CMP Journal 2025-08-13

Statistics

Nature: 18

Nature Physics: 2

Physical Review Letters: 9

Physical Review X: 2

arXiv: 53

Nature

Acidic oxygen reduction by single-atom Fe catalysts on curved supports

Original Paper | Electrocatalysis | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Yasong Zhao, Jiawei Wan, Chongyi Ling, Yanlei Wang, Hongyan He, Nailiang Yang, Rui Wen, Qinghua Zhang, Lin Gu, Bolong Yang, Zhonghua Xiang, Chen Chen, Jinlan Wang, Xin Wang, Yucheng Wang, Huabing Tao, Xuning Li, Bin Liu, Suojiang Zhang, Dan Wang

Developing highly active and durable electrocatalysts for cost-effective proton-exchange membrane fuel cells is challenging^1,2,3. Fe/N-C catalysts are among the most promising alternatives to the platinum group metal catalysts, but their activity and durability still cannot meet the performance criteria due to the strong adsorption of oxygenated reaction intermediates and the demetallization of Fe species caused by the Fenton reaction^4,5,6,7,8. Here we design and develop a new type of Fe/N-C catalyst that is composed of numerous nanoprotrusions dispersed on two-dimensional carbon layers with single Fe-atom sites primarily embedded within the inner curved surface of the nanoprotrusions. The graphitized outer carbon layer of the nanoprotrusions can not only effectively weaken the binding strength of the oxygenated reaction intermediates, but also reduce the hydroxyl radical production rate. As a result, the Fe/N-C catalyst delivers one of the best-performing platinum group metal-free proton-exchange membrane fuel cell performances, achieving a record high power density of 0.75 W cm^-2 under 1.0 bar H₂-air with 86% activity retention after more than 300 hours of continuous operation.

Nature (2025)

Electrocatalysis, Fuel cells, Solid-state chemistry

The geologic history of marine dissolved organic carbon from iron oxides

Original Paper | Carbon cycle | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Nir Galili, Stefano M. Bernasconi, Alon Nissan, Uria Alcolombri, Giorgia Aquila, Marcella Di Bella, Thomas M. Blattmann, Negar Haghipour, Francesco Italiano, Madalina Jaggi, Ifat Kaplan-Ashiri, Kang Soo Lee, Maxwell A. Lechte, Cara Magnabosco, Susannah M. Porter, Maxim Rudmin, Robert G. M. Spencer, Roman Stocker, Zhe Wang, Stephan Wohlwend, Jordon D. Hemingway

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the largest reduced carbon reservoir in modern oceans^1,2. Its dynamics regulate marine communities and atmospheric CO₂ levels^3,4, whereas ¹³C compositions track ecosystem structure and autotrophic metabolism⁵. However, the geologic history of marine DOC remains largely unconstrained^6,7, limiting our ability to mechanistically reconstruct coupled ecological and biogeochemical evolution. Here we develop and validate a direct proxy for past DOC signatures using co-precipitated organic carbon in iron ooids. We apply this to 26 marine iron ooid-containing formations deposited over the past 1,650 million years to generate a data-based reconstruction of marine DOC signals since the Palaeoproterozoic. Our predicted DOC concentrations were near modern levels in the Palaeoproterozoic, then decreased by 90-99% in the Neoproterozoic before sharply rising in the Cambrian. We interpret these dynamics to reflect three distinct states. The occurrence of mostly small, single-celled organisms combined with severely hypoxic deep oceans, followed by larger, more complex organisms and little change in ocean oxygenation and finally continued organism growth and a transition to fully oxygenated oceans^8,9. Furthermore, modern DOC is ¹³C-enriched relative to the Proterozoic, possibly because of changing autotrophic carbon-isotope fractionation driven by biological innovation. Our findings reflect connections between the carbon cycle, ocean oxygenation and the evolution of complex life.

Nature (2025)

Carbon cycle, Evolutionary ecology

New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia

Original Paper | Biological anthropology | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Brian Villmoare, Lucas K. Delezene, Amy L. Rector, Erin N. DiMaggio, Christopher J. Campisano, David A. Feary, Baro’o Mohammed Ali, Daniel Chupik, Alan L. Deino, Dominique I. Garello, Mohammed Ahmeddin Hayidara, Ellis M. Locke, Omar Abdulla Omar, Joshua R. Robinson, Eric Scott, Irene E. Smail, Kebede Geleta Terefe, Lars Werdelin, William H. Kimbel, J. Ramón Arrowsmith, Kaye E. Reed

The time interval between about three and two million years ago is a critical period in human evolution–this is when the genera Homo and Paranthropus first appear in the fossil record and a possible ancestor of these genera, Australopithecus afarensis, disappears. In eastern Africa, attempts to test hypotheses about the adaptive contexts that led to these events are limited by a paucity of fossiliferous exposures that capture this interval. Here we describe the age, geologic context and dental morphology of new hominin fossils recovered from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, which includes sediments from this critically underrepresented period. We report the presence of Homo at 2.78 and 2.59 million years ago and Australopithecus at 2.63 million years ago. Although the Australopithecus specimens cannot yet be identified to species level, their morphology differs from A. afarensis and Australopithecus garhi. These specimens suggest that Australopithecus and early Homo co-existed as two non-robust lineages in the Afar Region before 2.5 million years ago, and that the hominin fossil record is more diverse than previously known. Accordingly, there were as many as four hominin lineages living in eastern Africa between 3.0 and 2.5 million years ago: early Homo¹, Paranthropus², A. garhi³, and the newly discovered Ledi-Geraru Australopithecus.

Nature (2025)

Biological anthropology, Palaeontology, Taxonomy

Expanding the cytokine receptor alphabet reprograms T cells into diverse states

Original Paper | Cancer immunotherapy | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Yang Zhao, Masato Ogishi, Aastha Pal, Leon L. Su, Pingdong Tao, Hua Jiang, Grayson E. Rodriguez, Xiaojing Chen, Qinli Sun, Lea Wenting Rysavy, Sam Limsuwannarot, Deepa Waghray, Anusha Kalbasi, K. Christopher Garcia

T cells respond to cytokines through receptor dimers that have been selected over the course of evolution to activate canonical JAK-STAT signalling and gene expression programs¹. However, the potential combinatorial diversity of JAK-STAT receptor pairings can be expanded by exploring the untapped biology of alternative non-natural pairings. Here we exploited the common γ chain (γ_c) receptor as a shared signalling hub on T cells and enforced the expression of both natural and non-natural heterodimeric JAK-STAT receptor pairings using an orthogonal cytokine receptor platform^2,3,4 to expand the γ_c signalling code. We tested receptors from γ_c cytokines as well as interferon, IL-10 and homodimeric receptor families that do not normally pair with γ_c or are not naturally expressed on T cells. These receptors simulated their natural counterparts but also induced contextually unique transcriptional programs. This led to distinct T cell fates in tumours, including myeloid-like T cells with phagocytic capacity driven by orthogonal GSCFR (oGCSFR), and type 2 cytotoxic T (T_C2) and helper T (T_H2) cell differentiation driven by orthogonal IL-4R (o4R). T cells with orthogonal IL-22R (o22R) and oGCSFR, neither of which are natively expressed on T cells, exhibited stem-like and exhaustion-resistant transcriptional and chromatin landscapes, enhancing anti-tumour properties. Non-native receptor pairings and their resultant JAK-STAT signals open a path to diversifying T cell states beyond those induced by natural cytokines.

Nature (2025)

Cancer immunotherapy, Cell therapies, Cytokines, T cells, Transdifferentiation

NASP modulates histone turnover to drive PARP inhibitor resistance

Original Paper | Cancer therapeutic resistance | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Sarah C. Moser, Anna Khalizieva, Josef Roehsner, Elisabeth Pottendorfer, Milo L. Kaptein, Giulia Ricci, Vivek Bhardwaj, Onno B. Bleijerveld, Liesbeth Hoekman, Ingrid van der Heijden, Simone di Sanzo, Alexander Fish, Aleksandra Chikunova, Judith H. I. Haarhuis, Roel Oldenkamp, Luisa Robbez-Masson, Justin Sprengers, Daniel J. Vis, Lodewyk F. A. Wessels, Marieke van de Ven, Stephen J. Pettitt, Andrew N. J. Tutt, Christopher J. Lord, Benjamin D. Rowland, Moritz Völker-Albert, Francesca Mattiroli, Thijn R. Brummelkamp, Abdelghani Mazouzi, Jos Jonkers

The poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor (PARPi) class of drugs represents a remarkable advance in the treatment of patients with homologous recombination-deficient tumours, but resistance remains a challenge^1,2,3,4,5. Although most research has focused on the downstream consequences of PARPi exposure to tackle resistance, the immediate effect of PARP inhibition on the chromatin environment and its contribution to PARPi toxicity remains elusive. Here we show that PARP inhibition induces histone release from the chromatin. This presents a vulnerability of PARPi-resistant cancer cells, which require histone homeostasis mechanisms to sustain elevated DNA replication rates and survival. Through functional genetic screens, we identified NASP as a key factor in maintaining the stability of evicted histones via its TPR motifs. Loss of NASP renders tumour cells hypersensitive to PARPi treatment in vitro and in vivo, impairs replication fork progression and elevates levels of replication-associated DNA damage. Moreover, NASP acts together with the INO80 complex and the chaperoning activity of PARP1 to ensure efficient histone turnover and prevent the accumulation of lethal DNA damage. Collectively, our work reports on histone eviction as an immediate cellular response to PARPi treatment and provides a promising avenue for targeting histone supply pathways to overcome PARPi resistance.

Nature (2025)

Cancer therapeutic resistance, Chromatin remodelling, Double-strand DNA breaks, Nucleosomes, Targeted therapies

Clone copy number diversity is linked to survival in lung cancer

Original Paper | Computational models | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Piotr Pawlik, Kristiana Grigoriadis, Abigail Bunkum, Helena Coggan, Alexander M. Frankell, Carlos Martinez-Ruiz, Takahiro Karasaki, Ariana Huebner, Andrew Rowan, Jasmin Fisher, Allan Hackshaw, Charles Swanton, Simone Zaccaria, Nicholas McGranahan

Both single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) accumulate in cancer cells during tumour development, fuelling clonal evolution. However, accurate estimation of clone-specific copy numbers from bulk DNA-sequencing data is challenging. Here we present allele-specific phylogenetic analysis of copy number alterations (ALPACA), a method to infer SNV and SCNA coevolution by leveraging phylogenetic trees reconstructed from multi-sample bulk tumour sequencing data using SNV frequencies. ALPACA estimates the SCNA evolution of simulated tumours with a higher accuracy than current state-of-the-art methods^1,2,3,4. ALPACA uncovers loss-of-heterozygosity and amplification events in minor clones that may be missed using standard approaches and reveals the temporal order of somatic alterations. Analysing clone-specific copy numbers in TRACERx421 lung tumours^5,6, we find evidence of increased chromosomal instability in metastasis-seeding clones and enrichment for losses affecting tumour suppressor genes and amplification affecting CCND1. Furthermore, we identify increased SCNA rates in both tumours with polyclonal metastatic dissemination and tumours with extrathoracic metastases, and an association between higher clone copy number diversity and reduced disease-free survival in patients with lung cancer.

Nature (2025)

Computational models, Non-small-cell lung cancer, Phylogeny

Bending the curve of land degradation to achieve global environmental goals

Review Paper | Agriculture | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Fernando T. Maestre, Emilio Guirado, Dolors Armenteras, Hylke E. Beck, Mashael Saud AlShalan, Noura Turki Al-Saud, Ralph Chami, Bojie Fu, Helene Gichenje, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Chinwe Ifejika Speranza, Jaime Martínez-Valderrama, Matthew F. McCabe, Barron J. Orr, Ting Tang, Graciela Metternicht, Michael Miess, James F. Reynolds, Lindsay C. Stringer, Yoshihide Wada, Carlos M. Duarte

Land has a vital role in sustaining human communities, nurturing diverse ecosystems and regulating the climate of our planet. As such, current rates of land degradation pose a major environmental and socioeconomic threat, driving climate change, biodiversity loss and social crises. Preventing and reversing land degradation are key objectives of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and are also fundamental for the other two Rio Conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Here we argue that the targets of these conventions can only be met by ‘bending the curve’ of land degradation and that transforming food systems is fundamental for doing so. We showcase multiple actions for tackling land degradation that also yield climate and biodiversity benefits while fostering sustainable food systems that contribute to avoiding the risk of a global food crisis. We also propose ambitious 2050 targets for the three Rio Conventions related to land and food systems. Finally, we urge collective action to acknowledge the pivotal role of land in achieving the goals of the Rio Conventions and to embed food systems within intergovernmental agreements, enabling decisive progress on the complex and interconnected global crises that we face.

Nature 644, 347-355 (2025)

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate-change mitigation, Sustainability

Establishment of chromatin architecture interplays with embryo hypertranscription

Original Paper | Chromatin structure | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Guang Yu, Kai Xu, Weikun Xia, Ke Zhang, Qianhua Xu, Lijia Li, Zili Lin, Ling Liu, Bofeng Liu, Zhenhai Du, Xia Chen, Qiang Fan, Fangnong Lai, Wenying Wang, Lijuan Wang, Feng Kong, Chao Wang, Haiqiang Dai, Huili Wang, Wei Xie

After fertilization, early embryos undergo dissolution of conventional chromatin organization, including topologically associating domains (TADs)^1,2. Zygotic genome activation then commences amid unusually slow de novo establishment of three-dimensional chromatin architecture². How chromatin organization is established and how it interplays with transcription in early mammalian embryos remain elusive. Here we show that CTCF occupies chromatin throughout mouse early development. By contrast, cohesin poorly binds chromatin in one-cell embryos, coinciding with TAD dissolution. Cohesin binding then progressively increases from two- to eight-cell embryos, accompanying TAD establishment. Unexpectedly, strong ‘genic cohesin islands’ (GCIs) emerge across gene bodies of active genes in this period. GCI genes enrich for cell identity and regulatory genes, display broad H3K4me3 at promoters, and exhibit strong binding of transcription factors and the cohesin loader NIPBL at nearby enhancers. We show that transcription is hyperactive in two- to eight-cell embryos and is required for GCI formation. Conversely, induced transcription can also create GCIs. Finally, GCIs can function as insulation boundaries and form contact domains with nearby CTCF sites, enhancing both the transcription levels and stability of GCI genes. These data reveal a hypertranscription state in early embryos that both shapes and is fostered by the three-dimensional genome organization, revealing an intimate interplay between chromatin structure and transcription.

