Plasmas in strong magnetic fields have been mainly studied in two distinct limiting cases—that of weak and strong nonideality with very different physical properties. While the former is well described by the familiar theory of Braginskii, the latter regime is closer to the behavior of a Coulomb liquid. Here we study in detail the transition between both regimes. We focus on the evolution of the dynamic structure factor of the magnetized one-component plasma from weak to strong coupling, which is studied with first-principle molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations show the vanishing of Bernstein modes and the emergence of higher harmonics of the upper hybrid mode across the magnetic field, a redistribution of spectral power between the two main collective modes under oblique angles, and a suppression of plasmon damping along the magnetic field. Comparison with results from various models, including the random phase approximation, a Mermin-type dielectric function, and the quasilocalized charge approximation show that none of the theories is capable of reproducing the crossover that occurs when the coupling parameter is on the order of unity. The findings are relevant to the scattering spectra, stopping power, and transport coefficients of correlated magnetized plasmas.

In this work, we study the real-time evolution of periodically driven (Floquet) systems on a quantum computer using IBM quantum devices. We consider a driven Landau-Zener model and compute the transition probability between the Floquet steady states as a function of time. We find that for this simple one-qubit model, Floquet states can develop in real time, as indicated by the transition probability between Floquet states. Next, we model light-driven spin chains and compute the time-dependent antiferromagnetic order parameter. We consider models arising from light coupling to the underlying electrons as well as those arising from light coupling to phonons. For the two-spin chains, the quantum devices yield time evolutions that match the effective Floquet Hamiltonian evolution for both models once readout error mitigation is included. For three-spin chains, zero-noise extrapolation yields a time dependence that follows the effective Floquet time evolution. Therefore, the current IBM quantum devices can provide information on the dynamics of small Floquet systems arising from light drives once error mitigation procedures are implemented.

Topological lasers are investigated in nonlinear, non-Hermitian, and topological lattice systems based on a quench dynamics starting from one site. Explicitly, we consider the topological laser in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with two topological edge states and the second-order topological laser in the breathing kagome lattice with three topological corner states. Once we stimulate any one site, after some delay, all sites belonging to the topological edge or corner states are shown to emit stable laser light depending on the density of states, although no wave propagation is observed from the stimulated site. Thus the profile of topological edge or corner states is observable by measuring the intensity of lasing. The phenomenon occurs due to a combinational effect of linear non-Hermitian loss terms and nonlinear non-Hermitian gain terms in the presence of the topological edge or corner states. It is intriguing that the dynamics of topological edge or corner states are observed in real-time and real-space dynamics of the laser emission.

A crowd of nonequilibrium entities can show phase transition behaviors that are prohibited in conventional equilibrium setups. An interesting question is whether similar activity-driven phase transitions also occur in pure quantum systems. Here we investigate a classical anisotropic lattice gas model that undergoes motility-induced phase separation and extend the model to the quantum regime. The resulting model is a quantum many-body model that undergoes quantum phase transitions induced by non-Hermiticity. The quantum phase diagram includes active phase transitions involving phase separation, microphase separation, and flocking. The quantum phase transitions are identified as the transitions of dynamical paths in the classical kinetics upon the application of biasing fields. Our approach sheds light on the useful connection between classical nonequilibrium kinetics and non-Hermitian quantum physics.

Dynamical spin-structure factor (DSF) contains fingerprint information of collective excitations in interacting quantum spin systems. In solid state experiments, DSF can be measured through neutron scatterings. However, it is in general challenging to compute the spectral properties accurately via many-body simulations. Currently, quantum simulation and computation constitute a thriving research field, which are believed to provide a very promising platform for simulating quantum many-body systems. In this paper, we establish a link between the many-body dynamics and quantum simulations by studying the nonequilibrium DSF (nDSF) measured on direct product states, which are accessible in contemporary quantum simulators with Rydberg atoms, superconducting qubits, etc. Based on the many-body calculations of transverse field Ising chains, we find the nDSF can be used to sensitively probe the multispinon continua associated with the two-spinon creation and spinon-antispinon process, etc. Moreover, we further demonstrate that the low-energy spinons can be confined—forming spinon bound states—under a finite longitudinal field. Our results pave the way of quantum simulation and manipulation of fractional excitations in highly entangled quantum many-body systems.

