CMP Journal 2025-09-17
Statistics
Nature: 25
Nature Nanotechnology: 1
Nature Reviews Physics: 1
Physical Review Letters: 15
Physical Review X: 1
Review of Modern Physics: 1
arXiv: 60
Nature
Basal cell of origin resolves neuroendocrine-tuft lineage plasticity in cancer
Original Paper | Cancer models | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Abbie S. Ireland, Daniel A. Xie, Sarah B. Hawgood, Margaret W. Barbier, Lisa Y. Zuo, Benjamin E. Hanna, Scarlett Lucas-Randolph, Darren R. Tyson, Benjamin L. Witt, Ramaswamy Govindan, Afshin Dowlati, Justin C. Moser, Anish Thomas, Sonam Puri, Charles M. Rudin, Joseph M. Chan, Andrew Elliott, Trudy G. Oliver
Neuroendocrine and tuft cells are rare chemosensory epithelial lineages defined by the expression of ASCL1 and POU2F3 transcription factors, respectively. Neuroendocrine cancers, including small cell lung cancer (SCLC), frequently display tuft-like subsets, a feature linked to poor patient outcomes1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. The mechanisms driving neuroendocrine-tuft tumour heterogeneity and the origins of tuft-like cancers are unknown. Using multiple genetically engineered animal models of SCLC, we demonstrate that a basal cell of origin (but not the accepted neuroendocrine origin) generates neuroendocrine-tuft-like tumours that highly recapitulate human SCLC. Single-cell clonal analyses of basal-derived SCLC further uncovered unexpected transcriptional states, including an Atoh1+ state, and lineage trajectories underlying neuroendocrine-tuft plasticity. Uniquely in basal cells, the introduction of genetic alterations enriched in human tuft-like SCLC, including high MYC, PTEN loss and ASCL1 suppression, cooperates to promote tuft-like tumours. Transcriptomics of 944 human SCLCs revealed a basal-like subset and a tuft-ionocyte-like state that altogether demonstrate notable conservation between cancer states and normal basal cell injury response mechanisms10,11,12,13. Together, these data indicate that the basal cell is a probable origin for SCLC and other neuroendocrine-tuft cancers that can explain neuroendocrine-tuft heterogeneity, offering new insights for targeting lineage plasticity.
Cancer models, Small-cell lung cancer, Tumour heterogeneity
A neuronal architecture underlying autonomic dysreflexia
Original Paper | Neural circuits | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Jan Elaine Soriano, Remi Hudelle, Lois Mahe, Matthieu Gautier, Alan Yue Yang Teo, Michael A. Skinnider, Achilleas Laskaratos, Steven Ceto, Claudia Kathe, Thomas Hutson, Rebecca Charbonneau, Fady Girgis, Steve Casha, Julien Rimok, Marcus Tso, Kelly Larkin-Kaiser, Nicolas Hankov, Aasta Gandhi, Suje Amir, Xiaoyang Kang, Yashwanth Vyza, Eduardo Martin-Moraud, Stephanie Lacour, Robin Demesmaeker, Leonie Asboth, Quentin Barraud, Mark A. Anderson, Jocelyne Bloch, Jordan W. Squair, Aaron A. Phillips, Gregoire Courtine
Autonomic dysreflexia is a life-threatening medical condition characterized by episodes of uncontrolled hypertension that occur in response to sensory stimuli after spinal cord injury (SCI)1. The fragmented understanding of the mechanisms underlying autonomic dysreflexia hampers the development of therapeutic strategies to manage this condition, leaving people with SCI at daily risk of heart attack and stroke2,3,4,5. Here we expose the neuronal architecture that develops after SCI and causes autonomic dysreflexia. In parallel, we uncover a competing, yet overlapping neuronal architecture activated by epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord that safely regulates blood pressure after SCI. The discovery that these adversarial neuronal architectures converge onto a single neuronal subpopulation provided a blueprint for the design of a mechanism-based intervention that reversed autonomic dysreflexia in mice, rats and humans with SCI. These results establish a path towards essential pivotal device clinical trials that will establish the safety and efficacy of epidural electrical stimulation for the effective treatment of autonomic dysreflexia in people with SCI.
Neural circuits, Spinal cord injury
CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders
Original Paper | Autism spectrum disorders | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Serena Tamura, Andrew D. Nelson, Perry W. E. Spratt, Elizabeth C. Hamada, Xujia Zhou, Henry Kyoung, Zizheng Li, Coline Arnould, Vladyslav Barskyi, Beniamin Krupkin, Kiana Young, Jingjing Zhao, Stephanie S. Holden, Atehsa Sahagun, Caroline M. Keeshen, Congyi Lu, Roy Ben-Shalom, Sunrae E. Taloma, Selin Schamiloglu, Ying C. Li, Lia Min, Paul M. Jenkins, Jen Q. Pan, Jeanne T. Paz, Stephan J. Sanders, Navneet Matharu, Nadav Ahituv, Kevin J. Bender
Most neurodevelopmental disorders with single gene diagnoses act via haploinsufficiency, in which only one of the two gene copies is functional1. SCN2A haploinsufficiency is one of the most frequent causes of neurodevelopmental disorder, often presenting with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability and, in a subset of children, refractory epilepsy2. Here, using SCN2A haploinsufficiency as a proof-of-concept, we show that upregulation of the existing functional gene copy through CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) can rescue neurological-associated phenotypes in Scn2a haploinsufficient mice. We first show that restoring Scn2a expression in adolescent heterozygous Scn2a conditional knock-in mice rescues electrophysiological deficits associated with Scn2a haploinsufficiency (Scn2a+/-). Next, using an adeno-associated virus CRISPRa-based treatment in adolescent mice, we show that we can correct intrinsic and synaptic deficits in neocortical pyramidal cells, a major cell type that contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders and seizure aetiology in SCN2A haploinsufficiency. Furthermore, we find that systemic delivery of CRISPRa protects Scn2a+/- mice against chemoconvulsant-induced seizures. Finally, we also show that adeno-associated virus CRISPRa treatment rescues excitability in SCN2A haploinsufficient human stem-cell-derived neurons. Our results showcase the potential of this therapeutic approach to rescue SCN2A haploinsufficiency and demonstrates that rescue even at adolescent stages can ameliorate neurodevelopmental phenotypes.
Autism spectrum disorders, Channelopathies, Developmental disorders, Gene regulation
Analogue speech recognition based on physical computing
Original Paper | Electronic devices | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Mohamadreza Zolfagharinejad, Julian Büchel, Lorenzo Cassola, Sachin Kinge, Ghazi Sarwat Syed, Abu Sebastian, Wilfred G. van der Wiel
With the rise of decentralized computing, such as in the Internet of Things, autonomous driving and personalized healthcare, it is increasingly important to process time-dependent signals ‘at the edge’ efficiently: right at the place where the temporal data are collected, avoiding time-consuming, insecure and costly communication with a centralized computing facility (or ‘cloud’). However, modern-day processors often cannot meet the restrained power and time budgets of edge systems because of intrinsic limitations imposed by their architecture (von Neumann bottleneck) or domain conversions (analogue to digital and time to frequency). Here we propose an edge temporal-signal processor based on two in-materia computing systems for both feature extraction and classification, reaching near-software accuracy for the TI-46-Word1 and Google Speech Commands2 datasets. First, a nonlinear, room-temperature reconfigurable-nonlinear-processing-unit3,4 layer realizes analogue, time-domain feature extraction from the raw audio signals, similar to the human cochlea. Second, an analogue in-memory computing chip5, consisting of memristive crossbar arrays, implements a compact neural network trained on the extracted features for classification. With submillisecond latency, reconfigurable-nonlinear-processing-unit-based feature extraction consuming roughly 300 nJ per inference, and the analogue in-memory computing-based classifier using around 78 µJ (with potential for roughly 10 µJ)6, our findings offer a promising avenue for advancing the compactness, efficiency and performance of heterogeneous smart edge processors through in materia computing hardware.
Electronic devices, Electronic properties and materials
Repeated head trauma causes neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes
Original Paper | Neurodegeneration | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Morgane L. M. D. Butler, Nida Pervaiz, Kerry Breen, Samantha Calderazzo, Petra Ypsilantis, Yichen Wang, Julia Cammasola Breda, Sarah Mazzilli, Raymond Nicks, Elizabeth Spurlock, Marco M. Hefti, Kimberly L. Fiock, Bertrand R. Huber, Victor E. Alvarez, Thor D. Stein, Joshua D. Campbell, Ann C. McKee, Jonathan D. Cherry
Repetitive head impacts (RHIs) sustained from contact sports are the largest risk factor for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)1,2,3,4. Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after death and the events that trigger initial hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) deposition remain unclear2. Furthermore, the symptoms endorsed by young individuals are not fully explained by the extent of p-tau deposition2, severely hampering therapeutic interventions. Here we observed a multicellular response prior to the onset of CTE p-tau pathology that correlates with number of years of RHI exposure in young people (less than 51 years of age) with RHI exposure, the majority of whom played American football. Leveraging single-nucleus RNA sequencing of tissue from 8 control individuals, 9 RHI-exposed individuals and 11 individuals with low-stage CTE, we identify SPP1-expressing inflammatory microglia, angiogenic and inflamed endothelial cells, astrocytosis and altered synaptic gene expression in those exposed to RHI. We also observe a significant loss of cortical sulcus layer 2/3 neurons independent of p-tau pathology. Finally, we identify TGFβ1 as a potential signal that mediates microglia-endothelial cell cross talk. These results provide robust evidence that multiple years of RHI is sufficient to induce lasting cellular alterations that may underlie p-tau deposition and help explain the early pathogenesis in young former contact sport athletes. Furthermore, these data identify specific cellular responses to RHI that may direct future identification of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for CTE.
Neurodegeneration, Neuroimmunology
Engineered prime editors with minimal genomic errors
Original Paper | Genetic engineering | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Vikash P. Chauhan, Phillip A. Sharp, Robert Langer
Prime editors make programmed genome modifications by writing new sequences into extensions of nicked DNA 3’ ends1. These edited 3’ new strands must displace competing 5’ strands to install edits, yet a bias towards retaining the competing 5’ strands hinders efficiency and can cause indel errors2. Here we discover that nicked end degradation, consistent with competing 5’ strand destabilization, can be promoted by Cas9-nickase mutations that relax nick positioning. We exploit this mechanism to engineer efficient prime editors with strikingly low indel errors. Combining this error-suppressing strategy with the latest efficiency-boosting architecture, we design a next-generation prime editor (vPE). Compared with previous editors, vPE features comparable efficiency yet up to 60-fold lower indel errors, enabling edit:indel ratios as high as 543:1.
Genetic engineering, Protein design, Single-strand DNA breaks, Targeted gene repair
Addressing the safety of next-generation batteries
Review Paper | Batteries | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Chuanbo Yang, Avtar Singh, Xiaofei Pu, Anudeep Mallarapu, Kandler Smith, Matt Keyser, Michael R. Haberman, Hadi Khani, Pawel Misztal, Ryan Spray, Ofodike A. Ezekoye, Donal P. Finegan
Owing to increasing demand for low-cost energy storage with secure material supply chains, the battery community is approaching a pivotal shift beyond conventional lithium-ion (Li-ion) towards next-generation cells. Technologies that include alkali-metal anodes, solid electrolytes and earth-abundant materials such as sodium (Na) and sulfur (S) are reaching commercialization in cells. The abuse tolerance and thermal runaway hazards of such technologies diverge from conventional Li-ion cells. Consequently, designing safe batteries with next-generation materials requires a holistic approach to characterize cells and to understand their responses to abuse conditions from the beginning to the end of life. Here we provide a Perspective on how the safety and abuse tolerance of cells are likely to change for up-and-coming technologies; challenges and opportunities for reimagining safe cell and battery designs; gaps in our knowledge; capabilities for understanding the hazards of thermal runaway and how to address them; how standard abuse tests may need to adapt to new challenges; and how research needs to support affected professionals, from pack designers to first responders, to manage hazards and ensure safe roll-out of next-generation cells into applications like electric vehicles (EVs). Finally, given the large number of next-generation technologies being explored, we encourage giving priority to safety-focused research in proportion to the rate of manufacturing scale-up of each specific technology.
Batteries, Chemical engineering, Energy policy
Toughened self-assembled monolayers for durable perovskite solar cells
Original Paper | Devices for energy harvesting | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Wenlin Jiang, Geping Qu, Xiaofeng Huang, Xia Chen, Linyuan Chi, Tonghui Wang, Chun-To Wong, Francis R. Lin, Chunlei Yang, Qing Jiang, Shengfan Wu, Jie Zhang, Alex K.-Y. Jen
Hole-selective self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)1,2 have played a key role in driving the certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of inverted perovskite solar cells3,4,5 to 26.7% (ref. 6). However, their instability often compromises the operational performance of devices, strongly hindering their practical applications7,8. Here we employ a cross-linkable co-SAM to enhance the conformational stability of hole-selective SAMs against external stresses, while suppressing the formation of defects and voids in SAM during self-assembly. The azide-containing SAM can be thermally activated to form a cross-linked and densely assembled co-SAM with a thermally stable conformation and preferred orientation. This effectively minimizes substrate surface exposure caused by wiggling of loose SAMs under thermal stress, preventing perovskite decomposition. This enables a certified PCE of 26.92% to be achieved for the best-performing cell, which also possesses excellent thermal stability with negligible decay under maximum-power-point tracking at 85 °C for 1,000 h. It also retains >98% of initial PCE after 700 repetitive thermal cycles between -40 °C and 85 °C, representing the state of the art of the field. This work offers an in-depth understanding of SAM degradation mechanisms to guide the design of a more robust buried interface for SAM-based devices adopting high-roughness substrates to realize highly efficient and durable perovskite solar cells.
Devices for energy harvesting, Solar cells
Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions
Original Paper | Decision | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Thomas Zhihao Luo, Timothy Doyeon Kim, Diksha Gupta, Adrian G. Bondy, Charles D. Kopec, Verity A. Elliott, Brian DePasquale, Carlos D. Brody
Perceptual decision-making is thought to be mediated by neuronal networks with attractor dynamics1,2. However, the dynamics underlying the complex neuronal responses during decision-making remain unclear. Here we use simultaneous recordings of hundreds of neurons, combined with an unsupervised, deep-learning-based method, to discover decision-related neural dynamics in the rat frontal cortex and striatum as animals accumulate pulsatile auditory evidence. We found that trajectories evolved along two sequential regimes: an initial phase dominated by sensory inputs, followed by a phase dominated by autonomous dynamics, with the flow direction (that is, neural mode) largely orthogonal to that in the first regime. We propose that this transition marks the moment of decision commitment, that is, the time when the animal makes up its mind. To test this, we developed a simplified model of the dynamics to estimate a putative neurally inferred time of commitment (nTc) for each trial. This model captures diverse single-neuron temporal profiles, such as ramping and stepping3,4. The estimated nTc values were not time locked to stimulus or response timing but instead varied broadly across trials. If nTc marks commitment, evidence before this point should affect the decision, whereas evidence afterwards should not. Behavioural analysis aligned to nTc confirmed this prediction. Our findings show that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neural mode and suggest that nTc offers a useful neural marker for studying rapid changes in internal brain state.
Decision, Dynamical systems
A movable long-term implantable soft microfibre for dynamic bioelectronics
Original Paper | Biomedical engineering | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Ruijie Xie, Fei Han, Qianhengyuan Yu, Dong Li, Xu Han, Xiaolong Xu, Huan Yu, Jianping Huang, Xiaomeng Zhou, Hang Zhao, Xinping Deng, Qiong Tian, Qingsong Li, Hanfei Li, Yang Zhao, Guoyao Ma, Guanglin Li, Hairong Zheng, Meifang Zhu, Wei Yan, Tiantian Xu, Zhiyuan Liu
Long-term implantable bioelectronics offer a powerful means to evaluate the function of the nervous system and serve as effective human-machine interfaces1,2,3. Here, inspired by earthworms, we introduce NeuroWorm–a soft, stretchable and movable fibre sensor designed for bioelectronic interface. Our approach involves rolling to transform 2D bioelectronic devices into 1D NeuroWorm, creating a multifunctional microfibre that houses longitudinally distributed electrode arrays for both bioelectrical and biomechanical monitoring. NeuroWorm effectively records high-quality spatio-temporal signals in situ while steerably advancing within the brain or on the muscle as needed. This allows for the dynamic targeting and shifting of desired monitoring sites. Implanted in muscle through a tiny incision, NeuroWorm provides stable bioelectrical monitoring in rats for more than 43 weeks. Even after 54 weeks of implantation in muscle, fibroblast encapsulation around the fibre remains negligible. Our NeuroWorm represents a platform that promotes a substantial advance in bioelectronics–from an immobile probe fixed in place to active, intelligent and living devices for long-term, minimally invasive and mobile evaluation of the nervous system.
Biomedical engineering, Sensors and biosensors
Atomic-scale imaging of frequency-dependent phonon anisotropy
Original Paper | Ferroelectrics and multiferroics | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Xingxu Yan, Paul M. Zeiger, Yifeng Huang, Haoying Sun, Jie Li, Chaitanya A. Gadre, Hongbin Yang, Ri He, Toshihiro Aoki, Zhicheng Zhong, Yuefeng Nie, Ruqian Wu, Ján Rusz, Xiaoqing Pan
Directly visualizing vibrational anisotropy in individual phonon modes is essential for understanding a wide range of intriguing optical, thermal and elastic phenomena in materials1,2,3,4,5. Although conventional optical and diffraction techniques have been used to estimate vibrational anisotropies, they fall short in achieving the spatial and energy resolution necessary to provide detailed information4,5,6,7. Here, we introduce a new form of momentum-selective electron energy-loss spectroscopy, which enables the element-resolved imaging of frequency- and symmetry-dependent vibrational anisotropies with atomic resolution. Vibrational anisotropies manifest in different norms of orthogonal atomic displacements, known as thermal ellipsoids. Using the centrosymmetric strontium titanate as a model system, we observed two distinct types of oxygen vibrations with contrasting anisotropies: oblate thermal ellipsoids below 60 meV and prolate ones above 60 meV. In non-centrosymmetric barium titanate, our approach can detect subtle distortions of the oxygen octahedra by observing the unexpected modulation of q-selective signals between apical and equatorial oxygen sites near 55 meV, which originates from reduced crystal symmetry and may also be linked to ferroelectric polarization. These observations are quantitatively supported by theoretical modelling, which demonstrates the reliability of our approach. The measured frequency-dependent vibrational anisotropies shed new light on the dielectric and thermal behaviours governed by acoustic and optical phonons. The ability to visualize phonon eigenvectors at specific crystallographic sites with unprecedented spatial and energy resolution opens new avenues for exploring dielectric, optical, thermal and superconducting properties.
Ferroelectrics and multiferroics, Structure of solids and liquids, Transmission electron microscopy
Stratified wind from a super-Eddington X-ray binary is slower than expected
Original Paper | Compact astrophysical objects | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Marc Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, Ralf Ballhausen, Aya Bamba, Ehud Behar, Rozenn Boissay-Malaquin, Laura Brenneman, Gregory V. Brown, Lia Corrales, Elisa Costantini, Renata Cumbee, María Díaz Trigo, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Megan Eckart, Dominique Eckert, Teruaki Enoto, Satoshi Eguchi, Yuichiro Ezoe, Adam Foster, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yutaka Fujita, Yasushi Fukazawa, Kotaro Fukushima, Akihiro Furuzawa, Luigi Gallo, Javier A. García, Liyi Gu, Matteo Guainazzi, Kouichi Hagino, Kenji Hamaguchi, Isamu Hatsukade, Katsuhiro Hayashi, Takayuki Hayashi, Natalie Hell, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, Ann Hornschemeier, Yuto Ichinohe, Manabu Ishida, Kumi Ishikawa, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Jelle Kaastra, Timothy Kallman, Erin Kara, Satoru Katsuda, Yoshiaki Kanemaru, Richard Kelley, Caroline Kilbourne, Shunji Kitamoto, Shogo Kobayashi, Takayoshi Kohmura, Aya Kubota, Maurice Leutenegger, Michael Loewenstein, Yoshitomo Maeda, Maxim Markevitch, Hironori Matsumoto, Kyoko Matsushita, Dan McCammon, Brian McNamara, François Mernier, Eric D. Miller, Jon M. Miller, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Misaki Mizumoto, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Koji Mori, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Richard Mushotzky, Hiroshi Nakajima, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Jan-Uwe Ness, Kumiko Nobukawa, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Hirofumi Noda, Hirokazu Odaka, Shoji Ogawa, Anna Ogorzalek, Takashi Okajima, Naomi Ota, Stephane Paltani, Robert Petre, Paul Plucinsky, Frederick Scott Porter, Katja Pottschmidt, Kosuke Sato, Toshiki Sato, Makoto Sawada, Hiromi Seta, Megumi Shidatsu, Aurora Simionescu, Randall Smith, Hiromasa Suzuki, Andrew Szymkowiak, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Mai Takeo, Toru Tamagawa, Keisuke Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Atsushi Tanimoto, Makoto Tashiro, Yukikatsu Terada, Yuichi Terashima, Yohko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi G. Tsuru, Aysegül Tümer, Hiroyuki Uchida, Nagomi Uchida, Yuusuke Uchida, Hideki Uchiyama, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shinichiro Uno, Jacco Vink, Shin Watanabe, Brian J. Williams, Satoshi Yamada, Shinya Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Yamasaki, Makoto Yamauchi, Shigeo Yamauchi, Tahir Yaqoob, Tomokage Yoneyama, Tessei Yoshida, Mihoko Yukita, Irina Zhuravleva, Joey Neilsen, Ryota Tomaru, Missagh Mehdipour
Accretion disks in strong gravity ubiquitously produce winds, seen as blueshifted absorption lines in the X-ray band of both stellar mass X-ray binaries (black holes and neutron stars)1,2,3,4 and supermassive black holes5. Some of the most powerful winds (termed Eddington winds) are expected to arise from systems in which radiation pressure is sufficient to unbind material from the inner disk (L ≳ LEdd). These winds should be extremely fast and carry a large amount of kinetic power, which, when associated with supermassive black holes, would make them a prime contender for the feedback mechanism linking the growth of those black holes with their host galaxies6. Here we show the XRISM Resolve spectrum of the galactic neutron star X-ray binary, GX 13+1, which reveals one of the densest winds ever seen in absorption lines. This Compton-thick wind significantly attenuates the flux, making it appear faint, although it is intrinsically more luminous than usual (L ≳ LEdd). However, the wind is extremely slow, more consistent with the predictions of thermal-radiative winds launched by X-ray irradiation of the outer disk than with the expected Eddington wind driven by radiation pressure from the inner disk. This puts new constraints on the origin of winds from bright accretion flows in binaries, but also highlights the very different origin required for the ultrafast (v ~ 0.3c) winds seen in recent Resolve observations of a supermassive black hole at a similarly high Eddington ratio7.
Compact astrophysical objects, High-energy astrophysics
Covariation MS uncovers a protein that controls cysteine catabolism
Original Paper | Biological techniques | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Haopeng Xiao, Martha Ordonez, Emma C. Fink, Taylor A. Covington, Hilina B. Woldemichael, Junyi Chen, Mika Sarkin Jain, Milan H. Rohatgi, Shelley M. Wei, Nils Burger, Muneeb A. Sharif, Julius Jan, Yaoyu Wang, Jonathan J. Petrocelli, Katherine Blackmore, Amanda L. Smythers, Bingsen Zhang, Matthew Gilbert, Hakyung Cheong, Sumeet A. Khetarpal, Arianne Smith, Dina Bogoslavski, Yu Lei, Laura Pontano Vaites, Fiona E. McAllister, Nick Van Bruggen, Katherine A. Donovan, Edward L. Huttlin, Evanna L. Mills, Eric S. Fischer, Edward T. Chouchani
The regulation of metabolic processes by proteins is fundamental to biology and yet is incompletely understood. Here we develop a mass spectrometry (MS)-based approach that leverages genetic diversity to nominate functional relationships between 285 metabolites and 11,868 proteins in living tissues. This method recapitulates protein-metabolite functional relationships mediated by direct physical interactions and local metabolic pathway regulation while nominating 3,542 previously undescribed relationships. With this foundation, we identify a mechanism of regulation over liver cysteine utilization and cholesterol handling, regulated by the poorly characterized protein LRRC58. We show that LRRC58 is the substrate adaptor of an E3 ubiquitin ligase that mediates proteasomal degradation of CDO1, the rate-limiting enzyme of the catabolic shunt of cysteine to taurine1. Cysteine abundance regulates LRRC58-mediated CDO1 degradation, and depletion of LRRC58 is sufficient to stabilize CDO1 to drive consumption of cysteine to produce taurine. Taurine has a central role in cholesterol handling, promoting its excretion from the liver2, and we show that depletion of LRRC58 in hepatocytes increases cysteine flux to taurine and lowers hepatic cholesterol in mice. Uncovering the mechanism of LRRC58 control over cysteine catabolism exemplifies the utility of covariation MS to identify modes of protein regulation of metabolic processes.
Biological techniques, Cell biology
Selective presynaptic inhibition of leg proprioception in behaving Drosophila
Original Paper | Sensory processing | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Chris J. Dallmann, Yichen Luo, Sweta Agrawal, Akira Mamiya, Grant M. Chou, Andrew Cook, Anne Sustar, Bingni W. Brunton, John C. Tuthill
Controlling arms and legs requires feedback from the proprioceptive sensory neurons that detect joint position and movement1,2. Proprioceptive feedback must be tuned for different behavioural contexts3,4,5,6, but the underlying circuit mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, using calcium imaging in behaving Drosophila, we find that the axons of position-encoding leg proprioceptors are active across a range of behaviours, whereas the axons of movement-encoding leg proprioceptors are suppressed during walking and grooming. Using connectomics7,8,9, we identify a specific class of interneurons that provide GABAergic presynaptic inhibition to the axons of movement-encoding proprioceptors. These interneurons receive input from parallel excitatory and inhibitory descending pathways that are positioned to drive the interneurons in a context-specific and leg-specific manner. Calcium imaging from both the interneurons and their descending inputs confirms that their activity is correlated with self-generated but not passive leg movements. Taken together, our findings reveal a neural circuit that suppresses specific proprioceptive feedback signals during self-generated movements.
Sensory processing, Spinal cord
Myeloperoxidase transforms chromatin into neutrophil extracellular traps
Original Paper | Neutrophils | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Garth Lawrence Burn, Tobias Raisch, Sebastian Tacke, Moritz Winkler, Daniel Prumbaum, Stephanie Thee, Niclas Gimber, Stefan Raunser, Arturo Zychlinsky
Neutrophils, the most abundant and biotoxic immune cells, extrude nuclear DNA into the extracellular space to maintain homeostasis. Termed neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), these protein-modified and decondensed extracellular DNA scaffolds control infection and are involved in coagulation, autoimmunity and cancer1,2. Here we show how myeloperoxidase (MPO), a highly expressed neutrophil protein, disassembles nucleosomes, thereby facilitating NET formation, yet also binds stably to NETs extracellularly. We describe how the oligomeric status of MPO governs both outcomes. MPO dimers interact with nucleosomal DNA using one protomer and concurrently dock into the nucleosome acidic patch with the other protomer. As a consequence, dimeric MPO displaces DNA from the core complex, culminating in nucleosome disassembly. On the other hand, MPO monomers stably interact with the nucleosome acidic patch without making concomitant DNA contacts, explaining how monomeric MPO binds to and licences NETs to confer hypohalous acid production in the extracellular space3. Our data demonstrate that the binding of MPO to chromatin is governed by specific molecular interactions that transform chromatin into a non-replicative, non-encoding state that offers new biological functions in a cell-free manner. We propose that MPO is, to our knowledge, the first member of a class of proteins that convert chromatin into an immune effector.
Neutrophils, Structural biology
A room temperature rechargeable all-solid-state hydride ion battery
Original Paper | Batteries | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Jirong Cui, Ren Zou, Weijin Zhang, Hong Wen, Jinyao Liu, Shangshang Wang, Shukun Liu, Hetong Chen, Wei Liu, Xiaohua Ju, Weiwei Wang, Tao Gan, Jiong Li, Jianping Guo, Teng He, Hujun Cao, Ping Chen
As a negative charge carrier, the hydride ion (H-) is more energetic, polarizable and reactive than cations1. An H--mediated electrochemical process is fundamentally different from existing systems and enables the development of innovative electrochemical devices, such as rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, electrolysis cells and gas separation membranes2. Here we developed a core-shell hydride 3CeH3@BaH2, which exhibits fast H- conduction at ambient temperature and becomes a superionic conductor above 60 °C. This hydride allows us to construct an all-solid-state rechargeable H- battery CeH2|3CeH3@BaH2|NaAlH4, which operates at ambient conditions using NaAlH4 and CeH2 as cathode and anode materials, respectively. This battery has an initial specific capacity of 984 mAh g-1 and retains 402 mAh g-1 after 20 cycles. Using hydrogen as charge carriers can avoid the formation of detrimental metal dendrites, in principle, which creates new research avenues for clean energy storage and conversion.
Batteries, Materials science
High-density soft bioelectronic fibres for multimodal sensing and stimulation
Original Paper | Biomedical engineering | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Muhammad Khatib, Eric Tianjiao Zhao, Shiyuan Wei, Jaeho Park, Alex Abramson, Estelle Spear Bishop, Anne-Laure Thomas, Chih-Hsin Chen, Pamela Emengo, Chengyi Xu, Ryan Hamnett, Samuel E. Root, Lei Yuan, Matthias J. Wurdack, Tomasz Zaluska, Yeongjun Lee, Kostas Parkatzidis, Weilai Yu, Dorine Chakhtoura, Kyun Kyu Kim, Donglai Zhong, Yuya Nishio, Chuanzhen Zhao, Can Wu, Yuanwen Jiang, Anqi Zhang, Jinxing Li, Weichen Wang, Fereshteh Salimi-Jazi, Talha A. Rafeeqi, Nofar Mintz Hemed, Jeffrey B.-H. Tok, Xiang Qian, Xiaoke Chen, Julia A. Kaltschmidt, James C. Y. Dunn, Zhenan Bao
There is an increasing demand for multimodal sensing and stimulation bioelectronic fibres for both research and clinical applications1,2. However, existing fibres suffer from high rigidity, low component layout precision, limited functionality and low density of active components. These limitations arise from the challenge of integrating many components into one-dimensional fibre devices, especially owing to the incompatibility of conventional microfabrication methods (for example, photolithography) with curved, thin and long fibre structures2. As a result, limited applications have been demonstrated so far. Here we use ‘spiral transformation’ to convert two-dimensional thin films containing microfabricated devices into one-dimensional soft fibres. This approach allows for the fabrication of high-density multimodal soft bioelectronic fibres, termed Spiral-NeuroString (S-NeuroString), while enabling precise control on the longitudinal, angular and radial positioning and distribution of the functional components. Taking advantage of the biocompatibility of our soft fibres with the dynamic and soft gastrointestinal system, we proceed to show the feasibility of our S-NeuroString for post-operative multimodal continuous motility mapping and tissue stimulation in awake pigs. We further demonstrate multi-channel single-unit electrical recording in mouse brain for up to 4 months, and a fabrication capability to produce 1,280 channels within a 230-μm-diameter soft fibre. Our soft bioelectronic fibres offer a powerful platform for minimally invasive implantable electronics, where diverse sensing and stimulation functionalities can be effectively integrated.
Biomedical engineering, Electronic devices
Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts
Original Paper | Climate-change ecology | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Chris T. Perry, Didier M. de Bakker, Alice E. Webb, Steeve Comeau, Ben P. Harvey, Christopher E. Cornwall, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Esmeralda Pérez-Cervantes, John Morris, Ian C. Enochs, Lauren T. Toth, Aaron O’Dea, Erin M. Dillon, Erik H. Meesters, William F. Precht
Coral reefs form complex physical structures that can help to mitigate coastal flooding risk1,2. This function will be reduced by sea-level rise (SLR) and impaired reef growth caused by climate change and local anthropogenic stressors3. Water depths above reef surfaces are projected to increase as a result, but the magnitudes and timescales of this increase are poorly constrained, which limits modelling of coastal vulnerability4,5. Here we analyse fossil reef deposits to constrain links between reef ecology and growth potential across more than 400 tropical western Atlantic sites, and assess the magnitudes of resultant above-reef increases in water depth through to 2100 under various shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) emission scenarios. Our analysis predicts that more than 70% of tropical western Atlantic reefs will transition into net erosional states by 2040, but that if warming exceeds 2 °C (SSP2-4.5 and higher), nearly all reefs (at least 99%) will be eroding by 2100. The divergent trajectories of reef growth and SLR will thus magnify the effects of SLR; increases in water depth of around 0.3-0.5 m above the present are projected under all warming scenarios by 2060, but depth increases of 0.7-1.2 m are predicted by 2100 under scenarios in which warming surpasses 2 °C. This would increase the risk of flooding along vulnerable reef-fronted coasts and modify nearshore hydrodynamics and ecosystems. Reef restoration offers one pathway back to higher reef growth6,7, but would dampen the effects of SLR in 2100 only by around 0.3-0.4 m, and only when combined with aggressive climate mitigation.
Climate-change ecology, Palaeoecology
DeepSeek-R1 incentivizes reasoning in LLMs through reinforcement learning
Original Paper | Computer science | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Daya Guo, Dejian Yang, Haowei Zhang, Junxiao Song, Peiyi Wang, Qihao Zhu, Runxin Xu, Ruoyu Zhang, Shirong Ma, Xiao Bi, Xiaokang Zhang, Xingkai Yu, Yu Wu, Z. F. Wu, Zhibin Gou, Zhihong Shao, Zhuoshu Li, Ziyi Gao, Aixin Liu, Bing Xue, Bingxuan Wang, Bochao Wu, Bei Feng, Chengda Lu, Chenggang Zhao, Chengqi Deng, Chong Ruan, Damai Dai, Deli Chen, Dongjie Ji, Erhang Li, Fangyun Lin, Fucong Dai, Fuli Luo, Guangbo Hao, Guanting Chen, Guowei Li, H. Zhang, Hanwei Xu, Honghui Ding, Huazuo Gao, Hui Qu, Hui Li, Jianzhong Guo, Jiashi Li, Jingchang Chen, Jingyang Yuan, Jinhao Tu, Junjie Qiu, Junlong Li, J. L. Cai, Jiaqi Ni, Jian Liang, Jin Chen, Kai Dong, Kai Hu, Kaichao You, Kaige Gao, Kang Guan, Kexin Huang, Kuai Yu, Lean Wang, Lecong Zhang, Liang Zhao, Litong Wang, Liyue Zhang, Lei Xu, Leyi Xia, Mingchuan Zhang, Minghua Zhang, Minghui Tang, Mingxu Zhou, Meng Li, Miaojun Wang, Mingming Li, Ning Tian, Panpan Huang, Peng Zhang, Qiancheng Wang, Qinyu Chen, Qiushi Du, Ruiqi Ge, Ruisong Zhang, Ruizhe Pan, Runji Wang, R. J. Chen, R. L. Jin, Ruyi Chen, Shanghao Lu, Shangyan Zhou, Shanhuang Chen, Shengfeng Ye, Shiyu Wang, Shuiping Yu, Shunfeng Zhou, Shuting Pan, S. S. Li, Shuang Zhou, Shaoqing Wu, Tao Yun, Tian Pei, Tianyu Sun, T. Wang, Wangding Zeng, Wen Liu, Wenfeng Liang, Wenjun Gao, Wenqin Yu, Wentao Zhang, W. L. Xiao, Wei An, Xiaodong Liu, Xiaohan Wang, Xiaokang Chen, Xiaotao Nie, Xin Cheng, Xin Liu, Xin Xie, Xingchao Liu, Xinyu Yang, Xinyuan Li, Xuecheng Su, Xuheng Lin, X. Q. Li, Xiangyue Jin, Xiaojin Shen, Xiaosha Chen, Xiaowen Sun, Xiaoxiang Wang, Xinnan Song, Xinyi Zhou, Xianzu Wang, Xinxia Shan, Y. K. Li, Y. Q. Wang, Y. X. Wei, Yang Zhang, Yanhong Xu, Yao Li, Yao Zhao, Yaofeng Sun, Yaohui Wang, Yi Yu, Yichao Zhang, Yifan Shi, Yiliang Xiong, Ying He, Yishi Piao, Yisong Wang, Yixuan Tan, Yiyang Ma, Yiyuan Liu, Yongqiang Guo, Yuan Ou, Yuduan Wang, Yue Gong, Yuheng Zou, Yujia He, Yunfan Xiong, Yuxiang Luo, Yuxiang You, Yuxuan Liu, Yuyang Zhou, Y. X. Zhu, Yanping Huang, Yaohui Li, Yi Zheng, Yuchen Zhu, Yunxian Ma, Ying Tang, Yukun Zha, Yuting Yan, Z. Z. Ren, Zehui Ren, Zhangli Sha, Zhe Fu, Zhean Xu, Zhenda Xie, Zhengyan Zhang, Zhewen Hao, Zhicheng Ma, Zhigang Yan, Zhiyu Wu, Zihui Gu, Zijia Zhu, Zijun Liu, Zilin Li, Ziwei Xie, Ziyang Song, Zizheng Pan, Zhen Huang, Zhipeng Xu, Zhongyu Zhang, Zhen Zhang
General reasoning represents a long-standing and formidable challenge in artificial intelligence (AI). Recent breakthroughs, exemplified by large language models (LLMs)1,2 and chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting3, have achieved considerable success on foundational reasoning tasks. However, this success is heavily contingent on extensive human-annotated demonstrations and the capabilities of models are still insufficient for more complex problems. Here we show that the reasoning abilities of LLMs can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning (RL), obviating the need for human-labelled reasoning trajectories. The proposed RL framework facilitates the emergent development of advanced reasoning patterns, such as self-reflection, verification and dynamic strategy adaptation. Consequently, the trained model achieves superior performance on verifiable tasks such as mathematics, coding competitions and STEM fields, surpassing its counterparts trained through conventional supervised learning on human demonstrations. Moreover, the emergent reasoning patterns exhibited by these large-scale models can be systematically used to guide and enhance the reasoning capabilities of smaller models.
Computer science, Electrical and electronic engineering
Structural basis for mTORC1 activation on the lysosomal membrane
Original Paper | Cell signalling | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Zhicheng Cui, Alessandra Esposito, Gennaro Napolitano, Andrea Ballabio, James H. Hurley
The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) integrates growth factor (GF) and nutrient signals to stimulate anabolic processes connected to cell growth and inhibit catabolic processes such as autophagy1,2. GF signalling through the tuberous sclerosis complex regulates the lysosomally localized small GTPase RAS homologue enriched in brain (RHEB)3. Direct binding of RHEB-GTP to the mTOR kinase subunit of mTORC1 allosterically activates the kinase by inducing a large-scale conformational change4. Here we reconstituted mTORC1 activation on membranes by RHEB, RAGs and Ragulator. Cryo-electron microscopy showed that RAPTOR and mTOR interact directly with the membrane. Full engagement of the membrane anchors is required for optimal alignment of the catalytic residues in the mTOR kinase active site. Converging signals from GFs and nutrients drive mTORC1 recruitment to and activation on lysosomal membrane in a four-step process, consisting of (1) RAG-Ragulator-driven recruitment to within ~100 Å of the lysosomal membrane; (2) RHEB-driven recruitment to within ~40 Å; (3) RAPTOR-membrane engagement and intermediate enzyme activation; and (4) mTOR-membrane engagement and full enzyme activation. RHEB and membrane engagement combined leads to full catalytic activation and structurally explains GF and nutrient signal integration at the lysosome.
Cell signalling, Cryoelectron microscopy
Delegation to artificial intelligence can increase dishonest behaviour
Original Paper | Decision making | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Nils Köbis, Zoe Rahwan, Raluca Rilla, Bramantyo Ibrahim Supriyatno, Clara Bersch, Tamer Ajaj, Jean-François Bonnefon, Iyad Rahwan
Although artificial intelligence enables productivity gains from delegating tasks to machines1, it may facilitate the delegation of unethical behaviour2. This risk is highly relevant amid the rapid rise of ‘agentic’ artificial intelligence systems3,4. Here we demonstrate this risk by having human principals instruct machine agents to perform tasks with incentives to cheat. Requests for cheating increased when principals could induce machine dishonesty without telling the machine precisely what to do, through supervised learning or high-level goal setting. These effects held whether delegation was voluntary or mandatory. We also examined delegation via natural language to large language models5. Although the cheating requests by principals were not always higher for machine agents than for human agents, compliance diverged sharply: machines were far more likely than human agents to carry out fully unethical instructions. This compliance could be curbed, but usually not eliminated, with the injection of prohibitive, task-specific guardrails. Our results highlight ethical risks in the context of increasingly accessible and powerful machine delegation, and suggest design and policy strategies to mitigate them.
Decision making, Economics, Human behaviour
Learning the natural history of human disease with generative transformers
Original Paper | Computational science | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Artem Shmatko, Alexander Wolfgang Jung, Kumar Gaurav, Søren Brunak, Laust Hvas Mortensen, Ewan Birney, Tom Fitzgerald, Moritz Gerstung
Decision-making in healthcare relies on understanding patients’ past and current health states to predict and, ultimately, change their future course1,2,3. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods promise to aid this task by learning patterns of disease progression from large corpora of health records4,5. However, their potential has not been fully investigated at scale. Here we modify the GPT6 (generative pretrained transformer) architecture to model the progression and competing nature of human diseases. We train this model, Delphi-2M, on data from 0.4 million UK Biobank participants and validate it using external data from 1.9 million Danish individuals with no change in parameters. Delphi-2M predicts the rates of more than 1,000 diseases, conditional on each individual’s past disease history, with accuracy comparable to that of existing single-disease models. Delphi-2M’s generative nature also enables sampling of synthetic future health trajectories, providing meaningful estimates of potential disease burden for up to 20 years, and enabling the training of AI models that have never seen actual data. Explainable AI methods7 provide insights into Delphi-2M’s predictions, revealing clusters of co-morbidities within and across disease chapters and their time-dependent consequences on future health, but also highlight biases learnt from training data. In summary, transformer-based models appear to be well suited for predictive and generative health-related tasks, are applicable to population-scale datasets and provide insights into temporal dependencies between disease events, potentially improving the understanding of personalized health risks and informing precision medicine approaches.
Computational science, Diseases, Risk factors
Co-option of an ancestral cloacal regulatory landscape during digit evolution
Original Paper | Evolutionary genetics | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Aurélie Hintermann, Christopher C. Bolt, M. Brent Hawkins, Guillaume Valentin, Lucille Lopez-Delisle, Madeline M. Ryan, Sandra Gitto, Paula Barrera Gómez, Bénédicte Mascrez, Thomas A. Mansour, Tetsuya Nakamura, Matthew P. Harris, Neil H. Shubin, Denis Duboule
The fin-to-limb transition in vertebrate evolution has been central to the study of how development underlies evolutionary change. In this context, the functional analysis of Hox gene regulation to infer evolutionary trajectories has been critical to explain the origin of new features. In tetrapods, the transcription of Hoxd genes in developing digits depends on a set of enhancers forming a large regulatory landscape1,2. The presence of a syntenic counterpart in zebrafish, which lacks digits, suggests deep homology3 or shared developmental foundations underlying distal fin and limbs. However, how this regulatory program evolved has remained unresolved. We genetically evaluated the function of the zebrafish Hoxd regulatory landscapes by comparatively assessing the effects of their full deletions. We show that, unlike in mice, deletion of these regions in fish does not disrupt hoxd gene transcription during distal fin development. By contrast, we found that this deficiency leads to the loss of expression within the cloaca, a structure related by ancestry to the mammalian urogenital sinus, and that distal hox13 genes are essential for correct cloacal formation. Because Hoxd gene regulation in the mouse urogenital sinus relies on enhancers located in this same chromatin domain that controls digit development, we propose that the current regulatory landscape active in distal limbs was co-opted as a whole in tetrapods from a pre-existing cloacal regulatory machinery.
Evolutionary genetics, Pattern formation
Peroxisomal metabolism of branched fatty acids regulates energy homeostasis
Original Paper | Fat metabolism | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Xuejing Liu, Anyuan He, Dongliang Lu, Donghua Hu, Min Tan, Abenezer Abere, Parniyan Goodarzi, Bilal Ahmad, Brian Kleiboeker, Brian N. Finck, Mohamed Zayed, Katsuhiko Funai, Jonathan R. Brestoff, Ali Javaheri, Patricia Weisensee, Bettina Mittendorfer, Fong-Fu Hsu, Paul P. Van Veldhoven, Babak Razani, Clay F. Semenkovich, Irfan J. Lodhi
Brown and beige adipocytes express uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), a mitochondrial protein that dissociates respiration from ATP synthesis and promotes heat production and energy expenditure. However, UCP1-/- mice are not obese1,2,3,4,5, consistent with the existence of alternative mechanisms of thermogenesis6,7,8. Here we describe a UCP1-independent mechanism of thermogenesis involving ATP-consuming metabolism of monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFA) in peroxisomes. These fatty acids are synthesized by fatty acid synthase using precursors derived from catabolism of branched-chain amino acids9 and our results indicate that β-oxidation of mmBCFAs is mediated by the peroxisomal protein acyl-CoA oxidase 2 (ACOX2). Notably, cold exposure upregulated proteins involved in both biosynthesis and β-oxidation of mmBCFA in thermogenic fat. Acute thermogenic stimuli promoted translocation of fatty acid synthase to peroxisomes. Brown-adipose-tissue-specific fatty acid synthase knockout decreased cold tolerance. Adipose-specific ACOX2 knockout also impaired cold tolerance and promoted diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Conversely, ACOX2 overexpression in adipose tissue enhanced thermogenesis independently of UCP1 and improved metabolic homeostasis. Using a peroxisome-localized temperature sensor named Pexo-TEMP, we found that ACOX2-mediated fatty acid β-oxidation raised intracellular temperature in brown adipocytes. These results identify a previously unrecognized role for peroxisomes in adipose tissue thermogenesis characterized by an mmBCFA synthesis and catabolism cycle.
Fat metabolism, Obesity
A domed pachycephalosaur from the early Cretaceous of Mongolia
Original Paper | Palaeoecology | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig, Ryuji Takasaki, Junki Yoshida, Ryan T. Tucker, Batsaikhan Buyantegsh, Buuvei Mainbayar, Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar, Lindsay E. Zanno
The dome-headed pachycephalosaurians are among the most enigmatic dinosaurs. Bearing a hypertrophied skull roof and elaborate cranial ornamentation, members of the clade are considered to have evolved complex sociosexual systems1,2,3. Despite their importance in understanding behavioural ecology in Dinosauria, the absence of uncontested early diverging taxa has hindered our ability to reconstruct the origin and early evolution of the clade4,5,6,7. Here we describe Zavacephale rinpoche gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Khuren Dukh Formation of Mongolia, the most skeletally complete and geologically oldest pachycephalosaurian discovered globally. Z. rinpoche exhibits a well-developed frontoparietal dome and preserves the clade’s first record of manual elements and gastroliths. Phylogenetic analysis recovered Z. rinpoche as one of the earliest diverging pachycephalosaurians, pushing back fossil evidence of the frontoparietal dome by at least 14 Myr and clarifying macroevolutionary trends in its assembly. We found that the earliest stage of dome evolution occurred by means of a frontal-first developmental pattern with retention of open supratemporal fenestra, mirroring proposed ontogenetic trajectories in some Late Cretaceous taxa. Finally, intraskeletal osteohistology of the frontoparietal dome and hindlimb demonstrate decoupling of sociosexual and somatic maturity in early pachycephalosaurians, with advanced dome development preceding terminal body size.
Palaeoecology, Palaeontology, Taxonomy
Nature Nanotechnology
Molecular crystal memristors
Original Paper | Electronic devices | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Lanhao Qin, Pengfei Guan, Jiefan Shao, Yu Xiao, Yimeng Yu, Jie Su, Conghui Zhang, Yanyong Li, Shenghong Liu, Pengyu Li, Decai Ouyang, Wenke He, Fenghao Liu, Kaichen Zhu, Kailang Liu, Zhenpeng Yao, Jinsong Wu, Yinghe Zhao, Huiqiao Li, Fei Hui, Peng Lin, Mario Lanza, Yuan Li, Tianyou Zhai
Memristors have emerged as a promising hardware platform for in-memory computing, but many current devices suffer from channel material degradation during repeated resistive switching. This leads to high energy consumption and limited endurance. Here we introduce a molecular crystal memristor, of which the representative channel material, Sb2O3, possesses a molecular crystal structure where molecular cages are interconnected via van der Waals forces. This unique configuration allows ions to migrate through intermolecular spaces with relatively low energy input, preserving the integrity of the crystal structure even after extensive switching cycles. Our molecular crystal memristor thus exhibits low energy consumption of 26 zJ per operation, with prominent endurance surpassing 109 switching cycles. The device delivers both reconfigurable non-volatile and volatile resistive switching behaviours over a broad range of device scales, from micrometres down to nanometres. Furthermore, we establish the scalability of this technology by fabricating large crossbar arrays on an 8 inch wafer. This enables the successful implementation of reservoir computing on a single CMOS-integrated chip using these memristors, achieving 100% accuracy in dynamic vision recognition.
Electronic devices, Information storage
Nature Reviews Physics
Radiacoustic imaging
Review Paper | Biomedical engineering | 2025-09-16 20:00 EDT
Yifei Xu, Shawn Liangzhong Xiang
Ultrasound waves can be generated by various radiation sources, including X-rays, protons, electrons and electrical fields, through the rapid thermal expansions and contractions that occur when materials absorb deposited radiation energies. The ultrasound waves, which we refer to as ‘radiacoustic waves’, can be detected for imaging purposes. Radiacoustic imaging offers new imaging contrasts beyond traditional pulse-echo ultrasound. This Perspective provides an analysis of progress in radiacoustic imaging in recent years, focusing on biomedical and materials science applications. We explore the mechanisms behind radiacoustic imaging, highlight its current uses and challenges, and discuss potential advances to improve the effectiveness of radiacoustic imaging technologies across different fields.
Biomedical engineering, Biotechnology
Physical Review Letters
Illuminating Black Hole Shadows with Dark Matter Annihilation
Article | Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Yifan Chen, Ran Ding, Yuxin Liu, Yosuke Mizuno, Jing Shu, Haiyue Yu, and Yanjie Zeng
The morphology of black hole shadows observed by the Event Horizon Telescope places new constraints on dark matter annihilation.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 121001 (2025)
Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation
Strong and Weak Dynamo Regimes in Taylor-Couette Flows
Article | Physics of Fluids, Earth & Planetary Science, and Climate | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Ashish Mishra, George Mamatsashvili, and Frank Stefani
We reveal a nonlinear magnetic dynamo in a Taylor-Couette flow at small magnetic Prandtl numbers , which has been previously believed to exist only at higher in this flow. The amplitude of initial perturbations, , and domain aspect ratio play a key role in the onset and evolution of the …
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 124001 (2025)
Physics of Fluids, Earth & Planetary Science, and Climate
TeV Solar Gamma Rays as a Probe for the Solar Internetwork Magnetic Fields
Article | Plasma and Solar Physics, Accelerators and Beams | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Kenny C. Y. Ng, Andrew Hillier, and Shin’ichiro Ando
Recently, solar gamma rays produced by cosmic rays interacting with the solar atmosphere have been detected in the GeV to TeV energy range, revealing that cosmic rays are significantly affected by magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere. However, much of the observations remain unexplained by existi…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 125201 (2025)
Plasma and Solar Physics, Accelerators and Beams
Probing Vortex Dynamics in 2D Superconductors with Scanning Quantum Microscope
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Sreehari Jayaram, Malik Lenger, Dong Zhao, Lucas Pupim, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Ruoming Peng, Marc Scheffler, Rainer Stöhr, Mathias S. Scheurer, Jurgen Smet, and Jörg Wrachtrup
Direct measurement of vortex dynamics using scanning nitrogen-vacancy quantum microscopy identifies a disordered vortex glass state in thin films of NbSe, providing the first spatiotemporal mapping of vortex behavior in a 2D superconductor.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126001 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Tensor Learning and Compression of N-Phonon Interactions
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Yao Luo, Dhruv Mangtani, Shiyu Peng, Jia Yao, Sergei Kliavinek, and Marco Bernardi
Phonon interactions from lattice anharmonicity govern thermal properties and heat transport in materials. These interactions are described by th order interatomic force constants (IFCs), which can be viewed as high-dimensional tensors correlating the motion of atoms, or equivalently encoding -p…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126101 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Quantum Monte Carlo Pair Orbital Wave Functions for Periodic Systems
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Lubos Mitas
We derive many-body single and multireference wave functions for quantum Monte Carlo of periodic systems with an antisymmetric portion that explicitly integrates over the Brillouin zone of one-particle Bloch states. The wave functions are BCS-like determinants for singlets and Pfaffians for polarize…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126401 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Spectral Properties of Fractionalized Shiba States
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Cătălin Paşcu Moca, Csanád Hajdú, Balázs Dóra, and Gergely Zaránd
A magnetic impurity in a BCS superconductor induces the formation of a Shiba state and drives a local quantum phase transition. We generalize this concept to a one-dimensional superconductor with fractionalized excitations, where the dominant instability is superconducting. In this framework, conduc…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126502 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Topological Valley Transport in Bilayer Graphene Induced by Interlayer Sliding
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Jie Pan, Huanhuan Wang, Lin Zou, Xiaoyu Wang, Lihao Zhang, Xueyan Dong, Haibo Xie, Yi Ding, Yuze Zhang, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Shuxi Wang, and Zhe Wang
Sliding one layer of bilayer graphene over the other provides a powerful way to tune the material's electronic properties.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126603 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Genuine Topological Anderson Insulator from Impurity Induced Chirality Reversal
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Avedis Neehus, Frank Pollmann, and Johannes Knolle
We investigate a model of Dirac fermions with mass impurities that open a global topological gap even in the dilute limit. Surprisingly, we find that the chirality of this mass term, i.e., the sign of the Chern number, can be reversed by tuning the magnitude of the single-impurity scattering. Conseq…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126604 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Modified Interferometer to Measure Anyonic Braiding Statistics
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Steven A. Kivelson and Chaitanya Murthy
Existing quantum Hall interferometers measure twice the braiding phase, , of Abelian anyons, i.e., the phase accrued when one quasiparticle encircles another clockwise. We propose a modified Fabry-Pérot or Mach-Zehnder interferometer that can measure .
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126605 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Enhancing the Hyperpolarizability of Crystals with Quantum Geometry
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Wojciech J. Jankowski, Robert-Jan Slager, and Michele Pizzochero
We demonstrate that higher-order electric susceptibilities in crystals can be enhanced and understood through nontrivial topological invariants and quantum geometry, using one-dimensional -conjugated chains as representative model systems. First, we show that the crystalline-symmetry-protected topo…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126606 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Vertical Soliton-Assisted Current Switching in Extremely Thick FeGd Ferrimagnets
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Teng Xu, Zhengde Xu, Yiqing Dong, Yang Cheng, Ledong Wang, Hongmei Feng, Hao Bai, Kun Xu, Xinyu Shu, Pu Yu, Heng-An Zhou, Enlong Liu, Shikun He, Chuanying Xi, Guoqiang Yu, Xuepeng Qiu, Se Kwon Kim, Jing Zhu, Zhifeng Zhu, and Wanjun Jiang
Current-induced spin-orbit torques (SOTs) can electrically switch magnetic films. The thickness of these films is usually limited to a few tenths of nanometers. Toward stable spintronic nanodevices, it is important to explore the upper thickness limit and to identify the associated SOT switching mec…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126703 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Velocity Trapping in the Lifted Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process and the True Self-Avoiding Random Walk
Article | Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Brune Massoulié, Clément Erignoux, Cristina Toninelli, and Werner Krauth
We discuss nonreversible Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithms that, for particle systems, rigorously sample the positional Boltzmann distribution and that have faster than physical dynamics. These algorithms all feature a nonthermal velocity distribution. They are exemplified by the lifted totally as…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 127102 (2025)
Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems
Manipulating Phases in Many-Body Interacting Systems with Subsystem Resetting
Article | Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Anish Acharya, Rupak Majumder, and Shamik Gupta
Stabilizing thermodynamically unstable phases in many-body systems, such as suppressing pathological neuronal synchronization in Parkinson's disease or maintaining magnetic order across broad temperature ranges, remains a persistent challenge. In traditional approaches, such phases are stabilized th…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 127103 (2025)
Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems
Motility Modulates the Partitioning of Bacteria in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems
Article | Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Jiyong Cheon, Kyu Hwan Choi, Kevin J. Modica, Robert J. Mitchell, Sho C. Takatori, and Joonwoo Jeong
We study the partitioning of motile bacteria in an aqueous two-phase mixture of dextran (DEX) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), which can phase separate into DEX-rich and PEG-rich phases. While nonmotile bacteria partition exclusively into the DEX-rich phase in all conditions tested, we observed that m…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 128401 (2025)
Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics
Physical Review X
Fisher Information Flow in Artificial Neural Networks
Article | | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Maximilian Weimar, Lukas M. Rachbauer, Ilya Starshynov, Daniele Faccio, Linara Adilova, Dorian Bouchet, and Stefan Rotter
A new algorithm tracks Fisher information through a neural network, revealing how information flows and transforms and offering guidance for designing more efficient networks.
Phys. Rev. X 15, 031072 (2025)
Review of Modern Physics
The ups and downs of internal conversion
Article | Chemical physics, atomic and molecular | 2025-09-16 06:00 EDT
Anjay Manian, Zifei Chen, Hugh T. Sullivan, and Salvy P. Russo
This review examines the theoretical methods used to describe the photophysical process of internal conversion in quantum systems. These models explore all facets of the nonradiative mechanism, and the review presents an outlook on how they can be incorporated in studies relevant to applications, for example, in photonics and energy harvesting.
Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 035003 (2025)
Chemical physics, atomic and molecular
arXiv
Quantum Mechanics of an Abrikosov Vortex in Nanofabricated Pinning Potential
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
A superconducting device is proposed for experimentally investigating whether an Abrikosov vortex can be modeled as a quantum mechanical quasiparticle. The design process of a type-II superconducting device capable of reliably pinning a single Abrikosov vortex is presented, creating a particle-in-a-box-like system. The proposed device consists of a cylindrically symmetric Nb film, 30 nm in diameter and 5 nm thick, with a 14 nm diameter artificial pinning center at its center. Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations indicate robust single-vortex pinning under an applied field of 6 T. The presumed quantized energy levels and associated quantum wavefunctions of the vortex quasiparticle are obtained by numerically solving the two-dimensional time-independent Schrödinger equation for this system. It is shown that distinguishing the ground and first excited states is experimentally feasible. Beyond fundamental physics studies, the application of the proposed device in cryogenic memory technology and quantum computing warrant further exploration.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Higher-Form Anomalies on Lattices
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Yitao Feng, Ryohei Kobayashi, Yu-An Chen, Shinsei Ryu
Higher-form symmetry in a tensor product Hilbert space is always emergent: the symmetry generators become genuinely topological only when the Gauss law is energetically enforced at low energies. In this paper, we present a general method for defining the ‘t Hooft anomaly of higher-form symmetries in lattice models built on a tensor product Hilbert space. In (2+1)D, for given Gauss law operators realized by finite-depth circuits that generate a finite 1-form $ G$ symmetry, we construct an index representing a cohomology class in $ H^4(B^2G, U(1))$ , which characterizes the corresponding ‘t Hooft anomaly. This construction generalizes the Else-Nayak characterization of 0-form symmetry anomalies. More broadly, under the assumption of a specified formulation of the $ p$ -form $ G$ symmetry action and Hilbert space structure in arbitrary $ d$ spatial dimensions, we show how to characterize the ‘t Hooft anomaly of the symmetry action by an index valued in $ H^{d+2}(B^{p+1}G, U(1))$ .
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
21 pages, 6 figures
Antiferromagnetism and Stripe Channel Order in the $\mathrm{SU}(N)$-Symmetric Two-Channel Kondo Lattice Model
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Elyasaf Y. Cohen, Fakher F. Assaad, Snir Gazit
We carry out large-scale, sign-problem-free determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the square lattice $ \mathrm{SU}(N)$ -symmetric two-channel Kondo lattice model at half-filling. We map out the zero-temperature phase diagram for $ N = 2, 4, 6$ , and $ 8$ , as a function of the Kondo coupling strength. In the weak-coupling regime, we observe antiferromagnetic order of the localized moments. Remarkably, for $ N \geq 6$ , sufficiently strong Kondo coupling induces spontaneous channel symmetry breaking, forming a stripe dimerization pattern with a wave vector $ \boldsymbol{k}=(\pi,0)$ alternating between channels. These findings are supported by a complementary large-$ N$ saddle point analysis, which identifies the striped hybridization pattern as the energetically preferred configuration. The spatial symmetry-breaking results in an anisotropic Fermi surface reconstruction.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
13 pages, 11 figures
Putting a new spin on the incommensurate Kekulé spiral: from spin-valley locking and collective modes to fermiology and implications for superconductivity
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Ziwei Wang, Glenn Wagner, Yves H. Kwan, Nick Bultinck, Steven H. Simon, S.A. Parameswaran
We revisit the global phase diagram of magic-angle twisted bilayer and [symmetric] trilayer graphene (MA-TBG/TSTG) in light of recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements on these materials. These experiments both confirmed the importance of strain in stabilizing the predicted incommensurate Kekulé spiral (IKS) order near filling $ |\nu|=2$ of the weakly dispersive central bands in both systems, and suggested a key role for electron-phonon couplings and short-range Coulomb interactions in selecting between various competing orders at low strain in MA-TBG. Here, we show that such interactions $ \textit{also}$ play a crucial role in selecting the spin structure of the strain-stabilized IKS state. This in turn influences the visibility of the IKS order in STM in a manner that allows us to infer their relative importance. We use this insight in conjunction with various other pieces of experimental data to build a more complete picture of the phase diagram, focusing on the spectrum of low-lying collective modes and the nature of the doped Fermi surfaces. We explore the broad phenomenological implications of these results for superconductivity.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
22 + 9 pages
Driven-Dissipative Landau Polaritons: Two Highly Nonlinearly-Coupled Quantum Harmonic Oscillators
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Landau levels (LLs) are the massively-degenerate discrete energy spectrum of a charged particle in a transverse magnetic field and lie at the heart of many intriguing phenomena such as the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects as well as quantized vortices. In this Letter, we consider coupling of LLs of a transversely driven charge neutral particle in a synthetic gauge potential to a quantized field of an optical cavity – a setting reminiscent of superradiant self-ordering setups in quantum gases. We uncover that this complex system can be surprisingly described in terms of two highly nonlinearly-coupled quantum harmonic oscillators, thus enabling a full quantum mechanical treatment. Light-matter coupling mixes the LLs and the superradiant photonic mode, leading to the formation of hybrid states referred to as ``Landau polaritons’’. They inherit partially the degeneracy of the LLs and possess intriguing features such as non-zero light-matter entanglement and quadrature squeezing. Depending on the system parameters and the choice of initial state, the system exhibits diverse nonequilibrium quantum dynamics and multiple steady states, with distinct physical properties. This work lays the foundation for further investigating the novel, driven-dissipative Landau-polariton physics in quantum-gas–cavity-QED settings.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
6+2 pages, 3+5 figures
A graphical diagnostic of topological order using ZX calculus
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Sergi Mas-Mendoza, Richard D. P. East, Michele Filippone, Adolfo G. Grushin
Establishing a universal diagnostic of topological order remains an open theoretical challenge. In particular, diagnosing long-range entanglement through the entropic area law suffers from spurious contributions, failing to unambiguously identify topological order. Here we devise a protocol based on the ZX calculus, a graphical tensor network, to determine the topological order of a state circumventing entropy calculations. The protocol takes as input real-space bipartitions of a state and returns a ZX contour diagram, $ \mathcal{D}_{\partial A}$ , displaying long-range graph connectivity only for long-range entangled states. We validate the protocol by showing that the contour diagrams of the toric and color codes are equivalent except for the number of non-local nodes, which differentiates their topological order. The number of these nodes is robust to the choice of the boundary and ground-state superposition, and they are absent for trivial states, even those with spurious entropy contributions. Our results single out ZX calculus as a tool to detect topological long-range entanglement by leveraging the advantages of diagrammatic reasoning against entropic diagnostics.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
5 pages, 26 pages of supplemental material
Topological Phase Diagram of Generalized SSH Models with Interactions
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
We investigate interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains with two- and three-site unit cells using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations. By selecting appropriate filling fractions and sweeping across interaction strength ( J_z ) and dimerization ( \delta ), we map out their phase diagrams and identify transition lines via entanglement entropy and magnetization measurements. In the two-site model, we observe the emergence of an interaction-induced antiferromagnetic intermediate phase between the topologically trivial and non-trivial regimes, as well as a critical region at negative ( J_z ) with suppressed magnetization and finite-size scaling of entanglement entropy. In contrast, the three-site model lacks an intermediate phase and exhibits asymmetric edge localization and antiferromagnetic ordering in both positive and negative ( J_z ) regimes. We further examine the response of edge states to Ising perturbations. In the two-site model, zero-energy edge modes are topologically protected and remain robust up to a finite interaction strength. However, in the three-site model, where the edge states reside at finite energy, this protection breaks down. Despite this, the edge-localized nature of these states survives in the form of polarized modes whose spatial profiles reflect the non-interacting limit.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Reduced Order Modeling of Energetic Materials Using Physics-Aware Recurrent Convolutional Neural Networks in a Latent Space (LatentPARC)
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Zoë J. Gray, Joseph B. Choi, Youngsoo Choi, H. Keo Springer, H. S. Udaykumar, Stephen S. Baek
Physics-aware deep learning (PADL) has gained popularity for use in complex spatiotemporal dynamics (field evolution) simulations, such as those that arise frequently in computational modeling of energetic materials (EM). Here, we show that the challenge PADL methods face while learning complex field evolution problems can be simplified and accelerated by decoupling it into two tasks: learning complex geometric features in evolving fields and modeling dynamics over these features in a lower dimensional feature space. To accomplish this, we build upon our previous work on physics-aware recurrent convolutions (PARC). PARC embeds knowledge of underlying physics into its neural network architecture for more robust and accurate prediction of evolving physical fields. PARC was shown to effectively learn complex nonlinear features such as the formation of hotspots and coupled shock fronts in various initiation scenarios of EMs, as a function of microstructures, serving effectively as a microstructure-aware burn model. In this work, we further accelerate PARC and reduce its computational cost by projecting the original dynamics onto a lower-dimensional invariant manifold, or ‘latent space.’ The projected latent representation encodes the complex geometry of evolving fields (e.g. temperature and pressure) in a set of data-driven features. The reduced dimension of this latent space allows us to learn the dynamics during the initiation of EM with a lighter and more efficient model. We observe a significant decrease in training and inference time while maintaining results comparable to PARC at inference. This work takes steps towards enabling rapid prediction of EM thermomechanics at larger scales and characterization of EM structure-property-performance linkages at a full application scale.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Machine Learning (stat.ML)
An Assembly-Line Mechanism for In-Vitro Encapsulation of Fragmented Cargo in Virus-Like Particles
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Ayesha Amjad, Irina Tsvetkova, Lena G. Lowry, David Gene Morgan, Roya Zandi, Paul van der Schoot, Bogdan Dragnea
The ability of virus shells to encapsulate a wide range of functional cargoes, especially multiple cargoes - siRNAs, enzymes, and chromophores - has made them an essential tool in biotechnology for advancing drug delivery applications and developing innovative new materials. Here we present a mechanistic study of the processes and pathways that lead to multiple cargo encapsulation in the co-assembly of virus shell proteins with ligand-coated nanoparticles. Based on the structural identification of different intermediates, enabled by the contrast in electron microscopy provided by the metal nanoparticles that play the cargo role, we find that multiple cargo encapsulation occurs by self-assembly via a specific ``assembly line’’ pathway that is different from previously described \emph{in vitro} assembly mechanisms of virus-like particles (VLP). The emerging model explains observations that are potentially important for delivery applications, for instance, the pronounced nanoparticle size selectivity.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Quantitative Methods (q-bio.QM), Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC)
Neural-Quantum-States Impurity Solver for Quantum Embedding Problems
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Yinzhanghao Zhou, Tsung-Han Lee, Ao Chen, Nicola Lanatà, Hong Guo
Neural quantum states (NQS) have emerged as a promising approach to solve second-quantised Hamiltonians, because of their scalability and flexibility. In this work, we design and benchmark an NQS impurity solver for the quantum embedding methods, focusing on the ghost Gutzwiller Approximation (gGA) framework. We introduce a graph transformer-based NQS framework able to represent arbitrarily connected impurity orbitals and develop an error control mechanism to stabilise iterative updates throughout the quantum embedding loops. We validate the accuracy of our approach with benchmark gGA calculations of the Anderson Lattice Model, yielding results in excellent agreement with the exact diagonalisation impurity solver. Finally, our analysis of the computational budget reveals the method’s principal bottleneck to be the high-accuracy sampling of physical observables required by the embedding loop, rather than the NQS variational optimisation, directly highlighting the critical need for more efficient inference techniques.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
10 pages main text, and 4 figures. Note that YinZhangHao Zhou and Zhanghao Zhouyin are the same person, I use them both
Skeletal editing by tip-induced chemistry
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Shantanu Mishra, Valentina Malave, Rasmus Svensson, Henrik Grönbeck, Florian Albrecht, Diego Peña, Leo Gross
Skeletal editing of cyclic molecules has garnered considerable attention in the context of drug discovery and green chemistry, with notable examples in solution-phase synthesis. Here, we extend the scope of skeletal editing to the single-molecule scale. We demonstrate tip-induced oxygen deletion and ring contraction of an oxygen-containing seven-membered ring on bilayer NaCl films to generate molecules containing the perylene skeleton. The products were identified and characterized by atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopies, which provided access to bond-resolved molecular structures and orbital densities. Insights into the reaction mechanisms were obtained by density functional theory calculations. Our work expands the toolbox of tip-induced chemistry for single-molecule synthesis.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Manuscript: 6 pages and 4 figures; Supporting Information: 18 pages, 21 figures and 1 table
Spectral Analysis of Light Interstitial Segregation Energies in Ni: The Role of Local Cr Coordination for Boron and Carbon
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Tyler D. Doležal, Rodrigo Freitas, Ju Li
Understanding interstitial segregation in chemically complex alloys requires accounting for chemical and structural heterogeneity of interfaces, motivating approaches that move beyond scalar descriptors to capture the full spatial and compositional spectra of segregation behavior. Here, we introduce a spectral segregation framework that maps distributions of segregation energies for light interstitials in Ni as a function of local Cr coordination. Boron exhibits a broad, rugged energy spectrum with significant positional flexibility whereas carbon remains confined to a narrow spectrum with minimal displacement. At the free surface, Cr-rich coordination destabilizes both interstitials (e.g., positive segregation energies), in sharp contrast to the stabilizing role of Cr at the GB. This inversion establishes a natural segregation gradient that drives interstitials away from undercoordinated internal surfaces and toward GBs. These results underscore the limitations of single-valued segregation descriptors and demonstrate how a distributional approach reveals the mechanistic origins of interstitial–interface interactions in chemically heterogeneous alloys.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
Scripta Materialia, vol. 271, 116974, Jan 2026
Multi-Dimensional Photon-Correlations Reveal Triexciton Features in Single Perovskite Quantum Dots
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Alex Hinkle, Chieh Tsao, Adam Duell, Hendrik Utzat
Lead-halide perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) are established quantum emitters with potential for entangled photon-pair generation via multiexciton cascades. However, the energetics and dynamics of many-body excitations remain poorly understood. Here, we perform time- and frequency-resolved photon-correlation spectroscopy of single CsPbBr\textsubscript{3} PQDs at low temperatures using a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array detector. We report biexciton binding energies and assign their charged states, which undergo fast ($ \mu$ s) switching dynamics. Most notably, we identify a spectral feature blue-shifted from the exciton by $ 7.4 \pm 1.9$ meV as the bound triexciton and establish the order of its cascade emission. These results highlight the power of low-temperature, multidimensional photon-correlation spectroscopy for resolving complex many-body dynamics.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Topological Phononic Crystal on the Scale of Quasi-Ballistic Phonon Transport
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Keita Funayama, Yuki Akura, Hiroya Tanaka, Jun Hirotani
Phonon engineering technology has opened up the functional thermal management of semiconductor-based classical and quantum electronics at the micro- and nanoscales. However, challenges have remained in designing accurate thermal characteristics based on quasi-ballistic phonon transport. The quasi-ballistic thermal transport arises from the combination of wave-like and diffusive phonon behaviors unlike pure diffusion. The topological nature has been known to be compatible with both wave and diffusive phenomena. Therefore, topological phononic crystals have great potential for the development of controllable and designable thermal transport based on quasi-ballistic phonons. In this study, we experimentally investigated the thermal behavior at the scale of quasi-ballistic phonon transport using a 1D Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model-based topological phononic crystal. Quasi-ballistic phonon transport was observed through change in thermal conductivity depending on the structural parameters of topological systems using micro-thermoreflectance. Furthermore, using topological interface states, the experimentally observed thermal behaviors were found to agree well with the theoretically expected those. Accordingly, the topological nature is an effective approach for thermal management in micro- and nanoscale systems with quasi-ballistic phonon transport. Our results pave the way for a unified control scheme for wave and diffusion phenomena, such as quasi-ballistic phonons.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
Reentrant localization in fractionally charged electron wave packets
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
We investigate the localization transition in fractionally charged electron wave packets, which is injected into a quantum conductor by a single voltage pulse with arbitrary flux quantum. We show that the transition is unidirectional for individual electrons or holes. They always undergo a delocalization-to-localization transition as the flux increases. In contrast, the transition of the neutral electron-hole pairs is bidirectional. As the flux increases, the transition can be a localization-to-delocalization transition or vice versa, which is controlled via the long-time tail of the voltage pulse. The localization-to-delocalization transition occurs in the case of short-tailed pulses, which decay faster than Lorentzian. In this case, the directions of the transitions for the neutral eh pairs and individual electrons or holes are opposite. Certain localized neutral electron-hole pairs can first evolve into delocalized ones, then split into individual electrons and holes with localized wave functions, which gives a reentrant localization. The delocalization-to-localization transition occurs in the case of long-tailed pulses, which decay slower than Lorentzian. The reentrant localization vanishes in this case, as the directions of the two transitions are the same. It is also absent in the case of Lorentzian pulses, where the localized neutral electron-hole pairs cannot be excited at all.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Coupled Infrared Imaging and Multiphysics Modeling to Predict Three-Dimensional Thermal Characteristics during Selective Laser Melting
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Vijay Kumar, Kaitlyn M. Mullin, Hyunggon Park, Matthew Gerigk, Andrew Bresk, Tresa M. Pollock, Yangying Zhu
Laser heating during additive manufacturing (AM) induces extreme and transient thermal conditions which critically influence the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of the resulting component. However, accurately resolving these conditions with sufficient spatiotemporal accuracy remains a central challenge. We demonstrate a unique approach that couples high-speed infrared imaging, during selective laser melting of MAR-M247, with a transient three-dimensional (3D) multiphysics simulation to reconstruct the dynamic sub-surface temperature distribution of the melt pool. This integrated framework enables the estimation of experimentally-validated, 3D solidification conditions-including solidification velocities and cooling rates-at the solid-liquid interface while also significantly lowering computational cost. By quantifying solidification conditions, we predict variations in microstructure size and orientation driven by laser processing parameters and validate them with ex situ scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction maps. Our findings substantiate that an integrated experimental-computational approach is crucial to realize in situ prediction and optimization of microstructures in commercial AM.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
28 pages, 7 Figures
High-pressure electronic states in semiconductors studied by infrared spectroscopy: metallization and band gap tuning in Mg$_2$Si, InAs and InSb
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Hidekazu Okamura, Haruna Okazaki, Katsunori Marugaku, Subin Lee, Tomoki Yoneda, Haruhiko Udono, Yoshihisa Mori, Mitsuhiko Maesato, Hiroshi Kitagawa, Yuka Ikemoto, Taro Moriwaki
In this article, a brief introduction is first given on infrared studies of materials at high pressures using a diamond anvil cell. Then, our recent results of high-pressure infrared studies are described for Mg$ _2$ Si, InAs, and InSb. For Mg$ _2$ Si, pressure-induced metallization at pressures near 10 GPa were clearly demonstrated for both carrier-doped and undoped Mg$ _2$ Si by large increases of reflectivity. For InAs and InSb, their band gap ($ E_g$ ) increased rapidly and almost linearly with pressure with linear coefficients of $ dE_g/dP$ =84.6 and 112 meV/GPa, respectively. Obtained values of $ E_g$ versus lattice parameter at high pressures are compared with those for other IIl-V semiconductors at ambient pressure, giving unique insight into effects of physical and chemical pressures on $ E_g$ . Above the structural transition pressures of 7 and 3 GPa for InAs and InSb, respectively, they exhibit highly metallic characteristics accompanied by high reflectivity.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
10 figures, submitted to a Special Issue of Jpn. J. Appl. Phys
Particle-hole symmetry in the pseudogap phase of moderately underdoped cuprate high temperature superconductors evidenced from joint density of states analysis
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Niraj Kumar Shah, Junjing Zhao, Utpal Chatterjee
In conventional superconductors, the energy scale associated with the superfluid stiffness is much larger compared to the pairing energy and hence, the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is entirely dictated by the superconducting (SC) energy gap. The phase rigidity of the SC condensate in unconventional superconductors, on the other hand, can be low enough to enable destruction of superconductivity via phase incoherence and persistence of an energy gap even at the absence of macroscopic superconductivity above Tc. This is considered a possible mechanism of the pseudogap (PG) state of cuprate high temperature superconductors (HTSCs). We have investigated the electronic energy ({\omega}) and momentum-separation vector (q) dependence of the joint density of states (JDOS), derived from the autocorrelated Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) data, from moderately underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+{\delta}HTSC samples at temperatures below and above Tc. We found that q-space structure of the constant {\omega} JDOS intensity maps and the dispersions of the JDOS peaks are essentially the same both below and above Tc. Furthermore, the dispersions of the JDOS peaks above Tc are particle-hole symmetric. These observations evince similarity between the nature of the energy gap below and above Tc, which supports preformed pairing scenario for the PG state at least in the moderately underdoped regime.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Anomalous statistics in the Langevin equation with fluctuating diffusivity: from Brownian yet non-Gaussian diffusion to anomalous diffusion and ergodicity breaking
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Takuma Akimoto, Jae-Hyung Jeon, Ralf Metzler, Tomoshige Miyaguchi, Takashi Uneyama, Eiji Yamamoto
Diffusive motion is a fundamental transport mechanism in physical and biological systems, governing dynamics across a wide range of scales – from molecular transport to animal foraging. In many complex systems, however, diffusion deviates from classical Brownian behaviour, exhibiting striking phenomena such as Brownian yet non-Gaussian diffusion (BYNGD) and anomalous diffusion. BYNGD describes a frequently observed statistical feature characterised by the coexistence of linear mean-square displacement (MSD) and non-Gaussian displacement distributions. Anomalous diffusion, in contrast, involves a nonlinear time dependence of the MSD and often reflects mechanisms such as trapping, viscoelasticity, heterogeneity, or active processes. Both phenomena challenge the conventional framework based on constant diffusivity and Gaussian statistics. This review focuses the theoretical modelling of such behaviour via the Langevin equation with fluctuating diffusivity (LEFD) – a flexible stochastic framework that captures essential features of diffusion in heterogeneous media. LEFD not only accounts for BYNGD but also naturally encompasses a wide range of anomalous transport phenomena, including subdiffusion, ageing, and weak ergodicity breaking. Ergodicity is discussed in terms of the correspondence between time and ensemble averages, as well as the trajectory-to-trajectory variability of time-averaged observables. The review further highlights the empirical relevance of LEFD and related models in explaining diverse experimental observations and underscores their value to uncovering the physical mechanisms governing transport in complex systems.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
51 pages, 16 figures
Quantum Otto heat engine and quantum Mpemba effect in quasiperiodic systems
New Submission | Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Ao Zhou, Feng Lu, Shujie Cheng, Gao Xianlong
In this paper, a quasiperiodic system with off-diagonal and diagonal modulations is studied. By analyzing the inverse participation ratio and the centroid position of the wave packet, the delocalization-localization phase diagrams in the equilibrium state and the non-equilibrium steady state are obtained respectively. The stability of the system’s initial state on dissipation and the dissipation-driven delocalization-localization transition (or vice versa) are discussed. The dynamic evolution behavior provides evidence for the existence of the quantum Mpemba effect in this dissipation-modulated system. A starting-line hypothesis is proposed, which can be used to explain the occurrence and absence of the quantum Mpemba effect. In addition, the thermodynamic applications of this system have also been studied. The results prove that the localized phase is beneficial to the realization of quantum heater as well. Our work has promoted the understanding of the steady-state phase transitions and dynamic behaviors of dissipation-modulated quasiperiodic systems, and has expanded the existing thermodynamic research on the application of quasiperiodic systems.
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
11 pages, 6 figures
Over One Order of Magnitude Enhancement in Hole Mobility of 2D III-V Semiconductors through Valence Band Edge Shift
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Jianshi Sun, Shouhang Li, Cheng Shao, Zhen Tong, Meng An, Yue Hu, Xiongfei Zhu, Thomas Frauenheim, Xiangjun Liu
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors show great potential to sustain Moore’s law in the era of ultra-scaled electronics. However, their scalable applications are severely constrained by low hole mobility. In this work, we take 2D-GaAs as a prototype of III-V semiconductors to investigate the effects of quantum anharmonicity (QA) on hole transport, employing the stochastic self-consistent harmonic approximation assisted by the machine learning potential. It is found that the room-temperature hole mobility of 2D-GaAs is reduced by $ \sim$ 44% as the QA effects are incorporated, which is attributed to the enhanced electron-phonon scattering from the out-of-plane acoustic polarization. The valence band edge shift (VBES) strategy is proposed to increase the hole mobility by $ \sim$ 1600% at room temperature, which can be realized by 1% biaxial compressive strain. The electron-phonon scattering rate is dramatically decreased due to the full filtering of the original interband electron-phonon scattering channels that existed in the flat hole pocket. The VBES strategy can be further extended to other 2D III-V semiconductors to promote their hole mobilities.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
7 pages, 3 figures
Revealing superconducting gap in La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$-$δ$ by Andreev reflection spectroscopy under high pressure
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Jianning Guo, Yuzhi Chen, Yulong Wang, Hualei Sun, Deyuan Hu, Meng Wang, Xiaoli Huang, Tian Cui
The recent discovery of compressed superconductivity at 80K in La$ _3$ Ni$ _2$ O$ _7$ -$ \delta$ has brought nickelates into the family of unconventional high-temperature superconductors. However, due to the challenges of directly probing the superconducting pairing mechanism under high pressure, the pairing symmetry and gap structures of nickelate superconductors remain under intense debate. In this work, we successfully determine the microscopic information on the superconducting gap structure of La$ _3$ Ni$ _2$ O$ _7$ -$ \delta$ samples subjected to pressures exceeding 20GPa, by constructing different conductance junctions within diamond anvil cells. By analyzing the temperature-dependent differential conductance spectra within the Blonder–Tinkham–Klapwijk (BTK) model, we have determined the superconducting energy gap at high pressure. The differential conductance curves reveal a two-gap structure with $ \Delta_{1} = 23\mathrm{meV}$ and $ \Delta_{2} = 6\mathrm{meV}$ , while the BTK fitting is consistent with an $ s$ -like, two-gap spectrum. The gap ratio $ 2\Delta_{s1}(0) / k_{\mathrm{B}}T_{c}$ is found to be 7.61, belonging to a family of strongly coupled superconductors. Our findings provide valuable insights into the superconducting gap structures of the pressure-induced superconducting nickelates.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Classical Physics (physics.class-ph)
27 pages, 15 pages
Direct Observation of d-Wave Superconducting Gap Symmetry in Pressurized La3Ni2O7-delta Single Crystals
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Zi-Yu Cao, Di Peng, Seokmin Choi, Fujun Lan, Lan Yu, Enkang Zhang, Zhenfang Xing, Yuxin Liu, Feiyang Zhang, Tao Luo, Lixing Chen, Vuong Thi Anh Hong, Seung-Yeop Paek, Harim Jang, Jinghong Xie, Huayu Liu, Hongbo Lou, Zhidan Zeng, Yang Ding, Jun Zhao, Cailong Liu, Tuson Park, Qiaoshi Zeng, Ho-kwang Mao
The recent discovery of superconductivity in pressure-stabilized bulk La3Ni2O7-delta, with a critical temperature (Tc) exceeding 77 K, has opened a new frontier in high-temperature superconductivity research beyond cuprates. Yet, the superconducting gap amplitude and symmetry, the key parameters to characterize a superconductor, remain elusive due to the overwhelming challenges of gap studies under high pressure. Here, we introduce in situ directional point-contact spectroscopy conducted under truly hydrostatic pressure, enabling the direct mapping of the superconducting gap in pressurized La3Ni2O7-delta single crystals. Depending on the junction orientation, differential conductance (dI/dV) spectra exhibit distinct V-shaped quasiparticle features and a sharp zero-bias peak, indicating a predominant d-wave-like pairing symmetry. Measurement of the c-axis gap amplitude Delta yields a gap-to-Tc ratio of 2Delta/kBTc = 4.2(5), positioning La3Ni2O7-delta firmly among unconventional, nodal high-Tc superconductors. These findings set stringent constraints on theoretical models for nickelate superconductors and establish a robust spectroscopic approach for understanding superconductors under extreme pressures.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
20 pages, 4 figures, 4 supplementary figures
Symmetry and Topology of Successive Quantum Feedback Control
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Junxuan Wen, Zongping Gong, Takahiro Sagawa
We establish a symmetry classification for a general class of quantum feedback control. For successive feedback control with a non-adaptive sequence of bare measurements (i.e., with positive Kraus operators), we prove that the symmetry classification collapses to the ten-fold AZ$ ^\dagger$ classes, specifying the allowed topology of CPTP maps associated with feedback control. We demonstrate that a chiral Maxwell’s demon with Gaussian measurement errors exhibits quantized winding numbers. Moreover, for general (non-bare) measurements, we explicitly construct a protocol that falls outside the ten-fold classification. These results broaden and clarify the principles in engineering topological aspects of quantum control robust against disorder and imperfections.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
9 pages, 5 figures
Nambu Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics III: Application to specific phenomena
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
So Katagiri, Yoshiki Matsuoka, Akio Sugamoto
We apply Nambu non-equilibrium thermodynamics (NNET)-a dynamics with multiple Hamiltonians coupled to entropy-induced dissipation-to paradigmatic far-from-equilibrium systems. Concretely, we construct NNET realizations for the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction (oscillatory), the Hindmarsh-Rose neuron model (spiking), and the Lorenz and Chen systems (chaotic), and analyze their dynamical and thermodynamic signatures. Across all cases the velocity field cleanly decomposes into a reversible Nambu part and an irreversible entropygradient part, anchored by a model-independent quasi-conserved quantity. This construction reproduces cycles, spikes, and strange-attractor behavior and clarifies transitions among steady, periodic, and chaotic regimes via cross-model diagnostics. These results demonstrate that NNET provides a unified, quantitatively consistent framework for oscillatory, spiking, and chaotic non-equilibrium systems, offering a systematic description beyond the scope of linear-response theories such as Onsager’s relations or GENERIC.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
29 pages and 19 figures
Atomic-scale phase-field modeling with universal machine learning potentials
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Atomic-scale phase-field modeling formulates the probability densities of atomic vibrations as Gaussian distributions and derives a free energy functional using variational Gaussian theory and interatomic potentials. This framework permits per-Gaussian decomposition of the free energy, providing a description of local thermodynamic states with atomic resolution. However, existing formulations are limited to classical pairwise interatomic potentials, restricting their applicability to specific materials and compromising quantitative accuracy. In this work, we extend the atomic-scale phase-field methodology by incorporating universal machine learning interatomic potentials, thereby generalizing the free energy functional to many-body systems. This extension enhances both the accuracy and transferability of the approach. We demonstrate the method by applying it to bulk copper under NVT and NPT ensembles, where the predicted pressures and equilibrium lattice constants show excellent agreement with molecular dynamics simulations, validating the theoretical framework. Furthermore, we apply the method to {\Sigma}5(310)[001] grain boundaries in copper, enabling the visualization of local free energy distributions with atomic-scale resolution. The results reveal a pronounced free energy concentration at the grain boundary core, capturing the thermodynamic signature of the interface. This study establishes a versatile and accurate framework for atomic-scale thermodynamic modeling, significantly broadening the scope of phase-field approaches to include complex materials and defect structures.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Anomalous inverse Faraday effect for graphene quantum dots in optical vortices
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Zi-Yang Xu, Wei E. I. Sha, Hang Xie
Chiral photon interactions with two-dimensional (2D) materials enable unprecedented control of quantum phenomena. In this paper, we report anomalous inverse Faraday effects (IFE) in graphene quantum dots (GQDs) under linearly polarized optical vortex illumination, where transferred orbital angular momentum (OAM) generates light-induced magnetic moments. Employing our recently developed time-dependent quantum perturbation framework [Phys. Rev. B 110, 085425 (2024)], we demonstrate a counterintuitive observation: some reversed magnetic moments at off-axis positions occur-manifested as counter-rotating currents to the vortex helical wavefront. Phase-difference analysis and eigenmode decomposition resolve this anomaly, revealing that the OAM transfer efficiency is orders of magnitude weaker than its spin counterpart. This work establishes a new paradigm for optical OAM-to-magnetization conversion in quantum-engineered 2D systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
8 pages, 4 figure
Systematic Schrieffer-Wolff-transformation approach to Josephson junctions: quasiparticle effects and Josephson harmonics
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Ádám Bácsi, Teodor Iličin, Rok Žitko
We use the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation (SWT) to analyze Josephson junctions between superconducting leads described by the charge-conserving BCS theory. Starting from the single-electron tunneling terms, we directly recover the conventional effective Hamiltonian, $ -E_J\cos\hat{\varphi}$ , with an operator-valued phase bias $ \hat{\varphi}$ . The SWT approach has the advantage that it can be systematically extended to more complex scenarios. We show that if a Bogoliubov quasiparticle is present its motion couples to that of Cooper pairs, introducing correlated dynamics that reshape the energy spectrum of the junction. Furthermore, higher-order terms in the SWT naturally describe Josephson harmonics, whose amplitudes are directly related to the microscopic properties of the superconducting leads and the junction. We derive expressions that could facilitate tuning the ratio between the different harmonics in a controlled way.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
11 pages, 1 figure
Ginzburg-Landau Formalism in Curved Spacetime
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Recent researches on tilted Dirac cone materials have unveiled an astonishing property, the metric of the spacetime can be altered in these materials by applying a perpendicular electric field. This phenomenon is observed near the Fermi velocity, which is significantly lower than the speed of light. According to this property, we derive the Ginzburg-Landau action from the microscopic Hamiltonian of the BCS theory for the tilted Dirac cone materials. This derivation is performed near the critical point within the framework of curved spacetime. The novelty of the present work lies in deriving a general Ginzburg-Landau action that depends on spacetime curvature, where the curvature is tuned by an external electric field. Furthermore, this finding enables us to apply the Ginzburg-Landau theory at high temperatures by changing the spacetime metric, potentially offering insights into achieving high-temperature superconductivity in these materials.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
The self-assembly behavior of a diblock copolymer/homopolymer induced by Janus nanorods
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Y. Q. Guo, J. Liu, H. R. He, N. Wu, J. J. Zhang
We employ cell dynamics simulation based on the CH/BD model to investigate the self-assembly behavior of a mixed system consisting of diblock copolymers (AB), homopolymers (C), and Janus nanorods. The results indicate that, at different component ratios, the mixed system undergoes various phase transitions with an increasing number of nanorods. Specifically, when the homopolymer component is 0.40, the mixed system transitions from a disordered structure to a parallel lamellar structure, subsequently to a tilted layered structure, and ultimately to a perpendicular lamellar structure as the number of nanorods increases. To explore this phenomenon in greater depth, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of domain sizes and pattern evolution. Additionally, we investigate the effects of the repulsive interaction strength between polymers, wetting strength, length of nanorods, and degree of asymmetry on the self-assembly behavior of the mixed system. This research provides significant theoretical and experimental insights for the preparation of novel nanomaterials.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
16 pages, 9 figures
Algebraic solution and thermodynamic properties of graphene in the presence of minimal length
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
J. Gbètoho, F. A. Dossa, G. Y. H. Avossevou
Graphene is a zero-gap semiconductor, where the electrons propagating inside are described by the ultra-relativistic Dirac equation normally reserved for very high energy massless particles. In this work, we show that graphene under a magnetic field in the presence of a minimal length has a hidden $ su(1,1)$ symmetry. This symmetry allows us to construct the spectrum algebraically. In fact, a generalized uncertainty relation, leading to a non-zero minimum uncertainty on the position, would be closer to physical reality and allow us to control or create bound states in graphene. Using the partition function based on the Epstein zeta function, the thermodynamic properties are well determined. We find that the Dulong-Petit law is verified and the heat capacity is independent of the deformation parameter.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
11 pages, 3 figures
Thermodynamic relation for the systems with inhomogeneous distribution of particles
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
A. P. Rebesh, B. I. Lev, A. G. Zagorodny
For the system with inhomogeneous distribution of macroscopic parameters we obtain thermodynamic relation which depends on the spatial point (coordinate). In our approach, to obtain such a relation we use the basic ideas of the method of nonequilibrium statistical operator combined with the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation. First of all, we define the thermodynamic relation for the system with homogeneous distribution of particles. Possible behavior peculiarities of systems with different character of interaction in nonequilibrium case are predicted. By saddle-point method we find the dominant contributions to the partition function and obtain all thermodynamic parameters of the systems with different character of interaction. The formations of saddle state in all systems of interacting particles at different temperatures and particle distributions have the same physical nature and therefore they can be described in the same way. We consider the systems with attractive and repulsive interactions as well as self-gravitating systems.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
17 pages, 3 figures
Quintuplet condensation in the skyrmionic insulator Cu2OSeO3 at ultrahigh magnetic fields
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
T. Nomura, I. Rousochatzakis, O. Janson, M. Gen, X.-G. Zhou, Y. Ishii, S. Seki, Y. Kohama, Y. H. Matsuda
We report ultrahigh magnetic field Faraday rotation results on the chiral helimagnet Cu2OSeO3, the first Mott insulator showing skyrmion lattice phases and a linear magnetoelectric effect. Between 180 and 300 T, we find signatures of a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons, which can be described as a canted XY ferrimagnet. Due to the magnetoelectric coupling, the transverse magnetic order of the indivual Cu2+ spins is accompanied by a characteristic dome-like electric polarization which is crucial for the observation of the condensate via the Faraday rotation effect.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
14 pages
Beyond conventional half-metals: gapless states and spin gapless semiconducting behavior in X$_2$MnGa (X = Ti, Ir) Heusler compounds
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
N. Bouteldja, N. Hacini, I. Ouadha, H. Rached
The search for high-performance spintronic materials motivates the exploration of Heusler alloys with unconventional electronic properties. Using density functional theory with Hubbard correction (DFT+$ U$ , $ U = 4$ ~eV), we investigate X$ _2$ MnGa (X = Ti, Ir) alloys, which stabilize in the ferromagnetic L2$ _1$ -type structure with strong thermodynamic stability. Electronic structure calculations reveal contrasting behaviors: Ti$ _2$ MnGa transitions from a metallic L2$ _1$ -type phase to a spin gapless semiconductor (SGS) in the XA-type, while Ir$ _2$ MnGa exhibits gapless half-metallicity behavior in the L2$ _1$ -type but becomes half-metallic in the XA-type. The magnetic properties are governed by spd hybridization between Mn-3$ d$ and X-$ d$ /Ga-$ p$ states, which stabilizes ferromagnetism and tailors electronic states near the Fermi level. The Hubbard $ U$ correction proves essential for accurately describing the correlated Mn-3$ d$ electrons. These alloys combine structural stability with tunable electronic and magnetic properties, offering a promising platform for spin-polarized transport in next-generation spintronic devices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
11 pages, 6 figures
Sources of nonlinearity in the response of a driven nano-electromechanical resonator
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Sofia Sevitz, Kushagra Aggarwal, Jorge Tabanera-Bravo, Juliette Monsel, Florian Vigneau, Federico Fedele, Joe Dunlop, Juan M.R. Parrondo, Gerard J. Milburn, Janet Anders, Natalia Ares, Federico Cerisola
Nanoelectromechanical resonators provide an ideal platform for investigating the interplay between electron transport and nonlinear mechanical motion. Externally driven suspended carbon nanotubes, containing an electrostatically defined quantum dot are especially promising. These devices possess two main sources of nonlinearity: the electromechanical coupling and the intrinsic contributions of the resonator that induce a Duffing-like nonlinear behavior. In this work, we observe the interplay between the two sources across different driving regimes. The main nonlinear feature we observe is the emergence of arch-like resonances in the electronic transport when the resonator is strongly driven. We show that our model is in good agreement with our experimental electron transport measurements on a suspended carbon nanotube. This characterization paves the way for the exploration of nonlinear phenomena using mesoscopic electromechanical resonators.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
14 pages, 10 figures. All comments are welcome!
Quasi-static shape control of soft, morphing structures
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Eszter Fehér, András Árpád Sipos, Péter Várkonyi
Inspired by biological systems, we introduce a general framework for quasi-static shape control of human-scale structures under slowly varying external actions or requirements. In this setting, shape control aims to traverse the stable sub-manifolds of the equilibrium set to meet some predefined requirements or optimization criteria. As finite deformations are allowed, the equilibrium set may have a non-trivial topology. This paper explores the implications of large shape changes and high compliance, such as the emergence of unstable equilibria and equilibrium sets with non-trivial topology. We identify various adaptivity scenarios, ranging from inverse kinematics to optimization and path planning problems, and discuss the role of time-dependent loads and requirements. The applicability of the proposed concepts is demonstrated through the example of a curved Kirchhoff rod that is susceptible to snap-through behavior.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
31 pages, 9 figures
Recent Advancements in the Development of Two-dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) and their potential application
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
This article explores the recent advancements in atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs) and their potential applications in various fields, including nanoelectronics, photonics, sensing, energy storage, and optoelectronics. Specifically, the focus is on TMDs such as MoS2, WS2, MoSe2, and WSe2, promising for next-generation electronics and optoelectronics devices based on ultra-thin atomic layers. One of the main challenges in utilising TMDs for practical applications is the scalable production of defect-free materials on desired substrates. However, innovative growth strategies have been developed to address this issue and meet the growing demand for high-quality and controllable TMD materials. These strategies are compatible with conventional and unconventional substrates, opening up new possibilities for practical implementation. Furthermore, the article highlights the development of novel 2D TMDs with unique functionalities and remarkable chemistry. These advancements contribute to expanding the range of applications and capabilities of TMD materials, pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with these ultra-thin layers. In addition to electronics, the article delves into the significant efforts dedicated to exploring the potential of 2D TMDs in energy and sensor applications. These materials have shown promising characteristics for energy storage and have been extensively studied for their sensing capabilities, showcasing their versatility and potential impact in these fields. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the recent progress in 2D TMDs, emphasising their applications in electronics, optoelectronics, energy, and sensing. The continuous research and development in this area is promising for advancing these materials and their integration into practical devices and systems.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
Structural and Electrocatalytic Properties of La-Co-Ni Oxide Thin Films
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Patrick Marx, Shivam Shukla, Alejandro Esteban Perez Mendoza, Florian Lourens, Corina Andronescu, Alfred Ludwig
La-Co-Ni oxides were fabricated in the form of thin-film materials libraries by combinatorial reactive co-sputtering and analyzed for structural and functional properties over large compositional ranges: normalized to the metals of the film they span about 0 - 70 at.-% for Co, 18 - 81 at.-% for La and 11 - 25 at.-% for Ni. Composition-dependent phase analysis shows formation of three areas with different phase constitutions in dependance of Co-content: In the La-rich region with low Co content, a mixture of the phases La2O3, perovskite, and La(OH)3 is observed. In the Co-rich region, perovskite and spinel phases form. Between the three-phase region and the Co-rich two-phase region, a single-phase perovskite region emerges. Surface microstructure analysis shows formation of additional crystallites on the surface in the two-phase area, which become more numerous with increasing Ni-content. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis indicates that these crystallites mainly contain Co and Ni, so they could be spinels growing on the surface. The analysis of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalytic activity over all compositions and phase constitutions reveals that the perovskite/spinel two-phase region shows the highest catalytic activity, which increases with higher Ni-content. The highest OER current density was measured as 2.24 mA/cm2 at 1.8 V vs. RHE for the composition La11Co20Ni9O60.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Origin of Reverse Size Effect in Ferroelectric Hafnia Thin Films
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
The persistence of ferroelectricity in ultrathin HfO$ _2$ films challenges conventional theories, particularly given the paradoxical observation that the out-of-plane lattice spacing increases with decreasing thickness. We resolve this puzzle by revealing that this anomalous lattice expansion is counterintuitively coupled to suppressed out-of-plane polarization. First-principles calculations combined with analytical modeling identify two mechanisms behind this expansion: a negative longitudinal piezoelectric response to the residual depolarization field and a positive surface stress that becomes significant at reduced thickness. Their interplay quantitatively reproduces the experimentally observed lattice expansion. Furthermore, (111)-oriented HfO$ _2$ films can support out-of-plane polarization even under open-circuit conditions, in contrast to (001) films that stabilize a nonpolar ground state. This behavior points to the emergence of orientation-induced hyperferroelectricity, an unrecognized mechanism that enables polarization persistence through orientation engineering without electrode screening. The principle also extends to perovskite ferroelectrics, offering a strategy to eliminate critical thickness limits by selecting appropriate film orientations.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Non-Abelian Gauge Theory of Spin Triplet Superconductivity and Spin Triplet Magnon Spintronics
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Franklin H. Cho, Y.M. Cho, Pengming Zhang, Li-Ping Zou
We present an SU(2)xU(1) Ginzburg-Landau theory of the spin triplet ferromagnetic superconductivity which could also describe the physics of the spin triplet magnon spintronics, where the SU(2) gauge interaction of the magnon plays an important role. The theory is made of the massive photon, massless neutral magnon, massive non-Abelian magnon, and the Higgs scalar field which represents the density of the Copper pair. It has the following characteristic features, the long range magnetic interaction mediated by the massless magnon, two types of conserved supercurrents (the ordinary electromagnetic current and the spin current made of the magnons) which could explain the conversion between the charge and spin currents, and the non-Abelian Meissner effect generated by the spin current. Moreover, it has non-Abelian topological objects, the quantized non-Abelian magnonic vortex and non-Abelian magnonic monopole, as well as the ordinary Abrikosov vortex. The theory is characterized by three scales. In addition to the correlation length fixed by the mass of the Higgs field it has two different mass scales, the one fixed by the mass of the photon and the other fixed by the mass of the off-diagonal magnon. We compare the theory with the non-Abelian gauge theory of the spin doublet ferromagnetic superconductivity which could also be interpreted as an effective theory of the electron spintronics. We discuss the physical implications of the non-Abelian gauge theories in condensed matter physics.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Structural effects of boron doping in diamond crystals for gamma-ray light-source applications: Insights from molecular dynamics simulations
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Matthew D. Dickers, Felipe Fantuzzi, Nigel J. Mason, Andrei V. Korol, Andrey V. Solov’yov
Boron-doped diamond crystals (BDD, C$ _{1-x}$ B$ _{x}$ ) exhibit exceptional mechanical strength, electronic tunability, and resistance to radiation damage. This makes them promising materials for use in gamma-ray crystal-based light sources. To better understand and quantify the structural distortions introduced by doping, which are critical for maintaining channelling efficiency, we perform atomistic-level molecular dynamics simulations on periodic C$ _{1-x}$ B$ _{x}$ systems of various sizes. These simulations allow the influence of boron concentration on the lattice constant and the (110) and (100) inter-planar distances to be evaluated over the concentration range from pure diamond (0%) to 5% boron at room temperature (300 K). Linear relationships between both lattice constant and inter-planar distance with increasing dopant concentration are observed, with a deviation from Vegard’s Law. This deviation is larger than that reported by other theoretical and computational studies; however, this may be attributed to an enhanced crystal quality over these studies, a vital aspect when considering gamma-ray crystal light source design. The methodology presented here incorporates several refinements to closely reflect the conditions of microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition (MPCVD) crystal growth. Validation of the methodology is provided through a comprehensive statistical analysis of the structure of our generated crystals. These results enable reliable atomistic modelling of doped diamond crystals and support their use in the design and fabrication of periodically bent structures for next-generation gamma-ray light source technologies.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph)
Nature of the Topological Transition of the Kitaev Model in [111] Magnetic Field
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
S. Thiagarajan, C. Watson, T. Yzeiri, H. Hu, B. Uchoa, F. Krüger
We investigate the nature of the topological phase transition of the antiferromagnetic Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice in the presence of a magnetic field along the [111] direction. The field opens a topological gap in the Majorana fermion spectrum and leads to a sequence of topological phase transitions before the field polarised state is reached. At mean field level the gap first closes at the three $ M$ points in the Brillouin zone, where the Majorana fermions form Dirac cones, resulting in a change of Chern number by three. An odd number of Dirac fermions in the infrared is unusual and requires Berry curvature compensation in the UV, which occurs via topological, ring-like hybridisation gaps with higher-energy bands. We perform a renormalisation-group analysis of the topological phase transition at the three $ M$ points within the Yukawa theory, allowing for intra- and inter-valley fluctuations of the spin-liquid bond operators. We find that the latter lead to a breaking of Lorentz invariance and hence a different universality compared to the standard Ising Gross-Neveu-Yukawa class.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
10 pages, 6 figures
Explaining Principles of Tip-Enhanced Raman Images with Ab Initio Modeling
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Krystof Brezina, Yair Litman, Mariana Rossi
Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a powerful method for imaging vibrational motion and chemically characterizing surface-bound systems. Theoretical simulations of TERS images often consider systems in isolation, ignoring any substrate support, such as metallic surfaces. Here, we show that this omission leads to deviations from experimentally measured data through simulations with a new finite-field formulation of first-principles simulation of TERS spectra that can address extended, periodic systems. We show that TERS images of tetracyanoethylene on Ag(100) and defective MoS$ _2$ monolayers calculated using isolated molecules or cluster models are qualitatively different from those calculated when accounting for the periodicity of the substrate. For Mg(II)-porphine on Ag(100), a system for which a direct experimental comparison is possible, these simulations prove to be crucial for explaining the spatial variation of TERS intensity patterns and allow us to uncover fundamental principles of TERS spectroscopy. We explain how and why surface interactions affect images of out-of-plane vibrational modes much more than those of in-plane modes, providing an important tool for the future interpretation of these images in more complex systems.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
Main text: 10 pages, 5 figures. Supporting Information: 8 pages, 10 figures
A Self-Organized Model for the Flicker Noise in Interacting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Maryam Pirgholi, Morteza Nattagh Najafi, Vadood Adami
We investigate self-organized criticality in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) by introducing a lattice-based model that incorporates electron-electron interactions through the concept of coherence length. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that in the strongly interacting regime, the system exhibits a distinct set of universal critical exponents, markedly different from those observed in the weakly interacting limit. This dichotomy aligns with experimental findings on the metal-insulator transition in 2DEGs, where high interaction strength (low carrier density) leads to qualitatively different behavior. The analysis includes scaling of the average electron density with temperature, the power spectral density, and the statistics of electronic avalanches - namely their size distributions and autocorrelation functions. In all cases, the extracted exponents differ significantly between the weak and strong interaction regimes, highlighting the emergence of two universality classes governed by interaction strength. These results underscore the critical role of electron correlations in the self-organized behavior of low-dimensional electronic systems.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
11 pages, 9 figures
Dispersion of collective modes in spinful fractional quantum Hall states on the sphere
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Rakesh K. Dora, Ajit C. Balram
Collective modes capture the dynamical aspects of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) fluids. Depending on the active degrees of freedom, different types of collective modes can arise in a FQH state. In this work, we consider spinful FQH states in the lowest Landau level (LLL) along the Jain sequence of fillings $ \nu{=}n/(2n{\pm}1)$ and compute the Coulomb dispersion of their spin-flip and spin-conserving collective modes in the spherical geometry. We use the LLL-projected density-wave and composite fermion (CF) exciton states as trial wave functions for these modes. To evaluate the dispersion of density-wave states, we derive the commutation algebra of spinful LLL-projected density operators on the sphere, which enables us to extract the gap of the density-wave excitations from the numerically computed density-density correlation function, i.e., the static structure factor, of the FQH ground state. We find that the CF excitons provide an accurate description of the collective modes at all wavelengths, while the density-wave states fail to do so. Specifically, the spin-flip density wave reliably captures the spin-flip collective mode only for the Laughlin and Halperin states, and that too only in the long-wavelength limit. Interestingly, for spin-singlet primary Jain states, the spin-conserving density mode is inaccurate even in the long-wavelength regime. We show that this discrepancy stems from the presence of an additional high-energy spin-conserving parton mode, similar to that found in fully polarized secondary Jain states at $ \nu{=}n/(4n{\pm}1)$ . We propose an ansatz for this parton mode and compute its Coulomb dispersion in the singlet state at $ \nu{=}2/5$ . The predicted parton mode can be observed in circularly polarized inelastic light scattering experiments.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
21+14 pages, 14 figures
Relaxation and Its Effects on Electronic Structure in Twisted Systems: An Analytical Perspective
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Junxi Yu, Bingbing Wang, Cheng-Cheng Liu
Lattice relaxation profoundly reshapes electronic structures in twisted materials. Prevailing treatments, however, typically rely on large-scale density functional theory (DFT), which is computationally costly and mechanistically opaque. Here, we develop a unified analytical framework to overcome these limitations. From continuum elastic theory, we derive closed-form solutions for both in-plane and out-of-plane relaxation fields. We further introduce an analytical phase factor expansion theory that maps relaxation into the electronic Hamiltonian. By applying this framework, the relaxation-mediated single-particle and many-body topological phase transitions in twisted MoTe$ _{2}$ is accurately captured, and the evolution of flat bands in magic-angle graphene is quantitatively reproduced. Our work transforms the research of moiré relaxation from black-box numerical fitting to an analytical paradigm, offering fundamental insights, exceptional efficiency, and general applicability to a wide range of twisted materials.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
29 pages, 13 figures
Electro-viscoelasticity of polymer melts in continuum theory
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Zachary Wolfgram, Jeffrey G. Ethier, Matthew Grasinger
Electro-viscoelastic theory for polymer melts has been extensively studied experimentally for the past century, primarily for manufacturing purposes. However, the modeling and theory for this have been minimal, leaving many questions on the mechanisms and behavior of an arbitrary flow scheme. To remedy this, previously solved overdamped Langevin equations for the Doi-Rouse model are modified to include charge and electric field potential forces. The charge sequence on the chain is hypothesized to be a cosine sequence along the chain, resembling multiple electric dipoles that conveniently correspond to a Rouse mode of the chain. These are then solved for the shear stress under homogeneous shear rates and electric fields to find directional viscosity increases depending on the shearing and electric field orientation. Using the newly derived shear stress from the Doi-Rouse approach, a continuum model is proposed that resembles a modified upper-convected Maxwell model, including polarization stresses in terms of an electric field dyadic. This new continuum model, named the upper-convected electro-Maxwell model, is verified using Kremer-Grest polymer chains simulated with molecular dynamics for multiple flow schemes and a specified charge sequence along the chain. Furthermore, the MD results verified the difference in the overall and charge sequence relaxation times through the shear and normal stress polarizations, showing the necessity for the upper-convected derivative of the electric field dyadic to correct the viscosity scaling. Finally, the dynamic properties of the polarized polymer melt are examined analytically, finding that the phase shift is unaffected by the electric field contribution.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
Instant prediction of relaxation in moiré superlattices using neural networks
New Submission | Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Aleksei V. Belonovskii, Elizaveta I. Girshova, Erkki Lähderanta, Mikhail Kaliteevski
The relaxation of moiré superlattices in twisted bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been modeled using a set of neural-network-based approaches. We implemented and compared several architectures, including (i) an interpolator combined with an autoencoder, (ii) an interpolator combined with a decoder, (iii) a direct generator mapping input parameters to displacement fields, and (iv) a physics-informed neural network (PINN). Among these, the direct generator architecture demonstrated the best performance, achieving machine-level precision with minimal training data. Remarkably, once trained, this simple fully connected network is able to predict the full displacement field of a moiré bilayer within a fraction of a second, whereas conventional continuum simulations require hours or even days. This finding highlights the low-dimensional nature of the relaxation process and establishes neural networks as a practical and efficient alternative to ab initio approaches for rapid modeling and high-throughput screening of 2D twisted heterostructures.
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
18 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, intended for submission to a peer-reviewed journal
Understanding oxide surface stability: Theoretical insights from silver chromate
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Augusto Facundes, Thiago T. Dorini, Theodora W. von Zuben, Miguel A. San-Miguel
Silver chromate ($ \mathrm{Ag_{2}CrO_{4}}$ ) has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its promising photocatalytic performance, which strongly depends on the crystallographic orientation of its exposed surfaces. A detailed understanding of the structural stability of these surfaces under realistic conditions is therefore essential for advancing its applications. In this work, we combine density functional theory (DFT) with first-principles atomistic thermodynamics to systematically investigate the stability of multiple surface orientations and terminations of $ \mathrm{Ag_{2}CrO_{4}}$ . The surface Gibbs free energy was evaluated as a function of oxygen and silver chemical potentials, enabling the construction of stability trends under non-vacuum environments. Our results reveal that the degree of coordination of surface chromium-oxygen clusters plays a decisive role in determining surface stability. Furthermore, Wulff constructions predict morphology evolution as a function of external conditions, allowing us to identify the atomic structures of the exposed facets in the equilibrium crystal shape. These insights provide a fundamental framework for understanding surface-dependent photocatalytic activity in $ \mathrm{Ag_{2}CrO_{4}}$ and related silver-based oxides.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Engineering strong correlations in a perfectly aligned dual moiré system
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Amine Ben Mhenni, Elif Çetiner, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Jonathan J. Finley, Nathan P. Wilson
Exotic collective phenomena emerge when bosons strongly interact within a lattice. However, creating a robust and tunable solid-state platform to explore such phenomena has been elusive. Dual moiré systems$ -$ compromising two Coulomb-coupled moiré lattices$ -$ offer a promising system for investigating strongly correlated dipolar excitons (composite bosons) with electrical control. Thus far, their implementation has been hindered by the relative misalignment and incommensurability of the two moiré patterns. Here we report a dual moiré system with perfect translational and rotational alignment, achieved by utilizing twisted hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) bilayer to both generate an electrostatic moiré potential and separate MoSe$ _{2}$ and WSe$ _{2}$ monolayers. We observe strongly correlated electron phases driven by intralayer interactions and identify interlayer Rydberg trions, which become trapped in the presence of the Mott insulating state. Importantly, our platform is electrostatically programmable, allowing the realization of different lattice symmetries with either repulsive or attractive interlayer interactions. In particular, we implement the latter scenario by optically injecting charges, which form a dipolar excitonic phase. Our results establish a versatile platform for the exploration and manipulation of exotic and topological bosonic quantum many-body phases.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
16 pages, 4 figures. Extended Data: 6 figures. We welcome your feedback!
Low-energy spin waves as potential driving force for superconductivity in electron-doped cuprates
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Kristine M. L. Krighaar, Jeppe J. Cederholm, Ellen M. S. Schriver, Henrik Jacobsen, Christine P. Lauritzen, Igor Zaliznyak, Cédric H. Qvistgaard, Ursula B. Hansen, Ahmed Alshemi, Anton P. J. Stampfl, Jean-Claude Grivel, Dongjoon Song, Kim Lefmann, Machteld E. Kamminga
In order to fully utilize the technological potential of unconventional superconductors, an enhanced understanding of the superconducting mechanism is necessary. In the best performing superconductors, the cuprates, superconductivity is intimately linked with magnetism, although the details of this remain elusive. In search of clarity in the magnetism-superconductivity relationship, we focus on the electron-doped cuprate Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO(4-delta) (NCCO). NCCO has an antiferromagnetic ground state when synthesized, and only becomes superconducting after a reductive annealing process. This makes NCCO an ideal template to study how the magnetism differs in the superconducting and non-superconducting state, while keeping the material template as constant as possible. Using neutron spectroscopy, we reveal that the as-grown crystal exhibits a large energy gap in the magnetic fluctuation spectrum. Upon annealing, defects that are introduced by the commonly employed synthesis method, are removed and the gap is significantly reduced. While the energy gap in the annealed sample is an effect of superconductivity, we argue that the gap in the as-grown sample is caused by the absence of long-wavelength spin waves. The defects in as-grown NCCO thus play the dual role of suppressing both superconductivity and low-energy spin waves, highlighting the connection between these two phenomena.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
9 pages, 7 figures
Strain-tuned magnetoelectric properties of monolayer NiX$_2$ (X = I, Br): a first-principles analysis
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Ali Ghojavand, Cem Sevik, Milorad V. Milošević
Using \textit{ab initio} methodology, we reveal a strain-mediated approach to precisely tune the magnetoelectric coupling and spin-driven emergent polarization of NiX$ _2$ (X = I, Br) monolayers. In the absence of strain, these systems spontaneously stabilize non-collinear spin states that break the inversion symmetry, inducing a ferroelectric polarization in the plane of the material. We show that biaxial and uniaxial strains broadly modulate the magnetoelectric response in these materials through two distinct mechanisms: (i) direct modification of the magnetoelectric tensor components, and (ii) tuning of the characteristic propagation vectors of a spin texture. This dual mechanism enables precise control over the magnitude of the spin-induced electric polarization of these materials. With respect to the achievable magnitude of the electric polarization, we demonstrate the critical role of third-nearest-neighbor spin-pair contributions, which can increase under strain to levels that compete with or even exceed the polarization driven by first-nearest-neighbor effects. These findings offer important insights into low-dimensional piezo-magnetoelectricity and expand the possibilities for designing multifunctional two-dimensional straintronic devices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Distinguishing Majorana bound states from accidental zero-energy modes with a microwave cavity
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Sarath Prem, Olesia Dmytruk, Mircea Trif
Transport measurements of hybrid nanowires often rely on the observation of a zero-bias conductance peak as a hallmark of Majorana bound states (MBSs). However, such signatures can also be produced by trivial zero-energy Andreev bound states (ABSs) or by quasi-Majorana bound states (QMBSs), complicating their unambiguous identification. Here we propose microwave absorption visibility, extracted from parity-dependent cavity-nanowire susceptibility measurements, as a complementary probe of MBSs nonlocality. We study a Rashba spin-orbit nanowire consisting of a proximitized superconducting segment and an uncovered quantum-dot region, capacitively coupled to a single-mode microwave cavity. We show that true MBSs yield finite visibility only when both MBSs are simultaneously coupled to the cavity, reflecting their intrinsic nonlocality. In contrast, ABSs and QMBSs exhibit visibility extrema even when the cavity couples only locally to part of the nanowire. We further demonstrate that this distinction persists in the presence of Gaussian disorder, which may otherwise generate trivial subgap states. Motivated by recent experiments, we also analyze ``poor man’s” Majoranas in double-quantum-dot setups, where analytical results confirm the same nonlocal visibility criterion. Finally, we discuss a cavity-driven scheme for initializing the electronic system in a given parity state. Our results establish cavity-based visibility as a robust and versatile probe of MBSs, providing a clear route to distinguish them from trivial zero-energy states in hybrid superconducting platforms.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
High-throughput screening of spin Hall conductivity in 2D materials
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Fu Li, Xiaoxiong Liu, Vikrant Chaudhary, Ruiwen Xie, Chen Shen, Hao Wang, Hongbin Zhang
Two-dimensional (2D) materials with large spin Hall effect (SHE) have attracted significant attention due to their potential applications in next-generation spintronic devices. In this work, we perform high-throughput (HTP) calculations to obtain the spin Hall conductivity (SHC) of 4486 non-magnetic compounds in the \texttt{2Dmatpedia} database and identify six materials with SHC exceeding $ 500,(\hbar/e),(\mathrm{S/cm})$ , surpassing those of previously known materials. Detailed analysis reveals that the significant SHC can be attributed to spin-orbit coupling (SOC)-induced gap openings at Dirac-like band crossings. Additionally, the presence of mirror symmetry further enhances the SHC. Beyond the high-SHC materials, 57 topological insulators with quantized SHCs have also been identified. Our work enables rapid screening and paves the way for experimental validation, potentially accelerating the discovery of novel 2D materials optimized for spintronics applications.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
The Key Physics of Ice Premelting
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
A disordered quasi-liquid layer of water is thought to cover the ice surface, but many issues, such as its onset temperature, its thickness, or its actual relation to bulk liquid water have been a matter of unsettled controversy for more than a century. In this perspective article, current computer simulations and experimental results are discussed under the light of a suitable theoretical framework. It is found that using a combination of wetting physics, the theory of intermolecular forces, statistical mechanics and out of equilibrium physics a large number of conflicting results can be reconciled and collected into a consistent description of the ice surface. This helps understand the crucial role of surface properties in a range of important applications, from the enigmatic structure of snow crystals to the slipperiness of ice.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
30 pages, 15 figures
Band geometric transverse current driven by inhomogeneous AC electric field
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
M. Maneesh Kumar, Sanjay Sarkar, Amit Agarwal
We develop a semiclassical theory for electron wavepacket dynamics in the presence of an inhomogeneous AC electric field. While static electric-field gradients are known to generate charge transport governed by the quantum metric, we show that AC field gradients induce an additional geometric current that vanishes in the DC limit. This response originates from a novel band-geometric quantity, the higher-order connection (HOC) tensor, constructed from cubic products of interband Berry connections. We derive explicit expressions for the AC current and identify the symmetry conditions under which it arises. Remarkably, inhomogeneous AC fields can generate an anomalous Hall-like response even in nonmagnetic systems. Applying the theory to Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene, we demonstrate that the HOC-induced response produces a measurable Hall current peaking at band edges. These results establish inhomogeneous AC fields as a powerful probe of higher-order band geometric quantities beyond Berry curvature and the quantum metric.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
11 pages, 3 references. Suggestions, comments, criticism and missed citation requests are invited
Effective conduction-band model for zincblende III-V semiconductors in the presence of strain: tuning the properties of bulk crystals and nanostructures
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Samuel D. Escribano, Alfredo Levy Yeyati, Elsa Prada
Strain provides a powerful knob to tailor the electronic properties of semiconductors. Simple yet accurate approximations that capture strain effects in demanding simulations of mesoscopic nanostructures are therefore highly desirable. However, for III-V compounds, key materials for quantum applications, such approaches remain comparatively underdeveloped. In this work, we derive a compact, effective Hamiltonian that describes the conduction band of zincblende III-V semiconductors incorporating strain effects. Starting from the eight-band k$ \cdot$ p model with Bir-Pikus corrections, we perform a folding-down procedure to obtain analytical expressions for conduction-band strain-renormalized parameters, including the effective mass, chemical potential, spin-orbit coupling, and $ g$ -factor. The model reproduces full multiband results under small to moderate strain, while retaining a form suitable for device-scale calculations. We benchmark the model for bulk deformations and apply it to representative nanostructures, such as this http URL nanowires and planar heterostructures. Our results provide a practical and versatile tool for incorporating strain into the design of III-V semiconductor devices, enabling reliable predictions of their properties with direct implications for spintronic, straintronic, optoelectronic, and topological quantum technologies.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
19 pages, 7 figures
Odd-parity longitudinal magnetoconductivity in time-reversal symmetry broken materials
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Sunit Das, Akash Adhikary, Divya Sahani, Aveek Bid, Amit Agarwal
Magnetotransport measurements are a sensitive probe of symmetry and electronic structure in quantum materials. While conventional metals exhibit longitudinal magnetoconductivity that is even in a magnetic field ($ B$ ) for small $ B$ , we show that magnetic materials which intrinsically break time-reversal symmetry (TRS) show an {\it odd-parity magnetoconductivity} (OMC), with a leading linear-$ B$ response. Using semiclassical transport theory, we derive explicit expressions for the longitudinal and transverse conductivities and identify their origin in Berry curvature and orbital magnetic moment. Crystalline symmetry analysis shows that longitudinal OMC follows the same point-group constraints as the anomalous Hall effect, while transverse OMC obeys distinct rules, providing an independent probe of TRS breaking. In the large $ B$ quantum oscillation regime, we uncover both odd- and even-$ B$ contributions, demonstrating OMC beyond the semiclassical picture. Explicit calculations in valley-polarized gapped graphene show that OMC peaks near the band edges, vanish in the band gap and follow the temperature dependence of the magnetic order parameter. Our results explain the odd-parity magnetoresistance recently observed in magnetized graphene and establish OMC as a robust transport signature of intrinsic TRS breaking in metals.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
15 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Comments are welcome
QDFlow: A Python package for physics simulations of quantum dot devices
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Donovan L. Buterakos, Sandesh S. Kalantre, Joshua Ziegler, Jacob M Taylor, Justyna P. Zwolak
Recent advances in machine learning (ML) have accelerated progress in calibrating and operating quantum dot (QD) devices. However, most ML approaches rely on access to large, high-quality labeled datasets for training, benchmarking, and validation, with labels capturing key features in the data. Obtaining such datasets experimentally is challenging due to limited data availability and the labor-intensive nature of labeling. QDFlow is an open-source physics simulator for multi-QD arrays that generates realistic synthetic data with ground-truth labels. QDFlow combines a self-consistent Thomas-Fermi solver, a dynamic capacitance model, and flexible noise modules to produce charge stability diagrams and ray-based data closely resembling experiments. With extensive tunable parameters and customizable noise models, QDFlow supports the creation of large, diverse datasets for ML development, benchmarking, and quantum device research.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
17 pages, 5 figures
Mixed Triplet-Singlet Order Parameter in Decoupled Superconducting 1H Monolayers of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-09-17 20:00 EDT
Avior Almoalem, Sajilesh Kunhiparambath, Roni Anna Gofman, Yuval Nitzav, Ilay Mangel, Nitzan Ragoler, Jun Fujii, Ivana Vobornik, Francois Bertran, Amit Kanigel, Jonathan Ruhman, Vidya Madhavan
Understanding the emergence of unconventional superconductivity, where the order parameter deviates from simple isotropic s-wave pairing, is a central puzzle in condensed matter physics. Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), though generally regarded as conventional superconductors, display signatures of this unusual behavior and thus provide a particularly intriguing platform to explore how exotic states arise. Here we investigate the misfit compound (SnS)$ _{1.15}$ (TaS$ _2$ ), a heterostructure composed of alternating SnS and 1H-TaS$ _2$ layers. Using transport, photoemission, and scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the SnS layers effectively decouple the TaS$ _2$ into electronically isolated 1H sheets. In this limit, the tunneling density of states reveals a clear two-gap superconducting spectrum with T$ _c \sim$ 3.1 K. A theoretical model based on lack of inversion symmetry and finite-range attraction reproduces the observed multi-gap structure as a mixed singlet-triplet state. These results establish misfit compounds as a powerful platform for studying unconventional superconductivity in isolated 1H layers and for realizing multiple uncoupled superconductors within a single crystal.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)