlated fluctuations. Yet the underlying causes remain unclear. Here we define and examine two types of criticality. Intrinsic criticality arises from interactions within the system which are fine-tuned to a critical point. Extrinsic criticality, in contrast, emerges without fine-tuning when observable degrees of freedom are coupled to unobserved fluctuating variables. We unify both types of criticality using the language of learning and information theory. We show that critical correlations, intrinsic or extrinsic, lead to diverging mutual information between two halves of the system, and are a feature of learning problems, in which the unobserved fluctuations are inferred from the observable degrees of freedom. We argue that extrinsic criticality is equivalent to standard inference, whereas intrinsic criticality describes fractional learning, in which the amount to be learned depends on the system size. We show further that both types of criticality are on the same continuum, connected by a smooth crossover. In addition, we investigate the observability of Zipf's law, a power-law rank-frequency distribution often used as an empirical signature of criticality. We find that Zipf's law is a robust feature of extrinsic criticality but can be nontrivial to observe for some intrinsically critical systems, including critical mean-field models. We further demonstrate that models with global dynamics, such as oscillatory models, can produce observable Zipf's law without relying on either external fluctuations or fine-tuning. Our findings suggest that while possible in theory, fine-tuning is not the only, nor the most likely, explanation for the apparent ubiquity of criticality in biological systems with many components. Our work offers an alternative interpretation in which criticality, specifically extrinsic criticality, results from the adaptation of collective behavior to external stimuli.

Superfluidity describes the ability of quantum matter to flow without friction. Due to its fundamental role in many transport phenomena, it is crucial to understand the robustness of superfluid properties to external perturbations. Here, we theoretically study the effects of speckle disorder on the propagation of sound waves in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature. We numerically solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the presence of disorder and employ a superfluid hydrodynamic approach to elucidate the role of the compressibility and superfluid fraction in the propagation of sound. A key result is that disorder reduces the superfluid fraction and hence the speed of sound; it also introduces damping and mode coupling. In the limit of weak disorder, the predictions for the speed of sound and its damping rate are well reproduced by a quadratic perturbation theory. The hydrodynamic description is valid over a wide range of parameters, while discrepancies become evident if the disorder becomes too strong, the effect being more significant for disorder applied in only one spatial direction. Our predictions are well within the reach of state-of-the-art cold-atom experiments and carry over to more general disorder potentials.

Langevin dynamical simulations are performed to investigate the formation of clusters and voids of a two-dimensional periodic substrate (2DPS)-modulated two-dimensional dusty plasma (2DDP) driven by a gyroscopic force. It is discovered that, as the frequency of the gyroscopic force decreases gradually, the substrate-modulated 2DDP undergoes the cyclic transition between the ordered cluster and void phases. Between the observed ordered cluster and void phases, the studied 2DDP exhibits a more uniform arrangement of particles. The discovered cyclic transition is attributed to the symmetry of the time-averaged potential landscape induced by the 2DPS in the reference frame of the moving particle, as confirmed by superimposing the particle locations on the effective potential landscape under various conditions.

Electrical signals in excitable cells involve spatially localized ionic fluxes through ion channels and pumps on cellular lipid membranes. Common approaches to understand how these fluxes spread assume that the membrane and the surrounding electrolyte comprise an equivalent circuit of capacitors and resistors, which ignores the localized nature of transmembrane ion transport, the resulting ionic gradients and electric fields, and their spatiotemporal relaxation. Here, we consider a model of localized ion pumping across a lipid membrane, and use theory and simulation to investigate how the electrochemical signal propagates spatiotemporally in and out of plane along the membrane. The localized pumping generates long-ranged electric fields with three distinct scaling regimes along the membrane: a constant potential near-field region, an intermediate monopolar region, and a far-field dipolar region. Upon sustained pumping, the monopolar region expands radially in plane with a steady speed that is enhanced by the dielectric mismatch and the finite thickness of the lipid membrane. For unmyelinated lipid membranes in physiological settings, we find remarkably fast propagation speeds of $\sim 40\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}$, allowing faster ionic reorganization compared to bare diffusion. Together, our paper shows that transmembrane ionic fluxes induce transient long-ranged electric fields in electrolyte solutions, which may play hitherto unappreciated roles in biological signaling.

We generated a one-dimensional quantum gas confined in an elongated optical dipole trap instead of 2D optical lattices. The sample, comprising thousands of atoms, spans several hundred micrometers and allows for independent control of temperature and chemical potential using Feshbach resonance. This allows us to directly observe and investigate the spatial distribution and associated excitation of 1D quantum gas without any ensemble averaging. In this system, we observed that the dimension of 1D gas will be popped up into 3D due to strong interaction without changing any trapping confinement. During the dimensional crossover, we found that increasing the scattering length leads to the failure of 1D theories, including 1D mean field, Yang-Yang equation, and 1D hydrodynamics. Specifically, the modified Yang-Yang equation effectively describes this 1D system at temperatures beyond the 1D threshold, but it does not account for the effects of stronger interactions. Meanwhile, we observe two possible quantized plateaus of breathing-mode oscillation frequencies predicted by 1D and 3D hydrodynamics, corresponding to weak and strong interactions, respectively. There is also a universal crossover connecting two different regimes where both hydrodynamics fail.

We measured the full complex ac conductance of two-dimensional granular $\mathrm{In}/{\mathrm{InO}}_x$ composites using the mutual inductance technique to explore the transition from a “failed superconductor turned anomalous metal” to a robust superconductor. In this system, room-temperature annealing was adopted to tune the ${\mathrm{InO}}_x$-mediated coupling between In grains, allowing for the observation of both a “true” superconductor-to-insulator transition and the emergence of an intervening anomalous metallic state. In this paper, we show that further annealing increases the intergrain coupling, eliminating the anomalous metallic phase but at the same time preventing the emergence of strong Bose-dominated insulating phase. The complex ac conductance revealed a $T\to 0$ finite dissipative response in a finite magnetic field, coexisting with a robust superfluid density. The anomalous power-law spectra for the dissipative response suggest quantum critical behavior as probed in the kilohertz range, and point to signatures of gapless superconductivity in our granular superconducting system.