CMP Journal 2025-07-30
Statistics
Nature: 21
Physical Review Letters: 8
Physical Review X: 1
arXiv: 64
Nature
Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches
Original Paper | Carbon cycle | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Xiaotong Peng, Mengran Du, Andrey Gebruk, Shuangquan Liu, Zhaoming Gao, Ronnie N. Glud, Peng Zhou, Ruoheng Wang, Ashley A. Rowden, Gennady M. Kamenev, Anastassya S. Maiorova, Dominic Papineau, Shun Chen, Jinwei Gao, Helu Liu, Yuan He, Inna L. Alalykina, Igor Yu. Dolmatov, Hanyu Zhang, Xuegong Li, Marina V. Malyutina, Shamik Dasgupta, Anastasiia A. Saulenko, Vladimir A. Shilov, Shuting Liu, Tongtong Xie, Yuangao Qu, Xikun Song, Haibin Zhang, Hao Liu, Weijia Zhang, Xiaoxia Huang, Hongzhou Xu, Wenjing Xu, Vladimir V. Mordukhovich, Andrey V. Adrianov
Hadal trenches, some of the Earth’s least explored and understood environments, have long been proposed to harbour chemosynthesis-based communities1,2. Despite increasing attention, actual documentation of such communities has been exceptionally rare3,4. Here we report the discovery of the deepest and the most extensive chemosynthesis-based communities known to exist on Earth during an expedition to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and the western Aleutian Trench using the manned submersible Fendouzhe. The communities dominated by siboglinid Polychaeta and Bivalvia span a distance of 2,500 km at depths from 5,800 m to 9,533 m. These communities are sustained by hydrogen sulfide-rich and methane-rich fluids that are transported along faults traversing deep sediment layers in trenches, where methane is produced microbially from deposited organic matter, as indicated by isotopic analysis. Given geological similarities with other hadal trenches, such chemosynthesis-based communities might be more widespread than previously anticipated. These findings challenge current models of life at extreme limits and carbon cycling in the deep ocean.
Carbon cycle, Ecosystem ecology, Marine biology
Repurposing haemoproteins for asymmetric metal-catalysed H atom transfer
Original Paper | Asymmetric catalysis | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Xiang Zhang, Dongping Chen, María Álvarez, Thomas R. Ward
Transition metal-hydrides have been widely exploited in catalysis for the hydrofunctionalization of unsaturated moieties, including carbonyls, alkenes and alkynes1. To complement heterolytic metal-hydride bond cleavage, metal-hydride hydrogen atom transfer (MHAT) has recently gained attention, as a promising strategy for radical hydrofunctionalization of unactivated alkenes2, thus enabling late-stage diversification of complex molecules3,4. However, owing to the weak interactions between the prochiral organic radical and the enantiopure catalyst5, asymmetric MHAT6 remains challenging. Here we show that cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) can be repurposed to catalyse asymmetric MHAT, a new-to-nature reaction. Directed evolution of P450BM3 yielded a triple mutant that catalyses MHAT radical cyclization of unactivated alkenes, producing diverse cyclic compounds–including pyrrolidines and piperidines–with up to 98:2 enantiomeric ratio under aerobic whole-cell conditions. Apart from electron-deficient alkenes, alternative radical acceptors–including hydrazones, oximes and nitriles–were converted by repurposed P450BM3 to enantioenriched cyclization products. Mechanistic investigations support an MHAT mechanism proceeding by homolytic cleavage of a fleeting iron(III)-hydride species2,6. Starting from CYP119, directed evolution afforded a stereocomplementary MHATase, highlighting the potential of repurposed CYPs for MHAT biocatalysis. Our study highlights the prospect of integrating homolytic metal-hydride reactivity into metalloenzymes, thus expanding the scope of asymmetric radical biocatalysis.
Asymmetric catalysis, Biocatalysis
Remodelling of corticostriatal axonal boutons during motor learning
Original Paper | Basal ganglia | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Mengjun Sheng, Di Lu, Richard H. Roth, Fuu-Jiun Hwang, Kaiwen Sheng, Jun B. Ding
Motor skill learning induces long-lasting synaptic plasticity at dendritic spines1,2,3,4 and at the outputs of motor cortical neurons to the striatum5,6. However, little is known about corticostriatal axon activity and structural plasticity during learning in the adult brain. Here, using longitudinal in vivo two-photon imaging, we tracked thousands of corticostriatal axonal boutons in the dorsolateral striatum of awake mice. We found that learning a new motor skill dynamically regulated these boutons. The activities of motor corticostriatal axonal boutons exhibited selectivity for rewarded movements (RM) and unrewarded movements (UM). Notably, boutons on the same axonal branches showed diverse responses during behaviour. Motor learning significantly increased the proportion of RM boutons and reduced the heterogeneity of bouton activities. Moreover, motor learning induced profound structural dynamism in boutons. By combining structural and functional imaging, we saw that newly formed axonal boutons were more likely to exhibit selectivity for RM and were stabilized during motor learning, whereas UM boutons were selectively eliminated. These findings reveal a novel form of plasticity in corticostriatal axons and show that motor learning drives dynamic bouton reorganization to support motor skill acquisition and execution.
Basal ganglia, Spine plasticity
Synthesis of bulk hexagonal diamond
Original Paper | Structural materials | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Liuxiang Yang, Kah Chun Lau, Zhidan Zeng, Dongzhou Zhang, Hu Tang, Bingmin Yan, Guoliang Niu, Huiyang Gou, Yanping Yang, Wenge Yang, Duan Luo, Ho-kwang Mao
Hexagonal diamond (HD), with anticipated physical properties superior than the known cubic diamond, has been pursued relentlessly since its inception 60 years ago1. However, natural and synthetic HD has only been preserved as a highly disordered component in fragile, heterogeneous mixtures of other nanocarbon structures that precludes determination of bulk properties and identification of HD as a bona fide crystalline phase2,3,4. Here we report the synthesis, recovery and extensive characterization of bulk HD by compressing and heating high-quality graphite single crystals under controlled quasi-hydrostatic conditions. We demonstrate the successful synthesis of 100-µm-sized to mm-sized, highly ordered, bulk HD. We observed direct transformation of graphite ((10\bar{1}0)) orientation to HD (0002) and graphite (0002) to HD ((10\bar{1}0)). The bulk sample consists of threefold intergrowth of tightly knitted 100-nm-sized crystals, predominantly HD with trace imperfections of cubic diamond. The interlayer bonds in HD are shortened with respect to intralayer bonds to optimize the HD structure. Notably, the hardness of HD is only slightly higher than cubic diamond. We anticipate that purifying the precursor graphite carbon and fine-tuning the high pressure-temperature (P-T) synthesis conditions may lead to higher-quality HDs.
Structural materials, Structure of solids and liquids
A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours
Original Paper | Hypothalamus | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Ivan C. Alcantara, Chia Li, Claire Gao, Shakira Rodriguez González, Laura E. Mickelsen, Brian N. Papas, Abigail I. Goldschmidt, Isabel M. Cohen, Christopher M. Mazzone, Isabel de Araujo Salgado, Ramón A. Piñol, Cuiying Xiao, Eva O. Karolczak, Jian-Liang Li, Guohong Cui, Marc L. Reitman, Michael J. Krashes
Across mammalian species, new mothers undergo behavioural changes to nurture their offspring and meet the caloric demands of milk production1,2,3,4,5. Although many neural circuits underlying feeding and parenting behaviours are well characterized6,7,8,9, it is unclear how these different circuits interact and adapt during lactation. Here we performed transcriptomic profiling of the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the mouse hypothalamus in response to lactation and hunger. Furthermore, we showed that heightened appetite in lactating mice was accompanied by increased activity of hunger-promoting agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons in the ARC (ARCAgRP neurons). To assess the strength of hunger versus maternal drives, we designed a conflict assay in which female mice chose between a food source or pups and nesting material. Although food-deprived lactating mothers prioritized parenting over feeding, hunger reduced the duration and disrupted the sequences of parenting behaviours in both lactating and virgin females. We found that ARCAgRP neurons inhibit bombesin receptor subtype 3 (BRS3) neurons in the MPOA (MPOABRS3 neurons), which become more active postpartum and govern parenting and satiety. Activation of this ARCAgRP-to-MPOABRS3 circuit shifted behaviours from parenting to food-seeking. Thus, hypothalamic networks are modulated by physiological states and work antagonistically during the prioritization of competing motivated behaviours.
Hypothalamus, Neural circuits, Social behaviour
Programmable protein ligation on cell surfaces
Original Paper | Protein delivery | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Christian Kofoed, Girum Erkalo, Nicholas E. S. Tay, Xuanjia Ye, Yutong Lin, Tom W. Muir
The surface landscapes of cells differ as a function of cell type and are frequently altered in disease contexts1,2,3. Exploiting such differences is key to many therapeutic strategies and is the basis for developing diagnostic and basic-science tools. State-of-the-art strategies typically target single surface antigens, but each individual receptor rarely defines the specific cell type4,5. The development of programmable molecular systems that integrate multiple cell-surface features to convert on-target inputs to user-defined outputs is therefore highly desirable. Here we describe an autonomous decision-making device driven by proximity-gated protein trans-splicing that allows local generation of an active protein from two otherwise inactive polypeptide fragments. We show that this protein-actuator platform can perform convergent protein ligation on designated cell surfaces, allowing highly selective generation of active proteins, which can either remain physically associated with the cell surface on which they were manufactured or be released into the surrounding milieu. Because of its intrinsic modularity and tunability, we demonstrate that the technology is compatible with different types of input, targeting modality and functional output, allowing for the localized interrogation or manipulation of cellular systems.
Protein delivery, Protein design, Synthetic biology, X-ray crystallography
Direct observation of coherent elastic antineutrino-nucleus scattering
Original Paper | Experimental particle physics | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
N. Ackermann, H. Bonet, A. Bonhomme, C. Buck, K. Fülber, J. Hakenmüller, J. Hempfling, G. Heusser, M. Lindner, W. Maneschg, K. Ni, M. Rank, T. Rink, E. Sánchez García, I. Stalder, H. Strecker, R. Wink, J. Woenckhaus
Neutrinos are elementary particles that interact only very weakly with matter. Neutrino experiments are, therefore, usually big, with masses in the multi-tonne range. The thresholdless interaction of coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos on atomic nuclei leads to greatly enhanced interaction rates, which allows for much smaller detectors. The study of this process gives insights into physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The CONUS+ experiment1 was designed to first detect elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering in the fully coherent regime with low-energy neutrinos produced in nuclear reactors. For this purpose, semiconductor detectors based on high-purity germanium crystals with extremely low-energy thresholds were developed2. Here we report the first observation of a neutrino signal with a statistical significance of 3.7σ from the CONUS+ experiment, operated at the nuclear power plant in Leibstadt, Switzerland. In 119 days of reactor operation (395 ± 106) neutrinos were measured compared with a predicted number from calculations assuming Standard Model physics of (347 ± 59) events. With increased precision, there is potential for fundamental discoveries in the future. The CONUS+ results in combination with other measurements of this interaction channel might therefore mark a starting point for a new era in neutrino physics.
Experimental particle physics, Nuclear physics
Invariance of dynamo action in an early-Earth model
Original Paper | Core processes | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Yufeng Lin, Philippe Marti, Andrew Jackson
Magnetic field generation on Earth has probably persisted for at least 3.5 Gyr (refs. 1,2), initially sustained by secular cooling of the Earth’s core and, more recently, by the growth of the solid inner core3. Numerical models of the present-day geodynamo have proved to be successful in producing Earth-like magnetic fields4,5,6,7 and approaching realistic dynamic regimes8,9,10,11. However, thermal evolution12,13 and palaeomagnetic records14,15 suggest that the geodynamo operated for most of geomagnetic history without a solid inner core. Dynamo action in a whole fluid core remains poorly understood. Here we show dynamo actions that are independent of fluid viscosity in the correct geometry of the Earth’s core in the deep past at extremely low viscosity, demonstrating the negligible role of fluid viscosity in our dynamo simulations. Our early-Earth geometry models produce magnetic field intensity and morphologies that are compatible with the palaeomagnetic data in the deep past while showing remarkable similarity to the present-day magnetic field. This raises questions about the role of the solid inner core in producing the spatial-temporal variations of the observed Earth’s magnetic field7,16,17,18.
Core processes, Geomagnetism, Palaeomagnetism
ACLY inhibition promotes tumour immunity and suppresses liver cancer
Original Paper | Cancer metabolism | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Jaya Gautam, Jianhan Wu, James S. V. Lally, Jamie D. McNicol, Russta Fayyazi, Elham Ahmadi, Daniela Carmen Oniciu, Spencer Heaton, Roger S. Newton, Sonia Rehal, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Fiorella Di Pastena, Binh Nguyen, Celina M. Valvano, Logan K. Townsend, Suhrid Banskota, Battsetseg Batchuluun, Maria Joy Therese Jabile, Alice Payne, Junfeng Lu, Eric M. Desjardins, Naoto Kubota, Evangelia E. Tsakiridis, Bejal Mistry, Alex Aganostopoulos, Vanessa Houde, Ann Dansercoer, Koen H. G. Verschueren, Savvas N. Savvides, Joanne A. Hammill, Ksenia Bezverbnaya, Paola Muti, Theodoros Tsakiridis, Wenting Dai, Lei Jiang, Yujin Hoshida, Mark Larché, Jonathan L. Bramson, Scott L. Friedman, Kenneth Verstraete, Dongdong Wang, Gregory R. Steinberg
Immunosuppressive tumour microenvironments are common in cancers such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-driven hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (MASH-HCC)1,2,3. Although immune cell metabolism influences effector function, the effect of tumour metabolism on immunogenicity is less understood4. ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) links substrate availability and mitochondrial metabolism with lipid biosynthesis and gene regulation5,6,7. Although ACLY inhibition shows antiproliferative effects in various tumours, clinical translation has been limited by challenges in inhibitor development and compensatory metabolic pathways8,9,10,11,12. Here, using a mouse model of MASH-HCC that mirrors human disease, genetic inhibition of ACLY in hepatocytes and tumours reduced neoplastic lesions by over 70%. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of this pathway, a novel small-molecule ACLY inhibitor, EVT0185 (6-[4-(5-carboxy-5-methyl-hexyl)-phenyl]-2,2-dimethylhexanoic acid), was identified via phenotypic screening. EVT0185 is converted to a CoA thioester in the liver by SLC27A2 and structural analysis by cryo-electron microscopy reveals that EVT0185-CoA directly interacts with the CoA-binding site of ACLY. Oral delivery of EVT0185 in three mouse models of MASH-HCC dramatically reduces tumour burden as monotherapy and enhances efficacy of current standards of care including tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapies. Transcriptomic and spatial profiling in mice and humans linked reduced tumour ACLY with increases in the chemokine CXCL13, tumour-infiltrating B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures. The depletion of B cells blocked the antitumour effects of ACLY inhibition. Together, these findings illustrate how targeting tumour metabolism can rewire immune function and suppress cancer progression in MASH-HCC.
Cancer metabolism, Drug development
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs
Original Paper | Breast cancer | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Shi B. Chia, Bryan J. Johnson, Junxiao Hu, Felipe Valença-Pereira, Marc Chadeau-Hyam, Fernando Guntoro, Hugh Montgomery, Meher P. Boorgula, Varsha Sreekanth, Andrew Goodspeed, Bennett Davenport, Marco De Dominici, Vadym Zaberezhnyy, Wolfgang E. Schleicher, Dexiang Gao, Andreia N. Cadar, Lucia Petriz-Otaño, Michael Papanicolaou, Afshin Beheshti, Stephen B. Baylin, Joseph W. Guarnieri, Douglas C. Wallace, James C. Costello, Jenna M. Bartley, Thomas E. Morrison, Roel Vermeulen, Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso, Mercedes Rincon, James DeGregori
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer globally, with most deaths caused by metastatic disease, often following long periods of clinical dormancy1. Understanding the mechanisms that disrupt the quiescence of dormant disseminated cancer cells (DCCs) is crucial for addressing metastatic progression. Infections caused by respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 trigger both local and systemic inflammation2,3. Here we demonstrate, in mice, that influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infections lead to loss of the pro-dormancy phenotype in breast DCCs in the lung, causing DCC proliferation within days of infection and a massive expansion of carcinoma cells into metastatic lesions within two weeks. These phenotypic transitions and expansions are interleukin-6 dependent. We show that DCCs impair lung T cell activation and that CD4+ T cells sustain the pulmonary metastatic burden after the influenza infection by inhibiting CD8+ T cell activation and cytotoxicity. Crucially, these experimental findings align with human observational data. Analyses of cancer survivors from the UK Biobank (all cancers) and Flatiron Health (breast cancer) databases reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection substantially increases the risk of cancer-related mortality and lung metastasis compared with uninfected cancer survivors. These discoveries underscore the huge impact of respiratory viral infections on metastatic cancer resurgence, offering new insights into the connection between infectious diseases and cancer metastasis.