Low-temperature (down to $\sim 50$ mK) thermal conductivity measurements with the heat flow direction along the interplane tetragonal $c$ axis, ${\kappa }_c$, were used to study the superconducting state of heavy fermion ${\mathrm{CeIrIn}}_5$. Measurements were performed in the magnetic fields both parallel to the heat flow direction $H\parallel c$, and transverse to it $H\parallel a$. Interplane heat conductivity in $H\parallel c$ configuration shows negligible initial increase with magnetic field and a rapid rise on approaching $H_{c2}$ from below, similar to the expectations for the superconducting gap without line nodes. This observation is in stark contrast to monotonic increase found in the previous in-plane heat transport measurements. In the configuration with the magnetic field breaking the tetragonal symmetry of the lattice $H\parallel a$, ${\kappa }_c$ reveals nonmonotonic evolution with temperature and magnetic field suggesting subphase boundary in the superconducting state. The characteristic temperature $T_{\mathrm{kink}}\sim$ 0.07 K of the subboundary is well within the domain of bulk superconductivity $T_c\sim$ 0.4 K and $H_{c2}\sim$ 1.0 T. These results are consistent with a superconducting gap with an equatorial line node and polar point nodes, a gap symmetry of the ${\mathrm{D}}_{4h}$ point group, for which magnetic field along the tetragonal plane breaks the degeneracy of the multicomponent order parameter and induces a phase transition with nodal topology change.

We construct product formulas for exponentials of commutators and explore their applications. First, we directly construct a third-order product formula with six exponentials by solving polynomial equations obtained using the operator differential method. We then derive higher-order product formulas recursively from the third-order formula. We improve over previous recursive constructions, reducing the number of gates required to achieve the same accuracy. In addition, we demonstrate that the constituent linear terms in the commutator can be included at no extra cost. As an application, we show how to use the product formulas in a digital protocol for counterdiabatic driving, which increases the fidelity for quantum state preparation. We also discuss applications to quantum simulation of one-dimensional fermion chains with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor hopping terms, and two-dimensional fractional quantum Hall phases.

For an assembly of particles interacting with a two-dimensional periodic substrate, a series of commensuration effects can arise when the number of particles is an integer multiple of the number of substrate minima. Such commensuration effects can appear for vortices in type-II superconductors with periodic pinning or for colloidal particles on optical landscapes. Under bulk external driving, the pinning or drag on the particles is strongly enhanced at commensuration. Here we consider the active rheology of a single particle driven through an assembly of particles coupled to a periodic substrate at different commensurate conditions. For increasing density at fixed driving force, we observe nonmonotonic drag along with what we call an anticommensuration effect where the drag or pinning effectiveness is reduced in commensurate states, opposite from the behavior typically observed under bulk driving. The velocity enhancement or drag reduction appears when the background particles form a crystalline state that is coupled more strongly to the substrate than to the driven particle, while under incommensurate conditions, the background particles are disordered and produce enhanced drag on the probe particle. The velocity noise of the driven particle has a narrow band signature at commensuration and a broad band signature away from commensuration. We map out the regions in which viscous flow, periodic flow, and a pinned phase appear. We show that the effects we observe are robust on both square and triangular substrate arrays and for both vortices in type-II superconductors and colloidal particles on optical landscapes.

We investigate theoretically the effect of gravity on a plate-sphere colloidal mixture by means of an Onsager-like density functional to describe the bulk, and sedimentation path theory to incorporate gravity. We calculate the stacking diagram of the mixture for two sets of buoyant masses and different values of the sample height. Several stacking sequences appear due to the intricate interplay between gravity, the sample height, and bulk phase separation. These include the experimentally observed floating nematic sequence, which consists of a nematic layer sandwiched between two isotropic layers. The values of the thicknesses of the layers in a complex stacking sequence can be used to obtain microscopic information of the mixture. Using the thicknesses of the layers in the floating nematic sequence we are able to infer the values of the buoyant masses from the colloidal concentrations and vice versa. We also predict new phenomena that can be experimentally tested, such as a nontrivial evolution of the stacking sequence by increasing the sample height in which new layers appear either at the top or at the bottom of the sample.

