CMP Journal 2025-05-14

Statistics

Nature: 30

Nature Nanotechnology: 2

Physical Review Letters: 18

Physical Review X: 2

arXiv: 61

Nature

Structured ionized winds shooting out from a quasar at relativistic speeds

Original Paper | Compact astrophysical objects | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Marc Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, Ralf Ballhausen, Aya Bamba, Ehud Behar, Rozenn Boissay-Malaquin, Laura Brenneman, Gregory V. Brown, Lia Corrales, Elisa Costantini, Renata Cumbee, María Díaz Trigo, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Megan Eckart, Dominique Eckert, Teruaki Enoto, Satoshi Eguchi, Yuichiro Ezoe, Adam Foster, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yutaka Fujita, Yasushi Fukazawa, Kotaro Fukushima, Akihiro Furuzawa, Luigi Gallo, Javier A. García, Liyi Gu, Matteo Guainazzi, Kouichi Hagino, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, Katsuhiro Hayashi, Takayuki Hayashi, Natalie Hell, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, Ann Hornschemeier, Yuto Ichinohe, Manabu Ishida, Kumi Ishikawa, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Jelle Kaastra, Timothy Kallman, Erin Kara, Satoru Katsuda, Yoshiaki Kanemaru, Richard Kelley, Caroline Kilbourne, Shunji Kitamoto, Shogo Kobayashi, Takayoshi Kohmura, Aya Kubota, Maurice Leutenegger, Michael Loewenstein, Yoshitomo Maeda, Maxim Markevitch, Hironori Matsumoto, Kyoko Matsushita, Dan McCammon, Brian McNamara, François Mernier, Eric D. Miller, Jon M. Miller, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Misaki Mizumoto, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Koji Mori, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Richard Mushotzky, Hiroshi Nakajima, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Jan-Uwe Ness, Kumiko Nobukawa, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Hirofumi Noda, Hirokazu Odaka, Shoji Ogawa, Anna Ogorzalek, Takashi Okajima, Naomi Ota, Stephane Paltani, Robert Petre, Paul Plucinsky, Frederick Scott Porter, Katja Pottschmidt, Kosuke Sato, Toshiki Sato, Makoto Sawada, Hiromi Seta, Megumi Shidatsu, Aurora Simionescu, Randall Smith, Hiromasa Suzuki, Andrew Szymkowiak, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Mai Takeo, Toru Tamagawa, Keisuke Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Atsushi Tanimoto, Makoto Tashiro, Yukikatsu Terada, Yuichi Terashima, Yohko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi G. Tsuru, Hiroyuki Uchida, Nagomi Uchida, Yuusuke Uchida, Hideki Uchiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shinichiro Uno, Jacco Vink, Shin Watanabe, Brian J. Williams, Satoshi Yamada, Shinya Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Yamasaki, Makoto Yamauchi, Shigeo Yamauchi, Tahir Yaqoob, Tomokage Yoneyama, Tessei Yoshida, Mihoko Yukita, Irina Zhuravleva, Valentina Braito, Pierpaolo Condò, Keigo Fukumura, Adam Gonzalez, Alfredo Luminari, Aiko Miyamoto, Ryuki Mizukawa, James Reeves, Riki Sato, Francesco Tombesi, Yerong Xu

Evidence indicates that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) exist at the centres of most galaxies. Their mass correlates with the galactic bulge mass¹, suggesting a coevolution with their host galaxies², most likely through powerful winds³. X-ray observations have detected highly ionized winds outflowing at sub-relativistic speeds from the accretion disks around SMBHs^4,5. However, the limited spectral resolution of present X-ray instruments has left the physical structure and location of the winds poorly understood, hindering accurate estimates of their kinetic power^6,7. Here the first X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) observation of the luminous quasar PDS 456 is reported. The high-resolution spectrometer Resolve aboard XRISM enabled the discovery of five discrete velocity components outflowing at 20-30% of the speed of light. This demonstrates that the wind structure is highly inhomogeneous, which probably consists of up to a million clumps. The mass outflow rate is estimated to be 60-300 solar masses per year, with the wind kinetic power exceeding the Eddington luminosity limit. Compared with the galaxy-scale outflows, the kinetic power is more than three orders of magnitude larger, whereas the momentum flux is ten times larger. These estimates disfavour both energy-driven and momentum-driven outflow models. This suggests that such wind activity occurs in less than 10% of the quasar phase and/or that its energy/momentum is not efficiently transferred to the galaxy-scale outflows owing to the clumpiness of the wind and the interstellar medium.

Nature (2025)

Compact astrophysical objects, High-energy astrophysics

Past warm intervals inform the future South Asian summer monsoon

Original Paper | Climate and Earth system modelling | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Linqiang He, Tianjun Zhou, Zhun Guo

In the future, monsoon rainfall over densely populated South Asia is expected to increase, even as monsoon circulation weakens^1,2,3. By contrast, past warm intervals were marked by both increased rainfall and a strengthening of monsoon circulation^4,5,6, posing a challenge to understanding the response of the South Asian summer monsoon to warming. Here we show consistent South Asian summer monsoon changes in the mid-Pliocene, Last Interglacial, mid-Holocene and future scenarios, characterized by an overall increase in monsoon rainfall, a weakening of the monsoon trough-like circulation over the Bay of Bengal and a strengthening of the monsoon circulation over the northern Arabian Sea, as revealed by a compilation of proxy records and climate simulations. Increased monsoon rainfall is thermodynamically dominated by atmospheric moisture following the rich-get-richer paradigm, and dynamically dominated by the monsoon circulation driven by the enhanced land warming in subtropical western Eurasia and northern Africa. The coherent response of monsoon dynamics across warm climates reconciles past strengthening with future weakening, reinforcing confidence in future projections. Further prediction of South Asian summer monsoon circulation and rainfall by physics-based regression models using past information agrees well with climate model projections, with spatial correlation coefficients of approximately 0.8 and 0.7 under the high-emissions scenario. These findings underscore the promising potential of past analogues, bolstered by palaeoclimate reconstruction, in improving future South Asian summer monsoon projections.

Nature 641, 653-659 (2025)

Climate and Earth system modelling, Palaeoclimate, Projection and prediction

Exploring pathways for world development within planetary boundaries

Original Paper | Climate-change mitigation | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Detlef P. van Vuuren, Jonathan C. Doelman, Isabela Schmidt Tagomori, Arthur H. W. Beusen, Sarah E. Cornell, Johan Röckstrom, Aafke M. Schipper, Elke Stehfest, Geanderson Ambrosio, Maarten van den Berg, Lex Bouwman, Vassilis Daioglou, Mathijs Harmsen, Paul Lucas, Kaj-Ivar van der Wijst, Willem-Jan van Zeist

The pressures humanity has been placing on the environment have put Earth’s stability at risk. The planetary boundaries framework serves as a method to define a ‘safe operating space for humanity’^1,2 and has so far been applied mostly to highlight the currently prevailing unsustainable environmental conditions. The ability to evaluate trends over time, however, can help us explore the consequences of alternative policy decisions and identify pathways for living within planetary boundaries³. Here we use the Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment⁴ to project control variables for eight out of nine planetary boundaries under alternative scenarios to 2050, both with and without strong environmental policy measures. The results show that, with current trends and policies, the situation is projected to worsen to 2050 for all planetary boundaries, except for ozone depletion. Targeted interventions, such as implementing the Paris climate agreement, a shift to a healthier diet, improved food, and water- and nutrient-use efficiency, can effectively reduce the degree of transgression of the planetary boundaries, steering humanity towards a more sustainable trajectory (that is, if they can be implemented based on social and institutional feasibility considerations). However, even in this scenario, several planetary boundaries, including climate change, biogeochemical flows and biodiversity, will remain transgressed in 2050, partly as result of inertia. This means that more-effective policy measures will be needed to ensure we are living well within the planetary boundaries.

Nature (2025)

Climate-change mitigation, Environmental impact, Environmental sciences

Radiation-induced amphiregulin drives tumour metastasis

Original Paper | Metastasis | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

András Piffkó, Kaiting Yang, Arpit Panda, Janna Heide, Krystyna Tesak, Chuangyu Wen, Katarzyna Zawieracz, Liangliang Wang, Emile Z. Naccasha, Jason Bugno, Yanbin Fu, Dapeng Chen, Leonhard Donle, Ernst Lengyel, Douglas G. Tilley, Matthias Mack, Ronald S. Rock, Steven J. Chmura, Everett E. Vokes, Chuan He, Sean P. Pitroda, Hua Laura Liang, Ralph R. Weichselbaum

The anti-tumour effect of radiotherapy beyond the treatment field–the abscopal effect–has garnered much interest¹. However, the potentially deleterious effect of radiation in promoting metastasis is less well studied. Here we show that radiotherapy induces the expression of the EGFR ligand amphiregulin in tumour cells, which reprogrammes EGFR-expressing myeloid cells toward an immunosuppressive phenotype and reduces phagocytosis. This stimulates distant metastasis growth in human patients and in pre-clinical mouse tumour models. The inhibition of these tumour-promoting factors induced by radiotherapy may represent a novel therapeutic strategy to improve patient outcomes.

Nature (2025)

Metastasis, Radiotherapy

Taurine from tumour niche drives glycolysis to promote leukaemogenesis

Original Paper | Cancer | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Sonali Sharma, Benjamin J. Rodems, Cameron D. Baker, Christina M. Kaszuba, Edgardo I. Franco, Bradley R. Smith, Takashi Ito, Kyle Swovick, Kevin Welle, Yi Zhang, Philip Rock, Francisco A. Chaves, Sina Ghaemmaghami, Laura M. Calvi, Archan Ganguly, W. Richard Burack, Michael W. Becker, Jane L. Liesveld, Paul S. Brookes, Joshua C. Munger, Craig T. Jordan, John M. Ashton, Jeevisha Bajaj

Signals from the microenvironment are known to be critical for development, stem cell self-renewal and oncogenic progression. Although some niche-driven signals that promote cancer progression have been identified^1,2,3,4,5, concerted efforts to map disease-relevant microenvironmental ligands of cancer stem cell receptors have been lacking. Here, we use temporal single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to identify molecular cues from the bone marrow stromal niche that engage leukaemia stem-enriched cells (LSCs) during oncogenic progression. We integrate these data with our human LSC RNA-seq and in vivo CRISPR screen of LSC dependencies⁶ to identify LSC-niche interactions that are essential for leukaemogenesis. These analyses identify the taurine-taurine transporter (TAUT) axis as a critical dependency of aggressive myeloid leukaemias. We find that cysteine dioxygenase type 1 (CDO1)-driven taurine biosynthesis is restricted to osteolineage cells, and increases during myeloid disease progression. Blocking CDO1 expression in osteolineage cells impairs LSC growth and improves survival outcomes. Using TAUT genetic loss-of-function mouse models and patient-derived acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells, we show that TAUT inhibition significantly impairs in vivo myeloid leukaemia progression. Consistent with elevated TAUT expression in venetoclax-resistant AML, TAUT inhibition synergizes with venetoclax to block the growth of primary human AML cells. Mechanistically, our multiomic approaches indicate that the loss of taurine uptake inhibits RAG-GTP dependent mTOR activation and downstream glycolysis. Collectively, our work establishes the temporal landscape of stromal signals during leukaemia progression and identifies taurine as a key regulator of myeloid malignancies.

Nature (2025)

Cancer, Cancer metabolism, Cancer microenvironment

Encapsulated Co-Ni alloy boosts high-temperature CO2 electroreduction

Original Paper | Electrocatalysis | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Wenchao Ma, Jordi Morales-Vidal, Jiaming Tian, Meng-Ting Liu, Seongmin Jin, Wenhao Ren, Julian Taubmann, Christodoulos Chatzichristodoulou, Jeremy Luterbacher, Hao Ming Chen, Núria López, Xile Hu

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction into chemicals and fuels holds great promise for renewable energy storage and carbon recycling^1,2,3. Although high-temperature CO₂ electroreduction in solid oxide electrolysis cells is industrially relevant, current catalysts have modest energy efficiency and a limited lifetime at high current densities, generally below 70% and 200 h, respectively, at 1 A cm^-2 and temperatures of 800 °C or higher^4,5,6,7,8. Here we develop an encapsulated Co-Ni alloy catalyst using Sm₂O₃-doped CeO₂ that exhibits an energy efficiency of 90% and a lifetime of more than 2,000 h at 1 A cm^-2 for high-temperature CO₂-to-CO conversion at 800 °C. Its selectivity towards CO is about 100%, and its single-pass yield reaches 90%. We show that the efficacy of our catalyst arises from its unique encapsulated structure and optimized alloy composition, which simultaneously enable enhanced CO₂ adsorption, moderate CO adsorption and suppressed metal agglomeration. This work provides an efficient strategy for the design of catalysts for high-temperature reactions that overcomes the typical trade-off between activity and stability and has potential industrial applications.

Nature (2025)

Electrocatalysis, Electrochemistry, Materials chemistry

Proton transport from the antimatter factory of CERN

Original Paper | Physics | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

M. Leonhardt, D. Schweitzer, F. Abbass, K. K. Anjum, B. Arndt, S. Erlewein, S. Endoh, P. Geissler, T. Imamura, J. I. Jäger, B. M. Latacz, P. Micke, F. Voelksen, H. Yildiz, K. Blaum, J. A. Devlin, Y. Matsuda, C. Ospelkaus, W. Quint, A. Soter, J. Walz, Y. Yamazaki, S. Ulmer, C. Smorra

Precision measurements using low-energy antiprotons, exclusively available at the antimatter factory (AMF) of CERN¹, offer stringent tests of charge-parity-time (CPT) invariance, which is a fundamental symmetry in the Standard Model of particle physics². These tests have been realized, for example, in antiprotonic helium³ and antihydrogen⁴. In our cryogenic Penning-trap experiments⁵, we measure the magnetic moments^6,7 and charge-to-mass ratios of protons and antiprotons and now provide the most precise test of CPT invariance in the baryon sector⁸. Our experiments are limited by magnetic field fluctuations imposed by the decelerators in the AMF; therefore, we are advancing the relocation of antiprotons to dedicated precision laboratories. Here we present the successful transport of a trapped proton cloud from the AMF using BASE-STEP⁹–a transportable, superconducting, autonomous and open Penning-trap system that can distribute antiprotons into other experiments. We transferred the trapped protons from our experimental area at the AMF onto a truck and transported them across the Meyrin site of CERN, demonstrating autonomous operation without external power for 4 h and loss-free proton relocation. We thereby confirm the feasibility of transferring particles into low-noise laboratories in the vicinity of the AMF and of using a power generator on the truck¹⁰ to reach laboratories throughout Europe. This marks the potential start of a new era in precision antimatter research, enabling low-noise measurements of antiprotons, the charged antimatter ions ${\bar{ {\rm{H}}}}^{+}$¹¹ and ${\bar{ {\rm{H}}}}_{2}^{-}$ (ref. ¹²), and other accelerator-produced ions, such as hydrogen-like lead or uranium ions^13,14.

Nature (2025)

Physics, Techniques and instrumentation

Divergent DNA methylation dynamics in marsupial and eutherian embryos

Original Paper | Embryology | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Bryony J. Leeke, Wazeer Varsally, Sugako Ogushi, Jasmin Zohren, Sergio Menchero, Aurélien Courtois, Daniel M. Snell, Aurélie Teissandier, Obah Ojarikre, Shantha K. Mahadevaiah, Fanny Decarpentrie, Rebecca J. Oakey, John L. VandeBerg, James M. A. Turner

Based on seminal work in placental species (eutherians)^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}, a paradigm of mammalian development has emerged wherein the genome-wide erasure of parental DNA methylation is required for embryogenesis. Whether such DNA methylation reprogramming is, in fact, conserved in other mammals is unknown. Here, to resolve this point, we generated base-resolution DNA methylation maps in gametes, embryos and adult tissues of a marsupial, the opossum Monodelphis domestica, revealing variations from the eutherian-derived model. The difference in DNA methylation level between oocytes and sperm is less pronounced than that in eutherians. Furthermore, unlike the genome of eutherians, that of the opossum remains hypermethylated during the cleavage stages. In the blastocyst, DNA demethylation is transient and modest in the epiblast. However, it is sustained in the trophectoderm, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved function for DNA hypomethylation in the mammalian placenta. Furthermore, unlike that in eutherians, the inactive X chromosome becomes globally DNA hypomethylated during embryogenesis. We identify gamete differentially methylated regions that exhibit distinct fates in the embryo, with some transient, and others retained and that represent candidate imprinted loci. We also reveal a possible mechanism for imprinted X inactivation, through maternal DNA methylation of the Xist-like noncoding RNA RSX¹¹. We conclude that the evolutionarily divergent eutherians and marsupials use DNA demethylation differently during embryogenesis.

Nature (2025)

Embryology, Epigenomics

A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis

Original Paper | Evolutionary developmental biology | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Jing Liu, Federica Mosti, Hanzhi T. Zhao, Davoneshia Lollis, Jesus E. Sotelo-Fonseca, Carla F. Escobar-Tomlienovich, Camila M. Musso, Yiwei Mao, Abdull J. Massri, Hannah M. Doll, Nicole D. Moss, Andre M. M. Sousa, Gregory A. Wray, Ewoud R. E. Schmidt, Debra L. Silver

Humans have evolved an extraordinarily expanded and complex cerebral cortex associated with developmental and gene regulatory modifications^1,2,3. Human accelerated regions (HARs) are highly conserved DNA sequences with human-specific nucleotide substitutions. Although there are thousands of annotated HARs, their functional contribution to species-specific cortical development remains largely unknown^4,5. HARE5 is a HAR transcriptional enhancer of the WNT signalling receptor Frizzled8 that is active during brain development⁶. Here, using genome-edited mouse (Mus musculus, Mm) and primate models, we demonstrated that human (Homo sapiens, Hs) HARE5 fine-tunes cortical development and connectivity by controlling the proliferative and neurogenic capacities of neural progenitor cells. Hs-HARE5 knock-in mice have significantly enlarged neocortices, containing more excitatory neurons. By measuring neural dynamics in vivo, we showed that these anatomical features result in increased functional independence between cortical regions. We assessed underlying developmental mechanisms using fixed and live imaging, lineage analysis and single-cell RNA sequencing. We discovered that Hs-HARE5 modifies radial glial cell behaviour, with increased self-renewal at early developmental stages, followed by expanded neurogenic potential. Using genome-edited human and chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes, Pt) neural progenitor cells and cortical organoids, we showed that four human-specific variants of Hs-HARE5 drive increased enhancer activity that promotes progenitor proliferation. Finally, we showed that Hs-HARE5 increased progenitor proliferation by amplifying canonical WNT signalling. These findings illustrate how small changes in regulatory DNA can directly affect critical signalling pathways to modulate brain development. Our study uncovered new functions of HARs as key regulatory elements crucial for the expansion and complexity of the human cerebral cortex.