Breast cancer, Immunoediting, Influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2
Transient APC/C inactivation by mTOR boosts glycolysis during cell cycle entry
Original Paper | Cell-cycle exit | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Debasish Paul, Derek L. Bolhuis, Hualong Yan, Sudipto Das, Xia Xu, Christina C. Abbate, Lisa M. M. Jenkins, Michael J. Emanuele, Thorkell Andresson, Jing Huang, John G. Albeck, Nicholas G. Brown, Steven D. Cappell
Mammalian cells entering the cell cycle favour glycolysis to rapidly generate ATP and produce the biosynthetic intermediates that are required for rapid biomass accumulation1. Simultaneously, the ubiquitin-ligase anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome and its coactivator CDH1 (APC/CCDH1) remains active, allowing origin licensing and blocking premature DNA replication. Paradoxically, glycolysis is reduced by APC/CCDH1 through the degradation of key glycolytic enzymes2, raising the question of how cells coordinate these mutually exclusive events to ensure proper cell division. Here we show that cells resolve this paradox by transiently inactivating the APC/C during cell cycle entry, which allows a transient metabolic shift favouring glycolysis. After mitogen stimulation, rapid mTOR-mediated phosphorylation of the APC/C adapter protein CDH1 at the amino terminus causes it to partially dissociate from the APC/C. This partial inactivation of the APC/C leads to the accumulation of PFKFB3, a rate-limiting enzyme for glycolysis, promoting a metabolic shift towards glycolysis. Delayed accumulation of phosphatase activity later removes CDH1 phosphorylation, restoring full APC/C activity, and shifting cells back to favouring oxidative phosphorylation. Thus, cells coordinate the simultaneous demands of cell cycle progression and metabolism through an incoherent feedforward loop, which transiently inhibits APC/C activity to generate a pulse of glycolysis that is required for mammalian cell cycle entry.
Cell-cycle exit, Regulatory networks, Single-cell imaging, Ubiquitylation
A molecular cell atlas of mouse lemur, an emerging model primate
Original Paper | Cell biology | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Antoine de Morree, Iwijn De Vlaminck, Liza Shapiro, Andriamahery Razafindrakoto, Hajanirina Noëline Ravelonjanahary, Patricia Wright, Anne D. Yoder, Cathy V. Williams, Robert Schopler, Ute Radespiel, Jean-Michel Verdier, Corinne Lautier, E. Christopher Kirk, Rebecca Lewis, Astrid Gillich, Zicheng Zhao, Elias Godoy, Jérémy Terrien, Jacques Epelbaum, Dita Gratzinger, Katherine Lucot, Thomas Montine, Jessica D’Addabbo, Isaac Bakerman, Patricia Nguyen, Aaron Kershner, Karim Mrouj, Philip Beachy, Thomas H. Ambrosi, Malachia Hoover, Alina Alam, Charles Chan, SoRi Jang, Avin Veerakumar, Peng Li, Andrea R. Yung, Connor V. Duffy, Song-Lin Ding, Ed S. Lein, Silvana Konermann, Liqun Luo, Trygve E. Bakken, Justus M. Kebschull, Rebecca D. Hodge, Taichi Isobe, Michael F. Clarke, Biter Bilen, Jean Farup, Andoni Urtasun, Jengmin Kang, Ming Chen, BaoXiang Li, Varun Ramanan Subramaniam, Shravani Mukherjee, Aditi Swarup, Lily Kim, Bronwyn Scott, Ahmad Al-Moujahed, Albert Y. Wu, Douglas Vollrath, Nicholas Schaum, Amanda L. Wiggenhorn, Tony Wyss-Coray, Jonathan Z. Long, Yin Liu, Ahmad Nabhan, Gabriel Loeb, Shengda Lin, Honor Paine, Deviana Burhan, Aris Taychameekiatchai, Bruce Wang, F. Hernán Espinoza, Christin Kuo, Ross Metzger, Zhen Qi, Rebecca Culver, Kerwyn C. Huang, Patrick Neuhöfer, Charles A. Chang, Yan Hang, Seung K. Kim, Hannah N. W. Weinstein, Paul Allegakoen, Franklin W. Huang, Sivakamasundari V, Song Eun Lee, Hannah K. Frank, Scott D. Boyd, Wan-Jin Lu, Ankit Baghel, William Kong, Carly Israel, Ashley Maynard, Michelle Tan, Youcef Ouadah, Jalal Baruni, Timothy Ting-Hsuan Wu, Robert C. Jones, Spyros Darmanis, Sheela Crasta, Jia Yan, Aditi Agrawal, Shelly Huynh, Brian Yu, James Webber, Weilun Tan, Saba Nafees, Zhengda Li, Michael F. Z. Wang, Roozbeh Dehghannasiri, Julia Olivieri, Julia Salzman, Lisbeth A. Guethlein, Peter Parham, Qiuyu Jing, Jane Antony, Geoff Stanley, Jinxurong Yang, Winston Koh, Sheng Wang, Snigdha Agarwal, Kyle Awayan, Erin McGeever, Venkata N. P. Vemuri, Pranav V. Lalgudi, Camille Ezran, Shixuan Liu, Stephen Chang, Jingsi Ming, Olga Botvinnik, Lolita Penland, Alexander Tarashansky, Antoine de Morree, Kyle J. Travaglini, Jia Zhao, Gefei Wang, Kazuteru Hasegawa, Hosu Sin, Rene Sit, Jennifer Okamoto, Rahul Sinha, Yue Zhang, Caitlin J. Karanewsky, Jozeph L. Pendleton, Maurizio Morri, Martine Perret, Fabienne Aujard, Lubert Stryer, Steven Artandi, Margaret T. Fuller, Irving L. Weissman, Thomas A. Rando, James E. Ferrell Jr, Bo Wang, Iwijn De Vlaminck, Can Yang, Kerriann M. Casey, Megan A. Albertelli, Angela Oliveira Pisco, Jim Karkanias, Norma Neff, Angela Ruohao Wu, Stephen R. Quake, Mark A. Krasnow
Mouse lemurs are the smallest and fastest reproducing primates, as well as one of the most abundant, and they are emerging as a model organism for primate biology, behaviour, health and conservation. Although much has been learnt about their ecology and phylogeny in Madagascar and their physiology, little is known about their cellular and molecular biology. Here we used droplet-based and plate-based single-cell RNA sequencing to create Tabula Microcebus, a transcriptomic atlas of 226,000 cells from 27 mouse lemur organs opportunistically obtained from four donors clinically and histologically characterized. Using computational cell clustering, integration and expert cell annotation, we define and biologically organize more than 750 lemur molecular cell types and their full gene expression profiles. This includes cognates of most classical human cell types, including stem and progenitor cells, and differentiating cells along the developmental trajectories of spermatogenesis, haematopoiesis and other adult tissues. We also describe dozens of previously unidentified or sparsely characterized cell types. We globally compare expression profiles to define the molecular relationships of cell types across the body, and explore primate cell and gene expression evolution by comparing lemur transcriptomes to those of human, mouse and macaque. This reveals cell-type-specific patterns of primate specialization and many cell types and genes for which the mouse lemur provides a better human model than mouse1. The atlas provides a cellular and molecular foundation for studying this model primate and establishes a general approach for characterizing other emerging model organisms.
Cell biology, Transcriptomics
Determinants of successful AAV-vectored delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in early life
Original Paper | HIV infections | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Amir Ardeshir, Daniel O’Hagan, Isha Mehta, Siddhartha Shandilya, Lincoln L. J. Hopkins, Lourdes Adamson, Marcelo J. Kuroda, Patricia A. Hahn, Lucas A. B. da Costa, Sebastian P. Fuchs, Jose M. Martinez-Navio, Matthew R. Gardner, Koen K. A. Van Rompay, Diogo M. Magnani, Jeffrey D. Lifson, Guangping Gao, Michael Farzan, Ronald C. Desrosiers, Jishnu Das, Mauricio A. Martins
Despite advances in HIV-1 prophylaxis, vertical transmission remains a pressing problem in developing countries1. Given the promise of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) for HIV-1 prevention2, we hypothesized that neonatal delivery of bNAbs using adeno-associated virus (AAV) could provide durable HIV-1 immunity during infancy. Here, using infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) as a model, we show that a one-time administration of an AAV vector encoding bNAb 3BNC117 at birth led to sustained bNAb expression for more than three years without redosing. This approach significantly protected both infant and pre-adolescent rhesus macaques from infection with simian-human immunodeficiency virus in mucosal challenge models that mimic HIV-1 transmission through breastfeeding and sexual intercourse. Age at the time of AAV-3BNC117 administration was a main determinant of success and was inversely correlated with the incidence of host anti-drug antibodies that restricted bNAb expression. Consistent with principles of neonatal tolerance3,4, newborn rhesus macaques exhibited higher levels of bNAb expression than older infants and juveniles following AAV-3BNC117 dosing. Furthermore, in utero exposure to recombinant 3BNC117 suppressed anti-drug antibodies and improved AAV-vectored delivery of this bNAb in older infants. Thus, our results suggest that neonatal and fetal immunological tolerance can be leveraged to improve postnatal AAV delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in primates. Since years-long HIV-1 immunity can be generated in rhesus macaques from a one-time AAV vector administration at birth, future studies should evaluate the ability of this strategy to prevent perinatal and adolescent HIV-1 infections in humans.
HIV infections, Immunization, Paediatric research
Securing the forest carbon sink for the European Union’s climate ambition
Review Paper | Climate change | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Mirco Migliavacca, Giacomo Grassi, Ana Bastos, Guido Ceccherini, Philippe Ciais, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Emanuele Lugato, Miguel D. Mahecha, Kimberly A. Novick, Josep Peñuelas, Roberto Pilli, Markus Reichstein, Valerio Avitabile, Pieter S. A. Beck, José I. Barredo, Giovanni Forzieri, Martin Herold, Anu Korosuo, Nicolas Mansuy, Sarah Mubareka, Rene Orth, Paul Rougieux, Alessandro Cescatti
The European Union (EU) climate policies rely on a functioning forest carbon sink. Forests cover about 40% of the EU area and have absorbed about 436 Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent per year between 1990 and 2022, which is about 10% of the EU’s anthropogenic emissions. However, the ability of forests to act as carbon sinks is rapidly declining owing to increasing natural and anthropogenic pressures, threatening the EU’s climate goals and calling for prompt actions. Here we provide actionable research recommendations to improve the monitoring and modelling of forest resources and their carbon sink, and to better inform forest management decisions. We suggest a timeline for the development of these measures to better support the implementation of strategies and policies outlined in the European Green Deal.
Climate change, Climate-change ecology
Towards more effective nature-based climate solutions in global forests
Review Paper | Climate-change impacts | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
William R. L. Anderegg, Libby Blanchard, Christa Anderson, Grayson Badgley, Danny Cullenward, Peng Gao, Michael L. Goulden, Barbara Haya, Jennifer A. Holm, Matthew D. Hurteau, Marysa Lague, Meng Liu, Kimberly A. Novick, James Randerson, Anna T. Trugman, Jonathan A. Wang, Christopher A. Williams, Chao Wu, Linqing Yang
Terrestrial ecosystems could contribute to climate mitigation through nature-based climate solutions (NbCS), which aim to reduce ecosystem greenhouse gas emissions and/or increase ecosystem carbon storage. Forests have the largest potential for NbCS, aligned with broader sustainability benefits, but–unfortunately–a broad body of literature has revealed widespread problems in forest NbCS projects and protocols that undermine the climate mitigation of forest carbon credits and hamper efforts to reach global net zero. Therefore, there is a need to bring better science and policy to improve NbCS climate mitigation outcomes going forward. Here we synthesize challenges to crediting forest NbCS and offer guidance and key next steps to make improvements in the implementation of these strategies immediately and in the near-term. We structure our Perspective around four key components of rigorous forest NbCS, illuminating key science and policy considerations and providing solutions to improve rigour. Finally, we outline a ‘contribution approach’ to support rigorous forest NbCS that is an alternative funding mechanism that disallows compensation or offsetting claims.
Climate-change impacts, Climate-change policy, Forestry
Diffusing protein binders to intrinsically disordered proteins
Original Paper | Diagnostic markers | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Caixuan Liu, Kejia Wu, Hojun Choi, Hannah L. Han, Xueli Zhang, Joseph L. Watson, Green Ahn, Jason Z. Zhang, Sara Shijo, Lydia L. Good, Charlotte M. Fischer, Asim K. Bera, Alex Kang, Evans Brackenbrough, Brian Coventry, Derrick R. Hick, Seema Qamar, Xinting Li, Justin Decarreau, Stacey R. Gerben, Wei Yang, Inna Goreshnik, Dionne Vafeados, Xinru Wang, Mila Lamb, Analisa Murray, Sebastian Kenny, Magnus S. Bauer, Andrew N. Hoofnagle, Ping Zhu, Tuomas P. J. Knowles, David Baker
Proteins that bind to intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) with high affinity and specificity could be useful for therapeutic and diagnostic applications1,2,3,4. However, a general methodology for targeting IDPs or IDRs has yet to be developed. Here we show that starting only from the target sequence of the input, and freely sampling both target and binding protein conformations, RFdiffusion5 can generate binders to IDPs and IDRs in a wide range of conformations. We used this approach to generate binders to the IDPs amylin, C-peptide, VP48 and BRCA1_ARATH in diverse conformations with a dissociation constant (Kd) ranging from 3 to 100 nM. For the IDRs G3BP1, common cytokine receptor γ-chain (IL-2RG) and prion protein, we diffused binders to β-strand conformations of the targets, obtaining Kd between 10 and 100 nM. Fluorescence imaging experiments show that the binders bind to their respective targets in cells. The G3BP1 binder disrupts stress granule formation in cells, and the amylin binder inhibits amyloid fibril formation and dissociates existing fibres, enables targeting of both monomeric and fibrillar amylin to lysosomes, and increases the sensitivity of mass spectrometry-based amylin detection. Our approach should be useful for creating binders to flexible IDPs or IDRs spanning a wide range of intrinsic conformational preferences.
Diagnostic markers, Protein aggregation, Protein design
Tropical response to ocean circulation slowdown raises future drought risk
Original Paper | Palaeoclimate | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Pedro N. DiNezio, Timothy M. Shanahan, Tianyi Sun, Chijun Sun, Xian Wu, Allison Lawman, David Lea, Masa Kageyama, Ute Merkel, Matthias Prange, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Xu Zhang
Projections of tropical rainfall under global warming remain highly uncertain1,2, largely because of an unclear climate response to a potential weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC)3. Although an AMOC slowdown can substantially alter tropical rainfall patterns4,5,6,7,8, the physical mechanisms linking high-latitude changes to tropical hydroclimate are poorly understood11. Here we demonstrate that an AMOC slowdown drives widespread shifts in tropical rainfall through the propagation of high-latitude cooling into the tropical North Atlantic. We identify and validate this mechanism using climate model simulations and palaeoclimate records from Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1)–a past period marked by pronounced AMOC weakening9,10. In models, prevailing easterly and westerly winds communicate the climate signal to the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean through the transport of cold air generated over the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic. Air-sea interactions transmit the response across the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, altering rainfall patterns as far as Indonesia, the tropical Andes and northern Australia. A similar teleconnection emerges under global warming scenarios, producing a consistent multi-model pattern of tropical hydroclimatic change. These palaeo-validated projections show widespread drying across Mesoamerica, the Amazon and West Africa, highlighting an elevated risk of severe drought for vulnerable human and ecological systems.