Nature (2025)

Chromatin structure, Embryogenesis, Epigenomics, Gene regulation

Multiple oestradiol functions inhibit ferroptosis and acute kidney injury

Original Paper | Apoptosis | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Wulf Tonnus, Francesca Maremonti, Shubhangi Gavali, Marlena Nastassja Schlecht, Florian Gembardt, Alexia Belavgeni, Nadja Leinung, Karolin Flade, Natalie Bethe, Sofia Traikov, Anne Haag, Danny Schilling, Sider Penkov, Melodie Mallais, Christine Gaillet, Claudia Meyer, Melika Katebi, Anushka Ray, Louisa M. S. Gerhardt, Anne Brucker, Jorunn Naila Becker, Mirela Tmava, Lisa Schlicker, Almut Schulze, Nina Himmerkus, Andrej Shevchenko, Mirko Peitzsch, Uladzimir Barayeu, Sonia Nasi, Juliane Putz, Kenneth S. Korach, Joel Neugarten, Ladan Golestaneh, Christian Hugo, Jan Ulrich Becker, Joel M. Weinberg, Svenja Lorenz, Bettina Proneth, Marcus Conrad, Eckhard Wolf, Bernd Plietker, Raphaël Rodriguez, Derek A. Pratt, Tobias P. Dick, Maria Fedorova, Stefan R. Bornstein, Andreas Linkermann

Acute tubular necrosis mediates acute kidney injury (AKI) and nephron loss¹, the hallmark of end-stage renal disease^2,3,4. For decades, it has been known that female kidneys are less sensitive to AKI^5,6. Acute tubular necrosis involves dynamic cell death propagation by ferroptosis along the tubular compartment^7,8. Here we demonstrate abrogated ferroptotic cell death propagation in female kidney tubules. 17β-oestradiol establishes an anti-ferroptotic state through non-genomic and genomic mechanisms. These include the potent direct inhibition of ferroptosis by hydroxyoestradiol derivatives, which function as radical trapping antioxidants, are present at high concentrations in kidney tubules and, when exogenously applied, protect male mice from AKI. In cells, the oxidized hydroxyoestradiols are recycled by FSP1^9,10, but FSP1-deficient female mice were not sensitive to AKI. At the genomic level, female ESR1-deficient kidney tubules partially lose their anti-ferroptotic capacity, similar to ovariectomized mice. While ESR1 promotes the anti-ferroptotic hydropersulfide system, male tubules express pro-ferroptotic proteins of the ether lipid pathway which are suppressed by ESR1 in female tissues until menopause. In summary, we identified non-genomic and genomic mechanisms that collectively explain ferroptosis resistance in female tubules and may function as therapeutic targets for male and postmenopausal female individuals.

Nature (2025)

Apoptosis, Risk factors

Human emissions drive recent trends in North Pacific climate variations

Original Paper | Atmospheric dynamics | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Jeremy M. Klavans, Pedro N. DiNezio, Amy C. Clement, Clara Deser, Timothy M. Shanahan, Mark A. Cane

The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO)–the leading pattern of climate variability driving changes over the North Pacific and surrounding continents–is now thought to be generated by processes internal to the climate system^1,2. According to this paradigm, the characteristic, irregular oscillations of the PDO arise from a collection of mechanisms involving ocean and atmosphere interactions in the North and tropical Pacific^3,4,5. Recent variations in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, such as the 2015 El Niño, ought to have shifted the PDO into its positive phase⁶. Yet, the PDO has been locked in a consistent downward trend for more than three decades, remanding nearby regions to a steady set of climate impacts. Here we show that the main multidecadal variations in the PDO index during the twentieth century, including the ongoing, decades-long negative trend, were largely driven by human emissions of aerosols and greenhouse gases rather than internal processes. This anthropogenic influence was previously undetected because the current generation of climate models systematically underestimate the amplitude of forced climate variability. A new attribution technique that statistically corrects for this error suggests that observed PDO impacts–including the ongoing multidecadal drought in the western United States–can be largely attributed to human activity through externally forced changes in the PDO. These results indicate that we need to rethink the attribution and projection of multidecadal changes in regional climate.

Nature (2025)

Atmospheric dynamics, Climate and Earth system modelling, Climate-change impacts, Projection and prediction

Elementary 3D organization of active and silenced E. coli genome

Original Paper | Bacterial transcription | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Alexey A. Gavrilov, Ilya Shamovsky, Irina Zhegalova, Sergey Proshkin, Yosef Shamovsky, Grigory Evko, Vitaly Epshtein, Aviram Rasouly, Anna Blavatnik, Sudipta Lahiri, Eli Rothenberg, Sergey V. Razin, Evgeny Nudler

Unravelling how genomes are spatially organized and how their three-dimensional (3D) architecture drives cellular functions remains a major challenge in biology^1,2. In bacteria, genomic DNA is compacted into a highly ordered, condensed state called nucleoid^3,4,5. Despite progress in characterizing bacterial 3D genome architecture over recent decades^6,7,8, the fine structure and functional organization of the nucleoid remain elusive due to low-resolution contact maps from methods such as Hi-C^9,10,11. Here we developed an enhanced Micro-C chromosome conformation capture, achieving 10-base pair (bp) resolution. This ultra-high-resolution analysis reveals elemental spatial structures in the Escherichia coli nucleoid, including chromosomal hairpins (CHINs) and chromosomal hairpin domains (CHIDs). These structures, organized by histone-like proteins H-NS and StpA, have key roles in repressing horizontally transferred genes. Disruption of H-NS causes drastic reorganization of the 3D genome, decreasing CHINs and CHIDs, whereas removing both H-NS and StpA results in their complete disassembly, increased transcription of horizontally transferred genes and delayed growth. Similar effects are observed with netropsin, which competes with H-NS and StpA for AT-rich DNA binding. Interactions between CHINs further organize the genome into isolated loops, potentially insulating active operons. Our Micro-C analysis reveals that all actively transcribed genes form distinct operon-sized chromosomal interaction domains (OPCIDs) in a transcription-dependent manner. These structures appear as square patterns on Micro-C maps, reflecting continuous contacts throughout transcribed regions. This work unveils the fundamental structural elements of the E. coli nucleoid, highlighting their connection to nucleoid-associated proteins and transcription machinery.

Nature (2025)

Bacterial transcription, Chromatin structure

The genomic origin of the unique chaetognath body plan

Original Paper | Evolutionary developmental biology | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Laura Piovani, Daria Gavriouchkina, Elise Parey, Luke A. Sarre, Katja T. C. A. Peijnenburg, José María Martín-Durán, Daniel S. Rokhsar, Noriyuki Satoh, Alex de Mendoza, Taichiro Goto, Ferdinand Marlétaz

The emergence of animal phyla, each with their unique body plan, was a rapid event in the history of animal life, yet its genomic underpinnings are still poorly understood¹. Here we investigate at the genomic, regulatory and cellular levels, the origin of one of the most distinctive animal phyla, the chaetognaths, whose organismal characteristics have historically complicated their phylogenetic placement^2,3. We show that these characteristics are reflected at the cell-type level by the expression of genes that originated in the chaetognath lineage, contributing to adaptation to planktonic life at the sensory and structural levels⁴. Similarly to other members of gnathiferans (which also include rotifers and several other microscopic phyla)^5,6, chaetognaths have undergone accelerated genomic evolution with gene loss and chromosomal fusions^7,8. Furthermore, they secondarily duplicated thousands of genes^9,10, without evidence for a whole-genome duplication, yielding, for instance, tandemly expanded Hox genes, as well as many phylum-specific genes. We also detected repeat-rich highly methylated neocentromeres and a simplified DNA methylation toolkit that is involved in mobile element repression rather than transcriptional control. Consistent with fossil evidence^11,12, our observations suggest that chaetognaths emerged after a phase of morphological simplification through a reinvention of organ systems paralleled by massive genomic reorganization, explaining the uniqueness of their body plan.

Nature (2025)

Evolutionary developmental biology, Genome evolution, Phylogenetics

Delocalized electrolyte design enables 600 Wh kg-1 lithium metal pouch cells

Original Paper | Batteries | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

He Huang, Yitao Hu, Yajun Hou, Xingkai Wang, Qiujiang Dong, Zhixin Zhao, Mingfang Ji, Wanxing Zhang, Jinyang Li, Jianping Xie, Hao Guo, Xiaopeng Han, Xiaoping Ouyang, Wenbin Hu

The development of high-energy lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is essential for advances in next-generation energy storage and electric vehicle technologies^1,2,3. Nevertheless, the practical applications of LMBs are constrained by current electrolyte designs that inherently rely on dominant solvation structures, preventing transformative progress in performance optimization^4,5. Here, we address this limitation through a delocalized electrolyte design that fosters a more disordered solvation microenvironment, thereby mitigating dynamic barriers and stabilizing interphases. The resulting delocalized electrolyte delivers notable energy densities of 604.2 Wh kg^-1 in a 5.5-Ah LiNi_0.9Co_0.05Mn_0.05O₂ (Ni90)||Li pouch cell with a lean electrolyte design (1.0 g Ah^-1) and 618.2 Wh kg^-1 in a 5.2-Ah Ni90||Li pouch cell with an ultralean electrolyte design (0.9 g Ah^-1), maintaining significant cycle stability over 100 and 90 cycles, respectively. In addition, the 70-104 V NCM811||Li battery pack (3,904 Wh) exhibits a high energy density of 480.9 Wh kg^-1 and stable cycling over 25 cycles. These results demonstrate the need to circumvent inherent reliance on dominant solvation structures in electrolyte design to achieve the high-energy Battery600 and scalable Pack480 targets.

Nature (2025)

Batteries, Energy

n-Type thermoelectric elastomers

Original Paper | Electronic devices | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Kai Liu, Jingyi Wang, Xiran Pan, Shuang-Yan Tian, Yudong Liu, Zhi Zhang, Yuqiu Di, Jupeng Chen, Chengwen Wu, Xin-Yu Deng, Dongyang Wang, Peiyun Li, Chen-Kai Pan, Fenglian Qi, Jinhui Liu, Jing Hua, Jian Pei, Chong-an Di, Yunlong Guo, Yunqi Liu, Ting Lei

Intrinsically elastic thermoelectric generators with superior conformal coverage and shape adaptability are highly desirable for developing self-powered wearable electronics, soft bioelectronics and personal temperature regulators^1,2. Until now, all reported high-performance thermoelectric materials have realized only flexibility, rather than elasticity^3,4. Here we present one of the first n-type thermoelectric elastomers by integrating uniform bulk nanophase separation, thermally activated crosslinking and targeted doping into a single material. The thermoelectric elastomers could exhibit exceptional rubber-like recovery of up to 150% strains and high figure of merit values rivalling flexible inorganic materials even under mechanical deformations. Conventional wisdom suggests that incorporating insulating polymers should dilute the active component in organic thermoelectrics, resulting in lower performance. However, we demonstrate that carefully selected elastomers and dopants can promote the formation of uniformly distributed, elastomer-wrapped and heavily n-doped semiconducting polymer nanofibrils, leading to improved electrical conductivity and decreased thermal conductivity. These thermoelectric elastomers have the potential to make elastic thermoelectric generators in wearable applications much more conformable and efficient.

Nature (2025)

Electronic devices, Polymers, Thermoelectric devices and materials

Calving-driven fjord dynamics resolved by seafloor fibre sensing

Original Paper | Cryospheric science | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Dominik Gräff, Bradley Paul Lipovsky, Andreas Vieli, Armin Dachauer, Rebecca Jackson, Daniel Farinotti, Julia Schmale, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Eric Berg, Anke Dannowski, Andrea Kneib-Walter, Manuela Köpfli, Heidrun Kopp, Enrico van der Loo, Daniel Mata Flores, Diego Mercerat, Raphael Moser, Anthony Sladen, Fabian Walter, Diego Wasser, Ethan Welty, Selina Wetter, Ethan F. Williams

Interactions between melting ice and a warming ocean drive the present-day retreat of tidewater glaciers of Greenland^1,2,3, with consequences for both sea level rise⁴ and the global climate system⁵. Controlling glacier frontal ablation, these ice-ocean interactions involve chains of small-scale processes that link glacier calving–the detachment of icebergs⁶–and submarine melt to the broader fjord dynamics^7,8. However, understanding these processes remains limited, in large part due to the challenge of making targeted observations in hazardous environments near calving fronts with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution⁹. Here we show that iceberg calving can act as a submarine melt amplifier through excitation of transient internal waves. Our observations are based on front-proximal submarine fibre sensing of the iceberg calving process chain. In this chain, calving initiates with persistent ice fracturing that coalesces into iceberg detachment, which in turn excites local tsunamis, internal gravity waves and transient currents at the ice front before the icebergs eventually decay into fragments. Our observations show previously unknown pathways in which tidewater glaciers interact with a warming ocean and help close the ice front ablation budget, which current models struggle to do¹⁰. These insights provide new process-scale understanding pertinent to retreating tidewater glaciers around the globe.