Nature (2025)

Evolutionary developmental biology, Neuronal development

Chicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan

Original Paper | Evolutionary ecology | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Jingmai O’Connor, Alexander Clark, Pei-Chen Kuo, Yosef Kiat, Matteo Fabbri, Akiko Shinya, Constance Van Beek, Jing Lu, Min Wang, Han Hu

Here we report on the nearly complete and uncrushed 14th specimen of Archaeopteryx. Exceptional preservation and preparation guided by micro-computed tomographic data make this one of the best exemplars of this iconic taxon, preserving important data regarding skeletal transformation and plumage evolution in relation to the acquisition of flight during early avian evolution. The ventrolaterally exposed skull reveals a palatal morphology intermediate between troodontids¹ and crownward Cretaceous birds^2,3. Modifications of the skull reflect the shift towards a less rigid cranial architecture in archaeopterygids from non-avian theropods. The complete vertebral column reveals paired proatlases and a tail longer than previously recognized. Skin traces on the right major digit of the hand suggest that the minor digit was free and mobile distally, contrary to previous interpretations⁴. The morphology of the foot pads indicates that they were adapted for non-raptorial terrestrial locomotion. Specialized inner secondary feathers called tertials^5,6 are observed on both wings. Humeral tertials are absent in non-avian dinosaurs closely related to birds, suggesting that these feathers evolved for flight, creating a continuous aerodynamic surface. These new findings clarify the mosaic of traits present in Archaeopteryx, refine ecological predictions and elucidate the unique evolutionary history of the Archaeopterygidae, providing clues regarding the ancestral avian condition.

Nature (2025)

Evolutionary ecology, Palaeontology

Earliest amniote tracks recalibrate the timeline of tetrapod evolution

Original Paper | Herpetology | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

John A. Long, Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, Jillian Garvey, Alice M. Clement, Aaron B. Camens, Craig A. Eury, John Eason, Per E. Ahlberg

The known fossil record of crown-group amniotes begins in the late Carboniferous with the sauropsid trackmaker Notalacerta^1,2 and the sauropsid body fossil Hylonomus^1,2,3,4. The earliest body fossils of crown-group tetrapods are mid-Carboniferous, and the oldest trackways are early Carboniferous^5,6,7. This suggests that the tetrapod crown group originated in the earliest Carboniferous (early Tournaisian), with the amniote crown group appearing in the early part of the late Carboniferous. Here we present new trackway data from Australia that challenge this widely accepted timeline. A track-bearing slab from the Snowy Plains Formation of Victoria, Taungurung Country, securely dated to the early Tournaisian^8,9, shows footprints from a crown-group amniote with clawed feet, most probably a primitive sauropsid. This pushes back the likely origin of crown-group amniotes by at least 35-40 million years. We also extend the range of Notalacerta into the early Carboniferous. The Australian tracks indicate that the amniote crown-group node cannot be much younger than the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary, and that the tetrapod crown-group node must be located deep within the Devonian; an estimate based on molecular-tree branch lengths suggests an approximate age of early Frasnian for the latter. The implications for the early evolution of tetrapods are profound; all stem-tetrapod and stem-amniote lineages must have originated during the Devonian. It seems that tetrapod evolution proceeded much faster, and the Devonian tetrapod record is much less complete, than has been thought.

Nature (2025)

Herpetology, Palaeontology, Phylogenetics

Wireless transmission of internal hazard signals in Li-ion batteries

Original Paper | Batteries | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Jinbao Fan, Chenchen Liu, Na Li, Le Yang, Xiao-Guang Yang, Bowen Dou, Shujuan Hou, Xuning Feng, Hanqing Jiang, Hong Li, Wei-Li Song, Lei Sun, Hao-Sen Chen, Huajian Gao, Daining Fang

High-capacity lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) play a critical role as power sources across diverse applications, including portable electronics, electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable-energy-storage systems¹. However, there is growing concern about the safety of integrated LIB systems, with reports of up to 9,486 incidents between 2020 and 2024 (ref. ²). To ensure the safe application of commercial LIBs, it is essential to capture internal signals that enable early failure diagnosis and warning. Monitoring non-uniform temperature and strain distributions within the jelly-roll structures of the battery provides a promising approach to achieving this goal^3,4. Here we propose a miniaturized and low-power-consumption system capable of accurate sensing and wireless transmission of internal temperature and strain signals inside LIBs, with negligible influence on its performance. The acquisition of internal temperature signals and the area ratio between initial internal-short-circuited regions and battery electrodes enables quantitative analysis of thermal fusing and thermal runaway phenomena, leading to the evaluation of the intensity of battery thermal runaway and recognition of thermal abuse behaviours. This work provides a foundation for designing next-generation smart LIBs with safety warning and failure positioning capabilities.

Nature 641, 639-645 (2025)

Batteries, Electrical and electronic engineering

Ultrahigh-pressure crystallographic passage towards metallic hydrogen

Original Paper | Phase transitions and critical phenomena | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Cheng Ji, Bing Li, Jie Luo, Yongsheng Zhao, Yuan Liu, Konstantin Glazyrin, Alexander Björling, Lucas A. B. Marçal, Maik Kahnt, Sebastian Kalbfleisch, Wenjun Liu, Yang Gao, Junyue Wang, Wendy L. Mao, Hanyu Liu, Yanming Ma, Yang Ding, Wenge Yang, Ho-Kwang Mao

The structural evolution of molecular hydrogen H₂ under multi-megabar compression and its relation to atomic metallic hydrogen is a key unsolved problem in condensed-matter physics. Although dozens of crystal structures have been proposed by theory^1,2,3,4, only one, the simple hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) structure of only spherical disordered H₂, has been previously confirmed in experiments⁵. Through advancing nano-focused synchrotron X-ray probes, here we report the observation of the transition from hcp H₂ to a post-hcp structure with a six-fold larger supercell at pressures above 212 GPa, indicating the change of spherical H₂ to various ordered configurations. Theoretical calculations based on our XRD results found a time-averaged structure model in the space group $P\bar{6}2c$ with alternating layers of spherically disordered H₂ and new graphene-like layers consisting of H₂ trimers (H₆) formed by the association of three H₂ molecules. This supercell has not been reported by any previous theoretical study for the post-hcp phase, but is close to a number of theoretical models with mixed-layer structures. The evidence of a structural transition beyond hcp establishes the trend of H₂ molecular association towards polymerization at extreme pressures, giving clues about the nature of the molecular-to-atomic transition of metallic hydrogen. Considering the spectroscopic behaviours that show strong vibrational and bending peaks of H₂ up to 400 GPa, it would be prudent to speculate the continuation of hydrogen molecular polymerization up to its metallization.

Nature (2025)

Phase transitions and critical phenomena, Structure of solids and liquids

Targeting symbionts by apolipoprotein L proteins modulates gut immunity

Original Paper | Microbiome | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Tao Yang, Xiaohu Hu, Fei Cao, Fenglin Yun, Kaiwen Jia, Mingxiang Zhang, Gaohui Kong, Biyu Nie, Yuexing Liu, Haohao Zhang, Xiaoyu Li, Hongyan Gao, Jiantao Shi, Guanxiang Liang, Guohong Hu, Dennis L. Kasper, Xinyang Song, Youcun Qian

The mammalian gut harbours trillions of commensal bacteria that interact with their hosts through various bioactive molecules^1,2. However, the mutualistic strategies that hosts evolve to benefit from these symbiotic relationships are largely unexplored. Here we report that mouse enterocytes secrete apolipoprotein L9a and b (APOL9a/b) in the presence of microbiota. By integrating flow cytometry sorting of APOL9-binding bacterial taxa with 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing (APOL9-seq), we identify that APOL9a/b, as well as their human equivalent APOL2, coat gut bacteria belonging to the order of Bacteroidales with a high degree of specificity through commensal ceramide-1-phosphate (Cer1P) lipids. Genetic abolition of ceramide-1-phosphate synthesis pathways in gut-dominant symbiote Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron significantly decreases the binding of APOL9a/b to the bacterium. Instead of lysing the bacterial cells, coating of APOL9a/b induces the production of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from the target bacteria. Subsequently, the Bacteroides-elicited outer membrane vesicles enhance the host’s interferon-γ signalling to promote major histocompatibility complex class II expression in the intestinal epithelial cells. In mice, the loss of Apol9a/b compromises the gut major histocompatibility complex class II-instructed immune barrier function, leading to early mortality from infection by intestinal pathogens. Our data show how a host-elicited factor benefits gut immunological homeostasis by selectively targeting commensal ceramide molecules.

Nature (2025)

Microbiome, Mucosal immunology

STAT5 and STAT3 balance shapes dendritic cell function and tumour immunity

Original Paper | Antigen processing and presentation | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Jiajia Zhou, Kole Tison, Haibin Zhou, Longchuan Bai, Ranjan Kumar Acharyya, Donna McEachern, Hoda Metwally, Yu Wang, Michael Pitter, Jae Eun Choi, Linda Vatan, Peng Liao, Jiali Yu, Heng Lin, Long Jiang, Shuang Wei, Xue Gao, Sara Grove, Abhijit Parolia, Marcin Cieslik, Ilona Kryczek, Michael D. Green, Jian-Xin Lin, Arul M. Chinnaiyan, Warren J. Leonard, Shaomeng Wang, Weiping Zou

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has transformed cancer therapy^1,2. The efficacy of immunotherapy depends on dendritic cell-mediated tumour antigen presentation, T cell priming and activation^3,4. However, the relationship between the key transcription factors in dendritic cells and ICB efficacy remains unknown. Here we found that ICB reprograms the interplay between the STAT3 and STAT5 transcriptional pathways in dendritic cells, thereby activating T cell immunity and enabling ICB efficacy. Mechanistically, STAT3 restrained the JAK2 and STAT5 transcriptional pathway, determining the fate of dendritic cell function. As STAT3 is often activated in the tumour microenvironment⁵, we developed two distinct PROTAC (proteolysis-targeting chimera) degraders of STAT3, SD-36 and SD-2301. STAT3 degraders effectively degraded STAT3 in dendritic cells and reprogrammed the dendritic cell-transcriptional network towards immunogenicity. Furthermore, STAT3 degrader monotherapy was efficacious in treatment of advanced tumours and ICB-resistant tumours without toxicity in mice. Thus, the crosstalk between STAT3 and STAT5 transcriptional pathways determines the dendritic cell phenotype in the tumour microenvironment and STAT3 degraders hold promise for cancer immunotherapy.

Nature (2025)

Antigen processing and presentation, Immunotherapy, Tumour immunology

Bulk-spatiotemporal vortex correspondence in gyromagnetic zero-index media

Original Paper | Magneto-optics | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Ruo-Yang Zhang, Xiaohan Cui, Yuan-Song Zeng, Jin Chen, Wenzhe Liu, Mudi Wang, Dongyang Wang, Zhao-Qing Zhang, Neng Wang, Geng-Bo Wu, C. T. Chan

Photonic double-zero-index media, distinguished by concurrently zero-valued permittivity and permeability, exhibit extraordinary properties not found in nature^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}. Notably, the notion of zero index can be substantially expanded by generalizing the constitutive parameters from null scalars to non-reciprocal tensors with non-zero matrix elements but zero determinants^9,10. Here we experimentally realize this class of gyromagnetic double-zero-index metamaterials possessing both double-zero-index features and non-reciprocal hallmarks. As an intrinsic property, this metamaterial always emerges at a spin-1/2 Dirac point of a topological phase transition. We discover and demonstrate that a spatiotemporal reflection vortex singularity is always anchored to the Dirac point of the metamaterial, with the vortex charge being determined by the topological invariant leap across the phase transition. This establishes a unique bulk-spatiotemporal vortex correspondence that extends the protected boundary effects into the time domain and characterizes topological phase-transition points, setting it apart from any pre-existing bulk-boundary correspondence. Based on this correspondence, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a mechanism to deterministically generate optical spatiotemporal vortex pulses^11,12 with firmly fixed central frequency and momentum, hence showing ultrarobustness. Our findings uncover connections between zero-refractive-index photonics, topological photonics and singular optics, which might enable the manipulation of space-time topological light fields using the inherent topology of extreme-parameter metamaterials.

Nature (2025)

Magneto-optics, Metamaterials, Topological insulators

Interferon-γ orchestrates leptomeningeal anti-tumour response

Original Paper | CNS cancer | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Jan Remsik, Xinran Tong, Russell Z. Kunes, Min Jun Li, Rachel Estrera, Jenna Snyder, Clark Thomson, Ahmed M. Osman, Kiana Chabot, Ugur T. Sener, Jessica A. Wilcox, Danielle Isakov, Helen Wang, Tejus A. Bale, Ronan Chaligné, Joseph C. Sun, Chrysothemis Brown, Dana Pe’er, Adrienne Boire

Metastasis to the cerebrospinal-fluid-filled leptomeninges, or leptomeningeal metastasis, represents a fatal complication of solid tumours¹. Multimodal analyses of clinical specimens reveal substantial inflammatory infiltrate in leptomeningeal metastases with enrichment of IFNγ and resulting downstream signalling. Here, to investigate and overcome this futile anti-tumour response within the leptomeninges, we developed syngeneic lung cancer, breast cancer and melanoma leptomeningeal-metastasis mouse models. We show that transgenic host mice lacking IFNγ or its receptor fail to control the growth of leptomeningeal metastases growth. Leptomeningeal overexpression of Ifng through a targeted adeno-associated-virus-based system controls cancer cell growth independent of adaptive immunity. Using a suite of transgenic hosts, we demonstrate that leptomeningeal T cells generate IFNγ to actively recruit and activate peripheral myeloid cells, generating a diverse spectrum of dendritic cell subsets. Independent of antigen presentation, migratory CCR7⁺ dendritic cells orchestrate the influx, proliferation and cytotoxic action of natural killer cells to control cancer cell growth in the leptomeninges. This study identifies unique, leptomeninges-specific IFNγ signalling and suggests an immune-therapeutic approach against tumours within this space.

Nature (2025)

CNS cancer, Tumour immunology

Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry

Original Paper | Adult neurogenesis | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Sangyoon Y. Ko, Yiming Rong, Adam I. Ramsaran, Xiaoyu Chen, Asim J. Rashid, Andrew J. Mocle, Jagroop Dhaliwal, Ankit Awasthi, Axel Guskjolen, Sheena A. Josselyn, Paul W. Frankland

Episodic memories–high-fidelity memories for events that depend initially on the hippocampus–do not maintain their precision in perpetuity. One benefit of this time-dependent loss of precision is the emergence of event-linked gist memories that may be used to guide future behaviour in new but related situations (that is, generalization)^1,2,3. Models of systems consolidation propose that memory reorganization accompanies this loss of memory precision^1,4; however, the locus of this reorganization is unclear. Here we report that time-dependent reorganization of hippocampal engram circuitry is sufficient to explain shifts in memory precision associated with systems consolidation. Using engram labelling tools in mice, we demonstrate that the passage of time rewires hippocampal engram circuits, enabling hippocampal engram neurons to be promiscuously active and guide behaviour in related situations that do not match the original training conditions. Reorganization depends on hippocampal neurogenesis; eliminating hippocampal neurogenesis prevents reorganization and maintains precise, event memories. Conversely, promoting hippocampal neurogenesis accelerates memory reorganization and the emergence of event-linked gist memories in the hippocampus. Our results indicate that systems consolidation models require updating to account for within-hippocampus reorganization that leads to qualitative shifts in memory precision.

Nature (2025)

Adult neurogenesis, Hippocampus

Tunable vacuum-field control of fractional and integer quantum Hall phases

Original Paper | Quantum Hall | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Josefine Enkner, Lorenzo Graziotto, Dalin Boriçi, Felice Appugliese, Christian Reichl, Giacomo Scalari, Nicolas Regnault, Werner Wegscheider, Cristiano Ciuti, Jérôme Faist

In quantum mechanics, empty space is not void but is characterized by vacuum-field fluctuations, which underlie phenomena such as the Lamb shift¹, spontaneous emission, and the Casimir effect². Due to their quantitatively small relative contributions in free-space atomic physics, they were traditionally overlooked in solid-state systems. Recently, however, the interplay between electronic correlations and quantum electrodynamical effects in low-dimensional systems has become a rapidly advancing area in condensed matter physics^3,4,5, with substantial implications for quantum materials and device engineering. High-mobility two-dimensional electron gases in the quantum Hall regime⁶ offer an ideal platform to investigate how vacuum electromagnetic fields affect strongly correlated electronic states. Here we demonstrate that adjusting the coupling strength between a two-dimensional electron gas and the vacuum fields of a hovering split-ring resonator leads to a significant reduction in exchange splitting at odd-integer filling factors, along with an enhancement of fractional quantum Hall gaps at filling factors 4/3, 5/3 and 7/5. Theoretical analysis indicates that these effects stem from an effective long-range attractive interaction mediated by virtual cavity photons in regions with strong vacuum electric field gradients. Our findings uncover a new mechanism by which cavity vacuum fields can reshape electronic correlations in quantum Hall systems, establishing a new approach for manipulating correlated quantum phases in low-dimensional materials and paving the way for engineering tailored many-body interactions in compact devices.

Nature (2025)

Quantum Hall, Quantum optics

Genome diversity and signatures of natural selection in mainland Southeast Asia

Original Paper | Genetic variation | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Yaoxi He, Xiaoming Zhang, Min-Sheng Peng, Yu-Chun Li, Kai Liu, Yu Zhang, Leyan Mao, Yongbo Guo, Yujie Ma, Bin Zhou, Wangshan Zheng, Tian Yue, Yuwen Liao, Shen-Ao Liang, Lu Chen, Weijie Zhang, Xiaoning Chen, Bixia Tang, Xiaofei Yang, Kai Ye, Shenghan Gao, Yurun Lu, Yong Wang, Shijie Wan, Rushan Hao, Xuankai Wang, Yafei Mao, Shanshan Dai, Zongliang Gao, Li-Qin Yang, Jianxin Guo, Jiangguo Li, Chao Liu, Jianhua Wang, Tuot Sovannary, Long Bunnath, Jatupol Kampuansai, Angkhana Inta, Metawee Srikummool, Wibhu Kutanan, Huy Quang Ho, Khoa Dang Pham, Sommay Singthong, Somphad Sochampa, U. Win Kyaing, Wittaya Pongamornkul, Chutima Morlaeku, Kittisak Rattanakrajangsri, Qing-Peng Kong, Ya-Ping Zhang, Bing Su

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) has rich ethnic and cultural diversity with a population of nearly 300 million^1,2. However, people from MSEA are underrepresented in the current human genomic databases. Here we present the SEA3K genome dataset (phase I), generated by deep short-read whole-genome sequencing of 3,023 individuals from 30 MSEA populations, and long-read whole-genome sequencing of 37 representative individuals. We identified 79.59 million small variants and 96,384 structural variants, among which 22.83 million small variants and 24,622 structural variants are unique to this dataset. We observed a high genetic heterogeneity across MSEA populations, reflected by the varied combinations of genetic components. We identified 44 genomic regions with strong signatures of Darwinian positive selection, covering 89 genes involved in varied physiological systems such as physical traits and immune response. Furthermore, we observed varied patterns of archaic Denisovan introgression in MSEA populations, supporting the proposal of at least two distinct instances of Denisovan admixture into modern humans in Asia³. We also detected genomic regions that suggest adaptive archaic introgressions in MSEA populations. The large number of novel genomic variants in MSEA populations highlight the necessity of studying regional populations that can help answer key questions related to prehistory, genetic adaptation and complex diseases.