Palaeoclimate, Projection and prediction
SuFEx-based antitubercular compound irreversibly inhibits Pks13
Original Paper | Structure-based drug design | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Inna V. Krieger, Paridhi Sukheja, Baiyuan Yang, Su Tang, Daniel Selle, Ashley Woods, Curtis Engelhart, Pradeep Kumar, Michael B. Harbut, Dongdong Liu, Brendan Tsuda, Bo Qin, Grant A. L. Bare, Gencheng Li, Victor Chi, Julian Gambacurta, Janine Hvizdos, Matthew Reagan, Isabelle L. Jones, Lisa M. Massoudi, Lisa K. Woolhiser, Alessandro Cascioferro, Erica Kundrick, Parul Singh, William Reiley, Thomas R. Ioerger, Dilipkumar Reddy Kandula, Jacob W. McCabe, Taijie Guo, David Alland, Helena I. Boshoff, Dirk Schnappinger, Gregory T. Robertson, Khisi Mdluli, Kyoung-Jin Lee, Jiajia Dong, Shuangwei Li, Peter G. Schultz, Sean B. Joseph, Melissa S. Love, K. Barry Sharpless, H. Michael Petrassi, Arnab K. Chatterjee, James C. Sacchettini, Case W. McNamara
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains the world’s deadliest bacterial pathogen1. There is an urgent medical need to develop new drugs that shorten the treatment duration to combat widespread multi-drug-resistant and extensive-drug-resistant Mtb. Here, we present a preclinical covalent compound, CMX410, that contains an aryl fluorosulfate (SuFEx)2 warhead and uniquely targets the acyltransferase domain of Pks13, an essential enzyme in cell-wall biosynthesis. CMX410 is equipotent against drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains of Mtb and efficacious in multiple mouse models of infection. Inhibition by CMX410 is irreversible through a previously undescribed mechanism: CMX410 reacts with the catalytic serine of the AT domain of Pks13, rapidly and irreversibly disabling the active site by forming a β-lactam. CMX410 is highly selective for its target and thus demonstrates excellent pharmacological and safety profiles, including no adverse effects in a 14-day rat toxicity study up to 1,000 mg kg-1 per day. The distinctive mode of action from current drugs, high potency across all tested clinical isolates, oral bioavailability, favourable performance in drug combination testing and superior pharmacological and safety characteristics make CMX410 a promising first-in-class candidate to replace outdated cell-wall biosynthesis inhibitors, such as isoniazid and ethambutol, in tuberculosis regimens.
Structure-based drug design, X-ray crystallography
Design of highly functional genome editors by modelling CRISPR-Cas sequences
Original Paper | Biotechnology | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Jeffrey A. Ruffolo, Stephen Nayfach, Joseph Gallagher, Aadyot Bhatnagar, Joel Beazer, Riffat Hussain, Jordan Russ, Jennifer Yip, Emily Hill, Martin Pacesa, Alexander J. Meeske, Peter Cameron, Ali Madani
Gene editing has the potential to solve fundamental challenges in agriculture, biotechnology and human health. CRISPR-based gene editors derived from microorganisms, although powerful, often show notable functional tradeoffs when ported into non-native environments, such as human cells1. Artificial-intelligence-enabled design provides a powerful alternative with the potential to bypass evolutionary constraints and generate editors with optimal properties. Here, using large language models2 trained on biological diversity at scale, we demonstrate successful precision editing of the human genome with a programmable gene editor designed with artificial intelligence. To achieve this goal, we curated a dataset of more than 1 million CRISPR operons through systematic mining of 26 terabases of assembled genomes and metagenomes. We demonstrate the capacity of our models by generating 4.8× the number of protein clusters across CRISPR-Cas families found in nature and tailoring single-guide RNA sequences for Cas9-like effector proteins. Several of the generated gene editors show comparable or improved activity and specificity relative to SpCas9, the prototypical gene editing effector, while being 400 mutations away in sequence. Finally, we demonstrate that an artificial-intelligence-generated gene editor, denoted as OpenCRISPR-1, exhibits compatibility with base editing. We release OpenCRISPR-1 to facilitate broad, ethical use across research and commercial applications.
Biotechnology, Data mining, Protein design
Mouse lemur cell atlas informs primate genes, physiology and disease
Original Paper | Cell biology | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Camille Ezran, Shixuan Liu, Stephen Chang, Jingsi Ming, Lisbeth A. Guethlein, Michael F. Z. Wang, Roozbeh Dehghannasiri, Julia Olivieri, Hannah K. Frank, Alexander Tarashansky, Winston Koh, Qiuyu Jing, Olga Botvinnik, Jane Antony, Iwijn De Vlaminck, Megan A. Albertelli, Caitlin J. Karanewsky, Jozeph L. Pendleton, Fabienne Aujard, Martine Perret, Liza Shapiro, Andriamahery Razafindrakoto, Hajanirina Noëline Ravelonjanahary, Patricia Wright, Anne D. Yoder, Cathy V. Williams, Robert Schopler, Ute Radespiel, Jean-Michel Verdier, Corinne Lautier, E. Christopher Kirk, Rebecca Lewis, Kerriann M. Casey, Kyle J. Travaglini, Astrid Gillich, Zicheng Zhao, Elias Godoy, Jérémy Terrien, Jacques Epelbaum, Dita Gratzinger, Katherine Lucot, Thomas Montine, Jessica D’Addabbo, Isaac Bakerman, Patricia Nguyen, Aaron Kershner, Karim Mrouj, Philip Beachy, Rahul Sinha, Yue Zhang, Irving L. Weissman, Thomas H. Ambrosi, Malachia Hoover, Alina Alam, Charles Chan, SoRi Jang, Avin Veerakumar, Peng Li, Andrea R. Yung, Connor V. Duffy, Song-Lin Ding, Ed S. Lein, Silvana Konermann, Liqun Luo, Trygve E. Bakken, Justus M. Kebschull, Rebecca D. Hodge, Taichi Isobe, Michael F. Clarke, Antoine de Morree, Biter Bilen, Jean Farup, Andoni Urtasun, Jengmin Kang, Thomas A. Rando, Ming Chen, BaoXiang Li, Varun Ramanan Subramaniam, Shravani Mukherjee, Aditi Swarup, Lily Kim, Bronwyn Scott, Ahmad Al-Moujahed, Albert Y. Wu, Douglas Vollrath, Lubert Stryer, Nicholas Schaum, Amanda L. Wiggenhorn, Tony Wyss-Coray, Yin Liu, Lolita Penland, Gabriel Loeb, Shengda Lin, Honor Paine, Deviana Burhan, Aris Taychameekiatchai, Steven Artandi, Bruce Wang, F. Hernán Espinoza, Christin Kuo, Ross Metzger, Norma Neff, Zhen Qi, Rebecca Culver, Kerwyn C. Huang, Patrick Neuhöfer, Charles A. Chang, Yan Hang, Seung K. Kim, Hannah N. W. Weinstein, Paul Allegakoen, Franklin W. Huang, Sivakamasundari V., Song Eun Lee, Kazuteru Hasegawa, Hosu Sin, Margaret T. Fuller, Wan-Jin Lu, Ankit Baghel, William Kong, Carly Israel, Rene Sit, Jennifer Okamoto, Ashley Maynard, Michelle Tan, Youcef Ouadah, Jalal Baruni, Timothy Ting-Hsuan Wu, Robert C. Jones, Maurizio Morri, Spyros Darmanis, Sheela Crasta, Jia Yan, Aditi Agrawal, Shelly Huynh, Brian Yu, James Webber, Jia Zhao, Gefei Wang, Weilun Tan, Saba Nafees, Zhengda Li, Stephen R. Quake, Geoff Stanley, Jinxurong Yang, Sheng Wang, Snigdha Agarwal, Kyle Awayan, Erin McGeever, Venkata N. P. Vemuri, Pranav V. Lalgudi, Angela Oliveira Pisco, Jim Karkanias, Can Yang, James E. Ferrell Jr, Scott D. Boyd, Peter Parham, Jonathan Z. Long, Bo Wang, Julia Salzman, Iwijn De Vlaminck, Angela Ruohao Wu, Stephen R. Quake, Mark A. Krasnow
Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are an emerging primate model organism, but their genetics, cellular and molecular biology remain largely unexplored. In an accompanying paper1, we performed large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing of 27 organs from mouse lemurs. We identified more than 750 molecular cell types, characterized their transcriptomic profiles and provided insight into primate evolution of cell types. Here we use the generated atlas to characterize mouse lemur genes, physiology, disease and mutations. We uncover thousands of previously unidentified lemur genes and hundreds of thousands of new splice junctions including over 85,000 primate splice junctions missing in mice. We systematically explore the lemur immune system by comparing global expression profiles of key immune genes in health and disease, and by mapping immune cell development, trafficking and activation. We characterize primate-specific and lemur-specific physiology and disease, including molecular features of the immune program, lemur adipocytes and metastatic endometrial cancer that resembles the human malignancy. We present expression patterns of more than 400 primate genes missing in mice, many with similar expression patterns to humans and some implicated in human disease. Finally, we provide an experimental framework for reverse genetic analysis by identifying naturally occurring nonsense mutations in three primate immune genes missing in mice and by analysing their transcriptional phenotypes. This work establishes a foundation for molecular and genetic analyses of mouse lemurs and prioritizes primate genes, isoforms, physiology and disease for future study.
Cell biology, Transcriptomics
Epithelial cell membrane perforation induces allergic airway inflammation
Original Paper | Allergy | 2025-07-29 20:00 EDT
Kejian Shi, Yao Lv, Chunqiu Zhao, Huan Zeng, Yeqiong Wang, Yuxuan Liu, Lin Li, She Chen, Pu Gao, Feng Shao, Mo Xu
Allergens that induce allergic airway inflammation are highly diverse, but they commonly activate type 2 immune responses1,2. Airway epithelial cells are crucial in allergen sensing3,4,5. However, the shared features among diverse allergens that elicit similar innate responses, and their epithelial detection mechanisms, remain poorly defined1,2,6,7,8,9. Here we identify pore-forming proteins as one of the common stimuli of allergic airway inflammation and reveal their immune-activation mechanisms. Using the prevalent mould allergen Alternaria alternata as a model, we established an in vitro system to investigate type 2 innate immune sensing. A six-step biochemical fractionation identified Aeg-S and Aeg-L as the core immune-stimulatory components. Biochemical reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy reveal that these proteins form 16- to 20-mer transmembrane pore complexes. Their cooperative perforation acts as a bona fide type 2 immune adjuvant to support antigen-specific T helper 2 and immunoglobulin E responses. Genetically engineered A. alternata strains that lack pore-forming activity do not induce allergic responses in mice. Furthermore, pore-forming proteins from various species, despite structural and membrane target differences, are sufficient to trigger respiratory allergies. Perforations in airway epithelial cells initiate allergic responses through two mechanisms: one triggers IL-33 release, and the other involves Ca2+ influx, which activates MAPK signalling and type 2 inflammatory gene expression. These findings provide insight into how type 2 immune responses detect common perturbations caused by structurally diverse stimuli. Targeting downstream signalling of epithelial perforation may open new avenues for treating respiratory allergies.
Allergy, Asthma, Cell death and immune response, Innate immunity
Physical Review Letters
Magic Resources of the Heisenberg Picture
Research article | Quantum circuits | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Neil Dowling, Pavel Kos, and Xhek Turkeshi
We study a nonstabilizerness resource theory for operators, which is dual to that describing states. We identify that the stabilizer R'enyi entropy analog in operator space is a good magic monotone satisfying the usual conditions while inheriting efficient computability properties and providing a tight lower bound to the minimum number of non-Clifford gates in a circuit. Operationally, this measure quantifies how well an operator can be approximated by one with only a few Pauli strings—analogous to how entanglement entropy relates to tensor-network truncation. A notable advantage of operator stabilizer entropies is their inherent locality, as captured by a Lieb-Robinson bound. This feature makes them particularly suited for studying local dynamical magic resource generation in many-body systems. We compute this quantity analytically in two distinct regimes. First, we show that under random evolution, operator magic typically reaches near-maximal value for all R'enyi indices, and we evaluate the Page correction. Second, harnessing both dual unitarity and ZX graphical calculus, we solve the operator stabilizer entropy for interacting integrable XXZ circuit, finding that it quickly saturates to a constant value. Overall, this measure sheds light on the structural properties of many-body nonstabilizerness generation and can inspire Clifford-assisted tensor network methods.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 050401 (2025)
Quantum circuits, Quantum computation, Quantum gates, Resource theories, Quantum many-body systems, Exact solutions for many-body systems, Heisenberg model, Many-body techniques
Direct Implementation of High-Fidelity Three-Qubit Gates for Superconducting Processor with Tunable Couplers
Research article | Quantum algorithms | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Hao-Tian Liu, Bing-Jie Chen, Jia-Chi Zhang, Yong-Xi Xiao, Tian-Ming Li, Kaixuan Huang, Ziting Wang, Hao Li, Kui Zhao, Yueshan Xu, Cheng-Lin Deng, Gui-Han Liang, Zheng-He Liu, Si-Yun Zhou, Cai-Ping Fang, Xiaohui Song, Zhongcheng Xiang, Dongning Zheng, Yun-Hao Shi, Kai Xu, and Heng Fan
Three-qubit gates can be constructed using combinations of single-qubit and two-qubit gates, making their independent realization unnecessary. However, direct implementation of three-qubit gates reduces the depth of quantum circuits, streamlines quantum programming, and facilitates efficient circuit optimization, thereby enhancing overall performance in quantum computation. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity scheme for implementing a three-qubit controlled-controlled-z (ccz) gate in a flip-chip superconducting quantum processor with tunable couplers. This direct ccz gate is implemented by simultaneously leveraging two tunable couplers interspersed between three qubits to enable three-qubit interactions, achieving an average final state fidelity of 97.94% and a process fidelity of 93.54%. This high fidelity cannot be achieved through a simple combination of single- and two-qubit gate sequences from processors with similar performance levels. Our experiments also verify that multilayer direct implementation of the ccz gate exhibits lower leakage compared to decomposed gate approaches. As a showcase, we utilize the ccz gate as an oracle to implement the Grover search algorithm on three qubits, demonstrating high performance with the target probability amplitude significantly enhanced after two iterations. These results highlight the advantage of our approach, and facilitate the implementation of complex quantum circuits.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 050602 (2025)
Quantum algorithms, Quantum algorithms & computation, Quantum benchmarking, Quantum circuits, Quantum computation, Quantum control, Quantum gates, Quantum measurements, Quantum tomography, Qubits, Superconducting qubits
Observation of the very rare ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}\rightarrow p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{- }$ decay
Research article | Branching fraction | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
R. Aaij et al. (LHCb Collaboration)
The first observation of the ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}\rightarrow p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{- }$ decay is reported with high significance using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{- 1}$, collected with the LHCb detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. A yield of $237\pm{}16\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}\rightarrow p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{- }$ decays is obtained, where the uncertainty is statistical only. A branching fraction of $(1.08\pm{}0.17)\times{}{10}^{- 8}$ is measured, where the uncertainty includes statistical and systematic sources. No evidence of resonant structures is found in the dimuon invariant-mass distribution. All results are compatible with standard model expectations. This represents the rarest decay of a baryon ever observed.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 051801 (2025)
Branching fraction, Flavor changing neutral currents, Leptonic, semileptonic & radiative decays, Particle decays, Rare decays
Stabilizing Open Photon Condensates by Ghost-Attractor Dynamics
Research article | Bose-Einstein condensates | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Aya Abouelela, Michael Turaev, Roman Kramer, Moritz Janning, Michael Kajan, Sayak Ray, and Johann Kroha
We study the temporal, driven-dissipative dynamics of open photon Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in a dye-filled microcavity, taking the condensate amplitude and the noncondensed fluctuations into account on the same footing by means of a cumulant expansion within the Lindblad formalism. The fluctuations fundamentally alter the dynamics in that the BEC always dephases to zero for a sufficiently long time. However, a ghost attractor, although outside of the physically accessible configuration space, attracts the dynamics and leads to a plateaulike stabilization of the BEC for an exponentially long time, consistent with experiments. We also show that the photon BEC and the lasing state are separated by a true phase transition, since they are characterized by different fixed points. The ghost-attractor nonequilibrium stabilization mechanism is an alternative to prethermalization and may possibly be realized on other dynamical platforms as well.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 053402 (2025)
Bose-Einstein condensates, Decoherence in quantum gases, Quantum description of light-matter interaction, Quantum many-body systems, Jaynes-Cummings model
Greater than 1000-fold Gain in a Free-Electron Laser Driven by a Laser-Plasma Accelerator with High Reliability
Research article | Laser driven electron acceleration | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
S. K. Barber, F. Kohrell, C. E. Doss, K. Jensen, C. Berger, F. Isono, Z. Eisentraut, S. Schröder, A. J. Gonsalves, K. Nakamura, G. R. Plateau, R. A. van Mourik, M. Gracia-Linares, L. Labun, B. M. Hegelich, S. V. Milton, C. G. R. Geddes, J. Osterhoff, C. B. Schroeder, E. H. Esarey, and J. van Tilborg
A laser-plasma-driven free-electron laser achieves record performance, marking a step toward making intense, ultrafast x-ray sources more accessible.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 055001 (2025)
Laser driven electron acceleration, Laser wakefield acceleration, Laser-plasma interactions, Particle acceleration in plasmas, Plasma acceleration & new acceleration techniques, Lasers
Approximately Symmetric Neural Networks for Quantum Spin Liquids
Research article | Quantum correlations in quantum information | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Dominik S. Kufel, Jack Kemp, DinhDuy Vu, Simon M. Linsel, Chris R. Laumann, and Norman Y. Yao
A new neural network scheme based on approximate symmetry facilitates neural quantum state interpretability.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 056702 (2025)
Quantum correlations in quantum information, Quantum spin liquid, Quantum many-body systems, Topological materials, Artificial neural networks, Symmetries in condensed matter
Dissipation Enables Robust Extensive Scaling of Multipartite Correlations
Research article | Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Krzysztof Ptaszyński and Massimiliano Esposito
We investigate the multipartite mutual information between $N$ discrete-state stochastic units interacting in a network that is invariant under unit permutations. We show that, when the system relaxes to fixed point attractors, multipartite correlations in the stationary state either do not scale extensively with $N$ or the extensive scaling is not robust to arbitrarily small perturbations of the system dynamics. In particular, robust extensive scaling cannot occur in thermodynamic equilibrium. In contrast, mutual information scales extensively when the system relaxes to time-dependent attractors (e.g., limit cycles), which can occur only far from equilibrium. This demonstrates the essential role of dissipation in the generation and maintenance of multipartite correlations. We illustrate our theory with the nonequilibrium Potts model.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 057401 (2025)
Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, Phase transitions, Stochastic processes, Stochastic thermodynamics, Synchronization, Coupled oscillators, Information theory
Resolving Dual Processes in Complex Oscillatory Yielding
Research article | Elastic deformation | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
James J. Griebler, Anita S. Dobo, Elizabeth E. Miczuga, and Simon A. Rogers
The complex two-step yielding observed in some soft materials under oscillatory shearing is shown to result from two independent phenomena. The first step at small deformations corresponds to elastic softening, while the larger deformation feature corresponds to yielding. This interpretation is supported by experimental recovery rheology data and the construction of a rheo-physical model. Our findings elucidate the mechanisms governing complex yielding and underscore the insight afforded by recovery experiments, which decouple the underlying physics between recoverable and unrecoverable processes.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 058201 (2025)
Elastic deformation, Elastic forces, Mechanical deformation, Non-Newtonian fluids, Plastic deformation, Rheological properties, Rheology, Rheology techniques, Shear deformation
Physical Review X
Inelastic Tunneling into Multipolaronic Bound States in Single-Layer ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}$
Research article | Electron-phonon coupling | 2025-07-29 06:00 EDT
Camiel van Efferen, Laura Pätzold, Tfyeche Y. Tounsi, Arne Schobert, Michael Winter, Yann in ‘t Veld, Mark Georger, Affan Safeer, Christian Krämer, Jeison Fischer, Jan Berges, Thomas Michely, Roberto Mozara, Tim Wehling, and Wouter Jolie
Experiments and theory provide direct evidence of multipolaronic bound states in metallic monolayer MoS2, shedding light on how electrons behave in two-dimensional semiconductors.