Nature 644, 404-412 (2025)

Cryospheric science, Environmental sciences, Physical oceanography, Seismology

Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity

Original Paper | Epidemiology | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Tim Althoff, Boris Ivanovic, Abby C. King, Jennifer L. Hicks, Scott L. Delp, Jure Leskovec

While physical activity is critical to human health, most people do not meet recommended guidelines^1,2. Built environments that are more walkable have the potential to increase activity across the population^3,4,5,6,7,8. However, previous studies on the built environment and physical activity have led to mixed findings, possibly due to methodological limitations such as small cohorts, over-reliance on self-reported measures and cross-sectional designs^5,7,9,10,11. Here we address these limitations by leveraging a large US cohort of smartphone users (N = 2,112,288) to evaluate within-person longitudinal behaviour changes that occurred over 248,266 days of objectively measured physical activity across 7,447 relocations among 1,609 US cities. By analysing the results of this natural experiment, which exposed individuals to differing built environments, we find that increases (decreases) in walkability are associated with significant increases (decreases) in physical activity after relocation. For example, moving from a less walkable (25th percentile) city to a more walkable city (75th percentile) increased walking by 1,100 daily steps, on average. These changes hold across different genders, ages and body mass index values, and are sustained over 3 months. The added activity is predominantly composed of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, which is linked to an array of associated health benefits¹. Evidence against residential self-selection confounding is reported. Our findings provide robust evidence supporting the importance of the built environment in directly improving health-enhancing physical activity and offer potential guidance for public policy activities in this area.

Nature (2025)

Epidemiology, Risk factors

Large riverbed sediment flux sustained for a decade after an earthquake

Original Paper | Geomorphology | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Gen K. Li, A. Joshua West, Zhangdong Jin, Hongrui Qiu, Fei Zhang, Jin Wang, Douglas E. Hammond, Alexander L. Densmore, Robert G. Hilton, Sijia Dong, Abra Atwood, Woodward W. Fischer, Michael P. Lamb

Large earthquakes induce widespread landslides that fill river channels with sediment^1,2, generating long-lasting fluvial hazards and reshaping mountain topography. However, riverine sediment fluxes after earthquakes remain poorly resolved, mostly because of a lack of data on bedload flux^3,4. Here we construct a source-to-sink sediment budget following the 2008 M_w7.9 (where M_w is the moment magnitude) Wenchuan earthquake in the eastern Tibetan mountains. We measured sediment accumulation in a man-made reservoir downstream of the earthquake-affected region. Ten years after the earthquake, the Min Jiang River had exported about 9% of the sediment mass from earthquake-triggered landslides, with around 5.7 times increase in the total riverine sediment flux sustained over that time. Bedload flux increased by ({27.4}{-15.6}^{+14.6} % ) times compared with pre-earthquake levels, making up (6{5}{-26}^{+12} % ) of the post-earthquake sediment export–a proportion much higher than typical of most mountainous rivers. At the current pace, the river system will remove most Wenchuan landslide debris over centennial timescales. However, future sediment export rates are likely to vary because of changes on hillslopes (for example, revegetation) and in hydrology, sediment characteristics and transport processes. Our findings demonstrate a decadal bedload-dominated sediment pulse driven by earthquake-triggered landslides, suggesting that increased vulnerability to cascading hazards such as aggradation and flooding could persist for decades in populated downstream regions after a large earthquake.

Nature 644, 398-403 (2025)

Geomorphology, Natural hazards

Photophoretic flight of perforated structures in near-space conditions

Original Paper | Aerospace engineering | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Benjamin C. Schafer, Jong-hyoung Kim, Felix Sharipov, Gyeong-Seok Hwang, Joost J. Vlassak, David W. Keith

Lightweight nanofabricated structures could photophoretically loft payloads in near-space. Proposed structures range from microscale engineered aerosols¹, to centimetre-scale thin disks with variations in surface accommodation coefficients^2,3, to sandwich structures with nanoscale thickness^4,5 that might be extended to metre-scale width^6,7. Quantitative understanding of how structural and surface properties determine photophoretic lofting forces is necessary to develop a practical flying device. Here we focus on thermal transpiration as the most promising photophoretic mechanism for lofting large devices⁸ and present a hybrid analytical-numerical model of the lofting force on a structure that consists of two perforated membranes spaced a small distance apart. We identify optimal structural parameters, including device size, membrane perforation density and distribution of the vertical ligaments that connect the two membranes, each as a function of atmospheric altitude. Targeting these optimal parameters, we fabricate structures with a heterogeneous ligament distribution, which efficiently compromises between structural rigidity and photophoretic performance. We measure how lofting forces generated by these structures depend on pressure using gases with three different molecular weights. We observed photophoretic levitation of a 1-cm-wide structure at an air pressure of 26.7 Pa when illuminated by 750 W m^-2, about 55% the intensity of sunlight. Lastly, we describe the preliminary design of a 3-cm-radius device with 10-mg payload capacity at 75-km altitudes and discuss horizontal motion control, overnight settling, and applications in climate sensing, communications and Martian exploration.

Nature 644, 362-369 (2025)

Aerospace engineering, Applied physics

Nature Physics

Universality in quantum critical flow of charge and heat in ultraclean graphene

Original Paper | Electronic properties and devices | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Aniket Majumdar, Nisarg Chadha, Pritam Pal, Akash Gugnani, Bhaskar Ghawri, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Subroto Mukerjee, Arindam Ghosh

Close to the Dirac point, graphene is expected to exist in a quantum critical Dirac fluid state, where the flow of both charge and heat can be described with a characteristic d.c. electrical conductivity and thermodynamic variables such as entropy and enthalpy densities. Although the fluid-like viscous flow of charge has been reported in state-of-the-art graphene devices, the value of conductivity, predicted to be quantized and determined only by the universality class of the critical point, has not been established experimentally so far. Here we have discerned the quantum critical universality in graphene transport by combining the electrical and thermal conductivities in very high-quality devices close to the Dirac point. We find that they are inversely related, as expected from relativistic hydrodynamics, and the characteristic conductivity converges to a quantized value. We also observe a giant violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law, where the Lorentz number exceeds the semiclassical value by more than 200 times close to the Dirac point at low temperatures. At high temperatures, the effective dynamic viscosity to entropy density ratio close to the Dirac point in the cleanest devices approaches that of a minimally viscous quantum fluid within a factor of four.

Nat. Phys. (2025)

Electronic properties and devices, Electronic properties and materials, Quantum fluids and solids

A mechanical quantum memory for microwave photons

Original Paper | NEMS | 2025-08-12 20:00 EDT

Alkım B. Bozkurt, Omid Golami, Yue Yu, Hao Tian, Mohammad Mirhosseini

Superconducting qubits possess outstanding capabilities for processing quantum information in the microwave domain; however they have limited coherence times. An interface between photons and phonons could allow quantum information to be stored in long-lived mechanical oscillators. Here, we introduce a platform that relies on electrostatic forces in nanoscale structures to achieve strong coupling between a superconducting qubit and a nanomechanical oscillator with an energy decay time (T₁) of approximately 25 ms, well beyond those achieved in integrated superconducting circuits. We use quantum operations in this system to investigate the microscopic origins of mechanical decoherence and mitigate its impact. By using two-pulse dynamical decoupling sequences, we can extend the coherence time (T₂) from 64 μs to 1 ms. These findings establish that mechanical oscillators can act as quantum memories for superconducting devices, with potential future applications in quantum computing, sensing and transduction.

Nat. Phys. (2025)

NEMS, Qubits

Physical Review Letters

Rapid Parameter Estimation for Pulsar-Timing-Array Datasets with Variational Inference and Normalizing Flows

Research article | Gravitational waves | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Michele Vallisneri, Marco Crisostomi, Aaron D. Johnson, and Patrick M. Meyers

In the gravitational-wave analysis of pulsar-timing-array datasets, parameter estimation is usually performed using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to explore posterior probability densities. We introduce an alternative procedure that instead relies on stochastic gradient-descent Bayesian variational inference, whereby we obtain the weights of a neural-network-based approximation of the posterior by minimizing the Kullback–Leibler divergence of the approximation from the exact posterior. This technique is distinct from simulation-based inference with normalizing flows since we train the network for a single dataset, rather than the population of all possible datasets, and we require the computation of the data likelihood and its gradient. Unlike Markov chain methods, our technique can trivially exploit highly parallel computing platforms. This makes it extremely fast on modern graphical processing units, on which it can analyze the NANOGrav 15-yr dataset in a few tens of minutes, depending on the probabilistic model, compared to hours or days with the analysis codes used so far. We expect that this speed will unlock new astrophysical and cosmological explorations of pulsar-timing-array datasets with statistical models that are currently too computationally expensive. Furthermore, this kind of variational inference is viable in other contexts of gravitational-wave data analysis, as long as differentiable and parallelizable likelihoods are available.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 071401 (2025)

Gravitational waves, Neutron stars & pulsars, Deep learning, Statistical methods

Flavor Nonsinglet Splitting Functions at Four Loops in QCD: Fermionic Contributions

Research article | Particle interactions | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

B. A. Kniehl, S. Moch, V. N. Velizhanin, and A. Vogt

We have determined the fourth-order ${n}{f}$ contributions to the two splitting functions governing the evolution of all flavor differences of quark distributions of hadrons in perturbative quantum chromodynamics with ${n}{f}$ light flavors. The analytic forms of these functions are presented in both Mellin $N$ space and momentum-fraction $x$ space for a general gauge group. In the small-$x$ limit double logarithms occur, but the small-$x$ rise of both splitting functions is confined to extremely small-$x$ values, $x\lesssim {10}^{- 6}$. The large-$x$ limit includes the ${n}{f}$-part of the four-loop quark virtual anomalous dimension. Using this result we obtain also the ${n}{f}$ contributions to the corresponding gluonic quantity and the complete threshold-enhanced logarithms from soft-gluon emission for a large class of inclusive observables, including Higgs boson production in gluon-gluon fusion.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 071902 (2025)

Particle interactions, Quantum chromodynamics, Quantum field theory

Collapse of a Quantum Vortex in an Attractive Two-Dimensional Bose Gas

Research article | Cold atoms & matter waves | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Sambit Banerjee, Kai Zhou, Shiva Kant Tiwari, Hikaru Tamura, Rongjie Li, Panayotis Kevrekidis, Simeon I. Mistakidis, Valentin Walther, and Chen-Lung Hung

We experimentally and numerically study the collapse dynamics of a quantum vortex in a two-dimensional atomic superfluid following a fast interaction ramp from repulsion to attraction. We find the conditions and timescales for a superfluid vortex to radially converge into a quasistationary density profile, demonstrating the spontaneous formation of a vortex solitonlike structure in an atomic Bose gas. We record an emergent self-similar dynamics caused by an azimuthal modulational instability, which amplifies initial density perturbations and leads to the eventual splitting of a solitonic ring profile or direct fragmentation of a superfluid into disordered, but roughly circular arrays of Townes solitonlike wave packets. These dynamics are qualitatively reproduced by simulations based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. However, a discrepancy in the magnitude of amplified density fluctuations predicted by our mean-field analysis suggests the presence of effects beyond the mean-field approximation. Our study sets the stage for exploring out-of-equilibrium dynamics of vortex quantum matter quenched to attractive interactions and their universal characteristics.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 073401 (2025)

Cold atoms & matter waves, Pattern formation, Vortex breakdown, Vortex dynamics, Vortices in superfluids, Bose gases, Solitons

Structural Evidence for the Spin Collapse in High Pressure Solid Oxygen

Research article | Molecular magnetism | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Federico Aiace Gorelli, Philip Dalladay-Simpson, Gaston Garbarino, Mohamed Mezouar, Julien Haines, and Mario Santoro

New evidence supports the idea that solid oxygen switches under pressure to an exotic entangled state.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 076101 (2025)

Molecular magnetism, Pressure effects, Structural properties, Pressure techniques, X-ray diffraction

Majorana Zero Modes in the Lieb-Kitaev Model with Tunable Quantum Metric

Research article | Anyons | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Xingyao Guo, Xinglei Ma, Xuzhe Ying, and K. T. Law

The relation between band topology and Majorana zero energy modes (MZMs) in topological superconductors had been well studied in the past decades. However, the relation between the quantum metric and MZMs has yet to be understood. In this Letter, we first construct a three band Lieb-like lattice model with an isolated flat band and tunable quantum metric. By introducing nearest neighbor equal spin pairing, we obtain the Lieb-Kitaev model which supports MZMs. When the Fermi energy is set within the flat band energy, the MZMs, which are supposed to be well localized at the ends of the 1D superconductor due to the flatness of the band, appear. On the contrary, we show both numerically and analytically that the localization length of the MZMs is controlled by a length scale defined by the quantum metric of the flat band, which we call the quantum metric length (QML). The QML can be several orders of magnitude longer than the conventional BCS superconducting coherence length. When the QML is comparable to the length of the superconductor, the two MZMs from the two ends of the superconductor can hybridize and induce ultra long range crossed Andreev reflections. This Letter unveils how the quantum metric can greatly influence the properties of MZMs through the QML, and the results can be generalized to other topological bound states.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 076601 (2025)

Anyons, Flat bands, Majorana bound states, Topological superconductors

Anderson Delocalization in Strongly Coupled Disordered Non-Hermitian Chains

Research article | Capacitance | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Wei-Wu Jin, Jin Liu, Xin Wang, Yu-Ran Zhang, Xueqin Huang, Xiaomin Wei, Wenbo Ju, Zhongmin Yang, Tao Liu, and Franco Nori

Disorder and non-Hermitian effects together can upend how waves localize. In a 1D disordered chain, the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) can induce Anderson delocalization, defying the usual rule that disorder in low dimensions always localizes states. While weak disorder leaves the NHSE intact, strong disorder restores Anderson localization. Here, we study a surprising twist: coupling a strongly disordered Hatano-Nelson chain to a disordered Hermitian chain with their disorder antisymmetrically correlated. Strikingly, once the interchain coupling exceeds a threshold, the system undergoes Anderson delocalization irrespective of disorder strength, reinstating the NHSE with no Hermitian counterpart. This transition arises from the interplay of nonreciprocal hopping, interchain coupling, and engineered disorder correlations, and is captured by a real-space winding number. To confirm this, we build an electrical-circuit analog and directly observe the reemergent NHSE via voltage measurements. Our Letter uncovers unexplored and experimentally accessible physics at the crossroads of non-Hermiticity and disorder.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 076602 (2025)