Orbital-selective superconductivity is crucial for understanding the pairing mechanism for multiband superconductors. Atomic $d$ orbitals with anisotropic spatial extension can directly determine the energy dispersion of subbands with two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) nature in band structure. Theoretically, owing to the coexistence of these 2D and 3D subbands, the orbital-selective superconductivity can exhibit band-dependent dimensionality in multiband superconductors. However, to experimentally confirm this orbital-selective 2D superconductivity remains challenging and elusive. Herein, based on angle-dependent upper critical magnetic field on $2\mathrm{H}\text{−}{\mathrm{NbS}}_2$ flakes, we observe a cusp peak associated with a 2D superconducting subband from the $d_{xy}$ and $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbitals of Nb atoms, and a round peak related to a 3D subband, directly confirming the existence of intrinsic 2D superconductivity in $2\mathrm{H}\text{−}{\mathrm{NbS}}_2$ thick flake and its orbital-selective superconducting nature. The 2D superconductivity remains robust under large electric current or high pressure. Such observations shed light on the orbital-selective pairing mechanism and resulting band-dependent dimensionality for multiband superconductors.

In colonies, bacteria are often densely packed due to strong attractive forces between neighboring cells. For organisms where aggregation is mediated by type 4 pili interactions, the pilus-mediated motor activity fluidizes these colonies, but it is unclear how close packaging affects bacterial motility. Here, we characterize the dynamics of single cells over five orders of magnitude in time. At short timescales, we find pilus-driven ballistic dynamics, which depending on the volume fraction of cells, transitions to caged or diffusive dynamics at intermediate timescales. Long-term dynamics are dominated by growth-induced radial motion overcoming caging at high packings. Reducing attractive interactions by antibiotic treatment delays caging and introduces long-ranged collective motion.

In this paper, we study the spin Nernst effect of magnons in the nonlinear response regime. We derive the formula for the nonlinear magnon spin Nernst current by solving the Boltzmann equation and find out that it is described by an extended Berry curvature dipole of magnons. The nonlinear magnon spin Nernst effect is expected to occur in various Néel antiferromagnetic materials even without the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In particular, the nonlinear spin Nernst current in the honeycomb and diamond lattice antiferromagnets can be controlled by strain/pressure.

We reveal unconventional edge states in a one-dimensional Stub lattice of coupled waveguides with staggered hoppings. The edge states appear for the same values of hoppings as topological edge states in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. They have different energies depending on the lattice termination and present a remarkable robustness against certain types of disorder. We evidence experimentally the phase transition at which these edge states appear, opening the door to the engineering of one-dimensional lattices with localized edge modes whose energy and location can be controlled at will.

High-order, beyond-pairwise interdependencies are at the core of biological, economic, and social complex systems, and their adequate analysis is paramount to understand, engineer, and control such systems. This paper presents a framework to measure high-order interdependence that disentangles their effect on each individual pattern exhibited by a multivariate system. The approach is centered on the local O-information, a new measure that assesses the balance between synergistic and redundant interdependencies at each pattern. To illustrate the potential of this framework, we present a detailed analysis of music scores from J. S. Bach, which reveals how high-order interdependence is deeply connected with highly nontrivial aspects of the musical discourse. Our results place the local O-information as a promising tool of wide applicability, which opens other perspectives for analyzing high-order relationships in the patterns exhibited by complex systems.