Phys. Rev. X 15, 031030 (2025)
Electron-phonon coupling, Polarons, 2-dimensional systems, Density functional theory, Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy, Scanning tunneling spectroscopy
arXiv
Anomalies of global symmetries on the lattice
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Yi-Ting Tu, David M. Long, Dominic V. Else
‘t Hooft anomalies of global symmetries play a fundamental role in quantum many-body systems and quantum field theory (QFT). In this paper, we make a systematic analysis of lattice anomalies - the analog of ‘t Hooft anomalies in lattice systems - for which we give a precise definition. Crucially, a lattice anomaly is not a feature of a specific Hamiltonian, but rather is a topological invariant of the symmetry action. The controlled setting of lattice systems allows for a systematic and rigorous treatment of lattice anomalies, shorn of the technical challenges of QFT. We find that lattice anomalies reproduce the expected properties of QFT anomalies in many ways, but also have crucial differences. In particular, lattice anomalies and QFT anomalies are not, contrary to a common expectation, in one-to-one correspondence, and there can be non-trivial anomalies on the lattice that are infrared (IR) trivial: they admit symmetric trivial gapped ground states, and map to trivial QFT anomalies at low energies. Nevertheless, we show that lattice anomalies (including IR-trivial ones) have a number of interesting consequences in their own right, including connections to commuting projector models, phases of many-body localized (MBL) systems, and quantum cellular automata (QCA). We make substantial progress on the classification of lattice anomalies and develop several theoretical tools to characterize their consequences on symmetric Hamiltonians. Our work places symmetries of quantum many-body lattice systems into a unified theoretical framework and may also suggest new perspectives on symmetries in QFT.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
59 pages, 14 figures
Magnetically ordered yet topologically robust phases emerging in concurrent Kitaev spin liquids
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Muhammad Akram, Aayush Vijayvargia, Hae-Young Kee, Onur Erten
Spin-orbital generalizations of Kitaev model, such as Yao-Lee model, have attracted recent attention due to their enhanced stability of spin liquid phases against perturbations. Motivated by microscopic calculations for the realization of Yao-Lee model showing additional interactions, we study the phase diagram of the Yao-Lee model with added Kitaev and Heisenberg terms. While the plaquette operator is conserved even in the presence of added perturbations, the model becomes no longer exactly solvable. Using perturbation and Majorana mean-field theory, we find magnetic order can arise in the spin sector while the orbital sector remains a liquid for dominant Kitaev interactions, whereas both sectors form liquid phases when Yao-Lee interactions dominate. Additional Heisenberg exchange can enhance or suppress the magnetic order, revealing a rich coexistence of magnetic and topological phases.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
Multiscale geometrical and topological learning in the analysis of soft matter collective dynamics
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Tetiana Orlova, Amaranta Membrillo Solis, Hayley R. O. Sohn, Tristan Madeleine, Giampaolo D’Alessandro, Ivan I. Smalyukh, Malgosia Kaczmarek, Jacek Brodzki
Understanding the behavior and evolution of a dynamical many-body system by analyzing patterns in their experimentally captured images is a promising method relevant for a variety of living and non-living self-assembled systems. The arrays of moving liquid crystal skyrmions studied here are a representative example of hierarchically organized materials that exhibit complex spatiotemporal dynamics driven by multiscale processes. Joint geometric and topological data analysis (TDA) offers a powerful framework for investigating such systems by capturing the underlying structure of the data at multiple scales. In the TDA approach, we introduce the $ \Psi$ -function, a robust numerical topological descriptor related to both the spatiotemporal changes in the size and shape of individual topological solitons and the emergence of regions with their different spatial organization. The geometric method based on the analysis of vector fields generated from images of skyrmion ensembles offers insights into the nonlinear physical mechanisms of the system’s response to external stimuli and provides a basis for comparison with theoretical predictions. The methodology presented here is very general and can provide a characterization of system behavior both at the level of individual pattern-forming agents and as a whole, allowing one to relate the results of image data analysis to processes occurring in a physical, chemical, or biological system in the real world.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Machine Learning (cs.LG)
13 pages, 6 figures
Anomaly-free symmetries with obstructions to gauging and onsiteability
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Wilbur Shirley, Carolyn Zhang, Wenjie Ji, Michael Levin
We present counterexamples to the lore that symmetries that cannot be gauged or made on-site are necessarily anomalous. Specifically, we construct unitary, internal symmetries of two-dimensional lattice models that cannot be consistently coupled to background or dynamical gauge fields or disentangled to a tensor product of on-site operators. These symmetries are nevertheless anomaly-free in the sense that they admit symmetric, gapped Hamiltonians with unique, invertible ground states. We show that symmetries of this kind are characterized by an index $ [\omega]\in H^2(G,\mathbb{Q}+)$ , where $ \mathbb{Q}+$ is the multiplicative group of rational numbers labeling one-dimensional quantum cellular automata.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
6+20 pages, 12 figures
Topological indicators for systems with open boundaries: Application to the Kitaev wire
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
B. Hetényi, A. Lászlóffy, K. Penc, B. Újfalussy
To clarify the relationship between edge electronic states in open-boundary crystalline systems and their corresponding bulk electronic structure, Alase et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 076804 (2016)] have recently generalized Bloch’s theorem to lattice models with broken translational symmetry. Their formalism provides a bulk-boundary correspondence indicator, D, sensitive directly to the localization of edge states. We extend this formalism in two significant ways. First, we explicitly classify the edge-state basis provided by the theory according to their underlying protecting symmetries. Second, acknowledging that the true topological invariant is the Zak phase, inherently defined only for periodic boundary conditions, we introduce an analogous quantity $ \gamma_Z$ , suitable for open-boundary systems. We illustrate these developments on the example of the Kitaev wire model. We demonstrate that both indicators, $ D$ and our open-boundary analog, $ \gamma_Z$ , effectively capture topological localization: while D diverges within the topological phase, $ \gamma_Z = \pi$ . We further examine eigenvalues ($ z$ ) of the lattice shift operator, showing that variations in these eigenvalues as a function of chemical potential provide additional signatures of topological phase transitions. Additionally, we study a periodic Kitaev wire containing a bond impurity, revealing that while the topological phase remains characterized by $ \gamma_Z = \pi$ , significant state localization near the impurity emerges only at critical values of the chemical potential.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Out-of-equilibrium spinodal-like scaling behaviors across the magnetic first-order transitions of 2D and 3D Ising systems
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Andrea Pelissetto, Ettore Vicari
We study the out-of-equilibrium scaling behavior of two-dimensional and three-dimensional Ising systems, when they are slowly driven across their {\em magnetic} first-order transitions at low temperature $ T<T_c$ , where $ T_c$ is the temperature of their continuous transition. We consider Kibble-Zurek (KZ) protocols in which a spatially homogenous magnetic field $ h$ varies as $ h(t)=t/t_s$ with a time scale $ t_s$ . The KZ dynamics starts from negatively-magnetized configurations equilibrated at $ h_i<0$ and stops at a positive value of $ h$ where the configurations acquire a positive average magnetization. We consider the Metropolis and the heat-bath dynamics, which are two specific examples of a purely relaxational dynamics. We focus on two different dynamic regimes. We consider the out-equilibrium finite-size scaling (OFSS) limit in which the system size $ L$ and the time scale $ t_s$ diverge simultaneously, keeping an appropriate combination fixed. Then, we analyze the KZ dynamics in the thermodynamic limit (TL), obtained by taking first the $ L\to\infty$ limit at fixed $ t$ and $ t_s$ , and then considering the scaling behavior in the large-$ t_s$ limit. Our numerical results provide evidence of OFSS, as predicted by general scaling arguments. The results in the TL show the emergence of spinodal-like behaviors: The passage from the negatively-magnetized phase to the positively-magnetized one occurs at positive values $ h_\ast>0$ of the magnetic field, which decrease as $ h_\ast \sim 1/(\ln t_s)^\kappa$ , with $ \kappa = 2$ and $ \kappa=1$ in two and three dimensions, respectively, for $ t_s\to\infty$ . We identify $ \sigma \equiv t (\ln t)^\kappa/t_s$ as the relevant scaling variable associated with the KZ dynamics in the TL.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat)
15 pages
Heterogeneous Ensemble Enables a Universal Uncertainty Metric for Atomistic Foundation Models
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Kai Liu, Zixiong Wei, Wei Gao, Poulumi Dey, Marcel H.F. Sluiter, Fei Shuang
Universal machine learning interatomic potentials (uMLIPs) are reshaping atomistic simulation as foundation models, delivering near \textit{ab initio} accuracy at a fraction of the cost. Yet the lack of reliable, general uncertainty quantification limits their safe, wide-scale use. Here we introduce a unified, scalable uncertainty metric (U) based on a heterogeneous model ensemble with reuse of pretrained uMLIPs. Across chemically and structurally diverse datasets, (U) shows a strong correlation with the true prediction errors and provides a robust ranking of configuration-level risk. Leveraging this metric, we propose an uncertainty-aware model distillation framework to produce system-specific potentials: for W, an accuracy comparable to full-DFT training is achieved using only (4%) of the DFT labels; for MoNbTaW, no additional DFT calculations are required. Notably, by filtering numerical label noise, the distilled models can, in some cases, surpass the accuracy of the DFT reference labels. The uncertainty-aware approach offers a practical monitor of uMLIP reliability in deployment, and guides data selection and fine-tuning strategies, thereby advancing the construction and safe use of foundation models and enabling cost-efficient development of accurate, system-specific potentials.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
REBCO delamination by transverse electromagnetic stress due to screening current in magnetic field
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Jun Lu, Jeremy Levitan, Yu Suetomi, Iain Dixon, Jan Jaroszynski
REBCO coated conductor has great potential to be used in ultra-high field magnets. Commercial REBCO tapes are strong in the longitudinal direction but prone to delamination by tensile stress in the thickness direction. For high field magnet applications, it is crucial to characterize delamination strength of REBCO conductor and better manage the transverse electromagnetic stress. In this work, the electromagnetic stress in high magnetic fields by screen current is used to study the delamination behavior of commercial REBCO tapes. Screening currents are induced in REBCO by either ramping field or rotating sample in magnetic fields up to 35 T. The experimental results are presented. The prospect of using this method for quality assurance in large magnet projects is discussed.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
5 pages, 5 figures, MT-29 poster presentation
Large-scale characterization of Single-Hole Transistors in 22-nm FDSOI CMOS Technology
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Thomas H. Swift, Alberto Gomez-Saiz, Virginia N. Ciriano-Tejel, David F. Wise, Grayson M. Noah, John J. L. Morton, M. Fernando Gonzalez-Zalba, Mark A. I. Johnson
State-of-the-art quantum processors have recently grown to reach 100s of physical qubits. As the number of qubits continues to grow, new challenges associated with scaling arise, such as device variability reduction and integration with cryogenic electronics for I/O management. Spin qubits in silicon quantum dots provide a platform where these problems may be mitigated, having demonstrated high control and readout fidelities and compatibility with large-scale manufacturing techniques of the semiconductor industry. Here, we demonstrate the monolithic integration of 384 p-type quantum dots, each embedded in a silicon transistor, with on-chip digital and analog electronics, all operating at deep cryogenic temperatures. The chip is fabricated using 22-nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) CMOS technology. We extract key quantum dot parameters by fast readout and automated machine learning routines to determine the link between device dimensions and quantum dot yield, variability, and charge noise figures. Overall, our results demonstrate a path to monolithic integration of quantum and classical electronics at scale.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
4 pages, 4 figures
Configurational Entropy and Adam-Gibbs Relation for Quantum Liquids
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Yang Zhou, Ali Eltareb, Gustavo E. Lopez, Nicolas Giovambattista
As a liquid approaches the glass state, its dynamics slows down rapidly, by a few orders of magnitude in a very small temperature range. In the case of light elements and small molecules containing hydrogen (e.g., water), such a process can be affected by nuclear quantum effects (due to quantum fluctuations/atoms delocalization). In this work, we apply the potential energy landscape (PEL) formalism and path-integral computer simulations to study the low-temperature behavior of a Lennard-Jones binary mixture (LJBM) that obeys quantum mechanics. We show that, as for the case of classical liquids, (i) a configurational entropy $ S_{IS}$ can be defined, and (ii) the Adam-Gibbs equation, which relates the diffusion coefficient of a liquid and its $ S_{IS}$ , holds for the studied quantum LJBM. Overall, our work shows that one theoretical approach, the PEL formalism, can be used to describe low-temperature liquids close to their glass transition, independently of whether the system obeys classical or quantum mechanics.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Charge-Transfer Complex $κ$-(BEST)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ Analogous to Organic Spin Liquid Candidate
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Takuya Kobayashi, Kent Andrew Sakurai, Shinji Michimura, Hiromi Taniguchi
We report the structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of the organic conductor $ \kappa$ -(BEST)$ _2$ Cu$ _2$ (CN)$ _3$ (BEST: bis(ethylenediseleno)tetrathiafulvalene; abbreviated as $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN), which is isostructural with the quantum spin liquid candidate $ \kappa$ -(ET)$ _2$ Cu$ _2$ (CN)$ _3$ (ET: bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene; abbreviated as $ \kappa$ -ET-CN). Resistivity measurements demonstrate that $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN exhibits semiconducting behavior, governed by the same conducting mechanism as $ \kappa$ -ET-CN. Under a pressure of ~0.1 GPa, $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN undergoes a superconducting transition with an onset temperature of ~4 K. From the comparison of the critical pressures of superconductivity between $ \kappa$ -ET-CN and $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN, $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN can be regarded as a chemically pressurized analogue of $ \kappa$ -ET-CN. Therefore, $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN, in which only the effective pressure changes without altering the anion structure, is considered a valuable reference material for elucidating the enigmatic properties observed in $ \kappa$ -ET-CN. Furthermore, the spin susceptibility of $ \kappa$ -BEST-CN is slightly larger than that of $ \kappa$ -ET-CN and shows weaker temperature dependence, which cannot be explained by the localized spin model. This behavior clarifies the anomalous magnetic properties of a system with frustration near the Mott transition, serving to stimulate future theoretical research.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
15 pages, 9 figures
Investigating the effects of local environment on nitrogen vacancies in high entropy metal nitrides
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Charith R. DeSilva (1), Matthew D. Witman (2), Dallas R. Trinkle (1) ((1) Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (2) Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA)
High entropy metal nitrides are an important material class in a variety of applications, and the role of nitrogen vacancies is of great importance for understanding their stability and mechanical properties. We study six different high entropy nitrides with eight different metal species to build a predictive model of the nitrogen vacancy formation energy. We construct sets of supercells that maximize the number of unique nitrogen environments for a given chemistry, and then use density-functional theory to calculate the energy density for all nitrogen sites, and the vacancy formation energies for the highest, lowest, and a median subset based on the energy densities. The energy density of nitrogen sites correlates with the vacancy formation energies, for binary, ternary and high entropy nitrides. A linear regression model predicts the vacancy formation energies using only the nearest-neighbor composition; across our eight metals, we find the largest vacancy formation energies next to Hf, then Zr, Ti, V, Cr, Ta, Nb, and the lowest near Mo. Additionally, we see that binary nitride data shows qualitatively similar vacancy formation energy trends for high entropy nitrides; however, the binary data alone is insufficient to predict the complex nitride behavior. Our model is both predictive and easily interpretable, and correlates with experimental data.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
30 pages, 9 figures
Excitation and tunneling spectra of a fractional quantum Hall system in the thin cylinder limit
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Jyesta M. Adhidewata, Joel E. Moore
The excitations of fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) states have been largely inaccessible to experimental probes until recently. New electron scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) results from Hu this http URL. (2023) show promise in detecting and identifying these excited states via the local density of states (LDOS) spectrum. On a torus, there exists a mapping to a 1D lattice Hamiltonian with center-of-mass or dipole moment conservation. In this work, we apply perturbation theory starting from the thin cylinder limit ($ L_x \rightarrow \infty, L_y <l_B$ for torus dimensions $ L_x$ and $ L_y$ ) to obtain an analytical approach to the low-lying neutral and charged excitations of the $ \nu =1/3$ FQHE state. Notably, in the thin cylinder we can systematically enumerate all the low-lying excitations by the patterns of ‘dipoles’ formed by the electron occupation pattern on the 1D lattice. We find that the thin-cylinder limit predicts a significant dispersion of the low-lying neutral excitations but sharpness of the LDOS spectra, which measure charged excitations. We also discuss connections between our work and several different approaches to the FQHE STM spectra, including those using the composite fermion theory. Numerical exact diagonalization beyond the thin-cylinder limit suggests that the energies of charged excitations remain largely confined to a narrow range of energies, which in experiments might appear as a single peak.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
21 pages, 6 figures
High-resolution Measurements of Thermal Conductivity Matrix and Search for Thermal Hall Effect in La$_2$CuO$_4$
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Jiayi Hu, Haozhi Xu, Juntao Yao, Genda Gu, Qiang Li, N. P. Ong
We investigated the longitudinal thermal conductivity $ \kappa_{xx}$ and thermal hall conductivity $ \kappa_{xy}$ in La$ 2$ CuO$ 4$ at temperatures $ T$ between 2 and 20 K in magnetic fields $ H$ up to 10 T. Within the temperature and field intervals studied, we do not resolve any thermal Hall signal with a conservative upper bound of $ |\kappa{xy}/T| <1\times10^{-4}$ $ {\rm Wm^{-1}K^{-2}}$ . The longitudinal thermal conductivity $ \kappa{xx}/T$ agrees well with previous studies, in both magnitude and $ T$ dependence. In both channels, we performed measurements using the field-sweep protocol. To achieve high resolution, we carefully took into account relaxation effects after each step-increase in $ H$ . At low $ T$ , we find a linear decrease in $ \kappa/T$ vs. $ H$ , as well as weak hysteresis near the meta-magnetic transition of the spin degrees.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Field-free Superconducting Diode Effect and Topological Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov Superconductivity in Altermagnetic Shiba Chains
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Dibyendu Samanta, Sudeep Kumar Ghosh
The superconducting diode effect (SDE), characterized by a directional asymmetry in the critical supercurrents, typically requires external magnetic fields to break time-reversal symmetry – posing challenges for scalability and device integration. Here, we demonstrate a field-free realization of the SDE in a helical Shiba chain proximitized by a d-wave altermagnet. Using a self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes approach, we uncover a topological Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconducting state that hosts tunable Majorana zero modes at the chain ends. This state is stabilized by the interplay between the exchange coupling of magnetic adatoms and the induced altermagnetic spin splitting. Crucially, the same FFLO phase supports strong nonreciprocal supercurrents, achieving diode efficiencies exceeding 45% without applied magnetic fields. The d-wave altermagnet plays a dual role: it intrinsically breaks time-reversal symmetry, enabling topological superconductivity, and introduces inversion symmetry breaking via momentum-dependent spin-splitting, driving the field-free SDE in a junction-free setting. The supercurrent-controlled finite Cooper pair momentum of the FFLO state modulates both the topological gap and the diode response. Our results establish the Shiba chain-altermagnet heterostructure as a promising platform for realizing topological superconducting devices with efficient, intrinsic superconducting diode functionality – offering a scalable pathway towards dissipationless quantum technologies.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
9 pages, 7 figures, Comments are welcome
Magneto-cubic and magneto-linear dependence observed in an in-plane anomalous Hall magnet
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ayano Nakamura, Shinichi Nishihaya, Mitsuru Akaki, Motoi Kimata, Kenta Sudo, Yuki Deguchi, Hsiang Lee, Tadashi Yoneda, Masaki Kondo, Hiroaki Ishizuka, Masashi Tokunaga, Masaki Uchida
The Hall effect, particularly that arising from in-plane magnetic field, has recently emerged as a sensitive probe of quantum geometric properties in solids. Especially in trigonal systems, in-plane anomalous Hall effect (AHE) can be explicitly induced by nontrivial off-diagonal coupling between the magnetic field and the Hall vector on the principal plane. Here we elucidate multipolar dependence of the off-diagonal coupling in the in-plane AHE, by systematically measuring on the (001) principal plane of trigonal antiferromagnet EuCd2Sb2 thin films for each magnetic phase. Around zero field, magneto-cubic dependence of anomalous Hall resistivity is clearly observed not only in the paramagnetic phase but also even in the antiferromagnetic phase. An off-diagonal component of the octupolar tensor also exhibits unconventional decay above the magnetic ordering temperature, roughly depending on the inverse temperature to the third power. In the forced ferromagnetic phase, on the other hand, magneto-linear dependence dominantly appears and notably persists up to very high fields. Our findings clarify key aspects of the off-diagonal coupling in the in-plane AHE, paving the way for its future investigations and potential applications beyond conventional expectations about the Hall effect.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
16 pages, 4 figures
Lifting spin degeneracy in rhombohedral trilayer graphene for high magnetoresistance applications
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Lishu Zhang, Jun Zhou, Jie Yang, Sumit Ghosh, Yi-Ming Zhao, Yuan Ping Feng, Lei Shen
Many exotic properties in rhombohedral (or ABC-stacked) multilayer graphene have recently been reported experimentally. In this Letter, we first reveal the underlying mechanism of spin degeneracy lifting in rhombohedral trilayer graphene. Then, we propose a design concept for all-rhombohedral graphene-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) by utilizing pristine, back-gated, and top-gated ABC-stacked trilayer graphene, which exhibit semimetallic (conducting), semiconducting (insulating), and half-metallic (ferromagnetic) behavior, respectively. This enables the realization of an “all-in-one” magnetic tunnel junction based entirely on trilayer graphene. This design enables voltage-controlled spintronics (lower power than conventional MTJs) with perfect interfacial matching and sub-nm thickness uniformity across 4-inch wafers. Using first-principles calculations and the non-equilibrium Greens function, we comprehensively study electronic structures and transport properties of these all-graphene MTJs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that their characteristics can be tuned via a perpendicular electric field and electron doping. Our findings offer a new concept for the development of fully graphene-based spintronic devices utilizing the three distinct electronic phases of rhombohedral trilayer graphene.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Gateways to Orbital and Spin Hall Effects in Rh-Doped Altermagnetic RuO$_2$
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ruthenium dioxide (RuO$ _2$ ) has recently emerged as a prototypical material for exploring the fundamental properties of altermagnets. In this work, we investigate the impact of Rhodium (Rh) doping on the electronic and transport characteristics of altermagnetic RuO$ _2$ using first-principles calculations. We show that Rh substitution at Ru sites modifies the spin-splitting of electronic bands across momentum space and reshapes the spin-resolved Fermi surface topology. These changes are found to significantly influence both the spin Hall and orbital Hall effects. In particular, we demonstrate that the orbital Berry curvature is strongly modulated by the doping concentration, opening new avenues for tuning orbital transport responses in multi-orbital systems without relying on strong spin-orbit coupling. Our results suggest that Rh-doped RuO$ _2$ provides a versatile platform for engineering spin and orbital Hall effects in altermagnetic materials, and contributes to the growing efforts in designing next-generation orbitronic and spintronic devices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Avalanche activity noises in sandpile models
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Rahul Chhimpa, Avinash Chand Yadav
We consider the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) and the Manna sandpile models of self-organized criticality. In the models, previous studies revealed a signature of long-range temporal correlations in the avalanche activity. We examine the power spectra of the noises with different system sizes and find that the power spectrum for a finite-size system exhibits three distinct frequency regimes: (i) a frequency-independent behavior below a lower cutoff frequency, (ii) a hump-type behavior in the intermediate-frequency regime, and (iii) a power-law scaling $ 1/f^{\alpha}$ in the high-frequency regime. The power scales with the system size in all regimes, but with different exponents. Also, the lower cutoff and peak frequencies decay in a power-law manner with the system size. We apply finite-size scaling and obtain data collapse for the power spectra, corroborating the estimation of the scaling exponents. Our studies reveal subtle scaling features for the temporal correlation within the avalanches.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
13 pages, 8 figures
Non-interacting fractional topological Stark insulator
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Yi-Hong Chen, Si-Yuan Chen, Xin-Chi Zhou, Xiong-Jun Liu
Fractional topological phases, such as the fractional quantum Hall state, usually rely on strong interactions to generate ground state degeneracy with gap protection and fractionalized topological response. Here, we propose a fractional topological phase without interaction in $ (1+1)$ -dimension, which is driven by the Stark localization on top of topological flat bands, different from the conventional mechanism of the strongly correlated fractional topological phases. A linear potential gradient applied to the flat bands drives the Stark localization, under which the Stark localized states may hybridize and leads to a new gap in the real space, dubbed the real space energy gap (RSEG). Unlike the integer topological band insulator obtained in the weak linear potential regime without closing the original bulk gap, the fractional topological Stark insulating phase is resulted from the RSEG when the linear potential gradient exceeds a critical value. We develop a theoretical formalism to characterize the fractional topological Stark insulator, and further show that the many-body state under topological pumping returns to the initial state only after multiple $ 2\pi$ periods of evolution, giving the fractional charge pumping, similar to that in fractional quantum Hall state. Finally, we propose how to realize the fractional topological Stark insulator in real experiment.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Revisiting THz absorption in GO and rGO liquid crystalline films
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
A. Vasilev, M. Zhezhu, H. Parsamyan, G. Baghdasaryan, M. Sargsyan, D.A. Ghazaryan, H. Gharagulyan
With a swift progress in modern high-throughput communication systems, security, sensing and medicine utilizing THz range technologies, the demand for easy-to-fabricate, lightweight and high-performance absorbing materials has increased drastically. Notably, traditional approaches of eliminating unwanted radiation based on metasurfaces often face fabrication challenges limiting their practicality. In this study, we propose a straightforward approach for fabricating graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) liquid crystalline (LC) films via the vacuum filtration method and investigate their THz absorption characteristics. Here, the presence of LC phase in our electrochemically exfoliated GO and rGO LC films was confirmed by ellipsometric characterization. THz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) measurements reveal that these films possess a low reflectance and transmittance confirming their strong absorptive properties within 0.4 - 1.6 THz frequency range for 2 micrometer thick GO and rGO LC films. Particularly, the GOLC film shows 37 % average absorption at a thickness of 2.12 micrometer, which is 221 times smaller than the central wavelength. Similarly, the rGOLC film reaches 50 % absorption with a 1.68 micrometer thickness, 279 times smaller than the central wavelength. These findings provide valuable insights for development of GO- and rGO-based LC THz absorbers with highly tunable properties due to the ordering of GO flakes. Specifically, the LC phase of GO contributes to the formation of more uniform films with enhanced absorption due to the compact stacking and denser packing, compared to conventional GO films with randomly oriented GO flakes.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Infrared Spectral Signature of Water as a Probe to Demystify Urea Aggregation and Force Field Accuracy
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Urea is widely used as a protein denaturant. However, the potential of urea to form self-assembled structures at higher concentrations and the influence of its self-interactions on water structure and dynamics remains elusive. This open question demands tracking of molecular-level rearrangements. In this work, we explore the influence of urea on local structure of water and dynamics and relate it to urea self-association. We correlate vibrational spectral response and orientational dynamics of water with concentration-dependent self-association of urea by looking at the interface surface area, hydrogen bond strength, and population of relevant donor-acceptor pairs. We compare the response of four urea force fields (KBFF, OPLS-S, OPLS-AA-D, GAFF-D3) with simple point charge extented water. The KBFF model reproduces experimental IR spectra. Both variants of the Duffy model (OPLS-S, OPLS-AA-D) show blue shifts with reasonable broadening and intense concentration-dependent responses, while GAFF-D3 shows random peak shifts with prominent broadening. Regarding urea self-aggregation, KBFF is mildly repulsive, Duffy models are attractive, and GAFF-D3 is neutral with high variability. Only KBFF and GAFF-D3 capture the expected deceleration in water-orientational dynamics. We conclude urea does not self-aggregate significantly in water, even at higher concentrations. KBFF emerges as the most reliable classical non-polarizable model of urea for capturing both structural and dynamic properties of water.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
29 pages, 38 figures
Dynamics of a Mobile Ion in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Piotr Wysocki, Marek Tylutki, Krzysztof Jachymski
Characterization of the dynamics of an impurity immersed in a quantum medium is vital for fundamental understanding of matter as well as applications in modern day quantum technologies. The case of strong and long-ranged interactions is of particular importance here, as it opens the possibility to leverage quantum correlations in controlling the system properties. Here, we consider a charged impurity moving in a bosonic gas and study its properties out of equilibrium. We extract the stationary momentum of the ion at long times, which is nonzero due to the superfluid nature of the medium, and the effective mass which stems from dressing the impurity with the host atoms. The nonlinear evolution leads not only to emission of density waves, but also momentum transfer back to the ion, resulting in the possibility of oscillatory dynamics.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Electronic localization and optical activity of strain-engineered transition-metal dichalcogenide nanobubbles
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Stefan Velja, Alexander Steinhoff, Jannis Krumland, Christopher Gies, Caterina Cocchi
Strain-engineered transition-metal dichalcogenide nanobubbles are promising platforms for quantum emission, as revealed by recent experimental observations. In this work, we present an ab initio investigation of MoS$ _2$ , WS$ _2$ , MoSe$ _2$ , and WSe$ _2$ nanobubbles, linking their structural and electronic properties to predictions of their optical activity. Inflating forces yield tunable geometries with non-uniform, apex-concentrated strain, which is sensitive to material rigidity. Strain modifies band gaps and universally induces non-dispersive valence states, exhibiting composition-dependent wave-function character, as revealed by an in-depth analysis of band structures and orbital contributions. Crucially, transitions from these apex-localized valence states are predominantly dark. This characteristic is attributed to their localization at the $ \Gamma$ -point, inhibiting transitions to the lowest unoccupied states that reside at the K-valley. While revealing that the herein considered sub-10-nm nanobubbles fall short as single-photon emitters, our findings provide essential understanding of the structure-property relations in emerging quantum materials, providing robust design rules to optimize their characteristics for novel quantum applications.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Theoretical investigations of the origin of persistent luminescence in spinel oxides MgGa2O4 and MgAl2O4
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Xiuli Yang, Ran Zhou, Hongliang Shi, Yifeng Duan, Mao-Hua Du
MgGa2O4 and MgAl2O4 have attracted significant interest due to their unique intrinsic persistent luminescence, offering promising potential for various applications. In this paper, from the perspective of defect physics, we systemically investigate the origin of persistent luminescence phenomena in pristine MgGa2O4 and MgAl2O4, employing accurate hybrid functional calculations. Our results show that vacancies and antisite defects involving the two cations are the dominant point defects in both materials. Our calculated optical excitation and emission peaks associated with the MgGa defect agree well with the experimentally observed blue luminescence peak at about 2.9 eV in MgGa2O4. In MgAl2O4, the intradefect optical transition within the VO-MgAl donor-acceptor defect complex is identified as a likely origin for the observed 2.7 eV emission peak. Furthermore, the calculated radiative recombination coefficients of MgGa and VO-MgAl are significantly higher than their nonradiative counterparts, supporting their roles as efficient luminescent centers. Our results regarding the optical processes of oxygen vacancy VO in MgGa2O4 and MgAl2O4 are also in good agreement with experimental results. Based on the calculated defect thermodynamic transition levels, the intrinsic persistent luminescence in MgGa2O4 and MgAl2O4 may be attributed to electron traps, GaMg and VO, in the former and a hole trap, MgAl, in the latter. Donor-acceptor defect complexes (VO+VMg and VO+VGa) are also found to serve as effective carrier trapping centers in MgGa2O4. The calculated trap depths are also consistent with thermoluminescence spectroscopy measurements.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
submitted to PRB on 13May2025
Metastability of 2D-material-on-metal-islands structures
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
V.A. Ievleva, V.A. Prudkoglyad, L.A. Morgun, A.Yu. Kuntsevich
The integration of 2D materials with artificially textured substrates offers exceptional opportunities for engineering novel functional devices. A straightforward technological route towards such devices is a mechanical dry or wet transfer of 2D layer or heterostructure onto prepared patterned elements with subsequent van der Waals bonding. Using hBN/graphene heterostructures transferred onto metallic island arrays as a model system, we reveal that thermal cycling between room and cryogenic temperatures leads to irreversible changes in electronic properties. This breakdown of reproducibility stems from the temperature-dependent redistribution of interfacial water or organic residues, which disrupts van der Waals bonding via a hydrophobic collapse mechanism. Our findings establish constraints for low-temperature applications of transferred 2D devices while providing insights into interfacial stability in van der Waals heterostructures.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
5 pages, 5 figures
What exactly is ‘active matter’?