Nature (2025)

Genetic variation, Genome evolution

Quantum error correction of qudits beyond break-even

Original Paper | Quantum information | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Benjamin L. Brock, Shraddha Singh, Alec Eickbusch, Volodymyr V. Sivak, Andy Z. Ding, Luigi Frunzio, Steven M. Girvin, Michel H. Devoret

Hilbert space dimension is a key resource for quantum information processing^1,2. Not only is a large overall Hilbert space an essential requirement for quantum error correction, but a large local Hilbert space can also be advantageous for realizing gates and algorithms more efficiently^3,4,5,6,7. As a result, there has been considerable experimental effort in recent years to develop quantum computing platforms using qudits (d-dimensional quantum systems with d > 2) as the fundamental unit of quantum information^{8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19}. Just as with qubits, quantum error correction of these qudits will be necessary in the long run, but so far, error correction of logical qudits has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here we report the experimental realization of an error-corrected logical qutrit (d = 3) and ququart (d = 4), which was achieved with the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill bosonic code²⁰. Using a reinforcement learning agent^21,22, we optimized the Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill qutrit (ququart) as a ternary (quaternary) quantum memory and achieved beyond break-even error correction with a gain of 1.82 ± 0.03 (1.87 ± 0.03). This work represents a novel way of leveraging the large Hilbert space of a harmonic oscillator to realize hardware-efficient quantum error correction.

Nature 641, 612-618 (2025)

Quantum information, Quantum mechanics

Oncogenic fusions converge on shared mechanisms in initiating astroblastoma

Original Paper | CNS cancer | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Yixing Shi, Qianqian Sun, Fuchuan Jia, Xiangyu Xie, Xiangyu Zhou, Rong Guo, Yangfan Zeng, Shanshan Chen, Zhenzhen Guo, Wenli Sun, Tong Guo, Yu Xia, Wenlong Li, Li Zhang, Wei Shi, Yang Yu

Chromosomal rearrangements and gene fusions are the initial events in the development of many cancers. Astroblastoma (ABM), a brain cancer of unknown cellular origin and challenging to treat, is associated with diverse in-frame gene fusions, including MN1-BEND2 and MN1-CXXC5 (refs. ^1,2). However, it remains unclear whether these gene fusions contribute to tumorigenesis. Here we show in mice that these two ABM-associated fusions converge on similar molecular activities and initiate malignancy specifically in ventral telencephalon neural progenitors. BEND2 and CXXC5 recognize similar DNA motifs, which indicates a convergence on downstream gene regulation. Expression of MN1-BEND2 in ventral telencephalon neural progenitors results in aberrant cell proliferation, impaired differentiation, a perivascular occupancy pattern of cells reminiscent of ABM and acquisition of an ABM-associated transcriptional signature. By contrast, MN1-BEND2 expression in dorsal telencephalon neural progenitors leads to extensive cell death. This cell-type-specific malignancy depends on OLIG2 expression. Mechanistically, both ABM-associated fusion proteins (MN1-BEND2 and MN1-CXXC5) induce overlapping transcriptional responses, including the activation of a therapeutically targetable PDGFRα pathway. Collectively, our data suggest that distinct ABM-associated fusions upregulate shared transcriptional networks to disrupt the normal development of ventral telencephalon neural progenitors, which leads to oncogenic transformation. These findings uncover new avenues for targeted ABM treatment.

Nature (2025)

CNS cancer, Development of the nervous system, Neural stem cells

Spatial transcriptomics reveals human cortical layer and area specification

Original Paper | Developmental neurogenesis | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Xuyu Qian, Kyle Coleman, Shunzhou Jiang, Andrea J. Kriz, Jack H. Marciano, Chunyu Luo, Chunhui Cai, Monica Devi Manam, Emre Caglayan, Abbe Lai, David Exposito-Alonso, Aoi Otani, Urmi Ghosh, Diane D. Shao, Rebecca E. Andersen, Jennifer E. Neil, Robert Johnson, Alexandra LeFevre, Jonathan L. Hecht, Nicola Micali, Nenad Sestan, Pasko Rakic, Michael B. Miller, Liang Sun, Carsen Stringer, Mingyao Li, Christopher A. Walsh

The human cerebral cortex is composed of six layers and dozens of areas that are molecularly and structurally distinct^1,2,3,4. Although single-cell transcriptomic studies have advanced the molecular characterization of human cortical development, a substantial gap exists owing to the loss of spatial context during cell dissociation^5,6,7,8. Here we used multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH)⁹, augmented with deep-learning-based nucleus segmentation, to examine the molecular, cellular and cytoarchitectural development of the human fetal cortex with spatially resolved single-cell resolution. Our extensive spatial atlas, encompassing more than 18 million single cells, spans eight cortical areas across seven developmental time points. We uncovered the early establishment of the six-layer structure, identifiable by the laminar distribution of excitatory neuron subtypes, 3 months before the emergence of cytoarchitectural layers. Notably, we discovered two distinct modes of cortical areal specification during mid-gestation: (1) a continuous, gradual transition observed across most cortical areas along the anterior-posterior axis and (2) a discrete, abrupt boundary specifically identified between the primary (V1) and secondary (V2) visual cortices as early as gestational week 20. This sharp binary transition in V1-V2 neuronal subtypes challenges the notion that mid-gestation cortical arealization involves only gradient-like transitions^6,10. Furthermore, integrating single-nucleus RNA sequencing with MERFISH revealed an early upregulation of synaptogenesis in V1-specific layer 4 neurons. Collectively, our findings underscore the crucial role of spatial relationships in determining the molecular specification of cortical layers and areas. This study establishes a spatially resolved single-cell analysis paradigm and paves the way for the construction of a comprehensive developmental atlas of the human brain.

Nature (2025)

Developmental neurogenesis, Neuronal development

Solid phase transitions as a solution to the genome folding paradox

Original Paper | Nuclear organization | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Joan Pulupa, Natalie G. McArthur, Olga Stathi, Miao Wang, Marianna Zazhytska, Isabella D. Pirozzolo, Ahana Nayar, Lawrence Shapiro, Stavros Lomvardas

Ultra-long-range genomic contacts, which are key components of neuronal genome architecture^1,2,3, constitute a biochemical enigma. This is because regulatory DNA elements make selective and stable contacts with DNA sequences located hundreds of kilobases away, instead of interacting with proximal sequences occupied by the exact same transcription factors^1,4. This is exemplified in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), in which only a fraction of LHX2-, EBF1- and LDB1-bound sites interact with each other, converging into highly selective multi-chromosomal enhancer hubs⁵. To obtain biochemical insight into this process, here we assembled olfactory receptor (OR) enhancer hubs in vitro with recombinant proteins and enhancer DNA. Cell-free reconstitution of enhancer hubs revealed that OR enhancers form nucleoprotein condensates with unusual, solid-like characteristics. Assembly of these solid condensates is orchestrated by specific DNA motifs enriched in OR enhancers, which are likely to confer distinct homotypic properties on their resident LHX2-EBF1-LDB1 complexes. Single-molecule tracking and pulse-chase experiments in vivo confirmed that LHX2 and EBF1 assemble OR-transcription-competent condensates with solid properties in OSN nuclei, under physiological concentrations of protein. Thus, homophilic nucleoprotein interactions that are influenced by DNA sequence generate new types of biomolecular condensate, which might provide a generalizable explanation for the stability and specificity of long-range genomic contacts across cell types.

Nature (2025)

Nuclear organization, Olfactory receptors

Unconventional domain tessellations in moiré-of-moiré lattices

Original Paper | Condensed-matter physics | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Daesung Park, Changwon Park, Kunihiro Yananose, Eunjung Ko, Byunghyun Kim, Rebecca Engelke, Xi Zhang, Konstantin Davydov, Matthew Green, Hyun-Mi Kim, Sang Hwa Park, Jae Heon Lee, Seul-Gi Kim, Hyeongkeun Kim, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Sang Mo Yang, Ke Wang, Philip Kim, Young-Woo Son, Hyobin Yoo

Imposing incommensurable periodicity on the periodic atomic lattice can lead to complex structural phases consisting of locally periodic structure bounded by topological defects^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}. Twisted trilayer graphene (TTG) is an ideal material platform to study the interplay between different atomic periodicities, which can be tuned by twist angles between the layers, leading to moiré-of-moiré lattices^{9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26}. Interlayer and intralayer interactions between two interfaces in TTG transform this moiré-of-moiré lattice into an intricate network of domain structures at small twist angles, which can harbour exotic electronic behaviours^{9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26}. Here we report a complete structural phase diagram of TTG with atomic-scale lattice reconstruction. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with a new interatomic potential simulation^27,28, we show several large-scale moiré lattices, including triangular, kagome and a corner-shared hexagram-shaped domain pattern. Each domain is bounded by a 2D network of domain-wall lattices. In the limit of small twist angles, two competing structural orders–rhombohedral and Bernal stackings–with a slight energy difference cause unconventional lattice reconstruction with spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) and nematic instability, highlighting the importance of long-range interlayer interactions across entire van der Waals layers. The diverse tessellation of distinct domains, whose topological network can be tuned by the adjustment of the twist angles, establishes TTG as a platform for exploring the interplay between emerging quantum properties and controllable nontrivial lattices.

Nature (2025)

Condensed-matter physics, Materials science

Emergence of Calabi-Yau manifolds in high-precision black-hole scattering

Original Paper | General relativity and gravity | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Mathias Driesse, Gustav Uhre Jakobsen, Albrecht Klemm, Gustav Mogull, Christoph Nega, Jan Plefka, Benjamin Sauer, Johann Usovitsch

When two massive objects (black holes, neutron stars or stars) in our universe fly past each other, their gravitational interactions deflect their trajectories^1,2. The gravitational waves emitted in the related bound-orbit system–the binary inspiral–are now routinely detected by gravitational-wave observatories³. Theoretical physics needs to provide high-precision templates to make use of unprecedented sensitivity and precision of the data from upcoming gravitational-wave observatories⁴. Motivated by this challenge, several analytical and numerical techniques have been developed to approximately solve this gravitational two-body problem. Although numerical relativity is accurate^5,6,7, it is too time-consuming to rapidly produce large numbers of gravitational-wave templates. For this, approximate analytical results are also required^{8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15}. Here we report on a new, highest-precision analytical result for the scattering angle, radiated energy and recoil of a black hole or neutron star scattering encounter at the fifth order in Newton’s gravitational coupling G, assuming a hierarchy in the two masses. This is achieved by modifying state-of-the-art techniques for the scattering of elementary particles in colliders to this classical physics problem in our universe. Our results show that mathematical functions related to Calabi-Yau (CY) manifolds, 2n-dimensional generalizations of tori, appear in the solution to the radiated energy in these scatterings. We anticipate that our analytical results will allow the development of a new generation of gravitational-wave models, for which the transition to the bound-state problem through analytic continuation and strong-field resummation will need to be performed.

Nature 641, 603-607 (2025)

General relativity and gravity, Pure mathematics, Theoretical particle physics

Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal

Original Paper | Learning algorithms | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Francesca Greenstreet, Hernando Martinez Vergara, Yvonne Johansson, Sthitapranjya Pati, Laura Schwarz, Stephen C. Lenzi, Jesse P. Geerts, Matthew Wisdom, Alina Gubanova, Lars B. Rollik, Jasvin Kaur, Theodore Moskovitz, Joseph Cohen, Emmett Thompson, Troy W. Margrie, Claudia Clopath, Marcus Stephenson-Jones

Choice behaviour of animals is characterized by two main tendencies: taking actions that led to rewards and repeating past actions^1,2. Theory suggests that these strategies may be reinforced by different types of dopaminergic teaching signals: reward prediction error to reinforce value-based associations and movement-based action prediction errors to reinforce value-free repetitive associations^3,4,5,6. Here we use an auditory discrimination task in mice to show that movement-related dopamine activity in the tail of the striatum encodes the hypothesized action prediction error signal. Causal manipulations reveal that this prediction error serves as a value-free teaching signal that supports learning by reinforcing repeated associations. Computational modelling and experiments demonstrate that action prediction errors alone cannot support reward-guided learning, but when paired with the reward prediction error circuitry they serve to consolidate stable sound-action associations in a value-free manner. Together we show that there are two types of dopaminergic prediction errors that work in tandem to support learning, each reinforcing different types of association in different striatal areas.

Nature (2025)

Learning algorithms, Neural circuits

Water ice in the debris disk around HD 181327

Original Paper | Astrophysical disks | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Chen Xie, Christine H. Chen, Carey M. Lisse, Dean C. Hines, Tracy Beck, Sarah K. Betti, Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, Carl Ingebretsen, Kadin Worthen, András Gáspár, Schuyler G. Wolff, Bryce T. Bolin, Laurent Pueyo, Marshall D. Perrin, John A. Stansberry, Jarron M. Leisenring

Debris disks are exoplanetary systems that contain planets, minor bodies (asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, comets and so on) and micrometre-sized debris dust¹. Because water ice is the most common frozen volatile, it plays an essential role in the formation of planets^2,3 and minor bodies. Although water ice has been commonly found in Kuiper belt objects and comets in the Solar System⁴, no definitive evidence for water ice in debris disks has been obtained to date¹. Here we report the discovery of water ice in the HD 181327 debris disk using the near-infrared spectrograph onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. We detected the solid-state broad absorption feature of water ice at 3 µm including a distinct Fresnel peak at 3.1 µm, which is indicative of large, crystalline water-ice particles. Gradients in the water-ice feature as a function of stellocentric distance reveal a dynamic environment in which water ice is destroyed and replenished. We estimated the water-ice mass fractions as ranging from 0.1% at approximately 85 au to 21% at approximately 113 au, indicating the presence of a water-ice reservoir in the HD 181327 disk beyond the snow line. The icy bodies that release water ice in HD 181327 are probably the extra-solar counterparts of water-ice-rich Kuiper belt objects in our Solar System.

Nature 641, 608-611 (2025)

Astrophysical disks, Astrophysical dust, Early solar system

Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference

Original Paper | Fear conditioning | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Xiaowei Gu, Joshua P. Johansen

A key function of brain systems mediating emotion is to learn to anticipate unpleasant experiences. Although organisms readily associate sensory stimuli with aversive outcomes, higher-order forms of emotional learning and memory require inference to extrapolate the circumstances surrounding directly experienced aversive events to other indirectly related sensory patterns that were not part of the original experience. This type of learning requires internal models of emotion, which flexibly track directly experienced and inferred aversive associations. Although the brain mechanisms of simple forms of aversive learning have been well studied in areas such as the amygdala^1,2,3,4, whether and how the brain forms and represents internal models of emotionally relevant associations are not known⁵. Here we report that neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) encode a flexible internal model of emotion by linking sensory stimuli in the environment with aversive events, whether they were directly or indirectly associated with that experience. These representations form through a multi-step encoding mechanism involving recruitment and stabilization of dmPFC cells that support inference. Although dmPFC population activity encodes all salient associations, dmPFC neurons projecting to the amygdala specifically represent and are required to express inferred associations. Together, these findings reveal how internal models of emotion are encoded in the dmPFC to regulate subcortical systems for recall of inferred emotional memories.

Nature (2025)

Fear conditioning, Prefrontal cortex

Thermal asymmetry in the Moon’s mantle inferred from monthly tidal response

Original Paper | Geodynamics | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

R. S. Park, A. Berne, A. S. Konopliv, J. T. Keane, I. Matsuyama, F. Nimmo, M. Rovira-Navarro, M. P. Panning, M. Simons, D. J. Stevenson, R. C. Weber

The Moon undergoes periodic tidal forcing due to its eccentric and oblique orbit around the Earth¹. The response to this tidal interaction drives temporal changes in the lunar gravity field and is sensitive to the satellite’s internal structure^2,3,4. We use data from the NASA GRAIL spacecraft^5,6,7,8,9 to recover the time-varying lunar gravity field, including a degree-3 gravitational tidal Love number, k₃. Here, we report our estimated value of k₃ = 0.0163 ± 0.0007, which is about 72% higher than that expected for a spherically symmetric moon¹⁰. Such a large k₃ can be explained if the elastic shear modulus of the mantle varies by about 2-3% between the nearside and farside⁴, providing an observational demonstration of lateral heterogeneities in the deep lunar interior. This asymmetric structure suggests preservation of a predominantly thermal anomaly of roughly 100-200 K in the nearside mantle that formed surface mare regions 3-4 billion years ago¹¹ and could influence the spatial distribution of deep moonquakes¹².

Nature (2025)

Geodynamics, Planetary science, Rings and moons

Nature Nanotechnology

Nanopore-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for cancer biomarker detection

Original Paper | Nanopores | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Yakun Yi, Peng Song, Ziyi Li, Jinzhou Ju, Guixiang Sun, Qianyuan Ren, Ke Zhou, Lei Liu, Hai-Chen Wu

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been widely used in cancer diagnostics due to its specificity, sensitivity and high throughput. However, conventional ELISA is semiquantitative and has an insufficiently low detection limit for applications requiring ultrahigh sensitivity. In this study, we developed an α-hemolysin-nanopore-based ELISA for detecting cancer biomarkers. After forming the immuno-sandwich complex, peptide probes carrying enzymatic cleavage sites are introduced, where they interact with enzymes conjugated to the detection antibodies within the complex. These probes generate distinct current signatures when translocated through the nanopore after enzymatic cleavage, enabling precise biomarker quantification. This approach offers a low detection limit of up to 0.03 fg ml^-1 and the simultaneous detection of six biomarkers, including antigen and antibody biomarkers in blood samples. Overall, the nanopore-based ELISA demonstrates high sensitivity and multiplexing capability, making it suitable for next-generation diagnostic and point-of-care testing applications.