Capacitance, Skin effect, Topological phase transition, Capacitors, Disordered systems, Non-Hermitian systems

Separating Terahertz Spin and Charge Contributions from Ultrathin Antiferromagnetic Heterostructures

Research article | Demagnetization | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

T. W. J. Metzger, P. Fischer, T. Kikkawa, E. Saitoh, A. V. Kimel, and D. Bossini

An experimental approach that combines high external magnetic fields with symmetry analysis is able to separate spin and charge contributions in terahertz emission spectroscopy of antiferromagnets.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 076702 (2025)

Demagnetization, High magnetic fields, Magnetism, Ultrafast magnetic effects, Antiferromagnets, Thin films, Terahertz spectroscopy

Chiral Phonon-Induced Spin Transport via Microscopic Barnett Effect

Research article | Chirality | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Xixi Qin, Cong Yang, Dali Sun, Jun Liu, and Volker Blum

Chiral phonons, which are characterized by rotational atomic motion, offer a unique mechanism for transferring angular momentum from phonons to electron spins and other angular momentum carriers. In this Letter, we present a theoretical investigation into the emergence of chiral phonons in a chiral hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite (HOIP) and their critical roles in rigid-body rotation, magnetic moment generation, and spin transport under nonthermal equilibrium conditions. We demonstrate that phonon angular momentum can modify the spin chemical potential via a proposed microscopic Barnett effect, leading to a spatially varying spin chemical potential at the metal/HOIP interface, which subsequently induces spin currents in an adjacent Cu layer, with a magnitude consistent with experimental observations. Additionally, we propose a mechanism for the intrinsic excitation of spin currents driven by chiral phonons under a parabolic temperature profile. Beyond their influence on spin transport, we also outline experimental approaches to probe chiral phonons through their distinctive mechanical and magnetic responses.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 076703 (2025)

Chirality, Phonons, Spin caloritronics, Hybrid perovskites, First-principles calculations

Erratum: Thermal Area Law in Long-Range Interacting Systems [Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 020402 (2025)]

| 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Donghoon Kim, Tomotaka Kuwahara, and Keiji Saito

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 079901 (2025)

Physical Review X

Acoustic Signaling Enables Collective Perception and Control in Active Matter Systems

Research article | Collective behavior | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Alexander Ziepke, Ivan Maryshev, Igor S. Aranson, and Erwin Frey

Self-propelled particles that emit and respond to sound can self-organize into dynamic, resilient structures–like snakes and rings–that sense, decide, and recover, offering a new path to smart, adaptable microrobotic swarms.

Phys. Rev. X 15, 031040 (2025)

Collective behavior, Living matter & active matter, Swarming, Direct numerical simulations, Multiscale modeling, Theories of collective dynamics & active matter

Torsion-Driven Plectoneme Formation During Nanopore Translocation of DNA Polymers

Research article | Nanofluidics | 2025-08-12 06:00 EDT

Fei Zheng, Antonio Suma, Christopher Maffeo, Kaikai Chen, Mohammed Alawami, Jingjie Sha, Aleksei Aksimentiev, Cristian Micheletti, and Ulrich F. Keyser

Plectonemes–twisted DNA structures–form frequently during nanopore experiments and produce distinct signals, challenging the long-held belief that such signals result from DNA knots.

Phys. Rev. X 15, 031041 (2025)

Nanofluidics, Polymer conformation changes, Polymer entanglement, Polymer translocation

arXiv

Mathematical Models for Fish Schooling

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Linh Thi Hoai Nguyen, Ton Viet Ta, Atsushi Yagi

This note reviews our mathematical models for fish schooling, considered in free space, and in space with obstacle and food resource. These models are performed by stochastic differential equations or stochastic partial differential equations. We then present an example for the model in the last case.

arXiv:2508.08310 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Probability (math.PR)

Proceedings of the Vietnam International Applied Mathematics Conference, Saigon University, Vietnam, December 15-18, 2017

Characterizing Topological Phase Transition in Non-Hermitian Systems

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

ZhaoXiang Fang, Yongxu Fu, Guang-Can Guo, Long Xiong

We propose and present a concept of Topological Distance (TD), obtained from the integration of trace distance over the generalized Brillouin zone, in order to characterize the topological transitions of non-Hermitian systems. Specifically, such a quantity is used to measure the overall dissimilarity between eigen wavefunctions upon traversing all possible matter states, and confirms the phase boundaries through observing the divergences of both TD and its partial derivatives; we clarify its origin and also offer a theoretical explanation. The method is developed to characterize the non-Hermitian topology in a novel way, and shows its generality and effectiveness in 1D non-Hermitian Kitaev systems, non-Hermitian Hamiltonians under periodic or open boundary conditions, and even generalizable to higher-order topological systems, providing a novel perspective to understand topological physics.

arXiv:2508.08316 (2025)

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

4 figures

Ergodicity detection algorithms: Scaling of ergodicity in random symbolic dynamics

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

M. Süzen

The mathematical definitions of distinct concepts that are needed in building an ergodicity detec- tion algorithm are introduced in a framework. This algorithmic framework is expressed in a discrete setting in an accessible manner for broader quantitative practitioners without loss of generality. At the same time, the common misconceptions of the requirement of visiting all available states in the time-averaged quantities for physical systems and non-existence of an ergodic process are resolved by introducing the distinction between Gibbs-Boltzmann and von Neumann-Birkhoff ergodic regimes. For this purpose, we introduce a new concept which is called sufficiency of sparse visit. We use finite symbolic random sequences as a pedagogical tool in establishing the different approaches for the detection of ergodic regimes of dynamical systems with vector patterns. The simple example system conveys the different attitudes in ergodicity regimes and offers guidance for building computational tools for its algorithmic detection.

arXiv:2508.08319 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)

6 pages, 5 figures, 3 tabels

DiffractGPT: Atomic Structure Determination from X-ray Diffraction Patterns using Generative Pre-trained Transformer

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Kamal Choudhary

Crystal structure determination from powder diffraction patterns is a complex challenge in materials science, often requiring extensive expertise and computational resources. This study introduces DiffractGPT, a generative pre-trained transformer model designed to predict atomic structures directly from X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. By capturing the intricate relationships between diffraction patterns and crystal structures, DiffractGPT enables fast and accurate inverse design. Trained on thousands of atomic structures and their simulated XRD patterns from the JARVIS-DFT dataset, we evaluate the model across three scenarios: (1) without chemical information, (2) with a list of elements, and (3) with an explicit chemical formula. The results demonstrate that incorporating chemical information significantly enhances prediction accuracy. Additionally, the training process is straightforward and fast, bridging gaps between computational, data science, and experimental communities. This work represents a significant advancement in automating crystal structure determination, offering a robust tool for data-driven materials discovery and design.

arXiv:2508.08349 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Flux Response of Rotation-Invariant Topological Insulators

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Yechen Xun, Rui-Xing Zhang

Threading magnetic flux into topological phases can induce bound states that reveal intrinsic properties of the ground state. In a 3D $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ topological insulator, a quantized $ \pi$ flux traps a pair of 1D helical modes, whereas a trivial insulator hosts none. In this work, we show that in the presence of even-fold rotation symmetry $ C_n$ , a 3D band insulator features a refined $ \mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ classification of the flux response. Specifically, it can host two distinct types of helical flux-bound modes that are distinguished by their angular momentum. When both types of flux modes coexist, the system is not a strong topological insulator, but a $ C_n$ -protected topological crystalline insulator. Building on this result, we propose that flux-threaded nanowires of such topological phase provide a natural platform for realizing 1D crystalline topological superconductors with multiple $ C_n$ -protected Majorana modes.

arXiv:2508.08357 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

6 + 11 pages, 3 + 5 figures

Spin ladder quantum simulators from spin-orbit-coupled quantum dot spin qubits

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Yang-Zhi Chou, Sankar Das Sarma

Motivated by the recent Ge hole spin qubit experiments, we construct and study a two-leg spin ladder from a quantum dot array with spin-orbit couplings (SOCs), aiming to uncover the many-body phase diagrams and provide concrete guidance for the Ge hole spin qubit experiments. The spin ladder is described by an unprecedented, complex spin Hamiltonian, which contains antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM), and anisotropic exchange interactions. We analyze the spin ladder Hamiltonian in two complementary situations, the strong rung coupling limit and the weak rung coupling limit. In the strong rung coupling limit, we systematically construct effective spin-1/2 chain models, connecting the well-studied one-dimensional spin models and providing a recipe for Hamiltonian engineering. It is worth emphasizing that effective DM interactions can be completely turned off while the microscopic DM interactions are generically inevitable. Moreover, the staggered DM interactions, which are not possible in the microscopic spin model, can also be realized in the effective spin-1/2 model. In the weak rung coupling limit, we employ Abelian bosonization and Luther-Emery fermionization, uncovering a multitude of phases. Several commensurate-incommensurate transitions are driven by both the longitudinal magnetic field and the DM interactions in the legs (chains). Remarkably, the low-energy phase diagrams show strong dependence in the DM interaction, providing a concrete way to identify the strength of SOC in the experiments. Our work bridges quantum many-body theory and spin qubit device physics, establishing spin ladders made of spin-orbit-coupled quantum dots as a promising platform for engineering exotic spin models, constructing quantum many-body states, and enabling programmable quantum computations.

arXiv:2508.08358 (2025)

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

20 pages, 6 figures

Proximity superconductivity in chiral kagome antiferromagnets

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Adam Yanis Chaou, Gal Lemut, Felix von Oppen, Piet W. Brouwer

Recent experiments on the chiral kagome antiferromagnet Mn$ 3$ Ge have provided strong evidence of proximity-induced spin-polarized superconductivity. We introduce and explore a minimal model which exhibits a rich phase diagram as a function of chemical potential and spin canting. We find a valley-singlet superconducting phase for chemical potentials and canting consistent with the experimental system. This phase transitions into a Chern insulator at larger canting and gives way to topological superconducting phases with Chern numbers $ {\cal C}{\rm BdG} = \pm 1, \pm 3$ at other chemical potentials. Our results show that proximity-induced superconductivity in kagome antiferromagnets is a promising route towards exotic superconductivity with spin-polarized Cooper pairs, with potential applications in spintronics.

arXiv:2508.08372 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

5 + 7 pgs. 2 + 2 figs

Continuous topological phase transition between $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topologically ordered phases

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Qi Zhang, Wen-Tao Xu

Topological phase transitions beyond anyon condensation remain poorly understood. A notable example is the transition between the toric code (TC) and double semion (DS) phases, which has two distinct $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ topological orders in (2 + 1)D. Previous studies reveal that the transition between them can be either first order or via an intermediate phase, thus the existence of a directly continuous transition between them remains a long-standing problem. Motivated by the fact that both phases can arise from condensing distinct anyons in the $ \mathbb{Z}_4$ topological order, we introduce a perturbed $ \mathbb{Z}_4$ quantum double (QD) model to study the TC-DS transition. We confirm the existence of a continuous (2 + 1)D XY\ast transition between the TC and DS phases by mapping it to a two-coupled quantum Ising model. Importantly, using the condensation order parameters and the area law coefficients of the Wilson loops, we further reveal that $ \mathbb{Z}_4$ anyons, fractionalized from the $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ topological orders, become deconfined at the transition between $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ topologically ordered phases. Our results open a path toward developing a theoretical framework for topological phase transitions beyond anyon condensation.

arXiv:2508.08376 (2025)

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

7+7 pages, 4+4 figures

Emergence of distinct relaxation behaviour and Quantum Regression Theorem in the Ultra-strong Coupling Limit

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Sakil Khan, Bijay Kumar Agarwalla

In the framework of open quantum systems, we derive the dynamical equation governing two-time correlation functions in the ultra-strong coupling (USC) regime between the system and its environment. Unlike the case of the standard weak-coupling regime, in the USC case, we find distinct relaxation behavior for two-time correlators depending on the types of the operators involved in the correlation function. Interestingly, the Quantum Regression Theorem (QRT) emerges after the fastest relaxation time-scale, which is governed by the system-bath coupling strength. We exemplify our findings for the dissipative spin-boson model and further find excellent agreement with the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) method.

arXiv:2508.08378 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

Spin-orbit-enabled realization of arbitrary two-qubit gates on moving spins

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

D. Fernández-Fernández, Y. Matsumoto, L.M.K. Vandersypen, G. Platero, S. Bosco

Shuttling spin qubits in systems with large spin-orbit interaction (SOI) can cause errors during motion. However, in this work, we demonstrate that SOI can be harnessed to implement an arbitrary high-fidelity two-qubit (2Q) gate. We consider two spin qubits defined in a semiconductor double quantum dot that are smoothly moved toward each other by gate voltages. We show that an arbitrary high-fidelity 2Q gate can be realized by controlling the shuttling speed and waiting times, and leveraging strong intrinsic or extrinsic SOI. Crucially, performing 2Q operations during qubit transport enables a one-step realization of a wide range of 2Q gates, which often involve several steps when implemented using static dots. Our findings establish a practical route toward direct implementation of any 2Q gate via spin shuttling, significantly reducing control overhead in scalable quantum computing architectures.

arXiv:2508.08394 (2025)

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

21 pages, 17 figures

Nagaoka Instability and Quantum Phase Transition via Kinetic Frustration Control

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Prakash Sharma, Yang Peng, Donna N. Sheng, Hitesh J. Changlani, Yao Wang

We investigate the Nagaoka-Thouless (NT) ferromagnetic instability in the strongly interacting $ t$ -$ t’$ Hubbard model by continuously breaking particle-hole symmetry on a tunable square-triangular lattice geometry. We use an analytic approach to show that the fully spin-polarized state becomes unstable to a metastable spin-polaron when the kinetic frustration $ t’/t$ exceeds a critical, dimension-dependent value. Large-scale density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations reveal a quantum phase transition from the NT ferromagnet to a spiral spin-density wave, which evolves continuously into the Haerter-Shastry antiferromagnet in the large-frustration limit. Remarkably, this transition remains robust at low but finite hole density, making it accessible in cold-atom and moiré Hubbard platforms under strong interactions. A variational analysis further captures the instability mechanism at finite density via frustration-induced magnon band deformation.