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Michael te Vrugt, Benno Liebchen, Michael E. Cates
As the study of active matter has developed into one of the most rapidly growing subfields of condensed matter physics, more and more kinds of physical systems have been included in this framework. While the word ‘active’ is often thought of as referring to self-propelled particles, it is also applied to a large variety of other systems such as non-polar active nematics or certain particles with non-reciprocal interactions. Developing novel forms of active matter, as attempted, e.g., in the framework of quantum active matter, requires a clear idea of what active matter is. Here, we critically discuss how the understanding of active matter has changed over time, what precisely a definition of ‘active matter’ can look like, and to what extent it is (still) possible to define active matter in a way that covers all systems that are commonly understood as active matter while distinguishing them from other driven systems. Moreover, we discuss the definition of an ‘active field theory’, where ‘active’ is used as an attribute of a theoretical model rather than of a physical system. We show that the usage of the term ‘active’ requires agreement on a coarse-grained viewpoint. We discuss the meaning of ‘active’ both in general terms and via the specific examples of chemically driven particles, ultrasound-driven particles, active nematics, particles with non-reciprocal interactions, intracellular phase separation, and quantum active matter.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
Preprint, comments welcome
Dual effect of cholesterol on interfacial water dynamics in lipid membranes: Interplay between membrane packing and hydration
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Kokoro Shikata, Kento Kasahara, Nozomi Morishita Watanabe, Hiroshi Umakoshi, Kang Kim, Nobuyuki Matubayasi
Water contained within biological membranes plays a critical role in maintaining the separation between intracellular and extracellular environments and facilitating biochemical processes. Variations in membrane composition and temperature lead to phase state changes in lipid membranes, which in turn influence the structure and dynamics of the associated interfacial water. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were performed on binary membranes composed of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) or palmitoyl sphingomyelin (PSM) mixed with cholesterol (Chol). To elucidate the effects of Chol on interfacial water, we examined the orientation and hydrogen-bonding behavior of water molecules spanning from the membrane interior to the interface. As the Chol concentration increased, a transient slow down in water dynamics was observed in the gel phase at 303 K. Conversely, at higher Chol concentrations, water dynamics were accelerated relative to pure lipid membranes across all temperatures studied. Specifically, at a Chol concentration of 50%, the hydrogen bond lifetime in DPPC membranes decreased to approximately 0.5-0.7 times that of pure lipid membranes. This nonmonotonic behavior is attributed to the combined effects of membrane packing induced by Chol and a reduced density of lipid molecules in the hydrophilic region, offering key insights for modulating the dynamical properties of interfacial water.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
10 pages, 9 figures, 1 table for main text, 3 pages for supplementary material
Quantum Interference and Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Chain of Planar Quantum Rings: Effects on Magnetic and Transport Properties
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Magneto-transport properties of a two-dimensional electron gas in a chain of planar quantum rings are investigated under the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and a transverse homogeneous magnetic field. A modulation potential function models the ring-chain periodicity along one direction and the confinement in the perpendicular one. The electron energy minibands collapse into discrete levels with high degeneracy at specific magnetic field values. The Rashba effect significantly influences the system’s properties. Calculations reveal a transition from diamagnetic to paramagnetic behavior in the spin-difference orbital magnetization at high Rashba coupling strengths. This is consistent with the reversal of the spin-difference persistent current observed at the same Rashba values. Total and spin-difference magnetizations exhibit oscillations linked to miniband nodes. The longitudinal magnetoconductance component shows oscillations resembling Shubnikov-De Haas behavior, while the transverse component displays a ladder-like profile reminiscent of the quantum Hall effect. However, both phenomena are more closely associated with the periodic collapse of minibands, leading to strong density-of-states oscillations, rather than with the mechanisms behind the quantum Hall effect. This highlights the rich physics of quantum topological phases in nanostructures with non-trivial geometry. At high Rashba coupling, this behavior degrades. Spin magnetization shows pronounced oscillations, indicating complex interplay between the Zeeman and Rashba effects on spin polarization. These results offer insights into experimentally relevant electronic and spin characteristics attainable in modulated semiconductor structures, contributing to the development of advanced 2D-based materials for magneto-transport and spintronics applications.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
De Haas - van Alphen study of the Dirac nodal-line semimetal candidate TaPtTe$_5$
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Maximilian Daschner, F. Malte Grosche
We report a quantum oscillation study in the Dirac nodal-line semimetal candidate TaPtTe$ _5$ . The Fermi surface is probed via magnetic torque measurements with the magnetic field applied in the crystallographic a-b and b-c planes. The experimentally determined de Haas - van Alphen frequencies are consistent with results from band structure calculations. This study serves as an extension to the scarce quantum oscillation data on TaPtTe$ _5$ currently present in the literature.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity Induced by Quasi-Chain Configuration in Rb2Se3
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Tiantian Jia, Yongsen Tang, Yongsheng Zhang
Alkali metal-based compounds have garnered significant attention due to their exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity, which is crucial for applications in thermoelectric energy conversion and thermal barrier coatings. However, the fundamental mechanisms underlying such ultralow lattice thermal conductivity remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the intrinsic origins of the ultralow lattice thermal conductivity in the alkali metal-based ionic compound Rb2Se3, which exhibits a simple orthorhombic structure. By employing first-principles density functional theory (DFT) and solving the phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), we reveal that Rb2Se3 achieves lattice thermal conductivity values below 0.2 W/mK along all crystallographic directions at 300 K. Our analysis uncovers a unique quasi-chain configuration within the crystal structure, characterized by strongly covalent Se-Se-Se trimers that act as localized rigid units, while Rb atoms occupy weakly bonded interstitial sites. This configuration induces pronounced anisotropy, weak bonding, and strong anharmonicity, leading to significant rattling-like behavior of all atoms and a dominance of low-frequency phonon modes. The interplay between the rigid Se trimers and the soft Rb matrix results in extreme phonon anharmonicity, as evidenced by large Gruneisen parameters and high atomic displacement parameters (ADPs). These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the low lattice thermal conductivity in Rb2Se3 and establish a universal framework for designing low lattice thermal conductivity materials through the combination of rigid covalent clusters and soft ionic sublattices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Field driven Metal-Insulator transition in rhombohedral Bismuth and Arsenic crystals
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
N.K. Karn, Mukul S.Laad, V.P.S. Awana
The metal to insulator (MIT) transition is accompanied with huge changes in physical responses by the control and tuning of experimental parameters like doping, pressure, chemical composition, and magnetic field. Here, we study the magnetic field driven MIT for two pnictides in their elemental form, namely Arsenic and Bismuth. At low temperatures, Bismuth shows an unusual behaviour of a re-entrant IMT at high fields in addition to a higher temperature MIT at smaller fields. However, Arsenic shows the commonly observed single MIT. The Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) oscillations are observed for both As and Bi below 10 K, elucidating their two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) behaviour at low temperatures. Giant magneto-resistance of the order of 10^5 percent (MR percent) is observed for both crystals at 2 K and 14 Tesla transverse magnetic field. Based on a microscopic model, the microscopic processes underpinning the unusual features of a field-driven MIT and re-entrant IMT, along with the relevance of both excitonic and Bose metal correlations near these incipient instabilities, are qualitatively described in the framework of field-driven excitonic condensate and Das-Doniach preformed pair scenarios in one single picture.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
15 Pages Text + Figs
Dielectric Properties of Single Crystal Calcium Tungstate
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Elrina Hartman, Michael E Tobar, Ben T McAllister, Jeremy F Bourhill, Andreas Erb, Maxim Goryachev
This investigation employed microwave whispering gallery mode (WGM) analysis to characterize the dielectric properties of a cylindrical, single-crystal sample of calcium tungstate (CaWO$ 4$ ). Through investigation of quasi-transverse\hyp{}magnetic and quasi-transverse\hyp{}electric mode families, we can assess loss mechanisms and relative permittivity from room temperature down to cryogenic conditions. We report the biaxial permittivity values of $ \epsilon{||} = 9.029 \pm 0.09$ and $ \epsilon_{\perp} = 10.761 \pm 0.11$ at $ 295$ K, and $ \epsilon_{||} = 8.797 \pm 0.088$ and $ \epsilon_{\perp} = 10.442 \pm 0.104$ at $ 4$ K. Components are denoted with respect to the c\hyp{}axis of the crystal unit cell. The parallel component agrees well with the published literature at MHz frequencies; however, the perpendicular component is $ 4.8$ % lower. The WGM technique offers greater precision, with accuracy limited primarily by the uncertainty in the crystal’s dimensions. WGMs also serve as sensitive probes of lattice dynamics, enabling monitoring of temperature-dependent loss mechanisms. At room temperature, the measured loss tangents were $ \tan\delta_{||}^{295,\mathrm{K}} = (4.1 \pm 1.4) \times 10^{-5}$ and $ \tan\delta_{\perp}^{295,\mathrm{K}} = (3.64 \pm 0.92) \times 10^{-5}$ . Upon cooling to 4 K, the loss tangents improved by approximately two orders of magnitude, reaching $ \tan\delta_{||}^{4,\mathrm{K}} = (1.56 \pm 0.52) \times 10^{-7}$ and $ \tan\delta_{\perp}^{4,\mathrm{K}} = (2.05 \pm 0.79) \times 10^{-7}$ . These cryogenic values are higher than those reported in prior studies, likely due to a magnetic loss channel associated with an unidentified paramagnetic spin ensemble. These findings have implications for the use of CaWO$ _4$ in applications such as spin-based quantum systems and cryogenic bolometry, highlighting the potential of WGMs for novel sensing applications.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
White LED-based photocatalytic treatment using recoverable cobalt ferrite nanoparticles
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Naresh Prajapati, Manoj Kumar, Vidit Pandey, Sandeep Munjal, Himanshu Pandey
Contamination of freshwater sources has been alarming due to the widespread use of toxic chemicals in various industries. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as photocatalysis are widely explored to tackle such problems. In photocatalysis, highly oxidative species such as hydroxyl radicals (\astOH) are produced with the help of some semiconductor photocatalysts and light. A photocatalyst decomposes these toxic organic compounds in the presence of light. Spinel ferrite (MFe2O4, M = Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, etc.) materials are an important candidate as a photocatalyst due to their semiconducting behaviour and narrow optical bandgap. In this work, we have synthesized cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles using the sol-gel method and subsequently annealed at 500°C. The nanoparticles are characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Raman, and Infrared spectroscopy for structural analysis. The band gap of the material is evaluated using UV-visible spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of the material is investigated using methyl orange and methylene blue aqueous solutions as a model dye and a low-power white LED as a light source. The material could decompose 95 % of the dye after 150 minutes of irradiation. Adding hydrogen peroxide further improves the decomposition rate, with over 90 % decomposition achieved within 90 minutes.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
27 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables
Electrochemically-driven formation of Intermetallic Cu3ZnLi2 alters Li-transport in nanostructured bimetallic battery anode
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Eric V. Woods (1), Xinren Chen (1), Yuwei Zhang (1), J. Manoj Prabhakar (1), Patricia Jovičević-Klug (1), Matic Jovičević-Klug (1), Mahander P. Singh (1), Yujun Zhao (1), Siyuan Zhang (1), Stefan Zaefferer (1), Jian Liu (2), Yug Joshi (1), Baptiste Gault (1 and 3) ((1) Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials, Düsseldorf, Germany, (2) University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada, (3) Imperial College London, London, UK)
The role of Li-based batteries in the electrification of society cannot be understated, however their operational lifetime is often limited by the formation of dendrites, i.e. the localised deposition of Li that can cause shorts between the two electrodes leading to the failure of the battery. Nanocrystalline bimetallic current collectors can be used for anode-free Li-metal batteries, with improved Li plating and limited or suppressed formation of dendrites. Here, we demonstrate that the microstructure of an alpha-Brass current collector, Cu 63% Zn 37%, used in an anode-free Li-metal battery evolves during cycling. It initially had a nanocrystalline deformation layer approximately 80 nm in thickness after polishing. After 100 cycles, the initial deformed brass layer was partially converted to a ternary Laves phase Cu3ZnLi2 within a nanocrystalline brass matrix that grew to 200 - 250 nm in thickness. Upon Li stripping, the phase partially decomposes electrochemically, but what remains can sequester Li thus forming “dead Li” thereby contributing to capacity loss. We propose a mechanism for the microstructural evolution including dynamic recrystallization and phase formation. Since this ternary Laves phase emerges during electrochemical cycling alone, binary alloy current collectors must be assessed for metastable ternary phase formation under different cycling conditions to either stabilize and exploit such phases or electrochemically fully strip them.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
31 pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Corresponding authors: Eric V. Woods (this http URL@mpithis http URL), Yug Joshi (this http URL@mpithis http URL), Baptiste Gault (this http URL@mpithis http URL)
Multiferroicity and 180$^\circ$ domain switching in LaFeO$_3$ via Antisite Defects
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Souren Majani, Ulrich Aschauer
Materials with coexisting and coupled ferroelectric and magnetic orders are rare. Here we show, using density functional theory calculations, that inducing Fe$ _\mathrm{La}$ antisites into non-ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic LaFeO$ _3$ renders the material at the same time ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic. Even more excitingly, we observe a direct coupling between the ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic polarization, the latter being switchable by the former. While on average the magnetic moments of antisites would cancel, we envision that preparing defective LaFeO$ _3$ under simultaneous electric and magnetic fields will lead to a net magnetic moment due to magnetic domain reconfiguration. Moreover, ferroelectric switching under a static magnetic field can lead to 180$ ^\circ$ switching of the antiferromagnetic order in LaFeO$ _3$ .