Nat. Nanotechnol. (2025)

Nanopores

A modular mRNA vaccine platform encoding antigen-presenting capsid virus-like particles enhances the immunogenicity of the malaria antigen Pfs25

Original Paper | Drug delivery | 2025-05-13 20:00 EDT

Cyrielle Fougeroux, Sven Hendrik Hagen, Louise Goksøyr, Kara-Lee Aves, Anna Kathrine Okholm, Candice Morin, Abhijeet Girish Lokras, Saahil Sandeep Baghel, Camilla Foged, Marga van de Vegte-Bolmer, Geert-Jan van Gemert, Matthijs M. Jore, Elena Ethel Vidal-Calvo, Tobias Gustavsson, Ali Salanti, Thor Grundtvig Theander, Morten Agertoug Nielsen, Willem Adriaan de Jongh, Adam Frederik Sander Bertelsen

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the potential of mRNA vaccines in fighting pandemics, owing to their rapid development, strong immunogenicity and adaptability. However, a drawback is their dose-limiting reactogenicity and inability to generate durable humoral immunity. Here we introduce a modular nucleotide vaccine platform combining the advantages of genetic and capsid virus-like-particle-based vaccines. This platform allows for the display of various antigens on different capsid virus-like particles, improving the magnitude, quality and longevity of the vaccine-induced immune responses. We applied this technology to enhance the immunogenicity of the Pfs25 antigen. Immunization with lipid-nanoparticle-formulated mRNA encoding Pfs25 capsid virus-like particles resulted in higher and potentially more durable anti-Pfs25 antibody responses, along with enhanced functional activity, compared with an mRNA vaccine encoding soluble Pfs25. By improving both humoral and cellular immune responses, this approach may reduce the dose and number of administrations required for effective protection. As a result, it can improve the feasibility of both DNA- and mRNA-based vaccines targeting pandemic and endemic infectious diseases.

Nat. Nanotechnol. (2025)

Drug delivery, Nanoparticles

Physical Review Letters

Universal Characterization of Quantum Many-Body States through Local Information

Research article | Localization | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Claudia Artiaco, Thomas Klein Kvorning, David Aceituno Chávez, Loïc Herviou, and Jens H. Bardarson

We propose a universal framework for classifying quantum states based on their scale-resolved correlation structure. Using the recently introduced information lattice, which provides an operational definition of the total amount of correlations at each scale, we define intrinsic characteristic length scales of quantum states. We analyze ground and midspectrum eigenstates of the disordered interacting Kitaev chain, showing that our framework provides a novel unbiased approach to quantum matter.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 190401 (2025)

Localization, Quantum information theory, Symmetry protected topological states, Disordered systems, Quantum many-body systems, Kitaev model

How Pure Can We Go with Adiabatic State Manipulation?

Research article | Geometric & topological phases | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Raul A. Santos, Alex Kamenev, and Yuval Gefen

Dissipative systems with decoherence-free subspaces, also known as dark spaces (DSs), can be used to protect quantum information. At the same time, dissipation is expected to give rise to coherent information degradation outside the DS. Employed to support quantum information platforms, DSs can be adiabatically modified in a way that resembles adiabatic control of coherent systems. Here we study the slow evolution of a purely dissipative system with a spectral gap $\gamma $, characterized by a strong symmetry, under a cyclic protocol with period $T$. Nonadiabatic corrections to the state evolution give rise to decoherence: the evolution within the instantaneous DS is described by a time-local effective Liouvillian operator that leads to purity degradation over a period, of order $1/\gamma T$. We obtain a closed form of the latter to order $1/(\gamma T{)}^{2}$. Our analysis underlines fundamental limitations of coherent quantum information processing in the absence of corrective measures.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 190402 (2025)

Geometric & topological phases, Quantum computation, Adiabatic approximation

Super-Heisenberg Scaling in a Triple-Point Criticality

Research article | Quantum metrology | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Jia-Ming Cheng, Yong-Chang Zhang, Xiang-Fa Zhou, and Zheng-Wei Zhou

We investigate quantum-enhanced metrology in a triple point criticality and discover that quantum criticality does not always enhance measurement precision. We have developed suitable adiabatic evolution protocols to effectively restrain excitations, which could accelerate the adiabatic evolutions and lead to an exponential super-Heisenberg scaling. This scaling behavior is quite valuable in practical parameter estimating experiments with limited coherence time. Dissipation can strengthen the super-Heisenberg scaling until decoherence increases to dominate in the dissipative dynamics. Additionally, measurement precisions beyond Heisenberg scaling can be experimentally achieved in the trapped ion system. Our findings strongly indicate that criticality-enhanced metrology can indeed significantly enhance measurement precisions to a super-Heisenberg scaling when combining a triple point and beneficial parameter modulations, which will be conducive to the exploration of other super-Heisenberg scaling and their applications.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 190802 (2025)

Quantum metrology, Quantum parameter estimation

No-Go Theorems for Universal Entanglement Purification

Research article | Entanglement manipulation | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Allen Zang, Xinan Chen, Eric Chitambar, Martin Suchara, and Tian Zhong

A new theorem shows that no universal entanglement purification protocol exists for all two-qubit entangled states if one is limited to just standard local operations and classical communication.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 190803 (2025)

Entanglement manipulation, Quantum communication, Quantum entanglement, Quantum information theory

Observation of a Spectral Hardening in Cosmic Ray Boron Spectrum with the DAMPE Space Mission

Research article | Cosmic ray acceleration | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

F. Alemanno et al. (DAMPE Collaboration)

Secondary cosmic ray fluxes are important probes of the propagation and interaction of high-energy particles in the Galaxy. Recent measurements of primary and secondary cosmic ray nuclei have revealed unexpected spectral features that demand a deeper understanding. In this work we report the direct measurement of the cosmic ray boron spectrum from $10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{n}$ to $8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}/\mathrm{n}$ with eight years of data collected by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) mission. The measured spectrum shows a hardening at $182\pm{}24\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{n}$ with a spectral index of ${\gamma }_{1}=3.02\pm{}0.01$ before the break and an index change of $\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma =0.31\pm{}0.05$ after the break. A simple power law model is disfavored at a confidence level of $8\sigma $. Compared with the hardenings measured in the DAMPE proton and helium spectra, the secondary boron spectrum hardens roughly twice as much as these primaries, which is consistent with a propagation related mechanism to interpret the spectral hardenings of cosmic rays observed at hundreds of $\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{n}$.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 191001 (2025)

Cosmic ray acceleration, Cosmic ray composition & spectra, Cosmic ray propagation, Cosmic rays & astroparticles, Particle astrophysics

Optimal Factorization of Cosmological Large-Scale Structure Observables

Research article | Large scale structure of the Universe | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Thomas Bakx, Nora Elisa Chisari, and Zvonimir Vlah

We introduce cobra (Cosmology with Optimally factorized Bases for Rapid Approximation), a novel framework for rapid computation of large-scale structure observables. cobra separates scale dependence from cosmological parameters in the linear matter power spectrum while also minimizing the number of necessary basis terms ${N}{b}$, thus enabling direct and efficient computation of derived and nonlinear observables. Moreover, the dependence on cosmological parameters is efficiently approximated using radial basis function interpolation. We apply our framework to decompose the linear matter power spectrum in the standard $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ scenario, as well as by adding curvature, dynamical dark energy and massive neutrinos, covering all redshifts relevant for Stage IV surveys. With only a dozen basis terms ${N}{b}$, cobra reproduces exact Boltzmann solver calculations to $\sim 0.1%$ precision, which improves further to $\sim 0.02%$ in the pure $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ scenario. Using our decomposition, we recast the one-loop redshift space galaxy power spectrum in a separable minimal-basis form, enabling $\sim 4000$ model evaluations per second at $\sim 0.02%$ precision on a single thread. This constitutes a considerable improvement over previously existing methods (e.g., FFTLog) opening a new window for efficient computations of higher loop and higher order correlators involving multiple powers of the linear matter power spectra. The resulting factorization can also be utilized in clustering, weak lensing, and CMB analyses.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 191002 (2025)

Large scale structure of the Universe

Dilatonic Couplings and the Relic Abundance of Ultralight Dark Matter

Research article | Cosmology | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Ahmad Alachkar, Malcolm Fairbairn, and David J. E. Marsh

Models of scalar field dark matter where the scalar is a dilaton have a special behavior, since nontrivial couplings, $d$, to matter result in a contribution to the potential for the field that is proportional to the trace of the stress-energy tensor. We look in more detail at the dilaton mass, ${m}{\phi }$, and initial conditions required to yield the correct relic abundance for couplings that are not already excluded by terrestrial experiments. In minimal models with only couplings accessible to terrestrial searches, we find that dilaton dark matter with ${m}{\phi }\gtrsim {10}^{- 10}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ requires couplings suppressed compared to constraints from equivalence principle tests and fifth force searches in order to not produce too much dark matter, improving on the strongest current experimental constraints by up to $\sim \mathcal{O}(10)$, with consequences for the proposed mechanical resonator dilaton dark matter searches. In nonminimal or universally coupled models, the unconstrained couplings of the dilaton to, e.g., the top quark can strongly influence the relic abundance at all masses. In particular, this implies that atom interferometry searches at masses ${m}{\phi }\approx {10}^{- 19}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ are unable to constrain the early Universe behavior or UV physics of the dilaton. We also find that dilatonic couplings allow for compatibility of ${m}{\phi }\gtrsim {10}^{- 7}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ with an observably large tensor-to-scalar ratio in the cosmic microwave background, which is not possible for a decoupled scalar of the same mass.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 191003 (2025)

Cosmology, Dark matter, Evolution of the Universe, Gravitation

Construction of a Gapless Phase with Haagerup Symmetry

Research article | Discrete symmetries | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Lea E. Bottini and Sakura Schäfer-Nameki

We construct a $(1+1)\mathrm{d}$ gapless theory which has Haagerup ${\mathcal{H}}{3}$ symmetry. The construction relies on the recent exploration of the categorical Landau paradigm applied to fusion category symmetries. First, using the symmetry topological field theory, we construct all gapped phases with Haagerup symmetry. Extending this construction to gapless phases, we study the second order phase transition between gapped phases, and determine analytically a Haagerup-symmetric conformal field theory. This is given in terms of two copies of the three-state Potts model, on which we realize the full ${\mathcal{H}}{3}$ symmetry action and determine the relevant deformations to the ${\mathcal{H}}_{3}$-symmetric gapped phases. This continuum analysis is corroborated by a lattice model construction of the gapped and gapless phases, using the anyon chain.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 191602 (2025)

Discrete symmetries, Quantum field theory, Spontaneous symmetry breaking

Orbital Collapse in Exotic Atoms and Its Effect on Dynamics

Research article | Atomic orbital | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

X. M. Tong, K. Tőkési, D. Kato, T. Okumura, S. Okada, and T. Azuma

We study the energy structures of muonic Ar atoms and find the muon orbital collapses at a critical angular momentum ${l}{c}$ using density-functional theory (DFT). The ${l}{c}$ may provide an upper limit for the muon-captured states in muon-Ar collisions. We confirm the existence of this upper limit by calculating the state-specified capture probability using the time-dependent Schr"odinger equation (TDSE) and the classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method with the single-active-particle approximation. Modifying the mapping between the classical orbital energy and the principal quantum number led to a reasonable agreement in the state-specified muon capture probabilities obtained by the TDSE and CTMC methods. We propose a simple method to estimate ${l}_{c}$ for exotic noble atoms from atomic model potentials. The estimated values agree with those calculated by DFT.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 193001 (2025)

Atomic orbital, Exotic atoms & molecules, Photoionization

Time-Resolved Cryogenic Action Spectroscopy of Dipole-Bound States in Phenoxide

Research article | Atomic & molecular structure | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

L. H. Andersen, A. P. Rasmussen, H. B. Pedersen, and N. Klinkby

Dipole-bound states of cryogenically cooled phenoxide anions (deprotonated phenol) have been investigated by combining trapping in a 6 K ion trap and subsequent action-absorption spectroscopy in an ion-storage ring. As action we consider creation of neutral phenoxy radicals. A multitude of dipole-bound resonances, not previously observed, are assigned to vibrations in the phenoxyl radical core molecule. By using the storage ring, we include prompt as well as delayed $\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{s}$ light-induced action. The dipole-bound states decay primarily by prompt action (faster than $10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{s}$), but some resonance states live longer than $10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{s}$. This suggests that in addition to vibrational autodetachment, internal conversion with subsequent thermionic emission from a hot electronic ground state may be operative. The resonances associated with the delayed decay are red-shifted relative to those of the faster (prompt) decay, which may imply that rotations play a role for the excited-state dynamics.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 193002 (2025)

Atomic & molecular structure, Electronic structure of atoms & molecules, Electronic transitions, Molecular spectra, Photodetachment, Vibrational states

Zak Phase Induced Topological Nonreciprocity

Research article | Coherent control | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Xiao Liu, Jiefei Wang, Ruosong Mao, Huizhu Hu, Shi-Yao Zhu, Xingqi Xu, Han Cai, and Da-Wei Wang

Topological physics provides novel insights for designing functional photonic devices, such as magnetic-free optical diodes, which are important in optical engineering and quantum information processing. Past efforts mostly focus on the topological edge modes in two-dimensional (2D) photonic Chern lattices, which, however, require delicate fabrication and temporal modulation. In particular, the 1D nonreciprocal edge mode needs to be embedded in a 2D lattice, contradicting with the compactness of integrated photonics. To address these challenges, we investigate the optical nonreciprocity of the 1D Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) superradiance lattices in room-temperature atoms. The probe fields propagating in two opposite directions perceive two different SSH topological phases, which have different absorption spectra due to the interplay between the Zak phase and the thermal motion of atoms, resulting in optical nonreciprocity. Our findings reveal the relationship between 1D topological matter and optical nonreciprocity, simplifying the design of topologically resilient nonreciprocal devices.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 193602 (2025)

Coherent control, Effects of atomic coherence on light propagation, Geometric & topological phases, Non-reciprocal transmission, Atoms, Optical spectroscopy, Semiclassical methods

On-Chip Parametric Synchronization of a Dissipative Kerr Soliton Microcomb

Research article | Frequency combs & self-phase locking | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Grégory Moille, Pradyoth Shandilya, Miro Erkintalo, Curtis R. Menyuk, and Kartik Srinivasan

Synchronization of oscillators is ubiquitous in nature. Often, the synchronized oscillators couple directly, yet in some cases synchronization can arise from their parametric interactions. Here, we theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate the parametric synchronization of a dissipative Kerr soliton frequency comb. We specifically show that the parametric interaction between the soliton and two auxiliary lasers permits the entrainment of the frequency comb repetition rate. Besides representing the first prediction and demonstration of parametric synchronization of soliton frequency combs, our scheme offers significant flexibility for all-optical metrological-scale stabilization of the comb.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 193802 (2025)

Frequency combs & self-phase locking, Metrology, Nonlinear optics, Optical solitons, Photonics

Enhancement of Superconductivity by Anderson Localization in Three-Dimensional Crystalline Phase of BiSe

Research article | Anderson localization | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Pallavi Malavi and S. Karmakar

New experiments validate theoretical predictions that superconductivity can be enhanced by Anderson localization in three dimensional systems and demonstrate a novel route to inducing homogeneous disorder.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196001 (2025)

Anderson localization, Phase separation, Superconductivity, Crystal structures, Disordered systems, Pressure effects, Resistivity measurements, X-ray diffraction

Erratic Non-Hermitian Skin Localization

Research article | Anderson localization | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Stefano Longhi

One-dimensional disordered and globally reciprocal lattices can exhibit eigenstate localization at irregular, disorder-dependent positions with subexponential decay, a phenomenon distinct from Anderson localization and the non-Hermitian skin effect.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196302 (2025)

Anderson localization, Disordered systems, Non-Hermitian systems

Boundary-Induced Topological Chiral Extended States in Weyl Metamaterial Waveguides

Research article | Plasmonics | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Ning Han, Fujia Chen, Mingzhu Li, Rui Zhao, Wenhao Li, Qiaolu Chen, Li Zhang, Yuang Pan, Yuze Hu, Mingyu Tong, Lu Qi, Jingwen Ma, Zhi-Ming Yu, Hongsheng Chen, and Yihao Yang

In topological physics, it is commonly understood that the existence of the boundary states of a topological system is inherently dictated by its bulk. A classic example is that the surface Fermi-arc states of a Weyl system are determined by the chiral charges of Weyl points within the bulk. Contrasting with this established perspective, here, we theoretically and experimentally discover a family of topological chiral bulk states extending over photonic Weyl metamaterial waveguides, solely induced by the waveguide boundaries, independently of the waveguide width. Notably, these chiral bulk states showcase discrete momenta and function as tunnels that connect Fermi-arc surface states living in different two-dimensional spaces via a third dimension. Our work offers an alternative mechanism for robust chiral bulk transport of waves and highlights the boundaries as a new degree of freedom to regulate bulk Weyl quasiparticles.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196601 (2025)

Plasmonics, Surface plasmons, Topological insulators, Topological materials, Topological phases of matter

$\mathrm{SU}(N)$ Altermagnetism: Lattice Models, Magnon Modes, and Flavor-Split Bands

Research article | Magnetic order | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Pedro M. Cônsoli and Matthias Vojta

Altermagnetism, a type of magnetic order that combines properties of ferro- and antiferromagnets, has stirred great interest lately, not only as a promising source of spintronics applications, but also as a potential gateway to exotic phases of matter. Here, we demonstrate how to generalize collinear altermagnetism to $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ magnets with $N>2$. Guided by symmetry principles, we present a recipe to construct Heisenberg models for such generalized altermagnets and apply it explicitly for $N=3$, 4. Using flavor-wave theory, we compute the excitation spectrum of a two-dimensional SU(3) model and show that it exhibits magnon bands with altermagnetic splitting according to magnetic quantum numbers; we connect this quantum-number splitting to the frequently used concept of magnon chirality. We also compute the electronic band structure for a metallic system of the same symmetry and map out the polarization of the resulting flavor-split bands.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196701 (2025)

Magnetic order, Magnetism, Magnetic systems, Ultracold gases, SU(N) symmetries, Symmetries in condensed matter

Non-Hermitian Thermophotonic Funneling via Nonreciprocal Surface Waves

Research article | Heat radiation | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Shuihua Yang, Guoqiang Xu, Chenglong Zhou, Mengqi Liu, Lei Qu, Jianfeng Chen, Jiaxin Li, Jing Wu, Zhipeng Li, and Cheng-Wei Qiu

Certain graphene-nanoparticle structures can efficiently focus thermal radiation at the nanoscale.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196901 (2025)

Heat radiation, Metamaterials, Nanophotonics, Non-reciprocal transmission

Beyond Electric-Dipole Treatment of Light-Matter Interactions in Materials: Nondipole Harmonic Generation in Bulk Si

Research article | High-order harmonic generation | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Simon Vendelbo Bylling Jensen, Nicolas Tancogne-Dejean, Angel Rubio, and Lars Bojer Madsen

A beyond electric-dipole light-matter theory is needed to describe emerging x-ray and THz applications for characterization and control of quantum materials but inaccessible as nondipole lattice-aperiodic terms impede on the use of Bloch’s theorem. To circumvent this, we derive a formalism that captures dominant nondipole effects in intense electromagnetic fields while conserving lattice translational symmetry. Our approach enables the first accurate nondipole first-principles microscopic simulation of nonperturbative harmonic generation in Si. We reveal nondipole-induced transverse currents generating perturbative even-ordered harmonics and display the onset of nondipole high harmonic generation near the laser damage threshold.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 196902 (2025)

High-order harmonic generation, Nonlinear optical susceptibility, Quantum description of light-matter interaction, Second order nonlinear optical processes, Strong electromagnetic field effects, Nonlinear optical materials, Quantum many-body systems, Semiconductors, Density functional theory, Nonperturbative methods, Schroedinger equation, Strong-field approximation

Physical Review X

RL Perceptron: Generalization Dynamics of Policy Learning in High Dimensions

Research article | Phase diagrams | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

Nishil Patel, Sebastian Lee, Stefano Sarao Mannelli, Sebastian Goldt, and Andrew Saxe

A solvable model for reinforcement learning, the RL perceptron, provides a mathematical framework to analyze learning dynamics, revealing key efficiency factors and a speed-accuracy trade-off that can guide better RL training strategies.

Phys. Rev. X 15, 021051 (2025)

Phase diagrams, Artificial neural networks, Machine learning

Computational Power of Random Quantum Circuits in Arbitrary Geometries

Research article | Quantum computation | 2025-05-13 06:00 EDT

M. DeCross et al.

*et al.*A 56-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer achieves high fidelity in random circuit sampling, outperforming classical supercomputers and making important progress toward practical quantum computational advantage.

Phys. Rev. X 15, 021052 (2025)

Quantum computation, Ions

arXiv

Image-Guided Microstructure Optimization using Diffusion Models: Validated with Li-Mn-rich Cathode Precursors

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Geunho Choi, Changhwan Lee, Jieun Kim, Insoo Ye, Keeyoung Jung, Inchul Park

Microstructure often dictates materials performance, yet it is rarely treated as an explicit design variable because microstructure is hard to quantify, predict, and optimize. Here, we introduce an image centric, closed-loop framework that makes microstructural morphology into a controllable objective and demonstrate its use case with Li- and Mn-rich layered oxide cathode precursors. This work presents an integrated, AI driven framework for the predictive design and optimization of lithium-ion battery cathode precursor synthesis. This framework integrates a diffusion-based image generation model, a quantitative image analysis pipeline, and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. By extracting key morphological descriptors such as texture, sphericity, and median particle size (D50) from SEM images, the platform accurately predicts SEM like morphologies resulting from specific coprecipitation conditions, including reaction time-, solution concentration-, and pH-dependent structural changes. Optimization then pinpoints synthesis parameters that yield user defined target morphologies, as experimentally validated by the close agreement between predicted and synthesized structures. This framework offers a practical strategy for data driven materials design, enabling both forward prediction and inverse design of synthesis conditions and paving the way toward autonomous, image guided microstructure engineering.

arXiv:2505.07906 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV), Machine Learning (cs.LG)

37 pages, 10 figures

Observation of Near-Critical Kibble-Zurek Scaling in Rydberg Atom Arrays

New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Tao Zhang, Hanteng Wang, Wenjun Zhang, Yuqing Wang, Angrui Du, Ziqi Li, Yujia Wu, Chengshu Li, Jiazhong Hu, Hui Zhai, Wenlan Chen

The Kibble-Zurek scaling reveals the universal dynamics when a system is linearly ramped across a symmetry-breaking phase transition. However, in reality, inevitable finite-size effects or symmetrybreaking perturbations can often smear out the critical point and render the phase transition into a smooth crossover. In this letter, we show experimentally that the precise Kibble-Zurek scaling can be retained in the near-critical crossover regime, not necessarily crossing the critical point strictly. The key ingredient to achieving this near-critical Kibble-Zurek scaling is that the system size and the symmetry-breaking field must be appropriately scaled following the variation of ramping speeds. The experiment is performed in a reconfigurable Rydberg atom array platform, where the Rydberg blockade effect induces a Z2 symmetry-breaking transition. The atom array platform enables precise control of the system size and the zigzag geometry as a symmetry-breaking field. Therefore, we can demonstrate notable differences in the precision of the Kibble-Zurek scaling with or without properly scaling the system size and the zigzag geometry. Our results strengthen the Kibble-Zurek scaling as an increasingly valuable tool for investigating phase transition in quantum simulation platforms.

arXiv:2505.07930 (2025)

Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

16 pages, 11 figures

Electronic structure of monolayer-CrTe$_2$: an antiferromagnetic 2D van der Waals material

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Olivia Armitage, Naina Kushwaha, Akhil Rajan, Luke C. Rhodes, Sebastian Buchberger, Bruno Kenichi Saika, Shu Mo, Matthew D. Watson, Phil D. C. King, Peter Wahl

Magnetic van der Waals materials are an important building block to realize spintronic functionalities in heterostructures of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Yet, establishing their magnetic and electronic properties and the interrelationship between the magnetic ground state and electronic structure is often challenging because only a limited number of techniques can probe magnetism and electronic structure on length scales of tens to hundreds of nanometers. Chromium chalcogenides are a class of 2D magnetic materials for which a rich interplay between structure and magnetism has been predicted. Here, we combine angle-resolved photoemission and quasi-particle interference imaging to establish the electronic structure of a monolayer of CrTe$ _2$ on graphite. From a comparison of model calculations with spectroscopic mapping using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy we establish the magnetic ground state and the low energy electronic structure. We demonstrate that the band structure of monolayer CrTe$ _2$ is captured well by density functional theory (DFT) in a DFT+U framework when a Coulomb repulsion of $ U=2.5\mathrm{eV}$ is accounted for.

arXiv:2505.07942 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

19 pages main text + 14 pages supplementary

A Unifying Framework for Fractional Chern Insulator Stabilization

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Peleg Emanuel, Anna Keselman, Yuval Oreg

We present a theory of fractional Chern insulator stabilization against charge-ordered states. We argue that the phase competition is captured by an effective interaction range, which depends on both the bare interaction range and quantum geometric properties. We argue that short effective interaction ranges stabilize fractional states while longer-range interactions favor charge-ordered states. To confirm our hypothesis, we conduct a numerical study of the generalized Hofstadter model using the density matrix renormalization group. Our theory offers a new interpretation of the geometric stability hypothesis and generalizes it, providing a unifying framework for several approaches to fractional phase stabilization. Finally, we propose a route towards experimental verification of the theory and possible implications for fractional states in bands with higher Chern numbers.

arXiv:2505.07950 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

Experimental Observation of Short-Range Magnetic Correlations in Amorphous Nb$_2$O$_5$ and Ta$_2$O$_5$ Thin Films

New Submission | Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Y. V. Krasnikova, A. A. Murthy, D. Bafia, F. Crisa, A. Clairmont, Z. Sung, J. Lee, A. Cano, M. Shinde, D. M. T. van Zanten, M. Bal, A. Romanenko, A. Grassellino, R. Dhundwal, D. Fuchs, T. Reisinger, I. M. Pop, A. Suter, T. Prokscha, Z. Salman

We used muon spin rotation/relaxation/resonance ($ \mu$ SR) to investigate the magnetic properties of niobium pentoxide (Nb$ _2$ O$ _5$ ) and tantalum pentoxide (Ta$ _2$ O$ _5$ ) thin films. In their amorphous phase (sputter-deposited), both oxides exhibit magnetic behavior down to 2.8 K. However, the magnetic response is strongly structure-dependent: thermally-oxidized, poly-crystalline Ta$ _2$ O$ _5$ shows suppressed magnetism, while amorphous Ta$ _2$ O$ _5$ demonstrates local static magnetism. In contrast, amorphous Nb$ _2$ O$ _5$ is significantly more magnetically disordered. These results suggest that magnetic inhomogeneity in the native oxides of Ta and Nb may be a key factor in the performance of superconducting devices, particularly limiting T$ _1$ for qubits and resonators.

arXiv:2505.07957 (2025)

Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

14 pages, 17 figures

Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Peroxide Generation Using WO$_3$ Nanoparticle-Decorated Sodium Niobate Microcubes

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Vanessa S Antonin, Felipe M Souza, Victor S Pinheiro, João PC Moura, Aline B Trench, Caio Machado Fernandes, Marcos RV Lanza, Mauro C Santos

The current work studies the electrocatalytic performance of NaNbO$ _3$ microcubes decorated with WO$ _3$ nanoparticles on Printex L6 at varying concentrations (1%, 3%, 5%, and 10% by weight) for H$ _2$ O$ _2$ electrogeneration aiming for future use in electrochemical advanced oxidation processes for organic pollutant degradation H$ _2$ O$ _2$ electrogeneration was studied using oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with the rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) technique. Electrochemical results revealed an improvement in H$ _2$ O$ _2$ electrogeneration for the NaNbO$ _3$ @WO$ _3$ /C materials compared to that achieved with Printex L6 carbon. Notably, the 5% NaNbO$ _3$ @WO$ _3$ /C electrocatalyst exhibited a higher ring current for oxygen reduction reaction and promoted a 2.1-electron transfer, facilitating a higher rate of H$ _2$ O$ _2$ electrogeneration through the 2-electron mechanism. Also, enhancing oxygen-containing functional groups has shown the capability to thoroughly adjust characteristics and enhance active sites, increasing H$ _2$ O$ _2$ electrogeneration. These findings suggest that 5% NaNbO$ _3$ @WO$ _3$ /C electrocatalysts hold promise for in situ hydrogen peroxide electrogeneration.

arXiv:2505.07970 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)

Universal quench dynamics of lattice $q$ fermion Yukawa Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Haixin Qiu, Stefan Kehrein

We study the quantum quench of the Yukawa Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and one of its lattice extensions with $ q$ fermions and one boson. Several equilibrium properties are computed for general $ q$ with different parameter scaling within the large-$ N$ dynamical mean field scheme. The non-Fermi liquid quench dynamics are studied by integrating the Kadanoff-Baym equations for switching off the lattice term with constant Yukawa coupling or quenching to different final Yukawa couplings. The post-quench oscillations and relaxation dynamics are insensitive to the quench amplitudes deep inside the non-Fermi liquid phase. With weak lattice coupling quenches, we find universal thermalization dynamics similar to the SYK model; however, with two temperatures and two distinct relaxation rates for bosons and fermions, both signal Planckian relaxations without quasiparticles, as in strange metals.

arXiv:2505.07971 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

22 pages, 16 figures

The uniqueness of the driven $φ_0$ Josephson junction: when steps are not Shapiro

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

K. Kulikov, J. Tekić, E. Kovalenko, M. Nashaat, T. A. Belgibayev, Yu. M. Shukrinov

The $ \varphi_0$ superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor Josephson junction exhibits unique locking phenomena under the external periodic signal when the magnetic component is taken into account. Contrary to the well-known Shapiro steps that come from the locking with the electric component, locking of the Josephson oscillations with the magnetic one results in the appearance of Buzdin steps in the current-voltage characteristic and a much more complex response of the system. These steps possess distinctive properties that are indications of their unique origins and locking mechanisms. The width of the Buzdin step oscillates with the amplitude of the magnetic component, nevertheless, it exhibits anomalies in the Bessel-like behavior. In addition, we perform an analytical analysis that supports the numerical results and shows that the width of the Buzdin step represents a product of two Bessel functions. Investigation of the effects that simultaneously appear in the magnetic subsystem reveals the presence of destructive interference and magnetization reorientation that accompany the appearance of Buzdin steps.

arXiv:2505.07976 (2025)

Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

14 pages, 8 figures

Coulomb Interaction-Stabilized Isolated Narrow Bands with Chern Numbers $\mathcal{C} > 1$ in Twisted Rhombohedral Trilayer-Bilayer Graphene

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Vo Tien Phong, Cyprian Lewandowski

Recently, fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects have been discovered in two-dimensional moiré materials when a topologically nontrivial band with Chern number $ \mathcal{C}=1$ is partially doped. Remarkably, superlattice Bloch bands can carry higher Chern numbers that defy the Landau-level paradigm and may even host exotic fractionalized states with non-Abelian quasiparticles. Inspired by this exciting possibility, we propose twisted \textit{rhombohedral} trilayer-bilayer graphene at $ \theta \sim 1.2^\circ$ as a field-tunable quantum anomalous Chern insulator that features spectrally-isolated, kinetically-quenched, and topologically-nontrivial bands with $ \mathcal{C} = 2,3$ favorable for fractional phases once fractionally doped, as characterized by their quantum geometry. Based on extensive self-consistent mean-field calculations, we show that these phases are stabilized by Coulomb interactions and are robust against variations in dielectric environment, tight-binding hopping parameters, and lattice relaxation.

arXiv:2505.07981 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

11 pages + 4 figures. Comments are very welcome

An Ultra-Sub-Wavelength Microwave Polarization Switch Implemented with Directed Surface Acoustic Waves in a Magnonic Crystal

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Raisa Fabiha, Erdem Topsakal, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

The ability to switch the polarization of a transmitted electromagnetic wave from vertical to horizontal, or vice versa, is of great technological interest because of its many applications in long distance communication. Binary bits can be encoded in two orthogonal polarizations and transmitted securely from point to point. Polarization switches, however, are usually much larger than the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave. Consequently, most research in this area has focused on the optical regime where the wavelength is relatively short (1 micron), so that the switch being much larger than the wavelength is not too inconvenient. However, this changes in the microwave regime where the wavelength is much larger (typically > 1 cm). That makes a microwave ultra-sub-wavelength polarization switch very attractive. Here, we report such a switch made of an array of magnetostrictive nanomagnets (100 nm lateral dimension) deposited on a piezoelectric substrate to make an “artificial magnonic crystal”. A surface acoustic wave (SAW) launched in the substrate with suitable electrodes excites spin waves in the nanomagnets via phonon-magnon coupling, resulting in radiation of electromagnetic waves via magnon-photon coupling. The polarization of the beam radiated in a given direction at a given frequency can be rotated through ~90 degrees by changing the direction of SAW propagation in the substrate to implement the polarization switch.

arXiv:2505.07996 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Signal Processing (eess.SP)

Phase alignment in a lattice of exciton-polaritonic Bose-Einstein condensates

New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

N.V. Kuznetsova, D.V. Makarov, N.A. Asriyan, A.A. Elistratov

Dynamics of exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensate is examined by means of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation including non-Markovian coupling to the excitonic reservoir. Attention is concentrated on properties of the condensate lattice created by laser beams providing incoherent pumping of the reservoir. It is shown that phase ordering of the lattice depends on temperature. The crossover between the in-phase (ferromagnetic'') and the checkboard (antiferromagnetic’’) orders is accompanied by variation of the steady-state condensate density. Also it is shown that the condensate lattices can retain ordered pattern for temperatures which are much higher than the critical temperature of a single spot, probably due to suppression of the modulational instability.

arXiv:2505.07999 (2025)

Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

20 pages, 6 figures

Electron-electron scattering processes in quantum wells in a quantizing magnetic field

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

M.P. Telenkov, Yu.A. Mityagin

The processes of electron-electron scattering in a quantum well in a quantizing magnetic field are considered. The matrix of electron-electron scattering rates containing all types of transitions is calculated. This matrix is analysed, and the relative magnitude of the rates of transitions of different types is established. The behaviour of electron-electron scattering processes at changing the orientation of the quantising magnetic field is established.

arXiv:2505.08028 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Theoretical Study on MR-TADF Materials Based on CzBN

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Jinpu Bai (1), Jingfu Guo (1), Aynur Matyusup (1), Aimin Ren (2), Lu Shen (3) ((1) College of Physics, Northeast Normal University (2) Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University (3) Department of Basic Science, Jilin Jianzhu University)

Multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials have garnered significant research interest owing to their remarkably narrow emission spectra with full width at half maximum (FWHM) below $ 40\text{nm}$ , demonstrating substantial advantages over conventional donor-acceptor (D–A) type TADF materials in spectral purity. However, conventional N–B–N resonant framework materials are fundamentally constrained by their intrinsically low reverse intersystem crossing rates ($ k_{\text{RISC}} < 10^{3}\text{s}^{-1}$ ), presenting a persistent challenge for achieving high-efficiency TADF. This study proposes a triple collaborative design strategy based on CzBN to break through this limitation: (1) Enhance the separation of HOMO and LUMO by $ \pi$ -conjugation expansion and reduce $ \Delta E_{\text{ST}}$ ; (2) Introduce O/S heteroatoms to control the excited state charge transfer (CT) characteristics and further reduce $ \Delta E_{\text{ST}}$ ; (3) Enhance the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect through the synergy of extended $ \pi$ -system and heteroatoms. Based on this, five new MR-TADF molecules were designed and studied. Among them, the $ k_{\text{RISC}}$ of CzBN_S reached $ 3.48 \times 10^{6}\text{s}^{-1}$ , two orders of magnitude higher than CzBN, while maintaining $ \Delta E_{\text{ST}} < 0.1\text{eV}$ and FWHM at $ 40~\text{nm}$ .

arXiv:2505.08040 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)

in Chinese language

Lanthanide L-Edge Spectroscopy of High-Entropy Oxides: Insights into Valence and Phase Stability

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Gerald R. Bejger, Mary Kathleen Caucci, Saeed S.I. Almishal, Billy Yang, Jon-Paul Maria, Susan B. Sinnott, Christina M. Rost

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) are a promising class of multicomponent ceramics with tunable structural and electronic properties. In this study, we investigate the local electronic structure of rare-earth HEOs in the (Ce, Sm, Pr, La, Y)O2 system using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). By systematically increasing the Ce concentration, we observe a phase transition from bixbyite to fluorite, tracked by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and corroborated by L-edge XANES analysis of La, Sm, Ce, and Pr. The oxidation states of La and Sm remain trivalent, while Ce exhibits a minor Ce 3+ fraction and Pr shows a consistent mixed-valence state. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations with Bader charge analysis support these findings and reveal that the phase transition is driven by compositional effects rather than cation redox. Our combined experimental and computational approach provides new insights into structure-valence correlations in RE-HEOs and their implications for ionic transport and phase stability.

arXiv:2505.08055 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

13 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

Electron-phonon coupling in correlated materials: insights from the Hubbard-Holstein model

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Jennifer Coulter, Andrew J. Millis

Dynamical mean-field theory computations of the electron self energy of the Hubbard-Holstein model as a function of electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions are analyzed to gain insight into the dependence of electron-phonon couplings on correlation strength in quantum materials. We find that the electron-phonon interaction is strongly suppressed by electronic correlations, while electron-electron correlation effects at Fermi liquid scales are only weakly modified by coupling to phonons, with phonon-induced modifications most evident at high frequencies on the order of the electronic bandwidth. Implications for beyond-density functional theories of the electron-phonon interaction are discussed.

arXiv:2505.08081 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

8 pages, 5 figures

Colossal anomalous Stark shift in defect emission of undulated 2D materials

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Sunny Gupta, Boris I. Yakobson

We report a strikingly new physical phenomenon that mirror symmetry breaking in undulated two-dimensional (2D) materials induces a colossal Stark shift in defect emissions, occurring without external electric field F, termed anomalous Stark effect. First-principles calculations of multiple defects in bent 2D hBN uncover the fundamental physical reasonings for this anomalous effect and reveal this arises due to strong coupling between flexoelectric polarization and defect dipole moment. This flexo-dipole interaction, similar to that in traditional Stark effect due to F, results in zero-phonon line (ZPL) shifts >500 meV for defects like NBVN and CBVN at $ \kappa$ = 1/nm, exceeding typical Stark shifts by 2-3 orders of magnitude. The large ZPL shifts variations with curvature and bending direction offers a method to identify nanotube chirality and explain the large variability in single photon emitters’ wavelength in 2D materials, with additional implications for designing nano-electro-mechanical and photonic devices.

arXiv:2505.08096 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

4 figures

Chiral split magnons in metallic g-wave altermagnets: Insights from many-body perturbation theory

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Wejdan Beida, Ersoy Sasioglu, Christoph Friedrich, Gustav Bihlmayer, Yuriy Mokrousov, Stefan Blügel

Altermagnets represent a novel class of magnetic materials that bridge the gap between conventional ferromagnets (FMs) and antiferromagnets (AFMs). Similar to FMs, altermagnets exhibit spin splitting in their electronic bands along specific crystal directions. However, like AFMs, they feature a compensated magnetic structure with zero net magnetic moment. A defining characteristic of altermagnets is the non-degeneracy of their magnon (spin-wave) modes along the crystallographic directions where electronic bands display spin splitting. This non-degeneracy imparts chirality and direction-dependent magnon dispersions, governed by the unique symmetry constraints of altermagnetic systems. In this study, we investigate the interplay between electronic band spin splitting and chiral magnon excitations in a series of metallic g-wave altermagnets ((MZ), where (M)= V, Cr; (Z)= As, Sb, Bi) using the density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory. We systematically analyze the impact of pnictogen substitution (As, Sb, Bi) on spin splitting and magnon dispersions. Our findings reveal pronounced anisotropic magnon band splitting that closely mirrors the spin-split electronic bands. Moreover, we find that magnon damping due to Stoner excitations is highly wavevector-dependent, reaching substantial values in specific Brillouin zone regions. These results highlight the potential of altermagnets for next-generation spintronic and magnonic devices, where direction-dependent magnon lifetimes and nonreciprocal magnon transport could enable new functionalities for chiral magnon propagation and directional magnon control.

arXiv:2505.08103 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

12 pages, 5 figures, submitted

Equivariant graph neural network surrogates for predicting the properties of relaxed atomic configurations

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Jamie Holber, Krishna Garikipati

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations determine the relaxed atomic positions and lattice parameters that minimize the formation energy of a structure. We present an equivariant graph neural network (EGNN) model to predict the outcome of DFT calculations for structures of interest. Cluster expansions are a well established approach for representing the formation energies. However, traditional cluster expansions are limited in their ability to handle variations from a fixed lattice, including interstitial atoms, amorphous materials, and materials with multiple structures. EGNNs offer a more flexible framework that inherently respects the symmetry of the system without being reliant on a particular lattice. In this work, we present the mathematical framework and the results of training for lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) at various compositions of lithium and arrangements of the lithium atoms. Our results demonstrate that the EGNN can accurately predict quantities outside the training set including the largest atomic displacements, the strain tensor and energy, and the formation energy providing greater insight into the system being studied without the need for more DFT calculations.

arXiv:2505.08121 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)

11 pages, 6 figures

Competing Pair Density Wave and Uniform $d$-wave Superconductivity in Phase Separated 214 Cuprates at the 1/8 Anomaly

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Qiang Chen, Angela Moskal, Yiheng Wang, B. D. E. McNiven, A. A. Aczel, Wei Tian, B. D. Gaulin

Compelling evidence exists for electronic phase separation in cuprate high-$ T_c$ superconductors, emerging near 1/8 hole doping. At these dopings and low temperatures, intertwined charge and spin stripes coexist with more uniformly doped regions in the two-dimensional (2$ D$ ) copper-oxide planes. Each region is capable of developing superconducting pairing, either as a pair density wave (PDW) within the stripes or as a uniform $ d$ -wave condensate ($ d$ -SC) in the more homogeneous regions. Using neutron scattering on single crystals of La$ _{1.875-y}$ Nd$ _{y}$ Sr$ _{0.125}$ CuO$ _4$ , we demonstrate that the onset temperatures for spin stripe order ($ T_N$ ) and superconductivity ($ T_c$ ) merge as the average ordered moment vanishes in LSCO ($ y = 0$ ), whereas Nd doping stabilizes static stripe order and suppresses $ T_c$ . Because the spin stripes possess the same in-plane periodicity (8$ a$ ) as the PDW and establish the framework in which the PDW resides, the stabilization of spin stripe order enhances PDW correlations. Thus, the competition between $ d$ -wave pairing in the uniform regions and PDW pairing in the stripe-ordered regions can be controlled by the Nd concentration in La$ _{1.875-y}$ Nd$ _{y}$ Sr$ _{0.125}$ CuO$ _4$ , allowing the superconducting $ T_c$ to vary by nearly an order of magnitude at a fixed 1/8 hole doping.

arXiv:2505.08141 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

Enhancing the Efficiency of Complex Systems Crystal Structure Prediction by Active Learning Guided Machine Learning Potential

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Jiaxiang Li, Junwei Feng, Jie Luo, Bowen Jiang, Xiangyu Zheng, Jian Lv, Keith Butler, Hanyu Liu, Congwei Xie, Yu Xie, Yanming Ma

Understanding multicomponent complex material systems is essential for design of advanced materials for a wide range of technological applications. While state-of-the-art crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods effectively identify new structures and assess phase stability, they face fundamental limitations when applied to complex systems. This challenge stems from the combinatorial explosion of atomic configurations and the vast stoichiometric space, both of which contribute to computational demands that rapidly exceed practical feasibility. In this work, we propose a flexible and automated workflow to build a highly generalizable and data-efficient machine learning potential (MLP), effectively unlocking the full potential of CSP algorithms. The workflow is validated on both Mg-Ca-H ternary and Be-P-N-O quaternary systems, demonstrating substantial machine learning acceleration in high-throughput structural optimization and enabling the efficient identification of promising compounds. These results underscore the effectiveness of our approach in exploring complex material systems and accelerating the discovery of new multicomponent materials.

arXiv:2505.08159 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Machine Learning (cs.LG)

Sliding and superlubric moiré twisting ferroelectric transition in HfO2

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Jie Sun, Xin Li, Tianlin Li, Yu Yun, Guodong Ren, Yiheng Shen, Tengfei Cao, Li-Min Liu

Despite progress in HfO2 thin-film ferroelectrics, issues such as fatigue and high coercive fields persist, and the dynamics of emerging twisted ferroelectricity remain largely unexplored. Here, we explore how interlayer sliding and twisting in bilayer HfO2 enables low barrier switching pathways. Among 144 sliding configurations, two exhibit strong in-plane polarization (2360 pC/m) with a low switching barrier of 3.19 meV/atom. Twisting generates polar textures associated with moiré patterns and quasi-flat bands, which drive ferroelectricity via a soft zone-center optical mode, as revealed by machine-learning-assisted first-principles calculations. At twist angles of 21.79° and 27.80°, switching barriers drop to 0.58 and 0.06 meV/atom, indicating superlubric-like ferroelectric transitions. Notably, the 46.83° twisted bilayer shows an almost barrier-free polar evolution (0.009 meV/atom), attributed to sharply enhanced zone-center phonon linewidths. Our findings establish a moiré-engineered, ultra-low-energy switching route for 2D ferroelectric applications.

arXiv:2505.08164 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Neural Network-Driven Molecular Insights into Alkaline Wet Etching of GaN: Toward Atomistic Precision in Nanostructure Fabrication

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Purun-hanul Kim, Jeong Min Choi, Seungwu Han, Youngho Kang

We present large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on a machine-learning interatomic potential to investigate the wet etching behavior of various GaN facets in alkaline solution-a process critical to the fabrication of nitride-based semiconductor devices. A Behler-Parrinello-type neural network potential (NNP) was developed by training on extensive DFT datasets and iteratively refined to capture chemical reactions between GaN and KOH. To simulate the wet etching of GaN, we perform NNP-MD simulations using the temperature-accelerated dynamics approach, which accurately reproduces the experimentally observed structural modification of a GaN nanorod during alkaline etching. The etching simulations reveal surface-specific morphological evolutions: pyramidal etch pits emerge on the $ -c$ plane, while truncated pyramidal pits form on the $ +c$ surface. The non-polar m and a surfaces exhibit lateral etch progression, maintaining planar morphologies. Analysis of MD trajectories identifies key surface reactions governing the etching mechanisms. To gain deeper insights into the etching kinetics, we conduct enhanced-sampling MD simulations and construct free-energy profiles for Ga dissolution, a process that critically influences the overall etching rate. The $ -c$ , $ a$ , and $ m$ planes exhibit moderate activation barriers, indicating the feasibility of alkaline wet etching. In contrast, the $ +c$ surface displays a significantly higher barrier, illustrating its strong resistance to alkaline etching. Additionally, we show that Ga-O-Ga bridges can form on etched surfaces, potentially serving as carrier traps. By providing a detailed atomistic understanding of GaN wet etching, this work offers valuable guidance for surface engineering in GaN-based device fabrication.

arXiv:2505.08165 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

X-Ray and neutron diffraction patterns of the AlCrTiV high entropy alloy and quaternary Heusler structures

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Nedjma Kalliney, Michael Widom

The quaternary alloy AlCrTiV has been proposed as both a lightweight high entropy alloy and also a functional spin filter material based on the Heusler structure. Experimental investigations to-date, based on X-ray diffraction, offer conflicting interpretations of the structure. Here we simulate diffraction patterns of the various proposed structures to show that neutron diffraction, in particular, can reveal the nature of long-range chemical order and discriminate among distributions of the refractory transition metals. Magnetic contributions to the neutron diffraction are also discussed.

arXiv:2505.08181 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Observation of high partial-wave Feshbach resonances in $^{39}$K Bose-Einstein condensates

New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Yue Zhang, Liangchao Chen, Zekui Wang, Yazhou Wang, Pengjun Wang, Lianghui Huang, Zengming Meng, Ran Qi, Jing Zhang

We report the new observation of several high partial-wave (HPW) magnetic Feshbach resonances (FRs) in $ ^{39}$ K atoms of the hyperfine substate $ \left|F=1,m_{F}=-1\right\rangle$ . These resonances locate at the region between two broad $ s$ -wave FRs from 32.6 G to 162.8 G, in which Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can be produced with tunable positive scattering length obtained by magnetic FRs. These HPW FRs are induced by the dipolar spin-spin interaction with s-wave in the open channel and HPW in the closed channel. Therefore, these HPW FRs have distinct characteristics in temperature dependence and loss line shape from that induced by spin-exchange interaction with HPWs in both open and closed channels. Among these resonances, one $ d$ -wave and two $ g$ -wave FRs are confirmed by the multichannel quantum-defect theory (MQDT) calculation. The HPW FRs have significant applications in many-body physics dominated by HPW pairing.

arXiv:2505.08183 (2025)

Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph)

Current-induced successive structural phase transitions beyond thermal equilibrium in single-crystal VO2

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Shunsuke Kitou, Akitoshi Nakano, Masato Imaizumi, Yuiga Nakamura, Yuto Nakamura, Hideo Kishida, Taka-hisa Arima, Ichiro Terasaki

Nonequilibrium systems driven by external energy sources host unexplored physics; yet phase transitions beyond thermal equilibrium remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that electric current induces structural phase transitions in single-crystal VO2, a prototypical strongly correlated material. At room temperature, synchrotron X-ray diffraction shows that a current density of 6.5 A/cm2 disrupts V-V dimers, driving a monoclinic-to-tetragonal insulator-to-metal transition, independent of Joule heating. Increasing the current to 10 A/cm2 triggers a discontinuous isotropic lattice expansion, stabilizing a novel tetragonal structure that does not exist in thermal equilibrium. Optical microscopy and microscopic Raman spectroscopy reveal dynamic domain motion and metastable phases, reminiscent of dissipative structures. These findings establish direct pathways to access hidden phases and symmetry changes beyond thermal equilibrium, broadening the frontiers of nonequilibrium thermodynamics.

arXiv:2505.08186 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

Toward Efficient Electrokinetic Energy Conversion with Topographic Modulation of Electrical Conduction

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Austin Dick, Kushal Iyyapareddy, Aktaruzzaman Al Hossain, Carlos E. Colosqui

This work presents experimental and theoretical analyses of electrokinetic flow in microchannels with glass and silica surfaces across a broad range of electrolyte concentrations (0.01 to 100 mM). We demonstrate simple but effective strategies for controlling electrical conduction by engineering nanoscale and microscale topographic features that directly modify the structure and extent of the electric double layer (EDL) and the interfacial ion conduction pathway. These tailored surface topographies modulate the overall electrical conductivity in slit microchannels through similar phenomena documented for nanochannels and nanopores due to the presence of liquidfilled nanoscale topographic features with high concentration of highly mobile protons. The findings of this work reveal that the interaction between tailored surface features and the EDL can substantially enhance energy conversion efficiency in microscale systems. These insights along with simple analytical models provide guidance for the rational design and optimization of scalable electrokinetic devices and are broadly relevant to numerous energy harvesting and charge-separation technologies.

arXiv:2505.08208 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

15 pages, 5 figures

Energy-Efficient Pseudo-Ratchet for Brownian Computers through One-Dimensional Quantum Brownian Motion

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Sho Nakade, Ferdinand Peper, Kazuki Kanki, Tomio Petrosky

Brownian computers utilize thermal fluctuations as a resource for computation and hold promise for achieving ultra-low-energy computations. However, the lack of a statistical direction in Brownian motion necessitates the incorporation of ratchets that facilitate the speeding up and completion of computations in Brownian computers. To make the ratchet mechanism work effectively, an external field is required to overcome thermal fluctuations, which has the drawback of increasing energy consumption. As a remedy for this drawback, we introduce a new approach based on one-dimensional (1D) quantum Brownian motion, which exhibits intrinsic unidirectional transport even in the absence of external forces or asymmetric potential gradients, thereby functioning as an effective pseudo-ratchet. Specifically, we exploit that quantum resonance effects in 1D systems divide the momentum space of particles into subspaces. These subspaces have no momentum inversion symmetry, resulting in the natural emergence of unidirectional flow. We analyze this pseudo-ratchet mechanism without energy dissipation from an entropic perspective and show that it remains consistent with the second law of thermodynamics.

arXiv:2505.08217 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

Critical dynamics of three-dimensional $Z_N$ gauge models and the inverted XY universality class

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Claudio Bonati, Haralambos Panagopoulos, Ettore Vicari

We investigate the critical relaxational dynamics of the three-dimensional (3D) lattice $ Z_N$ gauge models with $ N=6$ and $ N=8$ , whose equilibrium critical behavior at their topological transitions belongs to the inverted XY (IXY) universality class (this is also the universality class of the continuous transitions of the 3D lattice U(1) gauge Higgs models with a one-component complex scalar field), which is connected to the standard XY universality class by a nonlocal duality relation of the partition functions. Specifically, we consider the purely relaxational dynamics realized by a locally reversible Metropolis dynamics, as commonly used in Monte Carlo simulations. To determine the corresponding dynamic exponent $ z$ , we focus on the out-of-equilibrium critical relaxational flows arising from instantaneous quenches to the critical point, which are analyzed within an out-of-equilibrium finite-size scaling framework. We obtain the estimate $ z=2.59(3)$ . A numerical analysis of the equilibrium critical dynamics give consistent, but less accurate, results. This dynamic exponent is expected to characterize the critical slowing down of the purely relaxational dynamics of all topological transitions that belong to the 3D IXY universality class. We note that this result implies that the critical relaxational dynamics of the 3D IXY universality class is slower than that of the standard 3D XY universality class, whose relaxational dynamic exponent $ z\approx 2.02$ is significantly smaller, although they share the same length-scale critical exponent $ \nu\approx 0.6717$ .

arXiv:2505.08236 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat)

11 pages

Modelling of time-dependent electrostatic effects and AFM-based surface conductivity characterization

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Mario Navarro-Rodriguez, Paul Philip Schmidt, Regina Hoffmann-Vogel, Andres M. Somoza, Elisa Palacios-Lidon

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) combined with electrical modes provides a powerful contactless approach to characterize material electrical properties at the nanoscale. However, conventional electrostatic models often overlook dynamic charge effects, which are particularly relevant for 2D materials deposited on insulating substrates. In this work, we introduce a theoretical framework that extends traditional electrostatic models by incorporating charge dynamics, analyzing two key cases: quasi-ideal conductors and quasi-ideal insulators. Our model establishes a characteristic timescale, $ \tau$ , which governs charge redistribution and measurement reliability. Experimental validation using Graphene Oxide, Reduced Graphene Oxide, and lightly reduced GO demonstrates strong dependence of frequency shift on surface conductivity, confirming our predictions. Temperature-dependent measurements further reveal conductivity variations consistent with disordered electronic materials. These findings provide critical insight into the impact of finite surface conductivity on AFM-based techniques and establish a novel method for evaluating charge dynamics in individual flakes of 2D materials and propose an alternative, contactless method for estimating surface conductivity.

arXiv:2505.08249 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)

First-principles electron-phonon interactions with self-consistent Hubbard interaction: an application to transparent conductive oxides

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Wooil Yang, Sabyasachi Tiwari, Feliciano Giustino, Young-Woo Son

The ab initio computational method known as Hubbard-corrected density functional theory (DFT+$ U$ ) captures well ground electronic structures of a set of solids that are poorly described by standard DFT alone. Since lattice dynamical properties are closely linked to electronic structures, the Hubbard-corrected density functional perturbation theory (DFPT+$ U$ ) can calculate them at the same level of accuracy. To investigate the effects of $ U$ on electron-phonon (el-ph) interactions, we implemented DFPT+$ U$ with a Hartree-Fock-based pseudohybrid functional formalism to determine $ U$ self-consistently and applied our method to compute optical and transport properties of transparent conductive oxides of CdO and ZnO. For CdO, we find that opening a band gap due to $ U$ restores the long-range Fröhlich interaction and that its calculated mobility and absorption spectrum are in excellent agreement with experiments. For ZnO where a band gap already appears at the DFT level, DFPT+$ U$ brings the results into much closer alignment with experiment, thus demonstrating improved accuracy of our method in dealing with el-ph interactions in these technologically important materials.

arXiv:2505.08269 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

16 pages, 11 figures

Estimating Diffuseness for the Non-Relaxor Type Ferroelectric to Paraelectric Phase Transition in BaTiO3

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Prithwiraj Ganguly, Prashant Joshi, Maneesha Puthiyoth, Somaditya Sen

Barium titanate has been extensively studied for a long time as a model ferroelectric material. However, the Ferro-Paraelectric phase transition of this material is a complex problem to analyse when it becomes diffuse. This has attracted significant research attention over the past few decades, primarily because of their intriguing and not yet fully understood physical properties. Bearing in mind the essential practical applications of ferroelectric materials and the great interest in having a simple functional form, describing the temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity near the diffuse phase transition, scientists have been trying to figure out a proper model for a long time. In this work, such an investigation has been done to understand the diffusion dynamics, following a distribution of transition temperatures and the temperature-dependent dipole density. The transition is then revisited in the light of a temperature-dependent differential plot. Through which, distinct dielectric regimes are demarcated with improved insight into the progression from ferroelectric to paraelectric phase. Following the establishment, a simple yet effective new measure is being proposed, offering a more accurate and physically meaningful estimation of the diffuse phase transition dynamics.

arXiv:2505.08270 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Controllable creation of topological boundary states in topological-insulator-based Josephson corner junctions

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Xiang Wang, Duolin Wang, Yunxiao Zhang, Xiaozhou Yang, Yukun Shi, Bing Li, Enna Zhuo, Yuyang Huang, Anqi Wang, Zhaozheng Lyu, Xiaohui Song, Peiling Li, Bingbing Tong, Ziwei Dou, Jie Shen, Guangtong Liu, Fanming Qu, Li Lu

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in condensed matter systems have attracted great attention in the past two decades, due to their interesting physics and potential application in topological quantum computing (TQC). However, the topologically protected nature of MZMs still need more experimental verifications. In this study, we have realized controllable creation of a topological boundary state at the corner of topological insulator (TI)-based Josephson corner junctions. This state demonstrates protected existence across a broad region in parametric space, and exhibits a non-2{\pi}-period but 4{\pi}-period-compatible energy-phase relation. Our study suggests that TI-based Josephson junctions, as proposed in the Fu-Kane scheme of TQC, may provide a promising platform for hosting and braiding MZMs.

arXiv:2505.08290 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

5 pages, 4 figures

Hamiltonian replica exchange augmented with diffusion-based generative models and importance sampling to assess biomolecular conformational basins and barriers

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Zakarya Benayad, Guillaume Stirnemann

Enhanced sampling techniques are essential for exploring biomolecular conformational dynamics that occur on timescales inaccessible to conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This study introduces a framework that combines Hamiltonian replica exchange (REST2) with denoising diffusion probabilistic models (DDPMs) and importance sampling to enhance the mapping of conformational free-energy landscapes. Building on previous applications of DDPMs to temperature replica exchange (TREM), we propose two key improvements. First, we adapt the method to REST2 by treating potential energy as a fluctuating variable. This adaptation allows for more efficient sampling in large biomolecular systems. Second, to further improve resolution in high-barrier regions, we develop an iterative scheme combining replica exchange, DDPM, and importance sampling along known collective variables. Benchmarking on the mini-protein CLN025 demonstrates that DDPM-refined REST2 achieves comparable accuracy to TREM while requiring fewer replicas. Application to the enzyme PTP1B reveals a loop transition pathway consistent with prior complex biased simulations, showcasing the approach’s ability to uncover high-barrier transitions with minimal computational overhead with respect to conventional replica exchange approaches. Overall, this hybrid strategy enables more efficient exploration of free-energy landscapes, expanding the utility of generative models in enhanced sampling simulations.

arXiv:2505.08357 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)

Elastic properties of silicene: Spinodal instabilities

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Carlos P. Herrero, Rafael Ramirez

Silicene, a two-dimensional (2D) allotrope of silicon, has attracted significant interest for its electronic and mechanical properties, alongside its compatibility with various substrates. In this study, we investigate the structural and elastic characteristics of silicene using molecular dynamics simulations based on a tight-binding Hamiltonian, calibrated to align with density-functional theory calculations. We focus particularly on the material’s elastic properties and mechanical stability, analyzing its behavior under extensive compressive and tensile in-plane stresses and across temperatures up to 1000 K. Key properties examined include in-plane area, Si–Si bond length, atomic mean-square displacements, elastic constants, and 2D compression modulus. Our findings reveal a notable reduction in stiffness elastic constants, Poisson’s ratio, and compression modulus with increasing temperature. Additionally, we identify mechanical instabilities in the silicene structure at specific compressive and tensile biaxial stresses, signaling the material’s stability limits or spinodal points. At the corresponding spinodal pressures, structural and elastic properties exhibit anomalies or divergences.

arXiv:2505.08381 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)

13 pages, 10 figures

Computational Materials Science 255, 113902 (2025)

Metal-Insulator Transition described by Natural Orbital Functional Theory

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Juan Felipe Huan Lew-Yee, Mario Piris

The metal-insulator transition (MIT) is a fundamental phenomenon in condensed matter physics and a hallmark of strong electronic correlations. Hydrogen-based systems offer a simple yet powerful model for investigating the MIT, as their insulating behavior arises purely from electron-electron interactions. In this work, we study finite hydrogen clusters with cubic geometries using Natural Orbital Functional Theory (NOFT), a method capable of accurately describing correlated systems beyond mean-field approaches. We focus on two key signatures of the MIT: the fundamental energy gap and the harmonic average of the atomic one-particle reduced density matrix. Our results show that NOFT captures the transition from insulating to metallic behavior as the interatomic distance decreases. By extrapolating the energy gap to the thermodynamic limit, we estimate a critical distance rc ~ 1.2 Ang, in excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo benchmarks. These findings demonstrate the reliability of NOFT for describing strong correlation effects in large-scale models.

arXiv:2505.08397 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

18 pages, 5 figures

Rev. Cubana de Fis. 42 (2025) 12-18

Nonlocal electrodynamics of two-dimensional anisotropic magneto-plasmons

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

A. J. Chaves, Line Jelver, D. R. da Costa, Joel D. Cox, N. Asger Mortensen, Nuno M. R. Peres

We present a hydrodynamic model, grounded in Madelung’s formalism, to describe collective electronic motion in anisotropic materials. This model incorporates nonlocal contributions from the Thomas-Fermi quantum pressure and quantum effects arising from the Bohm potential. We derive analytical expressions for the magnetoplasmon dispersion and nonlocal optical conductivity. To demonstrate the applicability of the model, we examine electrons in the conduction band of monolayer phosphorene, an exemplary anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas. The dispersion of plasmons derived from our hydrodynamic approach is closely aligned with that predicted by ab~initio calculations. Then, we use our model to analyze few-layer black phosphorus, whose measured infrared optical response is hyperbolic. Our results reveal that the incorporation of nonlocal and quantum effects in the optical conductivity prevents black phosphorus from supporting hyperbolic surface plasmon polaritons. We further demonstrate that the predicted wavefront generated by an electric dipole exhibits a significant difference between the local and nonlocal descriptions for the optical conductivity. This study underscores the necessity of moving beyond local approximations when investigating anisotropic systems capable of hosting strongly confined plasmon-polaritons.

arXiv:2505.08398 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

DFT Investigation of Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy in Fe, Co, Pd0.97Co0.03 and Pd0.97Fe0.03 systems: From Bulk to Thin-Films

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Irina I. Piyanzina, Regina M. Burganova, Hayk Zakaryan, Zarina I. Minnegulova, Igor V. Yanilkin, Amir I. Gumarov

The nature of low-impurity ferromagnetism remains a challenging problem in the solid-state community due to the strong dependence of magnetic properties on composition, concentration, and structural geometry of diluted alloys. To address this, we performed a density functional theory study of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in Fe, Co, Pd0.97Co0.03, and Pd0.97Fe0.03 systems across bulk, monolayer, and thin-film geometries. Non-collinear spin-orbit calculations were employed to evaluate the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies, supported by analysis of atomic-, spin-, and orbital-resolved densities of states. The results revealed that Fe and Co exhibit opposite easy-axis orientation depending on geometry. At the same time, even 3% Co-doping in Pd is sufficient to induce anisotropy trends resembling those of pure Co. In contrast, Fe-Pd system at the same concentration do not reproduce the anisotropy of pure Fe, showing isotropic behavior in bulk.

arXiv:2505.08416 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

Spin wave resonance in yttrium iron garnet stripe domains

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Daniel Prestwood, Chris Barker, Kilian D. Stenning, Charlie W. F. Freeman, Tianyi Wei, Takashi Kikkawa, Troy Dion, Daniel Stoeffler, Yves Henry, Matthieu Bailluel, Noora Naushad, William Griggs, Thomas Thomson, Murat Cubukcu, Jack C. Gartside, Eiji Saitoh, Will R. Branford, Hidekazu Kurebayashi

We study a thin film yttrium iron garnet sample that exhibits magnetic stripe domains due to a small perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Using wide-field magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements we reveal the domain pattern evolution as a function of applied field and discuss the role of the cubic anisotropy for the domain formation. Rich magnetic resonant spectra for the stripe domain background are observed for different excitation conditions and micromagnetic simulations provide spatial profiles of each resonance mode. We further simulate domain patterns and resonance spectra as a function of the cubic anisotropy to correlate between them. This study highlights magnetic domain structures to host complex resonant behavior in a low-damping magnetic material, for a potential use of future applications in magnonics.

arXiv:2505.08431 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Strain dependence of the Bloch domain component in 180$^\circ$ domains in bulk PbTiO$_{3}$ from first-principles

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Stephen Chege, Louis Bastogne, Fernando Gómez-Ortiz, James Sifuna, George Amolo, Philippe Ghosez, Javier Junquera

We investigate the emergence of Bloch-type polarization components in 180$ ^\circ$ ferroelectric domain walls in bulk PbTiO$ _{3}$ under varying mechanical boundary conditions, using first-principles simulations based on density functional theory. A spontaneous Bloch component$ -$ primarily associated with Pb displacements confined within the PbO domain wall plane$ -$ condense under realistic strain conditions on top of the Ising-type domain walls. The amplitude and energetic stabilization of this component are highly sensitive to the in-plane lattice parameters. In particular, tensile strains akin to those imposed by DyScO$ _{3}$ substrates enhance the Bloch component and lead to energy reductions as large as 10.7 mJ/m$ ^{2}$ (10.6 meV/$ \square$ ) with respect to the most stable structure including only Ising and Néel components. We identify a relatively flat energy landscape for the Bloch polarization, highlighting the tunability of chiral textures through strain engineering. Our results offer a predictive framework for estimating the strain-dependent onset temperature of Bloch-type domain wall components and provide insight into the design of topologically nontrivial and chiral polar structures in ferroelectrics.

arXiv:2505.08436 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

12 pages, 4 figures

Real-space observation of salt-dependent aging in Laponite gels

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Shunichi Saito, Sooyeon Kim, Yuichi Taniguchi, Miho Yanagisawa

Colloidal gels gradually evolve as their structures reorganize, a process known as aging. Understanding this behavior is essential for fundamental science and practical applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. This study examines the aging of low-concentration Laponite suspensions with varying salt concentrations using fluorescence microscopy, scattering imaging, and particle tracking microrheology. Structural heterogeneity appeared earlier at higher salt concentrations, and the average size of aggregates decreased as the salt concentration increased further. Fourier transform analysis corroborated these trends, and scattering images showed similar results. Microrheology revealed distinct dynamics in Laponite-rich and Laponite-poor regions: the poor phase exhibited liquid-like behavior, while the rich phase exhibited gel-like properties. Further analysis suggested the presence of submicron or nanoscale structural heterogeneities within the rich phase. These findings provide insight into how aging and salt concentration shape the structure and dynamics of colloidal gels.

arXiv:2505.08475 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

Hall effect in slip flow of two-dimensional electron fluid

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

A. A. Grigorev, A. N. Afanasiev

Hall effect in high-mobility 2D mesoscopic samples with hydrodynamic electron transport is related to manifestation of non-dissipative Hall viscosity at classical magnetic fields. However, the latter can be obscured by the particular geometry of the electronic flow through constriction and boundary effects. In this work we consider the low-field Hall resistivity of the narrow channel with hydrodynamic electron transport. Using kinetic theory we show that the hydrodynamic Hall viscosity contribution is accompanied by the comparable ballistic contribution associated with the formation of Knudsen layers in the slip flow of 2D electron fluid. The studied ballistic correction is present at any specularity of the boundary reflection and lowers the magnitude of the total negative size-dependent correction to the bulk Hall resistivity. The obtained analytic expression for the total Hall resistivity can be used to estimate the boundary reflection coefficient in high-mobility structures.

arXiv:2505.08478 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

5 pages

Dynamic interfacial effects in ultrathin ferromagnetic bilayers

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Anulekha De, Christopher Seibel, Sanjay Ashok, Paul Herrgen, Akira Lentfert, Laura Scheuer, Georg von Freymann, Philipp Pirro, Baerbel Rethfeld, Martin Aeschlimann

We investigate the magnetization dynamics of an ultrathin Co (1.5 nm) /Py (1.5 nm) bilayer system from femtosecond (fs) to nanosecond (ns) timescales. Magnetization dynamics in the fs timescales is characterized as a highly non-equilibrium regime due to an ultrafast reduction of magnetization by laser excitation. On the other hand, the dynamics in the ns timescales is characterized as a close-to-equilibrium regime involving the excitation of coherent magnons. We demonstrate that the interfacial interaction between the Co and Py layers in these two non-equilibrium regimes across the timescales is dynamic and simultaneously influences the magnetization loss in the fs timescales and the magnon dynamics in the ns timescales. On ultrafast (fs) timescales, comparison between time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TR-MOKE) measurements and temperature-based {\mu}T model simulations reveals that the bilayer exhibits demagnetization dynamics intermediate between those of its individual layers. When driven far from equilibrium by ultrashort laser pulse excitation, the magnetization dynamics of the individual Co and Py layers appear to remain decoupled and evolve independently in the initial stages of the ultrafast response. On the other hand, in the ns regime, the two individual layers of the bilayer precess together at the same frequency in a coupled manner as one effective single layer. Furthermore, by correlating the ultrafast demagnetization to precessional damping we attempt to bridge the two non-equilibrium regimes across fs to ns timescales. These results improve our understanding of magnetization dynamics across timescales in ultrathin exchanged-coupled ferromagnetic bilayers and provide valuable insights for the design of high-frequency and energy efficient spintronic device concepts.

arXiv:2505.08490 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Demonstration of Advanced Timing Schemes in Time-Resolved X-ray Diffraction Measurements

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Daniel Schmidt, David. v. Stetten, Michael Agthe, Arwen R. Pearson, Goddfrey .S. Beddard, Briony A. Yorke, Friedjoff Tellkamp, Peter Gaal

We present time-resolved X-ray diffraction measurements using advanced timing schemes that provide high temporal resolution while also maintaining a high flux in the X-ray probe beam. The method employs patterned probe pulse sequences that are generated with the WaveGate solid-state pulse picker. We demonstrate the feasibility of our method at two different beamlines on millisecond and microsecond timescales.

arXiv:2505.08502 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

17 pages, 4 figures

Influence of Silicon Interlayers on Transition Layer Formation in Ti/Ni Multilayer Structures of Different Thicknesses

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

S. S. Sakhonenkov, A. U. Gaisin, A. S. Konashuk, A. V. Bugaev, R. S. Pleshkov, V. N. Polkovnikov, E. O. Filatova

This study presents a comprehensive investigation of chemical, structural, and magnetic properties of Ti/Ni multilayer systems with period thicknesses of 4 nm and 10 nm. Particular attention was paid to the characterization of the transition layers at Ni-Ti interfaces and the influence of thin silicon barrier layers on their formation. A combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray reflectometry (XRR), and SQUID magnetometry was employed for analysis. Extended transition layers up to 1.2 nm in thickness were identified at the Ni-Ti interfaces, primarily composed of the intermetallic Ni3Ti phase. The insertion of ultra-thin silicon buffer layers at the interfaces significantly suppressed the formation of intermetallic compounds, most likely due to the formation of titanium silicides. Additionally, it was observed that the use of Si layer on the sample surface leads to the formation of silicon oxide after exposure to the ambient environment, which acts as a passivation layer and inhibits oxidation of Ni and Ti layers within the topmost period of the multilayer structure.

arXiv:2505.08569 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

23 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables

Assembly of High-Performance van der Waals Devices Using Commercial Polyvinyl Chloride Films

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Son T. Le, Jeffrey J. Schwartz, Tsegereda K. Esatu, Sharadh Jois, Andrea Centrone, Karen E. Grutter, Aubrey T. Hanbicki, Adam L. Friedman

Control over the position, orientation, and stacking order of two-dimensional (2D) materials within van der Waals heterostructures is crucial for applications in electronics, spintronics, optics, and sensing. The most popular strategy for assembling 2D materials uses purpose-built stamps with working surfaces made from one of several different polymers. However, these stamps typically require tedious preparation steps and suffer from poor durability, contamination, and limited applicability to specific 2D materials or surfaces. Here, we demonstrate significant improvements upon current 2D flake transfer and assembly practices by using mechanically durable stamps made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) thin films. These stamps are simpler to prepare compared with existing methods and can withstand multiple transfer cycles, enabling greater reusability. We use two commercially available PVC films with distinct pick-up and release temperatures. Together, these films also enable polymer-to-polymer flake transfers and stack-and-flip fabrication of inverted heterostructures in one seamless process. Systematic comparisons of cleaning processes confirm the removal of PVC-derived residue from the assembled structures to create atomically clean interfaces. We demonstrate the utility and versatility of these polymer films and transfer process by fabricating graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure devices with high-performance electrical characteristics. Further, we demonstrate the ability to pick up and to deposit bulk aluminum gallium arsenide nanostructured films, enabling the creation of heterogeneously integrated devices. This technique increases fabrication rates, improves device quality, and enables more complex structures, thereby facilitating nanomaterial assembly in a broad range of applications.

arXiv:2505.08579 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Demonstration of returning Thouless pump in a Berry dipole system

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Qingyang Mo, Shanjun Liang, Xiangke Lan, Jie Zhu, Shuang Zhang

The Thouless pump, a cornerstone of topological physics, enables unidirectional quantized wave/particle transport via geometric Berry phase engineering in periodically driven systems. While decades of research have been dedicated to monopole-mediated pumping, mechanisms governed by higher-order singularities like Berry dipoles remain unexplored. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of a Berry-dipole-mediated returning Thouless pump (RTP) in a 1D acoustic waveguide array achieved through adiabatic encircling of a Berry dipole singularity. During this adiabatic cycle, an initial edge-localized mode first delocalizes into the bulk and eventually returns to the original edge, marking the characteristic signature of the RTP. Notably, this RTP exhibits an interesting feature of pseudospin flipping, distinguishing it from previously proposed RTP models. The demonstrated RTP contrasts sharply with the well-studied monopole-governed pumps that feature unidirectional transport.

arXiv:2505.08582 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Strain Induced Robust Skyrmion lattice at Room Temperature in van der Waals Ferromagnet

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Xinyi Zhou, Iftikhar Ahmed Malik, Ruihuan Duan, Hanqing Shi, Chen Liu, Yan Luo, Yue Sun, Ruixi Chen, Yilin Liu, Shian Xia, Vanessa Li Zhang, Sheng Liu, Chao Zhu, Xixiang Zhang, Yi Du, Zheng Liu, Ting Yu

Manipulating topological magnetic orders of two-dimensional (2D) magnets by strain, once achieved, offers enormous potential for future low-power flexible spintronic applications. In this work, by placing Fe3GaTe2 (FGaT), a room-temperature 2D ferromagnet, on flexible substrate, we demonstrate a field-free and robust formation of skyrmion lattice induced by strain. By applying a minimal strain of 0.80% to pre-annealed FGaT flakes, the Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) tip directly triggers the transition from maze-like domains to an ordered skyrmion lattice while scanning the sample surface. The skyrmion lattice is rather stable against extensive cyclic mechanical testing (stretching, bending, and twisting over 2000 cycles each). It also exhibited stability across a wide range of magnetic fields (2.9 kOe) and temperatures (~ 323 K), as well as long-term retention stability, highlighting its robustness and field free stabilization. The strain effect reduces the lattice symmetry and enhances the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) of FGaT, thus stabilizing the skyrmion lattice. Our findings highlight the potential of FGaT for integrating magnetic skyrmions into future low-power-consumption flexible spintronics devices.

arXiv:2505.08583 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Superconductor-Insulator transition in a two-orbital attractive Hubbard model with Hund’s exchange

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Laura Torchia, Massimo Capone

We study a two-orbital attractive Hubbard model with a repulsive Hund’s exchange coupling $ J$ as an idealized model for a two-band superconductor. This framework is motivated by a system where a large isotropic electron-phonon coupling drives the on-site Hubbard repulsion $ U$ negative, while leaving the exchange term unaffected. We focus on the intra-orbital (intra-band) singlet superconducting phase and we solve the model at zero temperature and half-filling using Dynamical Mean-Field Theory. Already at $ J=0$ , the two-orbital model features a superconductor-insulator transition as $ \vert U\vert$ grows, as opposed to the single-orbital case which remains superconducting for any $ U < 0$ . We find that a finite $ J$ strengthens the effect of the attractive $ U$ , both in the normal state and, more significantly, in the superconducting state. However, this pushes the system towards an effectively stronger coupling, hence to a faster transition to the insulating state.
Remarkably, the transition from a superconductor to an insulator occurs with a vanishing quasi-particle weight $ Z$ and in a scenario that recalls strongly correlated superconductivity close to a Mott transition, even though the present model is dominated by attractive interactions.

arXiv:2505.08597 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

8 pages, 6 figures

Bubble formation in active binary mixture model

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Kyosuke Adachi

Phase separation, the spontaneous segregation of density, is a ubiquitous phenomenon observed across diverse physical and biological systems. Within a crowd of self-propelled elements, active phase separation emerges from the interplay of activity and density interactions. A striking feature of active phase separation is the persistent formation of dilute-phase bubbles within the dense phase, which has been explored in theoretical models. However, the fundamental parameters that systematically control bubble formation remain unclear in conventional active particle models. Here, we introduce an active binary mixture model, where active solutes and solvents dynamically exchange their positions, and find that spontaneous bubble formation can be tuned by the asymmetry in their activities. Numerical simulations reveal that moderate solvent activity enhances bubble formation, while larger solvent activity, comparable to solute activity, suppresses it. By employing mean-field theory, which captures essential phase behaviors, we consider the mechanism for the enhancement of bubble formation induced by solvent activity. Beyond these findings, when solute and solvent activities are equal, numerical simulations indicate that critical phenomena of active phase separation under the suppression of bubbles belong to the Ising universality class. Our findings establish activity asymmetry as a key control parameter for active matter phase transitions, offering new insights into universality in nonequilibrium systems.

arXiv:2505.08637 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)

22 pages, 17 figures

Nonlinear Dynamics in the Formation of Molecular Polariton Condensates

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Evan J Kumar, Katherine A Koch, Rishabh Kaurav, Ravindra Kumar Yadav, Victoria Quiros-Cordero, Josiah N Brinson, Vinod Menon, Ajay Ram Srimath Kandada

Exciton-polaritons - hybrid light-matter quasiparticles - can undergo Bose-Einstein-like condensation at elevated temperatures owing to their lower effective mass. This becomes even more pronounced in the context of molecular polariton condensates where the large exciton binding energy of Frenkel excitons facilitates condensation at room temperature. While widely studied as low-threshold coherent light sources, the dynamics of their condensation remain poorly understood, partly due to the limitations of existing kinetic models. Here, we use excitation correlation photoluminescence (ECPL), a nonlinear optical technique with 220fs resolution, to probe molecular polariton condensation in Rhodamine-B-doped small-molecule ionic isolation lattices (SMILES). This platform promotes dipole alignment and suppresses detrimental intermolecular interactions. ECPL reveals condensate formation within hundreds of femtoseconds, driven by radiative scattering from the reservoir. A sustained population beyond the polariton lifetime suggests an additional feeding mechanism from higher momentum states in the lower polariton dispersion. These results provide quantitative insight into condensation timescales and mechanisms, advancing our control over polariton dynamics.

arXiv:2505.08674 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Dominant orbital magnetization in the prototypical altermagnet MnTe

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Chao Chen Ye, Karma Tenzin, Jagoda Sławińska, Carmine Autieri

Altermagnetism is an unconventional form of antiferromagnetism characterized by momentum-dependent spin polarization of electronic states and zero net magnetization, arising from specific crystalline symmetries. In the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and broken time-reversal symmetry, altermagnets can exhibit finite net magnetization and anomalous Hall effect (AHE), phenomena typically associated with ferromagnets. Due to the dependence of AHE on magnetization, understanding the interplay between spin and orbital contributions to magnetization is essential for interpreting experiments and designing altermagnetic devices. In this work, we use density functional theory to investigate the intrinsic spin and orbital magnetization of the magnetic ground state of the prototypical altermagnet {\alpha}-MnTe. We find that SOC induces weak ferromagnetism through spin canting, accompanied by a slight in-plane rotation of the Néel vector. Notably, we identify a significant net orbital magnetization of 0.176 {\mu}B per unit cell oriented along the z-axis, while the spin magnetization in the same direction is much smaller at 0.002 {\mu}B. By varying the chemical potential, we show that the spin magnetization is tunable through hole doping, whereas the orbital magnetization remains robust against carrier density changes. These results highlight the important role of orbital magnetization and establish its relevance for orbital-based phenomena in altermagnets.

arXiv:2505.08675 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

11 pages, 8 figures

First-principles dissociation pathways of BCl$_3$ on the Si(100)-2$\times$1 surface

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Quinn T. Campbell, Shashank Misra, Jeffrey A. Ivie

One of the most promising acceptor precursors for atomic-precision $ \delta$ -doping of silicon is BCl$ _3$ . The chemical pathway, and the resulting kinetics, through which BCl$ _3$ adsorbs and dissociates on silicon, however, has only been partially explained. In this work, we use density functional theory to expand the dissociation reactions of BCl$ _3$ to include reactions that take place across multiple silicon dimer rows, and reactions which end in a bare B atom either at the surface, substituted for a surface silicon, or in a subsurface position. We further simulate resulting scanning tunneling microscopy images for each of these BCl$ _x$ dissociation fragments, demonstrating that they often display distinct features that may allow for relatively confident experimental identification. Finally, we input the full dissociation pathway for BCl$ _3$ into a kinetic Monte Carlo model, which simulates realistic reaction pathways as a function of environmental conditions such as pressure and temperature of dosing. We find that BCl$ _2$ is broadly dominant at low temperatures, while high temperatures and ample space on the silicon surface for dissociation encourage the formation of bridging BCl fragments and B substitutions on the surface. This work provides the chemical mechanisms for understanding atomic-precision doping of Si with B, enabling a number of relevant quantum applications such as bipolar nanoelectronics, acceptor-based qubits, and superconducting Si.

arXiv:2505.08684 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

21 pages, 6 figures

Plastic deformation as a phase transition: a combinatorial model of plastic flow in copper single crystals

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Afonso D. M. Barroso, Elijah Borodin, Andrey P. Jivkov

Continuum models of plasticity fail to capture the richness of microstructural evolution because the continuum is a homogeneous construction. The present study shows that an alternative way is available at the mesoscale in the form of truly discrete constructions and in the discrete exterior calculus. A pre-existing continuum mean-field model with two parameters is rewritten in the language of the latter to model the properties of a network of plastic slip events in a perfect copper single crystal under uniaxial tension. The behaviour of the system is simulated in a triangular 2D mesh in 3D space employing a Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. Phases of distinct character emerge and both first-order and second-order phase transitions are observed. The phases can be interpreted as representing crystallographic phenomena like cross-slip, strain localisation and partial dislocations. The first-order transitions mostly occur as functions of the applied stress, while the second-order transitions occur exclusively as functions of the mean-field coupling parameter. The former are reminiscent of transitions in other statistical-mechanical models, while the latter find parallels in experimental observations.

arXiv:2505.08689 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)

27 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Written by Afonso D. M. Barroso, reviewed by Elijah Borodin and Andrey P. Jivkov

Quantum confinement theory of ultra-thin films: electronic, thermal and superconducting properties

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Alessio Zaccone

The miniaturization of electronic devices has led to the prominence, in technological applications, of ultra-thin films with a thickness ranging from a few tens of nanometers to just about 1-2 nanometers. While these materials are still effectively 3D in many respects, traditional theories as well as ab initio methods struggle to describe their properties as measured in experiments. In particular, standard approaches to quantum confinement rely on hard-wall boundary conditions, which neglect the unavoidable, ubiquitous, atomic-scale irregularities of the interface. Recently, a unified theoretical approach to quantum confinement has been proposed which is able to effectively take the real nature of the interface into account, and can efficiently be implemented in synergy with microscopic theories. Its predictions for the electronic properties such as electrical conductivity of semiconductor thin films or critical temperature of superconducting thin films, have been successfully verified in comparison with experimental data. The same confinement principles lead to new laws for the phonon density of states and for the heat capacity of thin films, again in agreement with the available experimental data.

arXiv:2505.08696 (2025)

Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

J. Phys. Mater. 8 031001 (2025)

Magnetic-field-induced ordering in a spin-1/2 chiral chain

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Rebecca Scatena, Alberto Hernandez-Melian, Benjamin M. Huddart, Sam Curley, Robert Williams, Pascal Manuel, Stephen J. Blundell, Zurab Guguchia, Zachary E. Manson, Jamie L. Manson, G. Timothy Noe, John Singleton, Tom Lancaster, Paul A. Goddard, Roger D. Johnson

We present neutron diffraction, muon spin rotation and pulsed-field magnetometry measurements on the Heisenberg quantum chiral chain [Cu(pym)(H2O)4]SiF6.H2O, which displays a four-fold-periodic rotation of the local environment around the Cu(II) S = 1/2 ions from site to site along the chain. Previous measurements on this material have shown the absence of magnetic order down to surprisingly low temperatures >= 20 mK, as well as the presence of an energy gap for magnetic excitations that grows linearly with magnetic field. Here we find evidence at dilution refrigerator temperatures for a field-induced transition to long-range magnetic order above an applied magnetic field of 3 T. From the polarization of magnetic moments observed in applied fields we can identify the static magnetic structure that best accounts for the data. The proposed model is supported microscopically by the presence of an alternating component of the g tensor, which produces an internal two-fold staggered field that dictates both the direction of the ordered moments and the effective coupling between adjacent chains. The observed magnetic structure is contrary to previous proposals for the departure of the magnitude and field dependence of the energy gap from the predictions of the sine-Gordon model.

arXiv:2505.08717 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)

The structure and migration of twin boundaries in tetragonal $β$-Sn: an application of machine learning based interatomic potentials

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Ian Chesser, Mashroor Nitol, Esther C. Hessong, Himanshu Joshi, Nikhil Admal, Brandon Runnels, Daniel N. Blaschke, Khanh Dang, Abigail Hunter, Saryu Fensin

Although atomistic simulations have contributed significantly to our understanding of twin boundary structure and migration in metals and alloys with hexagonal close packed (HCP) crystal structures, few direct atomistic studies of twinning have been conducted for other types of low symmetry materials, in large part due to a lack of reliable interatomic potentials. In this work, we examine twin boundary structure and migration in a tetragonal material, $ \beta$ -Sn, comparing high resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images of deformation twins in $ \beta$ -Sn to the results of direct atomistic simulations using multiple interatomic potentials. ML-based potentials developed in this work are found to give results consistent with our experimental data, revealing faceted twin boundary structures formed by the nucleation and motion of twinning disconnections. We use bicrystallographic methods in combination with atomistic simulations to analyze the structure, energy and shear coupled migration of observed twin facets in $ \beta$ -Sn. In analogy to Prismatic-Basal (PB/BP) interfaces in HCP metals, we discover low energy asymmetric Prismatic-A-plane (PA/AP) interfaces important to twin growth in $ \beta$ -Sn. A Moment Tensor Potential (MTP) and Rapid Artificial Neural Network (RANN) interatomic potential suitable for studying twinning and phase transformations in Sn are made publicly available as part of this work.

arXiv:2505.08732 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Absolute measurement of the exchange interaction in an InSb quantum well using Landau-level tunnelling spectroscopy

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

S.K. Clowes, C.P. Allford, D. Shearer, G.V. Smith, R. Simmons, B.N. Murdin, U. Zeitler, P.D. Buckle

We studied InSb quantum well devices using Landau level tunneling spectroscopy through a three-terminal differential conductance technique. This method is similar to filled state scanning tunneling microscopy but uses a stationary contact instead of a mobile tip to analyze the two-dimensional electron system. Applying magnetic fields up to 15~T, we identified clear peaks in the differential current-voltage profiles, indicative of Landau level formation. By examining deviations from the expected Landau fan diagram, we extract an absolute value for the exchange-induced energy shift. Through an empirical analysis, we derive a formula describing the exchange shift as a function of both magnetic field strength and electron filling. Our findings indicate that the emptying of the $ \nu=2$ and $ \nu=3$ Landau levels causes an exchange interaction energy shift in the $ \nu=1$ level. Unlike prior studies that infer level energies relative to one another and report oscillatory g-factor behavior, our method references the energy of the Landau levels above the filled states of the contact under a bias voltage, revealing that only the ground state Landau level experiences a measurable exchange shift.

arXiv:2505.08733 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

7 pages, 6 figures

Elevated Hall Responses as Indicators of Edge Reconstruction

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Sampurna Karmakar, Amulya Ratnakar, Sourin Das

We investigate edge reconstruction scenarios in the $ \nu = 1$ quantum Hall state, focusing on configurations with upstream and downstream charge and neutral modes. Our analysis shows that the coexistence of upstream charge and neutral modes in a multi-terminal geometry can cause pronounced deviations from the expected quantized values of electrical ($ e^2/h$ ) and thermal ($ \pi^2 k_\text{B}^{2}T/3h$ ) Hall conductance dictated by bulk-boundary correspondence. In particular, we find that both electrical and thermal Hall conductances can be significantly enhanced – exceeding twice their unreconstructed values – offering a clear diagnostic of edge reconstruction.

arXiv:2505.08746 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Ce(III) Ions in Hydroxyapatite: Nanoscale Environment Investigation

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

M.A. Sadovnikova, D.V. Shurtakova, G.V. Mamin, F.F. Murzakhanov, Yu. O. Zobkova, N.V. Petrakova, V.S. Komlev, M.R. Gafurov

This paper presents a comprehensive study of cerium-doped hydroxyapatite (Ce-HAp), a material of interest for biomedical applications due to the good biocompatibility of hydroxyapatite and the antioxidant activity of cerium ions. We employ advanced electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques, including continuous wave (CW) and pulsed X-band experiments, electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM), and electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR)-detected NMR (EDNMR) to investigate the local coordination and electron environment of cerium ions in the hydroxyapatite matrix. The experimental results are complemented by g-tensor calculation, which allows us to interpret the EPR spectra and identify the types of paramagnetic centers. Our results show that during the synthesis of hydroxyapatite powder by the chemical precipitation method using nitrates, cerium ions enter the structure mainly in the trivalent state and replace calcium ions in two nonequivalent positions. In addition to cerium ions, nitrate radicals are found in the HAp structure. Heat treatment reduces the amount of nitrate radicals and increases crystallinity. This work expands the understanding of the role of cerium in calcium phosphates and provides a methodological basis for the characterization of doped bioceramics using various EPR approaches.

arXiv:2505.08757 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)

Extreme Loss Suppression and Wide Tunability of Dipolar Interactions in an Ultracold Molecular Gas

New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Weijun Yuan, Siwei Zhang, Niccolò Bigagli, Haneul Kwak, Claire Warner, Tijs Karman, Ian Stevenson, Sebastian Will

Ultracold dipolar molecules hold great promise for the creation of novel quantum states of matter, but the realization of long-lived molecular bulk samples with strong dipole-dipole interactions has remained elusive. Here, we realize a collisionally stable gas of ultracold ground state molecules with a lifetime of several seconds. Utilizing double microwave dressing, we achieve an extreme suppression of inelastic two- and three-body losses by factors of more than 10,000 and 1,000, respectively. We find that losses remain suppressed across a wide range of dipole-dipole interactions, allowing the continuous tuning of the dipolar length from 0 to 1 um $ \sim$ 20,000 $ a_0$ . Combined with the recent realization of Bose-Einstein condensation of dipolar molecules, our findings open the door to the exploration of strongly dipolar quantum liquids.

arXiv:2505.08773 (2025)

Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

7 pages, 5 figures

Exotic Carriers from Concentrated Topology: Dirac Trions as the Origin of the Missing Spectral Weight in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-05-14 20:00 EDT

Patrick J. Ledwith, Ashvin Vishwanath, Eslam Khalaf

The nature of charge carriers in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) near $ \nu = -2$ , where superconductivity emerges, remains mysterious. While various symmetry-broken ground states have been proposed, experimental evidence of significant entropy persisting to low temperatures suggests that the disordered thermal state is a more natural starting point for understanding the normal state physics. Our previous work proposed that this thermal state in TBG hosts nearly decoupled nonlocal moments and an exotic Mott semimetal at charge neutrality. This evolves into a spectrally imbalanced Mott state at non-zero integer fillings. Notably, at $ \nu = -2$ , the quasiparticle residue vanishes at the top of the valence band, precisely where superconductivity develops. The vanishing quasiparticle residue naturally leads to the following question: Which excitation accounts for the missing spectral weight, and how are they related to electrons? In this work, we demonstrate that the missing spectral weight corresponds to a trion excitation, which we explicitly construct and characterize. Remarkably, despite being composed of heavy particles away from the Gamma point, this trion is unexpectedly light. At charge neutrality, the electron and trion hybridize with a momentum-dependent phase that winds around zero, forming a massless Dirac cone. At finite doping $ \nu < 0$ , the Dirac cone acquires a mass with the valence (conduction) band becoming trion (electron)-like near the $ \Gamma$ point. Finally, we show that such trion excitations evolve into the quasiparticles of the intervalley Kekulé spiral (IKS) state at finite doping, where they represent electrons dressed by the IKS order parameter. More broadly, our work highlights the unusual spectral properties and excitations that emerge when fermions interact within topological bands with concentrated quantum geometry and topology.

arXiv:2505.08779 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

11 pages, 3 figures