arXiv:2508.08410 (2025)

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

13 pages, 8 figures

Electronic transport and Fermi surface of Weyl semimetal WTe2: quantum oscillations and first-principles study

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

B.M. Fominykh, A.N. Perevalova, S.T. Baidak, A.V. Lukoyanov, S.V. Naumov, E.B. Marchenkova, V.V. Marchenkov

Currently, topological semimetals are being actively investigated from both theoretical and experimental perspectives due to their unique physical properties, including topologically protected states, large magnetoresistivity, and high carrier mobility, which make these materials promising for various applications in electronics. In this work, we present experimental and theoretical studies of the electronic structure and electronic transport in the Weyl semimetal $ WTe_2$ . Band structure of $ WTe_2$ was scrutinized with DFT+U+SOC method showing the semimetallic nature and sensitivity of the structure to the value of U and to changes in the Fermi energy. Our results demonstrate that $ WTe_2$ is in a near-compensated state and exhibits an almost quadratic non-saturating magnetoresistivity. It is found that $ WTe_2$ violates the classical Kohler’s rule, which is attributed to the coexistence of multiple scattering mechanisms and a strong temperature dependence of the current carrier concentration. Analysis of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations reveals three distinct frequencies corresponding to two electron and one hole Fermi surface pockets, which are well reproduced in Fermi surface calculations. Using the Lifshitz-Kosevich formalism, we determined the electronic structure parameters for each Fermi surface pocket. Additionally, we discuss the relationship between the g-factor and the Berry phase extracted from quantum oscillations.

arXiv:2508.08419 (2025)

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

Multistable polar textures in geometrically frustrated nematic liquid crystals

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Ufuoma I. Kara, Boyuan Chen, Simon Čopar, Shucong Li, Rajdeep Mamtani, Xu Yang, Eric Boerner, Zhan Yang, Alan H. Weible, Yuxing Yao, Robin L. B. Selinger, Uroš Tkalec, Xiaoguang Wang

The ability to manipulate polar entities with multiple external fields opens exciting possibilities for emerging functionalities and novel applications in spin systems, photonics, metamaterials, and soft matter. Liquid crystals (LCs), exhibiting both a crystalline structure and liquid fluidity, represent a promising platform for manipulating phases with polar molecular order, notably ferroelectric ones. However, achieving a polar symmetry is challenging with rod-shaped LC molecules, which form predominantly apolar nematic phases. We report an approach in which a geometric lattice confinement of nematic LCs is used to induce planar polar order on the scale of a mesoscopic metamaterial. We confine the nematic LC in a micropillar array, forming topological defect-pillar pairs of elastic dipoles with a free top interface in contact with an immiscible fluid. The resulting dipole lattice configurations can be programmed rheologically by flowing the top fluid and maintained even after flow cessation, a phenomenon attributed to orientational multistability of the dipoles. This multi-memory effect enables the encoding and reconfiguration of directional information. Overall, this research establishes a foundational understanding of topological dipoles under confinement and shear flow, enabling the detection, tracking, and recording of flow profiles and paving the way for future advances in soft matter physics and stimuli-responsive materials.

arXiv:2508.08432 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

18 pages, 4 figures

Translation Groups for arbitrary Gauge Fields in Synthetic Crystals with real hopping amplitudes

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Marco Marciani

The Cayley-crystals introduced in [F. R. Lux and E. Prodan, Annales Henri Poincaré 25(8), 3563 (2024)] are a class of synthetic lattices whose Hamiltonians are symmetric under the simply transitive action of a generic discrete group G. We show that these systems naturally realize the generalization of the so-called magnetic translation groups to arbitrary discrete gauge groups. The one-body dynamics mimics that of a particle carrying multiple charges, each experiencing a distinct static gauge-field configuration. The possible types of gauge fields are determined by the irreducible representations of the commutator subgroup C of G, while the Wilson-loop configurations - which need not be homogeneous - are fixed by the embedding of C in G. We analyze in depth the role of other subgroups in shaping both the lattice geometry and the dynamics. For engineering relevance, we discuss a theorem that constructs all Cayley-crystals for a given abelian gauge group, and we provide two-dimensional examples corresponding to crystals threaded by inhomogeneous magnetic fluxes. Moreover, Cayley-crystals can be realized with only real hopping amplitudes and in scalable geometries that can fit higher-than-3D dynamics, enabling experimental exploration and eventual exploitation in metamaterials, cQED, and other synthetic platforms.

arXiv:2508.08461 (2025)

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

41 pages, 6 figures. Any comment is welcome. About to submit to SciPost

When Surface Dynamics Fakes Symmetry – Oxygen on Rh(100) Revisited

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Lutz Hammer, Tilman Kißlinger, Margareta Wagner, Reinhard B. Neder, Michael Schmid, Ulrike Diebold, M. Alexander Schneider

Heating a long-range ordered adsorbate phase beyond its stability temperature does not necessarily result in a disordered phase, it can also break up into heavily fluctuating ordered domains. Temporal and/or spatial averaging over these fluctuations may give the impression of both a wrong periodicity and a false local symmetry. This can happen even below liquid-nitrogen temperature, so that the true nature of the phase might remain undetected. We demonstrate this scenario at the catalytically active Rh(100) surface covered by 1/2 monolayer (ML) of oxygen, using quantitative low energy electron diffraction (LEED), variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). Using the example of CO adsorption, we show that local symmetry can have a decisive influence on the binding energy and thus the chemical reactivity.

arXiv:2508.08474 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Perspective: Mitigation of structural defects during the growth of two-dimensional van der Waals chalcogenides by molecular beam epitaxy

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Qihua Zhang, Maria Hilse, Stephanie Law

The growth of wafer-scale van der Waals (vdW) thin films and heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is important for future applications in quantum technologies, next generation optoelectronic devices, and fundamental physics investigations. When grown using co-deposition methods that are typically used for compound semiconductor MBE, vdW materials typically show a high density of structural defects including twin or antiphase domains, spiral growth, and pyramidal growth. These defects are caused by the relatively weak film/substrate interaction and/or the poor wettability of typical substrates by many vdW materials. These difficulties can be mitigated using a multi-step growth procedure in which growth stages including nucleation and coalescence can be rigorously controlled, resulting in high-quality deposition of vdW thin films. This article will describe a general recipe for the growth of highly-crystalline wafer-scale vdW thin films by MBE.

arXiv:2508.08483 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Emergent gauge flux in QED$_3$ with flavor chemical potential: application to magnetized U(1) Dirac spin liquids

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Chuang Chen, Urban F. P. Seifert, Kexin Feng, Oleg A. Starykh, Leon Balents, Zi Yang Meng

We design a lattice model of non-compact U(1) gauge field coupled to fermions with a flavor chemical potential and solve it with large-scale determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations. For zero flavor chemical potential, the model realizes three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED$ _3$ ) which has been argued to describe the ground state and low-energy excitations of the Dirac spin liquid phase of quantum antiferromagnets. At finite flavor chemical potential, corresponding to a Zeeman field perturbing the Dirac spin liquid, we find a ‘’chiral flux’’ phase which is characterized by the generation of a finite mean emergent gauge flux and, accordingly, the formation of relativistic Landau levels for the Dirac fermions. In this state, the U(1)$ _m$ magnetic symmetry is spontaneously broken, leading to a gapless free photon mode which, due to spin-flux-attachment, is observable in the longitudinal spin structure factor. We numerically compute longitudinal and transverse spin structure factors which match our continuum and lattice mean-field theory predictions. Further, sufficiently strong fluctuations of the emergent gauge field give rise to an antiferromagnetically ordered state with gapped Dirac fermions coexisting with a deconfined gauge field. We also find an interesting intermediate phase where the chiral flux phase and the antiferromagnetic phase coexist. We argue that our results pave the way to testable predictions for magnetized Dirac spin liquids in frustrated quantum antiferromagnets.

arXiv:2508.08528 (2025)

Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)

19+8 pages, 11+4 figures

Emergent dynamical Kondo coherence and competing magnetic order in a correlated kagome flat-band metal CsCr6Sb6

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Xiangqi Liu, Xuefeng Zhang, Jiachen Jiao, Renjie Zhang, Kaiwen Chen, Ying Wang, Yunguan Ye, Zhenhai Yu, Chengyu Jiang, Xia Wang, Lei Shu, Baiqing Lv, Gang Li, Yanfeng Guo

Correlated kagome metals host unique electronic states that enable exotic quantum phenomena. In the recently emerged CsCr6Sb6, these manifest through Kondo behavior from localized Cr-3d electrons and unprecedented band flattening near the Fermi level. Yet the intricate interplay among Kondo screening, magnetic frustration, and electronic correlations remains poorly understood-a fundamental gap we address through multifaceted experimental and theoretical approaches. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal electronic correlation-renormalized flat bands and muon spin relaxation study detect short-range magnetic order at TN ~ 80 K. Complementing these findings, density-functional theory and dynamical mean-field theory calculations identify a coherent-incoherent crossover at TN, with a remarkable restoration of coherence accompanying local moment suppression-an anomalous hallmark of Kondo behavior. Intriguingly, despite strong interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling, the system evades long-range magnetic order due to competing magnetic configurations separated by sub-meV energy differences. These insights establish CsCr6Sb6 as a prototypical platform for investigating dynamical Kondo screening in correlated flat-band systems, opening new avenues to study flat band physics and frustrated magnetism in correlated kagome lattices.

arXiv:2508.08580 (2025)

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

Mian Text 17 pages, 4 figures; SI 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

Lifshitz transition in correlated topological semimetals

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Byungkyun Kang, Myoung-Hwan Kim, Chul Hong Park, Anderson Janotti, Eunja Kim

Topological quasiparticles, arising when the chemical potential is near the band crossing, are pivotal for the development of next-generation quantum devices. They are expected to exist in half-Heusler correlated topological semimetals. However, the emergence of hole carriers, which alter the chemical potential away from the quadratic-band-touching points is not yet understood. Here, we investigated the electronic structure of YPtBi and GdPtBi through ab initio many-body perturbation GW theory combined with dynamical mean-field theory and revealed that the correlation effects of 4$ d$ or 4$ f$ electrons can lead to the formation of hole carriers. In YPtBi, the weakly correlated Y-4$ d$ electrons constitute the topological bands, and the quadratic-band-touching point is at the Fermi level at high temperatures. At low temperatures, enhanced correlations of Y-4$ d$ renormalize the topological bands, leading to the formation of hole pocket. In GdPtBi, the strongly correlated Gd-4$ f$ electrons form the Hubbard-like bands originate from self-energy effects associated with a topological singularity. These local bands encompass itinerant 4$ f$ bands, which hybridize with topological bands to induce pronounced hole bands. This concerted effect reduces the hole doping, bringing the chemical potential closer to the quadratic-band-touching points as the temperature is lowered. The temperature-induced Lifshitz transition should be responsible for the large hole bands observed in both topological semimetals in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements at low temperatures. Our findings indicate that the integration of correlated fermions within a topological framework can modulate the energy landscape of topological bands.

arXiv:2508.08598 (2025)

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

Fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal in the electric-field-tuned $\mathrm{Hf_2S}$ monolayer

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

San-Dong Guo, Alessandro Stroppa

Fully-compensated ferrimagnet has garnered widespread attention due to its zero-net total magnetic moment and non-relativistic global spin splitting. In general, for a fully-compensated ferrimagnet, at least one spin channel should be gapped to ensure a zero-net total magnetic moment, which would lead to a fully-compensated ferrimagnetic semiconductor or half-metal, and appears to limit the existence of a fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal. Here, we propose to start with a spin-degenerate two-dimensional antiferromagnetic metal with spin-layer locking and achieve a fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal by applying an out-of-plane electric field. Using first-principles calculations, we have validated our proposal by taking monolayer $ \mathrm{Hf_2S}$ as an example. Without considering spin-orbit coupling (SOC), monolayer $ \mathrm{Hf_2S}$ indeed has a zero-net total magnetic moment, exhibits spin splitting, and is metallic within a reasonable range of electric field strength. Therefore, monolayer $ \mathrm{Hf_2S}$ under an applied electric field can indeed become a fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal. When SOC is included, the application of an electric field can induce an asymmetric band structure. Our work offers an alternative route to realize the originally forbidden fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal, paving the way for further exploration of fully-compensated ferrimagnetic metal.

arXiv:2508.08609 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Momentum-Resolved Relaxation-Time Approach for Size-Dependent Conductivity in Anisotropic Metallic Films

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

YoungJun Lee, Jin Soo Lee, Seungjun Lee, Seoung-Hun Kang, Young-Kyun Kwon

Shrinking CMOS interconnect dimensions to the nanometer scale intensifies electron scattering at surfaces, interfaces, and grain boundaries, causing severe conductivity loss and challenging copper-based designs. Here we present a momentum-resolved relaxation time framework that integrates density functional theory with the semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation to predict size-dependent resistivity in metallic thin films. Electron phonon interactions are computed from first principles, and anisotropic surface and grain boundary scattering is captured through a momentum dependent mean free path, allowing relaxation times to vary spatially and directionally without empirical fitting. Applied to isotropic (Cu, Ag, Au) and anisotropic (W, Ti$ _2$ GeC) metals, the model achieves excellent agreement with experiments and uncovers the critical role of crystallographic anisotropy in transport. We further identify layered MAX phase compounds as promising ultrathin interconnects. This work provides a predictive, physically rigorous, and computationally efficient route to designing high-performance conductors for next generation nanoelectronics.

arXiv:2508.08622 (2025)

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

Investigating the Degradation of LATP Solid Electrolyte in High Alkaline Li-$O_2$ Batteries