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Detecting the Largest Correlations using the Correlation Density Matrix: a Quantum Monte Carlo Approach
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Aditya Chincholi, Sylvain Capponi, Fabien Alet
We present a quantum Monte Carlo-based approach to detect and compute the most dominant correlations for many-body systems without prior knowledge. It is based on the measurement and analysis of the correlation density matrix between two (small) subsystems embedded in the full (large) sample. In order to benchmark this procedure, we investigate zero-temperature quantum phase transitions in one- and two-dimensional quantum Ising model as well as the two-dimensional bilayer Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The method paves the way for a systematic identification of unknown or exotic order parameters in unexplored phases on large systems accessible to quantum Monte Carlo methods.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
15 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables
Orbital-selective charge transfer drives two-step negative thermal expansion structural transitions in PbTa2Se4
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Peng Li, Xiaohui Yang, Wenhua Song, Zhefeng Lou, Tongrui Li, Zhengtai Liu, Zhu’an Xu, Zhuoyu Chen, Xiao Lin, Yang Liu
The negative thermal expansion (NTE) effect has been found generally combined with structural phase transitions. However, the charge and orbital freedoms of the NTE has not been well studied. This study employs angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations to elucidate the charge and orbital kinetics of the anomalous two-step negative thermal expansion structural phase transitions in PbTa2Se4. As the temperature decreases, each transition undergoes a similar block-layer sliding, although the charge transfer behaviors differ significantly. During the first transition, charge is mainly transferred from the Pb 6pz orbital to an M-shaped band below the Fermi level, barely altering the Fermi surface. In contrast, the second transition involves modifications to both the Fermi surface and charge-transfer orbitals, with charge selectively transferred from Pb 6px/py orbitals to Ta 5dz2 orbitals and a decrease of the Fermi pockets formed by Pb 6px/py orbitals. Furthermore, a small pressure can easily tune the base structure phase among the three phases and the corresponding superconductivity. Therefore, our findings reveal that the orbital-selective charge transfer drives the unusual structure transition in PbTa2Se4, offering new insights into the NTE mechanisms and providing a unique window to study the pressure-tuned superconductivity in this metal-intercalated transition chalcogenides.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
4 figures
Interaction-Driven Altermagnetic Magnon Chiral Splitting
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Zhejunyu Jin, Zhaozhuo Zeng, Jie Liu, Tianci Gong, Ying Su, Kai Chang, Peng Yan
Nonrelativistic magnon chiral splitting in altermagnets has garnered significant recent attention. In this work, we demonstrate that nonlinear three-wave mixing – where magnons split or coalesce – extends this phenomenon into unprecedented relativistic regimes. Employing a bilayer antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, we identify three distinct classes of chiral splitting, each dictated by specific symmetries, such as $ C_4T$ , $ \sigma_v T$ , or their combination. This reveals a novel bosonic mechanism for symmetry-protected chiral splitting, capitalizing on the unique ability of magnons to violate particle-number conservation, a feature absent in low-energy fermionic systems. Our findings pave the way for engineering altermagnetic splitting, with potential applications in advanced magnonic devices and deeper insights into magnon dynamics in complex magnetic systems.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
6 pages, 2 figures
Ultralow thermal conductivity via weak interactions in PbSe/PbTe monolayer heterostructure for thermoelectric design
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ruihao Tan, Kaiwang Zhang, Yue-Wen Fang
In this study, we systematically investigate the thermal and electronic transport properties of two-dimensional PbSe/PbTe monolayer heterostructure by combining first-principles calculations, Boltzmann transport theory, and machine learning methods. The heterostructure exhibits a unique honeycomb-like corrugated and asymmetric configuration, which significantly enhances phonon scattering. Moreover, the relatively weak interatomic interactions in PbSe/PbTe lead to the formation of anti-bonding states, resulting in strong anharmonicity and ultimately yielding ultralow lattice thermal conductivity ($ {\kappa_{\rm L}}$ ). In the four-phonon scattering model, the $ {\kappa_{\rm L}}$ ~values along the $ x$ and $ y$ directions are as low as 0.37 and 0.31 W/mK, respectively. Contrary to the conventional view that long mean free path acoustic phonons dominate heat transport, we find that optical phonons contribute approximately 59% of the lattice thermal conductivity in this heterostructure. These optical phonons exhibit large Grüneisen parameters, strong anharmonic scattering, and relatively high group velocities, thereby playing a crucial role in the low $ {\kappa_{\rm L}}$ regime. Further analysis of thermoelectric performance shows that at a high temperature of 800 K, the heterostructure achieves an exceptional dimensionless figure of merit ($ ZT$ ) of 5.3 along the $ y$ direction, indicating outstanding thermoelectric conversion efficiency. These findings not only provide theoretical insights into the transport mechanisms of PbSe/PbTe monolayer heterostructure but also offer a practical design strategy for developing high-performance two-dimensional layered thermoelectric materials.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
46 pages, 22 figures (15 in main text, and other 7 ones in the appendix)
Unified machine-learning framework for property prediction and time-evolution simulation of strained alloy microstructure
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Andrea Fantasia, Daniele Lanzoni, Niccolò Di Eugenio, Angelo Monteleone, Roberto Bergamaschini, Francesco Montalenti
We introduce a unified machine-learning framework designed to conveniently tackle the temporal evolution of alloy microstructures under the influence of an elastic field. This approach allows for the simultaneous extraction of elastic parameters from a short trajectory and for the prediction of further microstructure evolution under their influence. This is demonstrated by focusing on spinodal decomposition in the presence of a lattice mismatch eta, and by carrying out an extensive comparison between the ground-truth evolution supplied by phase field simulations and the predictions of suitable convolutional recurrent neural network architectures. The two tasks may then be performed subsequently into a cascade framework. Under a wide spectrum of misfit conditions, the here-presented cascade model accurately predicts eta and the full corresponding microstructure evolution, also when approaching critical conditions for spinodal decomposition. Scalability to larger computational domain sizes and mild extrapolation errors in time (for time sequences five times longer than the sampled ones during training) are demonstrated. The proposed framework is general and can be applied beyond the specific, prototypical system considered here as an example. Intriguingly, experimental videos could be used to infer unknown external parameters, prior to simulating further temporal evolution.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
19 pages, 9 figures
Learning Kinetic Monte Carlo stochastic dynamics with Deep Generative Adversarial Networks
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Daniele Lanzoni, Olivier Pierre-Louis, Roberto Bergamaschini, Francesco Montalenti
We show that Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) may be fruitfully exploited to learn stochastic dynamics, surrogating traditional models while capturing thermal fluctuations. Specifically, we showcase the application to a two-dimensional, many-particle system, focusing on surface-step fluctuations and on the related time-dependent roughness. After the construction of a dataset based on Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, a conditional GAN is trained to propagate stochastically the state of the system in time, allowing the generation of new sequences with a reduced computational cost. Modifications with respect to standard GANs, which facilitate convergence and increase accuracy, are discussed. The trained network is demonstrated to quantitatively reproduce equilibrium and kinetic properties, including scaling laws, with deviations of a few percent from the exact value. Extrapolation limits and future perspectives are critically discussed.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
15 pages, 8 figures, 2 appendices
Field Theory of Borromean Super-counterfluids
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Anatoly Kuklov, Leo Radzihovsky, Boris Svistunov
We introduce a class of dynamical field theories for $ N$ -component “Borromean” ($ N\geq 3$ ) super-counterfluid order, naturally formulated in terms of inter-species bosonic fields $ \psi_{\alpha\beta}$ . Their condensation breaks the normal-state [U(1)]$ ^N$ symmetry down to its diagonal U(1) subgroup, thereby encoding the arrest of the net superflow. This approach broadens our understanding of dynamical properties of super-counterfluids, at low energies capturing its universal properties, phase transition, counterflow vortices, and many of its other properties. Such super-counterfluid strikingly exhibits $ N$ distinct flavors of energetically stable elementary vortex solutions, despite $ \mathbb{Z}^{N-1}$ homotopy group of its $ N! -! 1$ independent Goldstone modes, with $ N! -! 1$ topologically distinct elementary vortex types, obeying modular arithmetic. The model leads to Borromean hydrodynamics as a low-energy theory, reveals counteflow AC Josephson effect, and generically predicts a first-order character of the phase transitions into Borromean super-counterfluid state in dimensions greater than two.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
5 pages, no figures
Static and Dynamical Characterization of Ground State Phases Induced by Frustration and Magnetic Field in the Spin-1 Orthogonal Dimer Chain
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ernest Ong, Dhiman Bhowmick, Sharoz Schezwen, Pinaki Sengupta
The spin-$ 1$ orthogonal dimer chain is investigated using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm. A transformation to a basis that uses the local eigenstates of the orthogonal dimers, while retaining the local spin states for the parallel spins, allows for more effective implementation of the symmetries, as well as mitigating the entanglement bias of DMRG. A rich ground state phase diagram is obtained in the parameter space spanned by the ratio of inter- to intra-dimer interaction (which measures the degree of frustration) and an external magnetic field. Some ground state phases exhibit effective Haldane chain character, whereas others exhibit fragmentation of the ground state wavefunction, or clustering. The phases are characterized by their static properties, including (local) spin quantum number, entanglement entropy, and the spin-spin correlation function. Detailed characterization of a carefully selected set of representative states is presented. The static properties are complemented by exploring the low-energy dynamics through the calculation of the dynamic structure factor. The results provide crucial insight into the emergence of complex ground state phases from the interplay between strong interactions, geometric frustration, and external magnetic field for interacting S=1 Heisenberg spins.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
14 pages, 7 figures
Investigating CO Adsorption on Cu(111) and Rh(111) Surfaces Using Machine Learning Exchange-Correlation Functionals
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Xinyuan Liang, Renxi Liu, Mohan Chen
The “CO adsorption puzzle”, a persistent failure of utilizing generalized gradient approximations (GGA) in density functional theory to replicate CO’s experimental preference for top-site adsorption on transition-metal surfaces, remains a critical barrier in surface chemistry. While hybrid functionals such as HSE06 partially resolve this discrepancy, their prohibitive computational cost limits broader applications. We tackle this issue by adopting the Deep Kohn-Sham (DeePKS) method to train machine-learned exchange-correlation functionals. Principal component analysis reveals that the input descriptors for electronic structures separate distinctly across different chemical environments, enabling the DeePKS models to generalize to multi-element systems. We train system-specific DeePKS models for transition-metal surfaces Cu(111) and Rh(111). These models successfully recover experimental site preferences, yielding adsorption energy differences of about 10 meV compared to HSE06. Furthermore, a single model for the two surfaces is trained, and the model achieves comparable accuracy in predicting not only adsorption energies and site preference but also potential energy surfaces and relaxed surface adsorption structures. The above work demonstrates a promising path towards universal models, enabling catalyst exploration with hybrid functional accuracy at substantially reduced cost.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
Strong correlation behavior and Strong coupling superconductivity in (Ti1/4Hf1/4Nb1/4Ta1/4)1-xNix with the rich magnetic element Ni
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Zijun Huang, Tong Li, Longfu Li, Rui Chen, Zaichen Xiang, Shuangyue Wang, Jingjun Qin, Yucheng Li, Lingyong Zeng, Dinghua Bao, Huixia Luo
Searching for new superconductors, especially unconventional superconductors, has been studied extensively for decades but remains one of the major outstanding challenges in condensed matter physics. Medium/high-entropy alloys (MEAs-HEAs) are new fertile soils of unconventional superconductors and generate widespread interest and questions on the existence of superconductivity in highly disordered materials. Here, we report on the effect of Ni-doped on the crystal structure and superconductivity properties of strongly coupled TiHfNbTa MEA. XRD results indicate that the maximum solid solution of (Ti1/4Hf1/4Nb1/4Ta1/4)1-xNix is about 7.7%. Resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat measurements demonstrated that (Ti1/4Hf1/4Nb1/4Ta1/4)1-xNix HEAs are all bulk type-II superconductors and follow the trend of the increase of Tc with the increase of Ni-doped contents. The specific heat jump of all (Ti1/4Hf1/4Nb1/4Ta1/4)1-xNix are much larger than the BCS value of 1.43, suggesting all these HEAs are strongly coupled superconductors. Additionally, large Kadawaki-Woods ratio values suggest that there is a strong electron correlation effect in this system. The (Ti1/4Hf1/4Nb1/4Ta1/4)1-xNix HEA system is a new ideal material platform for the study of strong correlation behavior and strongly coupled superconductivity, which provides an insight into the physics of high-temperature superconductors or other unconventional superconductors.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
18 pages, 5 this http URL manuscript with the same title will be published by Superconductor Science and Technology
Superconductor Science and Technology 2025
Heating Dynamics of Correlated Fermions under Dephasing
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Antonio Picano, Matthieu Vanhoecke, Marco Schirò
We study the dissipative dynamics of correlated fermions evolving in presence of a local dephasing bath. To this extent we consider the infinite coordination limit of the corresponding Lindblad master equation, provided by Dynamical Mean-Field Theory for open quantum systems. We solve the resulting quantum impurity problem, describing an Anderson impurity coupled to a local dephasing, using weak-coupling perturbation theory in interaction and dephasing. We show that the dissipative dynamics describes heating towards infinite temperature, with a relaxation rate that depends strongly on interaction. The resulting steady-state spectral functions are however non-trivial and show an interplay between coherent quasiparticle peak and local dephasing. We then discuss how thermalization towards infinite temperature emerges within DMFT, by solving the impurity problem throughout its self-consistency. We show that thermalization under open quantum system dynamics is qualitatively different from the closed system case. In particular, the thermalization front found in the unitary is strongly modified, a signature of the irreversibility of the open system dynamics.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
17 pages, 8 figures
Axially confined binary quantum droplets: ground states and central vortices
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Srivatsa B. Prasad, Thomas P. Billam, Nick G. Parker
Ultracold miscible mixtures of bosonic gases have been observed to form quantum droplet states stabilized by beyond-mean-field quantum fluctuations. Here we study the properties of the droplets when subjected to harmonic trapping in one dimension, using a combination of numerical, variational and analytical approaches. We map out the phase diagram between bound droplets and the unbound gas state and the form of the ground states. We additionally consider how the droplet solutions are modified by the presence of a central vortex and use these results to estimate the critical rotation frequency for vortices to be energetically favored. Our work helps to understand the physics of self-bound droplets and vortex droplets in flattened geometries.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
12 pages, 8 figures. Comments are welcome
Orthorhombic nitride perovskite CeTaN3-δ with switchable and robust ferroelectric polarization
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Guozhu Song, Xiangliang Zheng, Xiaodong Yao, Xuefeng Zhou, Chao Gu, Qinghua Zhang, Jian Chen, Chenglu Huang, Tiancheng Yang, Leiming Fang, Ping Miao, Lingxiang Bao, Wen Yin, Xiaohui Yu, Jinlong Zhu, Wei Bao, Yusheng Zhao, Erjia Guo, Shanmin Wang
Perovskite-type ternary nitrides with predicted exciting ferroelectricity and many other outstanding properties hold great promise to be an emerging class of advanced ferroelectrics for manufacturing diverse technologically important devices. However, such nitride ferroelectrics have not yet been experimentally identified, mainly due to the challenging sample synthesis by traditional methods at ambient pressure. Here we report the successful high-pressure synthesis of a high-quality ferroelectric nitride perovskite of CeTaN3-{\delta} with nitrogen deficiency, adopting an orthorhombic Pmn21 polar structure. This material is electrically insulating and exhibits switchable and robust electric polarization for producing ferroelectricity. Furthermore, a number of other extraordinary properties are also revealed in this nitride such as excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertness, which would make it practically useful for many device-relevant applications and fundamentally important for the study of condensed-matter physics.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Direct signatures of $d$-level hybridization and dimerization in magnetic adatom chains on a superconductor
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Lisa M. Rütten, Eva Liebhaber, Gael Reecht, Kai Rossnagel, Katharina J. Franke
Magnetic adatom chains on superconductors provide a platform to explore correlated spin states and emergent quantum phases. Using low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we study the distance-dependent interaction between Fe atoms on 2H-NbSe$ _2$ . While single atoms exhibit four Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states and partially occupied $ d$ levels consistent with a $ S=2$ spin state, the spin is quenched when two Fe atoms reside in nearest neighbor lattice sites, where the $ d$ levels of the atoms hybridize. The non-magnetic dimer configuration is stable in that dimerization persists in chains with weak interactions among the dimers. Thus, the spin-state quenching has important implications also for Fe chains. While even-numbered chains are stable and non-magnetic, odd-numbered chains host a single magnetic atom at one of the chain’s ends, with its position being switchable by voltage pulses. Our findings emphasize the role of interatomic coupling in shaping quantum ground states and suggest that engineering alternating hopping amplitudes analogous to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model may offer a pathway to realizing topological systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Saturating interaction in coherently coupled two-component Bose-Einstein condensates