Band bending at semiconductor surfaces and interfaces is the key to applications ranging from classical transistors to topological quantum computing. A semiconductor particularly important for optical as well as microwave devices is GaN. What makes the material useful is not only its large bandgap but also that it can be heavily doped to become metallic. Here, we apply soft-x-ray angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) to metallic Si-doped GaN to explore the electron density and momentum-resolved band dispersions of the valence and conduction electrons varying through the surface band-bending region. We find an upward band bending, where the measured band occupation reduces toward the surface, as probed with low photon energies $<0.5\mathrm{keV}$. The band occupation approaches the bulk value, matching Hall effect measurements, as the photon energy increases to $>1.4\mathrm{keV}$, where the photoelectron mean free path exceeds the spatial extent of the band-bending region. Our quantitative analysis of the experimental data describes the potential variation in the band-bending region via self-consistent Poisson-Schrödinger equations. We put forward an insightful model to simulate the ARPES spectra from this region through summing up the contribution from all atomic layers, weighted by the photoelectron mean free path, under in-phase conditions achieved at particular values of the photoelectron out-of-plane momentum. The model adequately describes the peculiarities of the ARPES spectra caused by the surface band bending, including the photon-energy dependence of the apparent band occupation and Fermi-surface area, and allows accurate determination of the band-bending profile and values of the photoelectron mean free path. Finally, comparison of our data with supercell density functional theory calculations reveals the preferential location of Si atoms as substitutional for Ga, with the doped electrons entering the GaN conduction bands without formation of separate impurity states as would occur for Si interstitials. Our theoretical and experimental results resolve fundamental questions underpinning device performance of the GaN-based and other semiconductor materials in general and demonstrate a general methodology for quantitative studies of electron states in the band-bending region.

We propose a versatile setup that allows performing spin-resolved spectroscopy of helical Andreev bound states, proving their existence and therefore the topological nature of the Josephson junction that hosts them. The latter is realized on the helical edge of a 2D topological insulator, proximitized with two superconducting electrodes. The spectroscopic analysis is enabled by a quantum point contact, which couples the junction with another helical edge acting as a spin-sensitive probe. By means of straightforward transport measurements, it is possible to detect the particular spin structure of the helical Andreev bound state and to shine light on the mechanism responsible for their existence, i.e., the presence of protected Andreev reflection within the Josephson junction. We discuss the robustness of this helical Andreev spectrometer with respect to processes that weaken spin to charge conversion.

We demonstrate that parametric driving of suitable collective modes in cuprate superconductors results in a reflectivity $R>1$ for frequencies in the low terahertz regime. We propose to exploit this effect for the amplification of coherent terahertz radiation in a laserlike fashion. As an example, we consider the optical driving of Josephson plasma oscillations in a monolayer cuprate at a frequency that is blue-detuned from the Higgs frequency. Analogously, terahertz radiation can be amplified in a bilayer cuprate by driving a phonon resonance at a frequency slightly higher than the upper Josephson plasma frequency. We show this by simulating a driven-dissipative $U\left(1\right)$ lattice gauge theory on a three-dimensional lattice, encoding a bilayer structure in the model parameters. We find a parametric amplification of terahertz radiation at zero and nonzero temperature.

One of the most fundamental open problems in physics is the unification of general relativity and quantum theory to a theory of quantum gravity. An aspect that might become relevant in such a theory is that the dynamical nature of causal structure present in general relativity displays quantum uncertainty. This may lead to a phenomenon known as indefinite or quantum causal structure, as captured by the process matrix formalism. Due to the generality of that framework, however, for many process matrices there is no clear physical interpretation. A popular approach towards a quantum theory of gravity is the Page-Wootters formalism, which associates to time a Hilbert space structure similar to spatial position. By explicitly introducing a quantum clock, it allows to describe time-evolution of systems via correlations between this clock and said systems encoded in history states. In this paper we combine the process matrix framework with a generalization of the Page-Wootters formalism in which one considers several agents, each with their own discrete quantum clock. We describe how to extract process matrices from scenarios involving such agents with quantum clocks, and analyze their properties. The description via a history state with multiple clocks imposes constraints on the implementation of process matrices and on the perspectives of the agents as described via causal reference frames. While it allows for scenarios where different definite causal orders are coherently controlled, we explain why certain noncausal processes might not be implementable within this setting.