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Tara P Mishra, Zhuohan Li, Meghan Shen, Maximilian Jaugstetter, Livia P Matte, Jung O. Park, Hyunjin Kim, Benjamin X Lam, Karen Bustillo, Gerbrand Ceder, Mary Scott

In this study, we address the challenge of electrolyte degradation in all-solid-state humidified Li-$ O_2$ batteries, which offer high theoretical energy density and potential cost advantages over conventional lithium-ion batteries. Combining STEM-EELS, and XPS characterizations with DFT calculations, we reveal the leaching of $ (PO_4)^{3+}$ and $ Al^{3+}$ ions from the $ Li_{1.3}Al_{0.3}Ti_{1.7}(PO_4)_3$ (LATP) solid electrolyte upon battery discharge, caused by the highly alkaline environment. Upon charging, the leached ions precipitate as $ Li_3PO_4$ and $ AlPO_4$ , which accumulate on the LATP surface and contribute to battery degradation. A Ti-rich layer is observed at the surface after a few cycles due to depletion of other cations. Our findings suggest that the degradation products are formed through repeated dissolution and precipitation in the discharge-charge cycles. Furthermore, our results indicate that the Ti-rich layer on the LATP surface can potentially reduce parasitic reactions. Our study provides mechanistic understanding of LATP solid electrolyte degradation in humidified Li-$ O_2$ cell, paving the way for designing more durable and efficient Li-$ O_2$ batteries.

arXiv:2508.08654 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

33 pages, 6 figures

Load-Dependent Sliding behavior of WSe2-x solid lubricant coating

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Yue Wang, Himanshu Rai, Tomas Polcar

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are commonly used as solid lubricants in various environments. Molybdenum disulfide is the most studied and applied TMD solid lubricant, but other members may have similar or even better sliding properties. Tungsten diselenide is one of the materials that has rarely been investigated in terms of tribological properties. This paper provides a comprehensive tribological characterization of substoichiometric tungsten diselenide and molybdenum disulfide coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering. We focused on tribological properties at a macroscopic scale, particularly friction and wear dependence on applied load; however, a nanoscale frictional assessment of worn surfaces was performed as well to identify the major wear mechanisms. Substoichiometric tungsten diselenide outperformed traditional molybdenum disulfide, exhibiting much lower friction in humid air, suggesting lower coating sensitivity to the humid atmosphere. Moreover, a combination of nanotribological experiments in the wear tracks with sliding under different environmental conditions suggests that the key factor causing frictional load-dependence (deviation from Amonton’s law) is frictional heating of the surface.

arXiv:2508.08689 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Crystalline water intercalation into the Kitaev honeycomb cobaltate Na$_2$Co$_2$TeO$_6$

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Masaaki Ito, Yuya Haraguchi, Teruki Motohashi, Miwa Saito, Satoshi Ogawa, Takashi Ikuta, Hiroko Aruga Katori

We herein report the successful intercalation of water molecules into the layered honeycomb lattice of Na$ _2$ Co$ _2$ TeO$ _6$ , a Kitaev-candidate compound, to obtain the hydrated phase Na$ _2$ Co$ _2$ TeO$ _6$ \cdot$ y$ H$ 2$ O ($ y \sim$ 2.4). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and Rietveld refinements indicate that crystalline water resides between the cobalt-based honeycomb layers. This insertion of neutral molecules significantly alters the crystal structure, increasing the interlayer spacing and modifying the local bonding environment. Magnetization measurements reveal an antiferromagnetic transition at $ T_N \sim 17.2$ K, accompanied by a discernible weak ferromagnetic component. The application of moderate magnetic fields induces a spin-flop reorientation at $ \mu_0H \sim 5.7$ T. The $ \lambda$ -type anomaly and long-range order persist up to 9 T, showing the reconfiguration of the ground state as opposed to its suppression. Heat-capacity analysis reveals the full $ 2R\ln2$ magnetic entropy expected for two $ J{\rm eff} = 1/2$ moments per formula unit, confirming the pseudospin description. These findings demonstrate that water intercalation is a robust strategy for tuning the magnetic properties of honeycomb lattice materials. Overall, this study highlights neutral-molecule insertion as a promising route toward the discovery and engineering of quantum magnets based on layered transition metal oxides.

arXiv:2508.08717 (2025)

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

13 pages, 10 figures, accepted in Physical Review Materials

Giant Magnetocaloric Effect in a Honeycomb Spiral Spin-Liquid Candidate

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Yuqian Zhao, Xun Chen, Zongtang Wan, Zhaohua Ma, Yuesheng Li

Unlike conventional magnetic states, which lack degeneracy, the spiral spin liquid (SSL) fluctuates among degenerate spiral configurations, with ground-state wave vectors forming a continuous contour or surface in reciprocal space. At low temperatures, the field-induced crossover from the polarized ferromagnetic state to the SSL results in a large entropy increase and decalescence, indicating its potential for magnetic cooling. However, magnetic cooling using a SSL has yet to be reported. Here, we investigate the magnetocaloric effect and cooling performance of single-crystal GdZnPO, a spin-7/2 honeycomb-lattice SSL candidate, under a magnetic field $ H$ $ <$ $ H_\mathrm{c}$ ($ \mu_0H_\mathrm{c}$ $ \sim$ 12 T) applied perpendicular to the honeycomb plane and below the crossover temperature ($ \sim$ 2 K). For $ H$ $ \geq$ $ H_\mathrm{c}$ , GdZnPO enters a polarized non-degenerate ferromagnetic state. Our results demonstrate that GdZnPO exhibits a giant low-temperature magnetocaloric effect near $ H_\mathrm{c}$ , surpassing other magnetocaloric materials. This giant magnetocaloric effect is well-explained by the frustrated honeycomb spin model of GdZnPO, suggesting the stability of the SSL below $ H_\mathrm{c}$ down to very low temperatures. Additionally, its magnetic cooling performance remains robust up to at least 4.5 K, making GdZnPO a promising candidate for magnetic refrigeration down to $ \sim$ 36 mK through cycling the applied magnetic field within a narrow range.

arXiv:2508.08721 (2025)

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

accepted in Advanced Science. Supporting Information is available from the authors

Longitudinal magneto-thermal conductivity and magneto-Seebeck of itinerant antiferromagnetic BaMn$_2$Bi$_2$

New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Takuma Ogasawara (1), Hailiang Xia (2), Khuong-Kim Huynh (3), Qifeng Yao (1), Liguo Zhang (1), Thomas L M Lane (1), Shilin Li (1, 4, and 5), Yufeng Gao (1, 4, and 5), Tingting Hao (1), Jianhao Chen (1, 6, and 7), Katsumi Tanigaki (1) ((1) Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, (2) Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, (3) Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, (4) Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, (5) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), (6) International Center for Quantum Materials, Peking University, (7) Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University)

Thermal transport, generally mediated by the direct microscopic exchange of kinetic energy via lattice phonons, can also be modified by contributions from additional quasiparticles, such as electrons and magnons. However, a comprehensive understanding of the magnon influence has yet to be realized and remains an active research area. The most significant roadblock has been a lack of available materials in which these three quasiparticles can be clearly identified and quantitatively examined in order to provide an intrinsic understanding, not only of their independent contributions to thermal conductivity but also of the cross-correlated interactions among them. Itinerant antiferromagnetic (AFM) BaMn$ _{2}$ Bi$ _{2}$ with PT symmetry exhibits Anderson metal-insulator localization, which can be tuned into the metallic regime via an applied magnetic field due to its unique electron-magnon interactions. We identify itinerant AFM BaMn$ _{2}$ Bi$ _{2}$ as an ideal material for scientific investigations into how these quasiparticles participate in thermal conductivity. Here, we present the direct contribution of electrons, phonons, and magnons to thermal conductivity, as well as their interspecies interactions, supported by detailed analyses conducted in the framework of the Boltzmann transport formalism. The comparison of the magneto-thermal conductivity and magneto-electrical conductivity, as well as the magneto-Seebeck effect of itinerant antiferromagnetic BaMn$ _{2}$ Bi$ _{2}$ , gives unique insight into how magnons participate in longitudinal thermal-associated phenomena.

arXiv:2508.08727 (2025)

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

The spontaneous Nernst coefficient of ferromagnets from the interplay of electron scattering and Berry curvature

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Vittorio Basso, Adriano Di Pietro, Alessandro Sola

We employ the Boltzmann transport approach to derive the spontaneous Nernst coefficient for ferromagnetic metals, explicitly treating the transverse current density due to Berry curvature as a Fermi surface property. We find that the spontaneous Nernst coefficient is proportional to the inverse of the scattering time constant, implying that efficient spontaneous Nernst materials should exhibit relatively strong scattering, a stark contrast to ordinary Nernst materials. Furthermore, we establish a direct connection between the strength and sign of the spontaneous Nernst coefficient and the itinerant contribution to orbital angular momentum density arising from the Bloch bands. Finally we construct a rigid two-bands model to evaluate the thermoelectric coefficients by which we find a good agreement with the signs and orders of magnitude of the experimental coefficients of magnetic 3d transition metal ferromagnets. We finally propose some practical recipes for maximizing the spontaneous Nernst effect through electronic band structure tailoring.

arXiv:2508.08756 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

17 pages, 9 figures

Fluctuation response of a superconductor with temporally correlated noise

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

V. Plastovets

We discuss how a finite noise correlation time, which can arise through coupling to engineered nonthermal environments, affects the fluctuation-driven response in a superconductor above its critical temperature. Using the phenomenological time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau model, we formulate the stochastic dynamics within the path-integral framework. Our analysis reveals that the transport response can be enhanced when the noise correlation time becomes comparable to the intrinsic relaxation time of the superconductor. The magnitude and character of this resonant-like effect depend strongly on the system’s dimensionality.

arXiv:2508.08786 (2025)

Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

Quadrupolar gyration of a Brownian particle in a confining ring

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Iman Abdoli, Hartmut Löwen

We develop a minimal theoretical model that reveals a structured steady-state flux field with four alternating local circulation, a phenomenon we refer to as quadrupolar gyration. A passive Brownian particle is confined to move in a ring-shaped trap and driven far from equilibrium solely by anisotropic thermal fluctuations from two orthogonal heat baths held at different temperatures. By breaking detailed balance, this fundamental temperature anisotropy induces a robust nonequilibrium steady state characterized by probability currents of the particle’s motion. Remarkably, these currents self-organize into a distinctive quadrupolar vortex pattern, providing a clear signature of emergent symmetry breaking, irreversible entropy production, and coherent motion in minimal passive systems.

arXiv:2508.08792 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)

Anomalous Sodium Insertion in Highly Oriented Graphite: Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Evidence for Two-Sided Intercalation

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Chuanhai Gan, Chuanlian Xiao, Hongguang Wang, Peter A. van Aken, Rotraut Merkle, Sebastian Bette, Bettina V. Lotsch, Joachim Maier

The difficult intercalation of sodium (Na) into graphite is studied by systematic and long-time investigations (of up to 2 years) using highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). By studying chemical insertion of solid, liquid and gaseous Na at low and high temperatures (LT, HT) as well as using electrochemical insertion at 25 degree Celsius into uncoated and coated HOPG, it became clear that insertion equilibrium requires HT. On decreasing chemical intercalation temperature from HT (500 degree Celsius) to LT (25 degree Celsius), thermodynamic control was found to change to diffusion control and finally to interfacial control. For the electrochemical insertion, coating (TiO2) proved advisable (to avoid co-intercalation) and efficient in reducing the interfacial resistance. Measured saturation values were found to be not higher than about 1 mol %. Towards room temperature higher equilibrium values cannot be excluded but would in view of the very low driving force kinetically be very difficult to reach. The reversible cell voltage of the saturated composition (versus alkali metal) is distinctly lower than for the analogous cells using lithium (Li) or potassium (K). Detailed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies reveal the unexpected fact that at HT Na predominantly enters HOPG in the form of two-sided intercalation sandwiching carbon layers (bilayers), while at LT more highly aggregated layers appear to a comparable degree, accompanied with the formation of higher-dimensional crystal imperfections. The reasons for this peculiar feature and the non-monotonic thermodynamics in the sequence Li-Na-K-Rb-Cs are discussed not only from an energetic but also from an entropic point of view.

arXiv:2508.08806 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Magnetic field-induced chiral soliton lattice in the bulk magnetoelectric helimagnet Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Victor Ukleev, Arnaud Magrez, Jonathan S. White

Chiral soliton lattices (CSLs) are anharmonic magnetic structures typically found in uniaxial chiral magnets. In this study, we report the observation of CSL in bulk Cu$ _2$ OSeO$ _3$ , a chiral insulator known for its magnetoelectric properties. Using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments, we demonstrate the formation of CSLs in Cu$ _2$ OSeO$ _3$ at low temperatures, driven by the competition between cubic anisotropy and magnetic field. Our observations of higher harmonics in the SANS signal clearly indicate the anharmonic nature of the spiral. This finding underscores the complex interplay between magnetic interactions in Cu$ _2$ OSeO$ _3$ , offering insights for potential applications of CSLs in electric-field controlled spintronic devices.

arXiv:2508.08817 (2025)

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

Optimal Autonomous MLIP Dataset Building

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Vincent G. Fletcher, Albert P. Bartók, Livia B. Pártay

We propose a novel approach for constructing training databases for Machine Learning Interatomic Potential (MLIP) models, specifically designed to capture phase properties across a wide range of conditions. The framework is uniquely appealing due to its ease of automation, its suitability for iterative learning, and its independence from prior knowledge of stable phases, avoiding bias towards pre-existing structural data. The approach uses Nested Sampling (NS) to explore the configuration space and generate thermodynamically relevant configurations, forming the database which undergoes ab-initio Density Functional Theory (DFT) evaluation. We use the Atomic Cluster Expansion (ACE) architecture to fit a model on the resulting database. To demonstrate the efficiency of the framework, we apply it to magnesium, developing a model capable of accurately describing behaviour across pressure and temperature ranges of 0-600 GPa and 0-8000 K, respectively. We benchmark the model’s performance by calculating phonon spectra and elastic constants, as well as the pressure-temperature phase diagram within this region. The results showcase the power of the framework to produce robust MLIPs while maintaining transferability and generality, for reduced computational cost.