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
R Eid (LCF), S Tiengo (LCF), M Lévy (LCF), T Bourdel (LCF)
Rabi-coupled spinor Bose-Einstein condensates, with competing intra-and interspecies interactions, enable independent control of two-and three-body interactions. We show that coupling can also drive the system into a strongly nonlinear regime of saturating interaction. More precisely, the equation of state interpolates between low-and high-density regimes described by two different two-body scattering lengths. Interestingly, the transition can be determined by the strength of the coupling. We experimentally demonstrate this saturation phenomenon by measurements of the interaction energy of a Bose-Einstein condensate as a function of the detuning and of the strength of the Rabi coupling in spin mixtures of potassium 39.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Multi-Gap superconductivity in HgS under pressure
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Pietro Maria Forcella, Cesare Tresca, Antonio Sanna, Gianni Profeta
Mercury chalcogenides are a class of materials that exhibit diverse structural phases under pressure, leading to a range of exotic physical properties, including topological phases and chiral phonons. In particular, the phase diagram of mercury sulfide (HgS) remains difficult to characterize, with significant uncertainty surrounding the transition pressure between phases. Based on recent experimental results, we employ Density Functional Theory and Superconducting Density Functional Theory to investigate the pressure-induced structural phase transition in HgS and its interplay with the emergence of superconductivity as the crystal transitions from the cinnabar phase (space group P3$ _1$ 21) to the rock salt phase (space group Fm$ \bar{3}$ m). Remarkably, the rocksalt phase hosts a multigap superconducting state driven by distinct Fermi surface sheets, with two dominant gaps; the unusually high critical temperature of $ \sim$ 11 K emerges naturally within this multiband scenario, highlighting the role of interband coupling beyond isotropic models. These results place HgS among the few systems where multiband superconducting gap structures emerge under pressure.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Superconducting Diode Effect in Weak Localization Regime
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Naratip Nunchot, Youichi Yanase
We study a dirty two-dimensional superconductor with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman fields described by the nonlinear sigma model that includes short-range electron-electron interactions from the Coulomb and Cooper channels. The renormalized Ginzburg-Landau theory, which includes the weak localization effects at the one-loop level, is constructed by using the Keldysh functional formalism. It is shown that the tricritical point appears in the phase diagram. The superconducting diode quality factor increases divergently as the system approaches the tricritical point. Near the superconducting phase transition lines, the absolute value of the diode quality factor decreases due to the cooperation of localization and interactions. The normal conductivity of the resistive state, in which the superconducting state is destroyed by the critical current, is calculated, and localization behaviors are demonstrated.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
6+9 pages, 5 figures
Reducing Data Requirements for Sequence-Property Prediction in Copolymer Compatibilizers via Deep Neural Network Tuning
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Md Mushfiqul Islam, Nishat N. Labiba, Lawrence O. Hall, David S. Simmons
Synthetic sequence-controlled polymers promise to transform polymer science by combining the chemical versatility of synthetic polymers with the precise sequence-mediated functionality of biological proteins. However, design of these materials has proven extraordinarily challenging, because they lack the massive datasets of closely related evolved molecules that accelerate design of proteins. Here we report on a new Artifical Intelligence strategy to dramatically reduce the amount of data necessary to accelerate these materials’ design. We focus on data connecting the repeat-unit-sequence of a \emph{compatibilizer} molecule to its ability to reduce the interfacial tension between distinct polymer domains. The optimal sequence of these molecules, which are essential for applications such as mixed-waste polymer recycling, depends strongly on variables such as concentration and chemical details of the polymer. With current methods, this would demand an entirely distinct dataset to enable design at each condition. Here we show that a deep neural network trained on low-fidelity data for sequence/interfacial tension relations at one set of conditions can be rapidly tuned to make higher-fidelity predictions at a distinct set of conditions, requiring far less data that would ordinarily be needed. This priming-and-tuning approach should allow a single low-fidelity parent dataset to dramatically accelerate prediction and design in an entire constellation of related systems. In the long run, it may also provide an approach to bootstrapping quantitative atomistic design with AI insights from fast, coarse simulations.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
23 pages, 6 figures
Laser-Synthesized Amorphous PdSe$_{\mathrm{2-x}}$ Nanoparticles: A Defect-Rich Platform for High-Efficiency SERS, Photocatalysis, and Photothermal Conversion
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Andrei Ushkov, Nadezhda Belozerova, Dmitriy Dyubo, Ilya Martynov, Alexander Syuy, Daniil Tselikov, Georgy Ermolaev, Sergey V. Bazhenov, Roman I. Romanov, Ivan Kruglov, Anton A. Popov, Alexander Chernov, Alexey D. Bolshakov, Sergey Novikov, Andrey A. Vyshnevyy, Aleksey Arsenin, Andrei V. Kabashin, Gleb I. Tselikov, Valentyn Volkov
The control of material properties at the atomic scale remains a central challenge in materials science. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) offer remarkable electronic and optical properties, but their functionality is largely dictated by their stable crystalline phases. Here we demonstrate a single-step, ligand-free strategy using femtosecond laser ablation in liquid to transform crystalline, stoichiometric palladium diselenide (PdSe$ _{\mathrm{2}}$ ) into highly stable, amorphous, and non-stoichiometric nanoparticles (PdSe$ _{\mathrm{2-x}}$ , with x$ \approx$ 1). This laser-driven amorphization creates a high density of selenium vacancies and coordinatively unsaturated sites, which unlock a range of emergent functions absent in the crystalline precursor, including plasmon-free surface-enhanced Raman scattering with an enhancement factor exceeding 10$ ^\mathrm{6}$ , a 50-fold increase in photocatalytic activity, and near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency reaching 83$ %$ . Our findings establish laser-induced amorphization as a powerful top-down approach for defect-engineered TMDCs and advances their practical usage in optics, catalysis, and nanomedicine.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
Free-fermion approach to the partition function zeros : Special boundary conditions and product form of solution
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Partition function zeros are powerful tools in understanding critical behavior. In this paper we present new results of the Fisher zeros of two-dimensional Ising models, in the framework of free-fermion eight-vertex model. First we succeed in finding special boundary conditions for the free-fermion model, under which the partition function of a finite lattice can be expressed in a double product form. Using appropriate mappings, these boundary conditions are transformed into the corresponding versions of the square, triangular and honeycomb lattice Ising models. Each Ising model is studied in the cases of a zero field and of an imaginary field $ i(\pi/2)k_BT$ . For the square lattice model we rediscover the famous Brascamp-Kunz (B-K) boundary conditions. For the triangular and honeycomb lattice models we obtain the B-K type boundary conditions, and the Fisher zeros are conveniently solved from the product form of partition function. The advantage of B-K type boundary conditions is that the Fisher zeros of any finite lattice exactly lie on certain loci, and the accumulation points of zeros can be easily determined in the thermodynamic limit. Our finding and method would be very helpful in studying the partition function zeros of vertex and Ising models.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
25+ pages, 18 figures
Condensate-mediated dimerization of impurities in atomic BECs
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Hoshu Hiyane, Thomás Fogarty, Jose Carlos Pelayo, Thomas Busch
We show that strongly correlated impurities confined in an optical lattice can form localized, molecule-like dimer states in the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). By systematically studying the effect of the lattice potential on this mixture, we reveal the two roles of the condensate in assisting the formation of dimerized impurities: mediating the attractive interaction among impurities and rescaling the lattice potential of impurities. At strong coupling between the impurities and the condensate, the two mechanisms cooperate to induce a structural transition, resulting in the rearrangement of dimers. We also show that the nonequilibrium dynamics of these states can be interpreted as a dimerized soliton train.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
18 pages, 6 figures
Consistent quantum treatments of non-convex kinetic energies
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
C. Koliofoti, M. A. Javed, R.-P. Riwar
The task of finding a consistent relationship between a quantum Hamiltonian and a classical Lagrangian is of utmost importance for basic, but ubiquitous techniques like canonical quantization and path integrals. Nonconvex kinetic energies (which appear, e.g., in Wilczek and Shapere’s classical time crystal, or nonlinear capacitors) pose a fundamental problem: the Legendre transformation is ill-defined, and the more general Legendre-Fenchel transformation removes nonconvexity essentially by definition. Arguing that such anomalous theories follow from suitable low-energy approximations of well-defined, harmonic theories, we show that seemingly inconsistent Hamiltonian and Lagrangian descriptions can both be valid, depending on the coupling strength to a dissipative environment. Essentially there occurs a dissipative phase transition from a non-convex Hamiltonian to a convex Lagrangian regime, involving exceptional points in imaginary time. This resolves apparent inconsistencies and provide computationally efficient methods to treat anomalous, nonconvex kinetic energies.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
5 pages, 2 figures, supplementary. Feedback is very welcome
Proximity screening greatly enhances electronic quality of graphene
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Daniil Domaretskiy, Zefei Wu, Van Huy Nguyen, Ned Hayward, Ian Babich, Xiao Li, Ekaterina Nguyen, Julien Barrier, Kornelia Indykiewicz, Wendong Wang, Roman V. Gorbachev, Na Xin, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Lee Hague, Vladimir I. Fal’ko, Irina V. Grigorieva, Leonid A. Ponomarenko, Alexey I. Berdyugin, Andre K. Geim
The electronic quality of two-dimensional systems is crucial when exploring quantum transport phenomena. In semiconductor heterostructures, decades of optimization have yielded record-quality two-dimensional gases with transport and quantum mobilities reaching close to 10$ ^8$ and 10$ ^6$ cm$ ^2$ /Vs, respectively. Although the quality of graphene devices has also been improving, it remains comparatively lower. Here we report a transformative improvement in the electronic quality of graphene by employing graphite gates placed in its immediate proximity, at 1 nm separation. The resulting screening reduces charge inhomogeneity by two orders of magnitude, bringing it down to a few 10$ ^7$ cm$ ^-2$ and limiting potential fluctuations to less than 1 meV. Quantum mobilities reach 10$ ^7$ cm$ ^2$ /Vs, surpassing those in the highest-quality semiconductor heterostructures by an order of magnitude, and the transport mobilities match their record. This quality enables Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in fields as low as 1 mT and quantum Hall plateaus below 5 mT. Although proximity screening predictably suppresses electron-electron interactions, fractional quantum Hall states remain observable with their energy gaps reduced only by a factor of 3-5 compared to unscreened devices, demonstrating that many-body phenomena at spatial scales shorter than 10 nm remain robust. Our results offer a reliable route to improving electronic quality in graphene and other two-dimensional systems, which should facilitate the exploration of new physics previously obscured by disorder.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Magnetization switching by current in an elemental ferromagnetic single layer
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Current-induced magnetization switching, a fundamental phenomenon related to spin-transport of electrons, enables non-voltaic and fast information write, facilitating applications in low-power memory and logic devices. However, magnetization switching by spin-orbit torques is usually attributed to current flowing in the nonmagnetic metal layer of multilayers or in magnetic alloys with heavy elements. Here, we report perpendicular magnetization switching induced by current flowing in an elemental ferromagnet nickel single layer. This prototype structure demonstrates that current-induced magnetization switching is a general phenomenon of magnet. The results suggest that the current induces an effective transverse magnetic field with an out-of-plane component leading to the magnetization switching, different to the conventional spin-orbit torques. Our work opens the new insight and reveals the intrinsic mechanism of current-induced torques.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
21 pages, 12 figures
Effect of applied pressure on the non-relativistic spin-splitting (NRSS) of FeSb2 altermagnet: A first-principles study
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Shalika R. Bhandari, R. Tamang, Keshav Shrestha, Samy Brahimi, Samir Lounis, D. P. Rai
We have investigated the pressure-dependent electronic structure, phonon stability, and anomalous Hall response of the recently discovered altermagnet FeSb2 from density functional theory (DFT) and Wannier function analysis. From density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) calculations, we have found that FeSb2 remains dynamically stable up to 10 GPa, evidenced by positive phonon frequencies. Our spin-polarised band structure shows that the node of band crossing between spin-up and spin-down bands around the Fermi energy exactly lies at the Gamma and A-symmetry points. The Fermi crossing is mostly exhibited by band-24, band-25 and band-26. The non-relativistic spin-splitting (NRSS) along M’-Gamma-M and A-Z-A’ symmetry is attributed to the broken time-reversal (PT ) symmetry. There are significant changes in the band profile under applied pressure, as one can see the shifting of the node of band-24 and band-26 towards the lower energy side. The NRSS exhibited by band-24 along M’-Gamma-M symmetry is notably small. Although the strength of NRSS of band-26 along A-Z-A’ symmetry is significant but reduces under applied pressure. The anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) values are prominent in -1 to 1 eV range. A sharp peaked and positive AHC values at ambient pressure, becomes spectrally broadened and negative at 10 GPa due to pressure-induced band crossings and redistribution of Berry curvature near the Fermi level. We have observed that the values of spin hall conductivity (SHC) are around 2-2.5 times lower as compared to AHC and prominent in between -1.0 eV to 1.0 eV. Our results establish FeSb2 as a tunable altermagnetic candidate where pressure can modulate both topological transport and dynamic stability, offering opportunities for strain-engineered Hall responses in compensated magnetic systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
A Hierarchy of Topological and Superconducting States in Rhombohedral Hexalayer Graphene
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ron Q. Nguyen, Hai-Tian Wu, Erin Morissette, Naiyuan J. Zhang, Peiyu Qin, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Aaron W. Hui, Dima E. Feldman, J. I. A. Li
Superconductivity and the quantum Hall effect are conventionally viewed as mutually exclusive: the former is suppressed by magnetic fields, while the latter relies on them. Here, we report the surprising coexistence of these two phenomena in rhombohedral hexalayer graphene. In this system, a superconducting phase is not destroyed – but instead stabilized – by an out-of-plane magnetic field. Strikingly, this superconducting state coexists and competes with a sequence of quantum Hall states that appear at both integer and half-integer Landau level fillings. Both the superconducting and quantum Hall states exhibit sharply defined thermal transitions or crossovers, with nearly identical onset temperatures – pointing to a shared underlying mechanism. Taken together, our observations uncover an unprecedented interplay between superconducting and topological phases, challenging conventional paradigms and opening a new frontier in condensed matter physics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Spin-resolved ballistic transport in three-terminal Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbon Device
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Niharika Tamuli, Saumen Acharjee
We investigate the spin-polarized ballistic transport in a three-terminal Zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) device using a tight binding model, non-equilibrium Green function formalism within the Landauer-Büttiker framework. We study the transmission spectrum, density of states, I-V characteristics, spin-resolved conductance and spin current by varying ribbon geometries and an out-of-plane Zeeman field. In absence of magnetization, transport is dominated by subband quantization and resonant edge states, with pronounced dependence on ribbon width and length while the introduction of a Zeeman field offers spin-selective transport and inducing half-metallic behavior, particularly in narrower ribbons, highlighting the interplay between quantum confinement, edge-localized states and spin-dependent interactions. Moreover, we found Fabry-Pérot-like interference in conductance spectrum and bias-driven mode activation with strong spin filtering effects. The spin current is found to be tunable via magnetic field and gate voltage. Also, it remains stable under thermal fluctuations, demonstrating suitability for room-temperature operation. Finally, the energy and width dependence of the Fano factor reveals distinct quantum interference features and spin-polarized transport signatures. These findings indicate the potential of the three-terminal ZGNR based device for scalable and gate-controllable spintronic applications.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
12 pages, 10 figures
Multiscale complexity of two-dimensional Ising systems with short-range, ferromagnetic interactions
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-07-30 20:00 EDT
Ibrahim Al-Azki, Valentina Baccetti
Complex systems exhibit macroscopic behaviors that emerge from the coordinated interactions of their individual components. Understanding the microscopic origins of these emergent properties remains challenging, particularly in systems beyond canonical examples, due to the absence of a generalized framework for identifying the governing degrees of freedom. The multiscale complexity formalism aims to address this challenge by employing information-theoretic indices of structure to identify the scales at which collective behaviors emerge. In this paper, we evaluate the complexity profile index as a tool for identifying such scales by applying it to two-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising systems. We demonstrate that these systems exhibit multiscale behavior in the critical region, and the emergence of macroscopic magnetization in the ordered phase corresponds to a non-monotonic behavior of the complexity profile at large scales. Additionally, we show that the pairwise complexity exhibits a maximum in the disordered phase that remains bounded in the thermodynamic limit.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)