arXiv:2508.08864 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Bipolar surface charging by evaporating water droplets

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Nitish Singh, Aaron D. Ratschow, Nabeel Aslam, Dan Daniel

Surface charging is a ubiquitous phenomenon with important consequences. On one hand, surface charging underpins emerging technologies such as triboelectric nanogenerators; on the other, uncontrolled charging can damage delicate nanostructures and devices. Despite its significance, surface charging by evaporating water droplets remains poorly understood. Here, using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy, we spatially resolve the surface-charge patterns from evaporating droplets and propose a physical model that quantitatively explains the origin of bipolar charging.

arXiv:2508.08884 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

The doping evolution of the charge density wave and charge density fluctuations in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Charles C. Tam, Mengze Zhu, Maud C. Barthélemy, Lauren J. Cane, Oliver J. Lipscombe, Stefano Agrestini, Jaewon Choi, Mirian Garcia-Fernandez, Ke-Jin Zhou, Stephen M. Hayden

Cuprate superconductors show various collective charge correlations that are intimately connected with their electronic properties. In particular, charge order in the form of an incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) order with an in-plane wavevector $ \delta_{\text{CDW}} \approx $ 0.23–0.35~r.l.u. appears to be universally present. In addition to CDW, dynamic charge density fluctuations (CDF) are also present with wavevectors comparable to $ \delta_{\text{CDW}}$ . CDFs are present up to $ \sim300;$ K and have relatively short correlation lengths of $ \xi \sim 20$ ;Å. Here we use Cu-$ L_3$ and O-$ K$ resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) to study the doping dependence of CDW and CDFs in La$ {2-x}$ Sr$ x$ CuO$ 4$ . We fit our data with (quasi)elastic peaks resulting from the CDW and up to four inelastic modes associated with oxygen phonons that can be strongly coupled to the CDFs. Our analysis allows us to separate the charge correlations into three components: the CDW with wavevector $ \delta{4a-\text{CDW}} \approx 0.24$ and two CDF components with $ \delta{4a-\text{CDF}} \approx 0.24$ and $ \delta{3a-\text{CDF}} \approx 0.30$ . We find that for $ T \approx T_c$ the CDW coexists with the CDFs for dopings near $ x=p \sim 1/8$ . The $ 4a$ -CDW disappears beyond $ x=0.16$ and the $ 4a$ -CDF beyond $ x=0.19$ , leaving only a weak $ 3a$ -CDF at the highest doping studied, $ x=0.22$ . Our data suggest that low-energy charge fluctuations exist up to doping $ x=0.19=p^{\star}$ , where the pseudogap disappears, however, we find no evidence that they are associated with a quantum critical point.

arXiv:2508.08885 (2025)

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

Epitaxial graphene integrated with a monolayer magnet

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Ivan S. Sokolov, Dmitry V. Averyanov, Oleg E. Parfenov, Alexey N. Mihalyuk, Alexander N. Taldenkov, Oleg A. Kondratev, Ilya A. Eliseyev, Sergey P. Lebedev, Alexander A. Lebedev, Andrey M. Tokmachev, Vyacheslav G. Storchak

Imprinting magnetism into graphene makes an important step to its applications in spintronics. An actively explored approach is proximity coupling of graphene to a 2D magnet. In these endeavors, the use of epitaxial graphene may bring significant advantages due to its superiority over the exfoliated counterpart and natural integration with the substrate but the problem of attaining magnetism persists. Here, we report synthesis and analysis of a heterostructure coupling epitaxial graphene with a regular lattice of magnetic atoms formed by Eu intercalation. The magnetization measurements reveal easy-plane 2D magnetism in the material, with the transition temperature controlled by low magnetic fields. The emerging negative magnetoresistance and anomalous Hall effect point at spin polarization of the carriers in graphene. In the paramagnetic phase, the magnetoresistance in graphene exhibits critical exponential behavior of the induced magnetic state. The intercalation does not compromise the parental electronic structure - quantum oscillations in the resistivity manifest low-mass carriers in graphene. The results are set against those for an isostructural material based on intercalated nonmagnetic Sr. Overall, the study expands the family of 2D magnets and establishes a prospective material for graphene-based spintronics.

arXiv:2508.08901 (2025)

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

29 pages, 17 figures

Ferroelectric Control of Interlayer Excitons in 3R-MoS${2}$ / MoSe${2}$ Heterostructures

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Johannes Schwandt-Krause, Mohammed El Amine Miloudi, Elena Blundo, Swarup Deb, Jan-Niklas Heidkamp, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Rico Schwartz, Andreas Stier, Jonathan J. Finley, Oliver Kühn, Tobias Korn

Van der Waals heterostructures, constructed by stacking two-dimensional materials, have enabled the study of interlayer coupling between different materials. One example is the formation of interlayer excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures. The integration of 2D sliding ferroelectric materials introduces new opportunities for manipulating excitonic properties in these systems. In this work, we investigate the interaction between interlayer excitons and ferroelectric domains in hBN-encapsulated 3R-MoS$ _2$ /MoSe$ _2$ heterostructures, combining photoluminescence experiments with density functional theory and many-body calculations. Photoluminescence spectroscopy at low temperature reveals a strong redshift of the interlayer exciton energy with increasing MoS$ _2$ layer thickness, attributed to band renormalization and dielectric environment changes. Additionally, local variations in photoluminescence energy correlate with local ferroelectric domain polarization, showcasing distinct domain-dependent interlayer exciton behavior. Gate voltage experiments further demonstrate tunable shifts in interlayer exciton energy, driven by switching ferroelectric domains. These results highlight the potential of interlayer excitons being controlled by local ferroelectric polarization and establish a foundation for future ferroelectric optoelectronic devices based on van der Waals heterostructures.

arXiv:2508.08911 (2025)

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

When and How Ultrasound Enhances Nanoparticle Diffusion in Hydrogels: A Stick-and-Release Mechanism

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Pablo M. Blanco, Hedda H. Rønneberg, Rita S. Dias

Nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used as drug carriers in cancer therapy due to their ability to accumulate in tumor tissue via the enhanced permeability and retention effect. However, their transport within tumors is often hindered by the dense extracellular matrix, where diffusion dominates. Several studies suggest that ultrasound (US) irradiation can enhance NP diffusion in ECM-mimicking hydrogels, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear, and experimental findings are often contradictory.
Here, we use coarse-grained Langevin Dynamics simulations to investigate the conditions under which US can enhance NP diffusion in hydrogels. After validating our simulation framework against an exact analytical solution for NP motion under US in dilute buffer, we systematically explore NP diffusion in hydrogels with varying degrees of NP-network attraction.
Our results reveal that acoustic enhancement arises from reduced contact time between NPs and the hydrogel matrix. This effect becomes significant only when NP-hydrogel interactions are sufficiently strong and US pulses are long enough to disrupt these interactions, following a “stick-and-release” mechanism.
These findings reconcile previously conflicting experimental observations and explain why acoustic enhancement is observed in some studies but not others. Overall, our study provides a molecular-level explanation for US-enhanced NP diffusion in hydrogels and establishes design principles for optimizing therapeutic US protocols in drug delivery applications.

arXiv:2508.08918 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

The alloying of first-principles calculations with quasiparticle methodologies for the converged solution of the quantum many-electron states in the correlated compound Iron monoxide

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Suvadip Das

Transition metal oxides belong to a genre of quantum materials essential for the exploration of theoretical methods for quantifying electronic correlation. Finding an efficient and accurate first principles method for the assertion of such physical properties is momentous for the predictive modelling of physics based thermoelectric and photovoltaic devices. Prior investigations have suggested that incorporation of the so called random phase approximation for the electronic screening interaction by adding up the electron hole pairs leads to significant improvement in the accuracy of first principle calculations. Nonetheless the method has seldom been adapted systematically for studying the properties of prototypical transition metal oxides, particularly that of the correlated compound Iron monoxide. In this work, we provide a benchmarking study of a variety of first principles methods such as the density functional theory artificially stabilized by Coulomb interactions, Hybrid functionals as well as the quasiparticle Greens function approach to self-energy interactions. A rigorous convergence of the self-consistent Dysons equations have been provided addressing the importance of initial choice of wavefunctions guided by first principles on the converged solutions and the interplay of various orbital degrees of freedom adjacent to the Fermi level. It is momentous to obtain accurate wavefunctions and many-electronic energy states for the quantification of correlation and efficient modelling of oxide interfaces for quantum applications. The study establishes the hybrid functional scheme as the optimal approach for the ideal trade-off between accuracy of the ground state wavefunctions and computational efficiency for large-scale simulations towards the efficient convergence of correlated electronic wavefunctions and low energy electronic properties.

arXiv:2508.08941 (2025)

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

24 pages, 7 figures

ShearView: A Compact Stress- and Strain-Controlled Rheometer for Integrated Rheo-microscopy

New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Nikolaos Kalafatakis, Roberto Cerbino

We present ShearView, a compact, cost-effective, and open-source rheometer that enables both strain- and stress-controlled oscillatory shear experiments, while being fully compatible with high-resolution optical microscopy. Designed for transparency and modularity, the device integrates mechanical simplicity, dual feedback control, and real-time synchronization of rheological and optical data, thereby enabling simultaneous investigation of macroscopic mechanical response and microscopic structural dynamics across a wide range of soft matter systems. ShearView is primarily constructed from off-the-shelf components and operated via custom LabVIEW software. Calibration procedures and feedback algorithms allow for the accurate application of arbitrary stress or strain waveforms in both linear and nonlinear regimes. We validate the instrument against a commercial rheometer (Anton Paar MCR 702e), demonstrating excellent agreement in frequency sweeps performed in the linear viscoelastic regime and large-amplitude oscillatory shear for the materials and frequency ranges tested here. In addition, we implement non-standard rheological protocols such as chirped oscillations and recovery rheology. We further illustrate the system capabilities through synchronized imaging during echo and shear-cessation protocols, highlighting its potential to link bulk rheological response with underlying microscopic dynamics. All hardware designs, control software, and example datasets are freely available to facilitate reuse, customization, and educational deployment.

arXiv:2508.08951 (2025)

Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Main text (16 pages) + Supplementary Material (12 pages)

Correlators in phase-ordering from Schrödinger-invariance

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Malte Henkel, Stoimen Stoimenov

Systems undergoing phase-ordering kinetics after a quench into the ordered phase with $ 0<T<T_c$ from a fully disordered initial state and with a non-conserved order-parameter have the dynamical exponent $ {z}=2$ . The long-time behaviour of their single-time and two-time correlators, determined by the noisy initial conditions, is derived from Schrödinger-invariance and we show that the generic ageing scaling forms of the correlators follow from the Schrödinger covariance of the four-point response functions. The autocorrelation exponent $ \lambda$ is related to the passage exponent $ \zeta_p$ which describes the time-scale for the cross-over into the ageing regime. Both Porod’s law and the bounds $ d/2 \leq \lambda \leq d$ are reproduced in a simple way. The dynamical scaling in fully finite systems and of global correlators is found and the low-temperature generalisation $ \lambda= d-2\Theta$ of the Janssen-Schaub-Schmittmann scaling relation is derived.

arXiv:2508.08963 (2025)

Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

Latex2e, 1+30 pages, 1 figure included

Thermoelectric Properties of Copper-based Chalcopyrite Semiconductors Cu$MX_2$ ($M$ = Al, Ga, and In; $X$ = S, Se, and Te) from First-Principles Calculations

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Wu Xiong, Zhonghao Xia, Zhongjuan Han, Dong Yao, Jiangang He

Copper-based chalcopyrite semiconductors have attracted sustained interest owing to their promising thermoelectric (TE) performance, yet the microscopic origins of their TE behavior remain incompletely understood. Here, we systematically investigate the TE properties of Cu$ MX_2$ ($ M=$ Al, Ga, and In; $ X=$ S, Se, and Te) using first-principles calculations. For $ p$ -type doping, the calculated electrical conductivities ($ \sigma$ ), hole mobilities ($ \mu$ ), Seebeck coefficients ($ S$ ), and power factors (PFs) of CuGaTe$ _2$ and CuInTe$ _2$ show excellent agreement with experimental data. At fixed temperature and hole concentration, as $ X$ varies from S to Te, the hole mobility increases markedly due to progressively weaker polar–optical–phonon scattering, reflecting the reduced ionic contribution to the dielectric response in compounds with heavier chalcogens. Combined with smaller transport effective masses, Cu$ M$ Te$ 2$ compounds therefore exhibit high $ \sigma$ and large PFs. Across the Cu$ MX_2$ family, the anomalously lower $ \kappa{\mathrm{L}}$ of Cu$ M$ Se$ _2$ relative to Cu$ M$ Te$ 2$ arises primarily from enhanced three-phonon scattering at low-frequency region. For a given $ M$ , Cu$ M$ S$ 2$ displays the steepest temperature-induced decrease in $ \kappa{\mathrm{L}}$ and attains a smaller $ \kappa{\mathrm{L}}$ than Cu$ M$ Se$ _2$ and Cu$ M$ Te$ 2$ at 800~K. Given the low band degeneracy and comparatively modest hole mobilities of Cu$ MX_2$ compounds, the most effective routes to further improve their TE performance are to enhance $ \sigma$ and reduce $ \kappa{\mathrm{L}}$ through doping.

arXiv:2508.08988 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

16pages, 11 figures

Nanoscale lattice heterostructure in high Tc superconductors

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Annette Bussmann-Holder, Jürgen Haase, Hugo Keller, Reinhard K. Kremer, Sergei I. Mukhin, Alexey Menushenkov, Andrei Ivanov, Alexey Kuznetsov, Victor Velasco, Steven D. Conradson, Gaetano Campi, Antonio Bianconi

Low temperature superconductivity was known since 1957 to be described by BCS theory for an effective single band metals controlled by the density of states at the Fermi level, very far from band edges, the electron phonon coupling, and the energy of the boson in the pairing interaction w0, but BCS has failed to predict high temperature superconductivity in different materials above about 23 K. High temperature superconductivity above 35 K since 1986 has been a matter of materials science where manipulating the lattice complexity of high temperature superconducting ceramic oxides (HTSC) has driven material scientists to grow new HTSC quantum materials up to 138K in HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 (Hg1223) at ambient pressure and near room temperature in pressurized hydrides. This perspective covers the major results of materials scientist in these last 39 years investigating the role of lattice inhomogeneity detected in these new quantum complex materials. We highlight the nanoscale heterogeneity in these complex materials and elucidate their special role played in the physics for HTSC. Especially, it is pointed out that the geometry of lattice and charge complex heterogeneity at nanoscale is essential and intrinsic in the mechanism of rising quantum coherence at high temperature

arXiv:2508.08994 (2025)

Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

14 pages, 4 figures

Probing imbalanced Weyl nodes in two-dimensional anisotropic Weyl semimetal via optical conductivity

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Suheel Ahmad Malik, M. A. H. Ahshan, SK Firoz Islam

We present a theoretical investigation of the electronic band structure and optical properties of a two-dimensional anisotropic semimetal that is described by a tilted semi-Dirac type spectrum with a pair of Weyl nodes. We observe that a tilt along the quadratic direction can give rise to an energy imbalance between these nodes, contrary to the effect of tilt along the linear direction. We investigate the optical response of such system subjected to an external AC bias, aiming to probe the energy imbalance between the nodes. We show that the anisotropic interband optical conductivity gives a clear signature of imbalanced nodes by exciting electrons at two different chemical potentials at near zero frequency indicating, and the difference between these two chemical potentials is the direct measure of the energy imbalance. Subsequently, we also investigate the intraband DC conductivity by using the semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory which reveals that contrary to the tilted Dirac materials, tilt can convert semi-Dirac material from semimetallic phase to metallic phase. Furthermore, we periodically drive the system by external time-periodic perturbation to open up topological gap at those nodes. We also show that the presence of imbalanced Weyl nodes would prevent the SD material from switching to Chern topological phase even after opening topological gaps at the nodes as the bulk remains gapless. Such state cannot be probed by the usual anomalous Hall response as it will be overshadowed by the bulk contribution. Here, we show that those gaps at different chemical potential can be probed by optical excitation.

arXiv:2508.09011 (2025)

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

9 pages, 12 figures. Comments are welcome

Electrostatic gate-controlled quantum interference in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas at the (La${0.3}$Sr${0.7}$)(Al${0.65}$Ta${0.35}$)O$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Km Rubi, Kun Han, Huang Zhen, Michel Goiran, Duncan K. Maude, Walter Escoffier, A. Ariando

We report quantum oscillations in magnetoresistance that are periodic in magnetic field ($ B$ ), observed at the interface between (La$ _{0.3}$ Sr$ _{0.7}$ )(Al$ _{0.65}$ Ta$ _{0.35}$ )O$ _3$ and SrTiO$ _3$ . Unlike Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, which appear at magnetic fields $ > 7$ T and diminish quickly as the temperature rises, these $ B$ -periodic oscillations emerge at low fields and persist up to 10 K. Their amplitude decays exponentially with both temperature and field, specifying dephasing of quantum interference. Increasing the carrier density through electrostatic gating results in a systematic reduction in both the amplitude and frequency of the oscillations, with complete suppression beyond a certain gate voltage. We attribute these oscillations to the Altshuler-Aronov-Spivak effect, likely arising from naturally formed closed-loop paths due to the interconnected quasi-one-dimensional conduction channels along SrTiO$ _3$ domain walls. The relatively long phase coherence length ($ \sim$ 1.8 $ \mu$ m at 0.1 K), estimated from the oscillation amplitude, highlights the potential of complex oxide interfaces as a promising platform for exploring quantum interference effects and advancing device concepts in quantum technologies, such as mesoscopic interferometers and quantum sensors.

arXiv:2508.09013 (2025)

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

Characterisation of Irradiation Damage in Fe3Cr and Fe5Cr: A Study on the Effects of Chromium Content and Temperature

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Chandra Bhusan Yadav, Andrew J. London, Tonci Tadic, Ruqing Xu, Wenjun Liu, Stjepko Fazinic, Suchandrima Das

Fe-Cr binary alloys serve as simplified model systems to study irradiation damage relevant to fusion structural materials. Here, Fe-3%Cr and Fe-5%Cr samples were irradiated with 4 MeV Fe ions under a dose rate of 4x10^5 dpa/s across a linear thermal gradient (120C to 480C) in a single experiment, enabling direct comparison of temperature and Cr content effects under identical conditions. Depth-resolved Laue micro-diffraction (~10^4 strain sensitivity), nanoindentation, and AFM reveal non-monotonic evolution of lattice strain and hardness: both decrease with temperature up to ~300C, then increase beyond. This turning point reflects a shift from enhanced defect mobility and partial recovery to solute-defect clustering and cavity formation, which stabilize damage. Fe-3%Cr shows consistently higher strain and hardening than Fe-5%Cr, especially at lower temperatures. Minimal change in post-indentation pile-up indicates limited softening or localization. These results highlight how Cr content and temperature jointly affect irradiation response, offering new insights into defect evolution in fusion-relevant alloys.

arXiv:2508.09018 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

27 pages, 9 figures

Automated Charge Transition Detection in Quantum Dot Charge Stability Diagrams

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Fabian Hader, Fabian Fuchs, Sarah Fleitmann, Karin Havemann, Benedikt Scherer, Jan Vogelbruch, Lotte Geck, Stefan van Waasen

Gate-defined semiconductor quantum dots require an appropriate number of electrons to function as qubits. The number of electrons is usually tuned by analyzing charge stability diagrams, in which charge transitions manifest as edges. Therefore, to fully automate qubit tuning, it is necessary to recognize these edges automatically and reliably. This paper investigates possible detection methods, describes their training with simulated data from the SimCATS framework, and performs a quantitative comparison with a future hardware implementation in mind. Furthermore, we investigated the quality of the optimized approaches on experimentally measured data from a GaAs and a SiGe qubit sample.

arXiv:2508.09024 (2025)

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

F. Hader et al., “Automated Charge Transition Detection in Quantum Dot Charge Stability Diagrams,” in IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering, 2025

Polar Express: Rapid Functionalization of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in High Dipole Moment Media

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Dominik Just, Ryszard Siedlecki, Maciej Krzywiecki, Oussama Er-Riyahi, Yann Pouillon, Javier Junquera, Karolina Z. Milowska, Dawid Janas

Fluorescent semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) hold considerable promise for photonics. Furthermore, the optical characteristics of the material can be significantly improved by covalent modification, which generates new spectral features in the near-infrared region and enhances its photoluminescence quantum yield. However, despite the dynamic development of this research domain, the importance of the solvent environment in which the SWCNT functionalization is conducted remains relatively unexplored. In this work, the complex relationships between solvent, dispersant, and SWCNTs were untangled to unravel the underlying phenomena. Through a systematic investigation of SWCNT reactivity in a broad spectrum of solvents, supported by multi-scale modeling enabled by our new implementation of a hybrid functional within SIESTA, we discovered that both the solvent medium and the dispersant enabling SWCNT solubilization affect not only the kinetics but also the course of the covalent modification of SWCNTs. Polar solvents proved to induce significant structural reorganization of polymer molecules on the SWCNT surface and enhance charge redistribution at the polymer-SWCNT interface. Consequently, we achieved a high degree of control over the optical properties of SWCNTs, and the tailored SWCNTs enabled facile optical detection of cholesterol, a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

arXiv:2508.09039 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Pages 1-31 (main text), pages 32-54 (supporting information)

Enhanced superconductivity in ultrathin FeSe films on SrTiO3 via resonant anti-shielding: Superconductivity meets superfluidity

New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Krzysztof Kempa, Michael J. Naughton, Hanno H. Weitering

A vanishingly small dielectric function reflects a singular polarization response in a medium, leading to collective plasmonic or polaronic excitations that can enhance Cooper pairing in superconductors via a resonant anti-shielding (RAS) effect. Here, we show that RAS can explain the dramatic enhancement of superconductivity-relative to bulk FeSe, observed in single-unit-cell FeSe films on SrTiO$ _3$ (STO) and related substrates. Moreover, we present evidence that RAS may play a central role in driving the Cooper pair condensate into a bipolaronic superfluid state. This interpretation aligns with a recent quantum Monte Carlo simulation by Zhang, et al. [Phys. Rev. X 13, 011010 (2023)], which indicated enhanced bipolaronic superconductivity in two-dimensional systems with moderately strong electron-phonon coupling. RAS may therefore represent a promising strategy for engineering high-T$ _c$ superconducting heterostructures.

arXiv:2508.09063 (2025)

Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)

Design Rules and Discovery of Face-Sharing Hexagonal Perovskites

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

M. J. Swamynadhan, Gwan Yeong Jung, Pravan Omprakash, Rohan Mishra

Hexagonal face-sharing perovskites are a promising but underexplored class of materials. We propose quantitative design principles for stabilizing hexagonal face-sharing ABX3 perovskites, based on a comparative analysis of oxides and sulfides. By mapping structural preferences across the phase space defined by a unified, electronegativity-corrected tolerance factor and the Shannon A-site radius, we identify distinct thresholds that separate hexagonal phases from competing cubic polymorphs. Our analysis reveals that sulfides differ significantly from oxides due to the increased covalency of transition metal-sulfur bonds, enabling broader compositional flexibility. Applying these principles, we predict a set of thermodynamically stable ABO3 and ABS3 compounds that are likely to adopt face-sharing octahedral connectivity. These findings establish a predictive framework for designing hexagonal perovskites, highlighting sulfides as promising candidates for obtaining quasi-one-dimensional materials having transition metal cations for novel ferroic phenomena.

arXiv:2508.09088 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Pressure dynamics in the bottleneck flow of self-propelled particles

New Submission | Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

N Colantuono, M Ramdan Ferressini, I Zuriguel, DR Parisi, GA Patterson

We present an experimental investigation of the pressure dynamics during the flow of self-propelled particles through narrow passages. When the ensemble is flowing, pressure fluctuates around a constant value that does not depend on the crowd size, suggesting that the orifice locally determines the dynamics in this scenario. On the contrary, when the system clogs, pressures are higher for larger crowd sizes, highlighting the importance of the whole collectivity in the process. Then, by correlating the pressure evolution with the exit time of the self-propelled particles, we discover that when a clog is resolved, pressure suddenly drops as a consequence of system reorganization. After this dramatic event, there is a sustained pressure growth over time that shows a square root dependence, compatible with the structural aging that has been proposed to be behind the broad tail distributions of clogging times.

arXiv:2508.09089 (2025)

Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)

Interlayer exciton condensates between second Landau level orbitals in double bilayer graphene

New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Zeyu Hao, A. M. Zimmerman, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Philip Kim

We present Coulomb-drag measurements on a heterostructure comprising two Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) sheets separated by a 2.5 nm hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) spacer in the quantum Hall (QH) regime. Using top and bottom gate control, together with an interlayer bias, we independently tune the two BLG layers into either the lowest (N = 0) or second (N = 1) Landau level (LL) orbital and probe their interlayer QH states. When both layers occupy the N = 0 orbital, we observe both interlayer exciton condensates (ECs) at integer total filling and interlayer fractional QH states, echoing the results in double monolayer graphene. In contrast to previous studies, however, when both BLG layers occupy the N = 1 orbital, we also observe quantized drag signals, signifying an interlayer exciton condensate formed between the second LLs. By tuning the layer degree of freedom, we find that this N = 1 EC state arises only when the N = 1 wavefunction in each BLG is polarized toward the hBN interface to maximize the interlayer Coulomb interaction.

arXiv:2508.09098 (2025)

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

Machine Learning Phonon Spectra for Fast and Accurate Optical Lineshapes of Defects

New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

Mark E. Turiansky, John L. Lyons, Noam Bernstein

The optical properties of defects in solids produce rich physics, from gemstone coloration to single-photon emission for quantum networks. Essential to describing optical transitions is electron-phonon coupling, which can be predicted from first principles but requires computationally expensive evaluation of all phonon modes in simulation cells containing hundreds of atoms. We demonstrate that this bottleneck can be overcome using machine learning interatomic potentials with negligible accuracy loss. A key finding is that atomic relaxation data from routine first-principles calculations suffice as a dataset for fine-tuning, though additional data can further improve models. The efficiency of this approach enables studies of defect vibrational properties with high-level theory. We fine-tune to hybrid functional calculations to obtain highly accurate spectra, comparing with explicit calculations and experiments for various defects. Notably, we resolve fine details of local vibrational mode coupling in the luminescence spectrum of the T center in Si, a prominent quantum defect.

arXiv:2508.09113 (2025)

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)

Influence of attractive parts of interaction potentials on critical point parameters

New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-08-13 20:00 EDT

I.V. Pylyuk, O.A. Dobush, M.P. Kozlovskii, R.V. Romanik, M.A. Shpot

We investigate how microscopic features of interparticle potentials influence macroscopic critical point parameters. Our analytical calculations are based on the cell model for continuous many-particle systems. We explore two types of pair interactions described by the Morse potential and a Curie-Weiss-type potential. For Morse fluids, we present numerical results obtained with microscopic parameters corresponding to the alkali metals sodium (Na) and potassium (K). The calculated dimensionless critical point parameters for liquid Na and K, expressed in dimensional units, allow for direct comparison with available experimental and simulation data. For the Curie-Weiss cell model with competing interactions, which exhibits a sequence of first-order phase transitions, we examine the critical parameters for the first three critical points. We analyze our results by varying the attractive part of the Morse potential and the Curie-Weiss attraction strength, providing insights into how these microscopic characteristics change critical point coordinates.

arXiv:2508.09120 (2025)

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

10 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables