CMP Journal 2025-10-03
Statistics
Nature Materials: 1
Nature Physics: 1
Physical Review Letters: 20
Physical Review X: 1
arXiv: 53
Nature Materials
Quantitative and mechanistic insights into proton dynamics for fast energy storage
Original Paper | Batteries | 2025-10-02 20:00 EDT
Ziyue Li, Yuxiao Lin, Mounesha N. Garaga, Steven G. Greenbaum, Mochou Liao, Jiafeng Ruan, Qin Li, Yunsong Li, Dalin Sun, Kang Xu, Fang Fang, Fei Wang
Proton conduction in hydrogen-bond-rich protic electrolytes enables fast mass and charge transport, crucial for electrochemical energy storage and power conversion. Such transport can give proton-based batteries exceptional rate capability and low-temperature operation beyond other working ions. Here we show that in phosphoric acid (H3PO4) electrolytes, vehicular and structural proton transport coexist, and their contributions to conductivity can be quantitatively distinguished. We link structural diffusion directly to hydrogen-bond strength, enabling the precise tuning of proton migration. Guided by this, we reveal a double conductivity peak from regulated structural diffusion. The optimal electrolyte (5.8-M H3PO4) achieves high overall (232.9 mS cm-1) and structural (164.9 mS cm-1) conductivity. A MoO3‖CuFe-TBA battery with this electrolyte outperforms a deep-eutectic benchmark (8.3-M H3PO4), delivering >17,474 W kg-1 at room temperature and retaining 15.1 Wh kg-1 at -75 °C. These findings provide a framework for designing advanced protic electrolytes across electrochemical systems.
Batteries, Chemistry, Materials science
Nature Physics
Terahertz excitation of collective dynamics of polar skyrmions over a broad temperature range
Original Paper | Condensed-matter physics | 2025-10-02 20:00 EDT
Wei Li, Sixu Wang, Pai Peng, Haojie Han, Xinbo Wang, Jing Ma, Jianlin Luo, Jun-Ming Liu, Jing-Feng Li, Ce-Wen Nan, Qian Li
Ultrafast coherent control of electric dipoles using terahertz pulses provides a means to discover hidden phases of materials and potentially leads to applications in high-speed optoelectronic devices. Although this approach has been shown to be effective in incipient ferroelectrics only close to the phase transition temperatures, it relies on the soft phonon modes overlapping with the terahertz pulse bandwidth. Because of their emergent subterahertz collective dynamics, a fundamentally distinct and effective terahertz coupling mechanism can be envisaged in topological polar structures in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices. Here we demonstrate that polar skyrmions can be coherently driven into a hidden phase with transient macroscopic polarization, as probed using terahertz field-induced second-harmonic generation and optical Kerr effects. This ultrafast terahertz-driven phase transition is found to sustain across a broad temperature range of 4-470 K in a corresponding electric field required for equilibrium stability of skyrmions. Dynamical phase-field simulations reveal the correlation between the relaxation behaviour of the excited collective modes and the emergence of the polar phases. Our results manifest dynamical properties of topological polar structures, which could be technologically implemented given their flexibility in structure design and tunability under external electric fields.
Condensed-matter physics, Ultrafast photonics
Physical Review Letters
General Approach to Error Detection of Bosonic Codes via Phase Estimation
Article | Quantum Information, Science, and Technology | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
Yuan-De Jin, Shi-Yu Zhang, Ulrik L. Andersen, and Wen-Long Ma
We present a general approach to error detection of bosonic quantum error-correction codes via an adaptive quantum phase estimation algorithm assisted by a single ancilla qubit. The approach is applicable to a broad class of bosonic codes whose error syndromes are described by symmetry or stabilizer…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 140603 (2025)
Quantum Information, Science, and Technology
Field-Induced Magnon Decay, Magnon Shadows, and Rotonlike Excitations in the Honeycomb Antiferromagnet ${\mathrm{YbBr}}_{3}$
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
J. A. Hernández, A. A. Eberharter, M. Schuler, J. Lass, D. G. Mazzone, R. Sibille, S. Raymond, K. W. Krämer, B. Normand, B. Roessli, A. M. Läuchli, and M. Kenzelmann
The spectral function of the honeycomb antiferromagnet YbBr measured via inelastic neutron scattering reveals rotonlike magnon excitations arising from magnon-magnon interactions.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 146701 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Fate of Bosonic Topological Edge Modes in the Presence of Many-Body Interactions
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
Niclas Heinsdorf, Darshan G. Joshi, Hosho Katsura, and Andreas P. Schnyder
Tensor network calculations on a quantum Heisenberg model on a ladder reveal topological bosonic edge modes on its boundary, even when the noninteracting theory breaks down.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 146702 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Generation of Pure Spin Current with Insulating Antiferromagnetic Materials
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
Yingwei Chen, Junyi Ji, Liangliang Hong, Xiangang Wan, and Hongjun Xiang
First-principles methodology and symmetry analysis combined with high-throughput calculations identify new antiferromagnetic insulating materials that may exhibit pure piezospintronic effects driven by atomic displacements rather than electronic changes.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 146703 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Cracking Down on Fracture to Functionalize Damage
Article | Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
Leo de Waal, Matthaios Chouzouris, and Marcelo A. Dias
In this Letter we propose a novel relationship between topology and damage propagation in Maxwell lattices that redefines fracture as a functional design feature rather than mere degradation. We demonstrate that topologically protected modes, inherently robust against perturbations, localize along l…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148202 (2025)
Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics
Efficiently Driving ${\mathrm{F}}_{1}$ Molecular Motor in Experiment by Suppressing Nonequilibrium Variation
Article | Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics | 2025-10-03 06:00 EDT
Takahide Mishima, Deepak Gupta, Yohei Nakayama, W. Callum Wareham, Takumi Ohyama, David A. Sivak, and Shoichi Toyabe
Turning a biologically important molecular motor at a constant rate saves energy, according to experiments.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148402 (2025)
Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics
Pontus-Mpemba Effects
Article | Quantum Information, Science, and Technology | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Andrea Nava and Reinhold Egger
Mpemba effects occur after a sudden quench of control parameters if, for "far" (or "hot") initial states with respect to a final target state, the relaxation time toward the target state is shorter than for "close" (or "cold") initial states. Following a strategy of fishermen in Pontus described by …
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 140404 (2025)
Quantum Information, Science, and Technology
Tessellation Codes: Encoded Quantum Gates by Geometric Rotation
Article | Quantum Information, Science, and Technology | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Yixu Wang, Yijia Xu (许逸葭), and Zi-Wen Liu
We utilize the symmetry groups of regular tessellations on two-dimensional surfaces of different constant curvatures, including spheres, Euclidean planes, and hyperbolic planes to encode a qubit or qudit into the physical degrees of freedom on these surfaces, which we call tessellation codes. We sho…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 140602 (2025)
Quantum Information, Science, and Technology
Prepare-and-Measure Scenarios with Photon-Number Constraints
Article | Quantum Information, Science, and Technology | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Carles Roch i Carceller, Jef Pauwels, Stefano Pironio, and Armin Tavakoli
We study correlations in the prepare-and-measure scenario when quantum communication is constrained by photon-number statistics. Such constraints are natural and practical control parameters for semi-device-independent certification in optical platforms. To analyse these scenarios, we show how semid…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 140802 (2025)
Quantum Information, Science, and Technology
NuSTAR as an Axion Helioscope
Article | Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
J. Ruz, E. Todarello, J. K. Vogel, F. R. Candón, M. Giannotti, B. Grefenstette, H. S. Hudson, I. G. Hannah, I. G. Irastorza, C. S. Kim, M. Regis, D. M. Smith, M. Taoso, and J. Trujillo Bueno
We present a novel approach to investigating axions and axionlike particles by studying their potential conversion into x-rays within the Sun's atmospheric magnetic field. Utilizing high-sensitivity data from the nuclear spectroscopic telescope array (NuSTAR) collected during the 2020 solar minimum,…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 141001 (2025)
Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation
Entropy Inequalities Constrain Holographic Erasure Correction
Article | Particles and Fields | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Bartłomiej Czech, Sirui Shuai, and Yixu Wang
We interpret holographic entropy inequalities in terms of erasure correction. The nonsaturation of an inequality is a necessary condition for certain schemes of holographic erasure correction, manifested in the bulk as nonempty overlaps of corresponding entanglement wedges.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 141603 (2025)
Particles and Fields
Emulators for Scarce and Noisy Data: Application to Auxiliary-Field Diffusion Monte Carlo for Neutron Matter
Article | Nuclear Physics | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Cassandra L. Armstrong, Pablo Giuliani, Kyle Godbey, Rahul Somasundaram, and Ingo Tews
Understanding the equation of state (EOS) of pure neutron matter is necessary for interpreting multimessenger observations of neutron stars. Reliable data analyses of these observations require well-quantified uncertainties for the EOS input, ideally propagating uncertainties from nuclear interactio…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 142501 (2025)
Nuclear Physics
Study of the Beta Spectrum Shape of $^{92}\mathrm{Rb}$ and $^{142}\mathrm{Cs}$ Decays for the Prediction of Reactor Antineutrino Spectra
Article | Nuclear Physics | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
G. A. Alcalá et al.
The shapes of the beta spectra of and , two of the beta decays most relevant for the prediction of the antineutrino spectrum in reactors, have been measured. A new setup composed of two telescopes has been used. High-purity radioactive beams of the isotopes of interest were provided b…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 142502 (2025)
Nuclear Physics
Realization of a Fast Triple-Magic All-Optical Qutrit in $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}$
Article | Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Maximilian Ammenwerth, Hendrik Timme, Flavien Gyger, Renhao Tao, Immanuel Bloch, and Johannes Zeiher
The optical clock states of alkaline earth and alkaline earthlike atoms are the fundament of state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks. An important prerequisite for the operation of optical clocks is the magic trapping conditions where electronic and motional dynamics decouple. Here, we identify and e…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 143401 (2025)
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Locking Orbital Angular Momentum with Linear Momentum of Light
Article | Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Hui-Ming Wang, Yuan Chen, Ming-Yuan Chen, Ying-Yu Fang, Ka-Di Zhu, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Yan-Qing Lu, Keyu Xia, and Xian-Min Jin
Correlation between the propagation direction of light and spin can be induced via the spin-orbit interaction and has been proven to be the workhorse in the emerging field of chiral quantum optics and in the spin-related Hall effects of light. Photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM) provides a high-…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 143802 (2025)
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Drops Can Perpetually Bounce over a Vibrating Wettable Solid
Article | Physics of Fluids, Earth & Planetary Science, and Climate | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Lebo Molefe, Tomas Fullana, François Gallaire, and John M. Kolinski
An atomically smooth surface that oscillates vertically can host drops that either bounce or hover in place, depending on the oscillation frequency.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 144001 (2025)
Physics of Fluids, Earth & Planetary Science, and Climate
Most Two-Dimensional Bosonic Topological Orders Forbid Sign-Problem-Free Quantum Monte Carlo Simulation: Nonpositive Gauss Sum as an Indicator
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Donghae Seo, Minyoung You, Hee-Cheol Kim, and Gil Young Cho
Quantum Monte Carlo is a powerful tool for studying quantum many-body physics, yet its efficacy is often curtailed by the notorious sign problem. In this Letter, we introduce a novel criterion for the "intrinsic" sign problem in two-dimensional bosonic topological orders, which cannot be resolved by…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 146602 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Generating Phase Singularities Using Surface Exciton Polaritons in an Organic Natural Hyperbolic Material
Article | Condensed Matter and Materials | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Philip A. Thomas, William P. Wardley, and William L. Barnes
Surface polaritons (SPs) are electromagnetic waves bound to a surface through their interaction with charge carriers in the surface material. Hyperbolic SPs can be supported by optically anisotropic materials where the in-plane and out-of-plane permittivities have opposite signs. Here we report what…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 146906 (2025)
Condensed Matter and Materials
Information Engine Fueled by First-Passage Times
Article | Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Aubin Archambault, Caroline Crauste-Thibierge, Alberto Imparato, Christopher Jarzynski, Sergio Ciliberto, and Ludovic Bellon
Using a mechanical cantilever submitted to electrostatic feedback control, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of an information engine that extracts work from thermal fluctuations. The cantilever position is rapidly sampled and the feedback is triggered by the first passage of the system ac…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 147101 (2025)
Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems
Energy Diffusion in the Long-Range Interacting Spin Systems
Article | Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
Hideaki Nishikawa and Keiji Saito
We investigate energy diffusion in long-range interacting spin systems, where the interaction decays algebraically as with the distance between the sites. We consider prototypical spin systems, the transverse Ising model, and the XYZ model in the -dimensional lattice with a finite expone…
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 147102 (2025)
Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems
Physical Review X
Sensing and Control of Single Trapped Electrons above 1 K
Article | | 2025-10-02 06:00 EDT
K. E. Castoria, N. R. Beysengulov, G. Koolstra, H. Byeon, E. O. Glen, M. Sammon, S. A. Lyon, J. Pollanen, and D. G. Rees
A microchannel quantum dot integrated with a superconducting resonator allows for the precision trapping and detection of single electrons on superfluid helium above 1 K, demonstrating control in conditions suited for scalable quantum processors.
Phys. Rev. X 15, 041002 (2025)
arXiv
Room-Temperature Superconductivity at 298 K in Ternary La-Sc-H System at High-pressure Conditions
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yinggang Song, Chuanheng Ma, Hongbo Wang, Mi Zhou, Yanpeng Qi, Weizheng Cao, Shourui Li, Hanyu Liu, Guangtao Liu, Yanming Ma
Room-temperature superconductor has been a century-long dream of humankind. Recent research on hydrogen-based superconductors (e.g., CaH6, LaH10, etc.) at high-pressure conditions lifts the record of superconducting critical temperature (Tc) up to ~250 kelvin. We here report the experimental synthesis of the first-ever room-temperature superconductor by compression on a mixture of La-Sc alloy and ammonia borane at pressures of 250-260 gigapascals (GPa) via a diamond anvil cell by a laser-heating technique. Superconductivity with an onset temperature of 271-298 kelvin at 195-266 GPa is observed by the measurement of zero electrical resistance and the suppression of Tc under applied magnetic fields. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction data unambiguously reveal that this superconductor crystallizes in a hexagonal structure with a stoichiometry LaSc2H24, in excellent agreement with our previous prediction1. Through thirteen reproducible experimental runs, we provide solid evidence of the realization of a room-temperature superconductor for the first time, marking a milestone in the field of superconductivity.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
40 pages, 5 figures
Reply to “Limitations of detecting structural changes and time-reversal symmetry breaking in scanning tunneling microscopy experiments”
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yuqing Xing, Seokjin Bae, Stephen D. Wilson, Ziqiang Wang, Rafael M. Fernandes, Vidya Madhavan
In their comment, the authors attribute our observations of light- and magnetic-field-induced manipulation of the CDW state in RbV3Sb5 to random experimental artifacts such as tip changes, drift, and scan conditions, concluding that no intrinsic effect exists. In this reply, we clarify three points. First, our reported magnetic-field-induced CDW switching has been independently replicated in multiple STM studies and corroborated by transport measurements. Second, in our data, the switching of CDW intensities and Bragg vector ratios exhibit high fidelity (nearly 100 $ %$ ), and this cannot be explained by random artifacts. Lastly, we disprove the comment’s unsubstantiated claim about magnetic field values by showing a system-dependent correlation between z-piezo shift and magnetic field. Taken together, our Reply reaffirms the reproducibility and intrinsic nature of light and magnetic field induced CDW manipulation in RbV3Sb5.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Reply to arXiv:2509.22634 (2025)
exaPD: A highly parallelizable workflow for multi-element phase diagram (PD) construction
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Feng Zhang, Zhuo Ye, Maxim Moraru, Ying Wai Li, Weiyi Xia, Yongxin Yao, Ryan Richard, Cai-Zhuang Wang
Phase diagrams (PDs) illustrate the relative stability of competing phases under varying conditions, serving as critical tools for synthesizing complex materials. Reliable phase diagrams rely on precise free energy calculations, which are computationally intensive. We introduce exaPD, a user-friendly workflow that enables simultaneous sampling of multiple phases across a fine mesh of temperature and composition for free energy calculations. The package employs standard molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) sampling techniques, as implemented in the LAMMPS package. Various interatomic potentials are supported, including the neural network potentials with near {\it ab initio} accuracy. A global controller, built with Parsl, manages the MD/MC jobs to achieve massive parallelization with near ideal scalability. The resulting free energies of both liquid and solid phases, including solid solutions, are integrated into CALPHAD modeling using the PYCALPHAD package for constructing the phase diagram.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Multiscale analysis of large twist ferroelectricity and swirling dislocations in bilayer hexagonal boron nitride
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Md Tusher Ahmed, Chenhaoyue Wang, Amartya S. Banerjee, Nikhil Chandra Admal
With its atomically thin structure and intrinsic ferroelectric properties, heterodeformed bilayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has gained prominence in next-generation non-volatile memory applications. However, studies to date have focused almost exclusively on small heterodeformations, leaving the question of whether ferroelectricity can persist under large heterodeformation entirely unexplored. In this work, we establish the crystallographic origin of ferroelectricity in bilayer hBN configurations heterodeformed relative to high-symmetry configurations such as the AA-stacking and the 21.786789 $ \circ$ twisted configuration, using Smith normal form bicrystallography. We then demonstrate out-of-plane ferroelectricity in bilayer hBN across configurations vicinal to both the AA and $ \Sigma 7$ stacking. Atomistic simulations reveal that AA-vicinal systems support ferroelectricity under both small twist and small strain, with polarization switching in the latter governed by the deformation of swirling dislocations rather than the straight interface dislocations seen in the former. For $ \Sigma 7$ -vicinal systems, where reliable interatomic potentials are lacking, we develop a density-functional-theory-informed continuum framework–the bicrystallography-informed frame-invariant multiscale (BFIM) model, which captures out-of-plane ferroelectricity in heterodeformed configurations vicinal to the $ \Sigma 7$ stacking. Interface dislocations in these large heterodeformed bilayer configurations exhibit markedly smaller Burgers vectors compared to the interface dislocations in small-twist and small-strain bilayer hBN. The BFIM model reproduces atomistic simulation results and provides a powerful, computationally efficient framework for predicting ferroelectricity in large-unit-cell heterostructures where atomistic simulations are prohibitively expensive.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
Robustness of classical nucleation theory to chemical heterogeneity of crystal nucleating substrates
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Fernanda Sulantay Vargas, Sarwar Hussain, Amir Haji-Akbari
Heterogeneous nucleation is a process wherein extrinsic impurities facilitate freezing by lowering nucleation barriers and constitutes the dominant mechanism for crystallization in most systems. Classical nucleation theory (\textsc{Cnt}) has been remarkably successful in predicting the kinetics of heterogeneous nucleation, even on chemically and topographically non-uniform surfaces, despite its reliance on several restrictive assumptions, such as the idealized spherical-cap geometry of the crystalline nuclei. Here, we employ molecular dynamics simulations and jumpy forward flux sampling to investigate the kinetics and mechanism of heterogeneous crystal nucleation in a model atomic liquid. We examine both a chemically uniform, weakly attractive liquiphilic surface and a checkerboard surface comprised of alternating liquiphilic and liquiphobic patches. We find the nucleation rate to retain its canonical temperature dependence predicted by \textsc{Cnt} in both systems. Moreover, the contact angles of crystalline nuclei exhibit negligible dependence on nucleus size and temperature. On the checkerboard surface, nuclei maintain a fixed contact angle through pinning at patch boundaries and vertical growth into the bulk. These findings offer insights into the robustness of \textsc{Cnt} in experimental scenarios, where nucleating surfaces often feature active hotspots surrounded by inert or liquiphobic domains.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
12 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables
Coupling Magnons to an Opto-Electronic Parametric Oscillator
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Junming Wu, Shihao Zhou, Benedetta Flebus, Wei Zhang
Hybrid magnonic systems have emerged as versatile modular components for quantum signal transduction and sensing applications owing to their capability of connecting distinct quantum platforms. To date, the majority of the magnonic systems have been explored in a local, near-field scheme, due to the close proximity required for realizing a strong coupling between magnons and other excitations. This constraint greatly limits the applicability of magnons in developing remotely-coupled, distributed quantum network systems. On the contrary, opto-electronic architectures hosting self-sustained oscillations has been a unique platform for longhaul signal transmission and processing. Here, we integrated an opto-electronic oscillator with a magnonic oscillator consisting of a microwave waveguide and a Y3Fe5O12(YIG) sphere, and demonstrated strong and coherent coupling between YIG’s magnon modes and the opto-electronic oscillator’s characteristic photon modes - revealing the hallmark anti-crossing gap in the measured spectrum. In particular, the photon mode is produced on-demand via a nonlinear, parametric process as stipulated by an external seed pump. Both the internal cavity phase and the external pump phase can be precisely tuned to stabilize either degenerate or nondegenerate auto-oscillations. Our result lays out a new, hybrid platform for investigating long-distance coupling and nonlinearity in coherent magnonic phenomena, which may be find useful in constructing future distributed hybrid magnonic systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
9 pages, 5 figures
Stabilization of sliding ferroelectricity through exciton condensation
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Matteo D’Alessio, Daniele Varsano, Elisa Molinari, Massimo Rontani
Sliding ferroelectricity is a phenomenon that arises from the insurgence of spontaneous electronic polarization perpendicular to the layers of two-dimensional (2D) systems upon the relative sliding of the atomic layer constituents. Because of the weak van der Waals (vdW) interactions between layers, sliding and the associated symmetry breaking can occur at low energy cost in materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenides. Here we discuss theoretically the origin and quantitative understanding of the phenomenon by focusing on a prototype structure, the WTe2 bilayer, where sliding ferroelectricity was first experimentally observed. We show that excitonic effects induce relevant energy band renormalizations in the ground state, and exciton condensation contributes significantly to stabilizing ferroelectricity upon sliding beyond previous predictions. Enhanced excitonic effects in 2D and vdW sliding are general phenomena that point to sliding ferroelectricity as relevant for a broad class of important materials, where the intrinsic electric dipole can couple with other quantum phenomena and, in turn, an external electric field can control the quantum phases through ferroelectricity in unexplored ways.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states with spontaneously broken rotational symmetry
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Chengyu Wang, A. Gupta, S. K. Singh, C. T. Tai, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. Baldwin, R. Winkler, M. Shayegan
The interplay between the fractional quantum Hall effect and nematicity is intriguing as it links emerging topological order and spontaneous symmetry breaking. Anisotropic fractional quantum Hall states (FQHSs) have indeed been reported in GaAs quantum wells but only in tilted magnetic fields, where the in-plane field explicitly breaks the rotational symmetry. Here we report the observation of FQHSs with highly anisotropic longitudinal resistances in purely perpendicular magnetic fields at even-denominator Landau level (LL) fillings {\nu} = 5/2 and 7/2 in ultrahigh-quality GaAs two-dimensional hole systems. The coexistence of FQHSs and spontaneous symmetry breaking at half fillings signals the emergence of nematic FQHSs which also likely harbor non-Abelian quasiparticle excitations. By gate tuning the hole density, we observe a phase transition from an anisotropic, developing FQHS to an isotropic composite fermion Fermi sea at {\nu} = 7/2. Our calculations suggest that the mixed orbital components in the partially occupied LL play a key role in the competition and interplay between topological and nematic orders.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Accepted by Reports on Progress in Physics 10+8 pages, 5+10 figures
Anisotropic and non-additive interactions of a Rydberg impurity in a quantum bath
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Aileen A.T. Durst, Seth T. Rittenhouse, H. R. Sadeghpour, Matthew T. Eiles
We present a framework for treating anisotropic and non-additive impurity-bath interactions - features that are ubiquitous in realistic quantum impurity problems, but are often neglected in conventional approaches relying on additive, spherically symmetric pseudopotentials. To illustrate this, we focus on a Rydberg atom immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate, where the internal-state degeneracy of the Rydberg impurity gives rise to configuration-dependent non-additive potentials. With increasing interaction strength, anisotropy-induced partial-wave mixing generates distinct polaron and molaron resonances, allowing for radially and angularly excited bound states to become accessible. This approach captures the anisotropy and non-additivity characteristic of a Rydberg impurity immersed in a quantum bath, and provides broad applicability to a host of quantum impurity problems beyond the Fröhlich paradigm.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Coupling free-surface geometry and localized ion dose for continuum models of radiation-induced nanopatterning
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Tyler P. Evans, Scott A. Norris
A first-principles understanding of the self-organization of highly regular, nanometer-scale structures atop irradiated semiconductor surfaces has been sought for decades. While numerous models exist which explain certain aspects of this phenomenon, a unified, physical model capable of explaining all details of pattern formation has remained elusive. However, it is increasingly apparent that such a model will require understanding the dual influence of the collision cascade initiated by ion implantation: first, as a source of material transport by sputtering and atomic displacements occurring over short time scales, and, second, as a source of defects permitting viscous flow within the thin, amorphous layer that results from sustained irradiation over longer time scales. To better understand the latter, we develop several asymptotic approximations for coupling the localized ion dose with an evolving free interface. We then show how theoretical predictions of quantities commonly used for comparison with experimental observations – such as ripple wavelengths, critical irradiation angle for patterning onset, and surface roughening – exhibit surprising sensitivity to the details of this coupling.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Creases as elastocapillary gates for autonomous droplet control
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Zixuan Wu, Gavin Linton, Stefan Karpitschka, Anupam Pandey
Droplets are the core functional units in microfluidic technologies that aim to integrate computation and reaction on a single platform. Achieving directed transport and control of these droplets typically demands elaborate substrate patterning, modulation of external fields, and real-time feedback. Here we reveal that an engineered pattern of creases on a soft interface autonomously gate and steer droplets through a long-range elastocapillary repulsion, allowing programmable flow of information. Acting as an energy barrier, the crease bars incoming droplets below a critical size, without making contact. We uncover the multi-scale, repulsive force-distance law describing interactions between a drop and a singular crease. Leveraging this mechanism, we demonstrate passive and active filtration based on droplet size and surface tension, and implement functionalities such as path guidance, tunable hysterons, pulse modulators, and elementary logic operations like adders. This crease-based gating approach thus demonstrates complex in-unit processing capabilities - typically accessible only through sophisticated surface and fluidic modifications - offering a multimodal, potentially rewritable strategy for droplet control in interfacial assembly and biochemical assays.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn)
11 Pages, 6 figures
Second ac screening step as a probe for the first-order melting transition in layered vortex matter at intermediate temperatures
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Gonzalo Rumi, Pablo Pedrazzini, Hernán Pastoriza, Marcin Konczykowski, Yanina Fasano
We present a new probe for the first-order transition for layered vortex matter: A second step in the screening of an ac field that is independent of the frequency and amplitude of the excitation. This second step is observed in the intermediate temperature and field ranges where detecting the jump in induction associated with the transition is rather elusive with standard magnetometry techniques. We observe this second step following a novel experimental protocol where the screening of a locally-generated ac field is remotely detected in another region of the sample. The coincidence of the typical temperature of the second step in direct and remote measurements strongly supports this feature is a probe of the first-order transition. This nonlocal effect detected at distances of thousands of vortex lattice spacings away indicates that a very efficient mechanism propagates the change in rigidity of the structure from the more (liquid) to the less (solid) symmetric vortex phases.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
9 pages, 7 figures
Obstruction-Driven Parity Inversion for Enhanced Optical Absorption in Hexagonal Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Seungil Baek, Jun Jung, Yong-Hyun Kim
The optical selection rule states that opposite parity between the valence and conduction bands is required for optical absorption to occur. However, monolayer hexagonal transition metal dichalcogenides (h-TMDs) such as $ \mathrm{MoS}_{2} $ exhibit pronounced optical absorption despite their nominally dipole-forbidden d-d transitions. In this Letter, we elucidate a parity inversion mechanism through which obstruction-driven band inversion promotes dipole-allowed optical transitions near the band edge in monolayer h-TMDs. By comparing trivial and obstructed atomic limit phases, we show that intersite interactions between hybridized d orbitals induce parity inversion. Our results provide a novel approach to tuning optical properties through parity control, bridging the gap between topology and light-matter interaction.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
29 pages, 4 figures, 45 references, 6 supplementary notes
Electride behavior at high pressure in silicon and other elements in solid and liquid phases
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Salma Ahmed, Felipe González-Cataldo, Victor Naden Robinson, Burkhard Militzer
Electrides are materials in which some of the electrons are localized at the interstitial sites rather than around the atoms or along atomic bonds. Most elemental electrides are either alkali metals or alkaline-earth metals because of their low ionization potential. In this work, we report that elemental silicon becomes an electride at pressures exceeding 400 GPa. With {\it ab initio} molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we study this behavior for silicon, sodium, potassium, and magnesium at high pressure and temperature. We performed simulations for liquids and ten crystal structures. Charge density and electron localization functions (ELF) are analyzed for representative configurations extracted from the MD trajectories. By analyzing a variety of electride structures, we suggest the following quantitative thresholds for the ELF and charge density in each interstitial site to classify high-pressure electrides: (1) the maximum ELF value should be greater than 0.7, (2) there should be at least 0.9 electrons near the ELF basin, and (3) the Laplacian charge density, $ \nabla^2 \rho(\mathbf{r}_0)$ , should be negative with magnitude greater than $ 10^{-3}\ e/\mathrm{bohr}^5$ . Finally, we compute X-ray diffraction patterns to determine the degree to which they are affected by the electride formation. Overall, this framework could become a benchmark for future theoretical and experimental studies on electrides.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
14 pages, 12 figures
Classification of Thouless pumps with non-invertible symmetries and implications for Floquet phases
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yabo Li, Matteo Dell’acqua, Aditi Mitra
We study symmetry preserving adiabatic and Floquet dynamics of one-dimensional systems. Using quasiadiabatic evolution, we establish a correspondence between adiabatic cycles and invertible defects generated by spatially truncated Thouless pump operators. Employing the classification of gapped phases by module categories, we show that the Thouless pumps are classified by the group of autoequivalences of the module category. We then explicitly construct Thouless pump operators for minimal lattice models with $ \text{Vec}_G$ , Rep($ G$ ), and Rep($ H$ ) symmetries, and show how the Thouless pump operators have the group structure of autoequivalences. The Thouless pump operators, together with Hamiltonians with gapped ground states, are then used to construct Floquet drives. An analytic solution for the Floquet phase diagram characterized by winding numbers is constructed when the Floquet drives obey an Onsager algebra. Our approach points the way to a general connection between distinct Thouless pumps and distinct families of Floquet phases.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Re-entrant superconductivity at an oxide heterointerface
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
D. Maryenko, M. Kawamura, I. V. Maznichenko, S. Ostanin, D. Zhang, M. Kriener, V. K. Dugaev, E. Ya. Sherman, A. Ernst, M. Kawasaki
A magnetic field typically suppresses superconductivity by either breaking Cooper pairs via the Zeeman effect or inducing vortex formation. However, under certain circumstances, a magnetic field can stabilize superconductivity instead. This seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon is associated with magnetic interactions and has been extensively studied in three-dimensional materials. By contrast, this phenomenon, hinting at unconventional superconductivity, remains largely unexplored in two-dimensional systems, with moiré-patterned graphene being the only known example. Here, we report the observation of re-entrant superconductivity (RSC) at the epitaxial (110)-oriented LaTiO3-KTaO3 interface. This phenomenon occurs across a wide range of charge carrier densities, which, unlike in three-dimensional materials, can be tuned in-situ via electrostatic gating. We attribute the re-entrant superconductivity to the interplay between a strong spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic-field driven modification of the Fermi surface. Our findings offer new insights into re-entrant superconductivity and establish a robust platform for exploring novel effects in two-dimensional superconductors.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Quench Dynamics and Stability of Dark Solitons in Exciton Polariton Condensates
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Exciton polariton condensates (EPCs) have emerged as a paradigmatic platform for investigating nonequilibrium quantum many-body phenomena, particularly due to their intrinsic open-dissipative nature and strong nonlinear interactions governed by the interplay between stimulated scattering and reservoir-mediated damping. Recent advances in Feshbach resonance engineering now enable precise tuning of interaction strengths, opening new avenues to explore exotic nonlinear excitations in these driven-dissipative systems. In this work, we systematically investigate the quench dynamics and stability of dark solitons in repulsive one-dimensional EPCs under sudden parameter variations in both nonlinear interaction strength g and pump intensity P. Through a Hamiltonian variational approach that incorporates reservoir damping effects, we derive reduced equations of motion for soliton velocity evolution that exhibit remarkable qualitative agreement with direct numerical simulations of the underlying open-dissipative Gross Pitaevskii equation. Our results reveal three distinct dynamical regimes: (i) stable soliton propagation at intermediate pump powers, (ii) velocity-dependent soliton breakup above critical pumping thresholds, and (iii) parametric excitation of soliton trains under simultaneous interaction quenches. These findings establish a quantitative framework for understanding soliton dynamics in nonresonantly pumped EPCs, with implications for quantum fluid dynamics and nonequilibrium Bose Einstein condensates.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
Multifunctional Oxide Nanosheets: Frictional, Hall, and Piezoelectric Deformation of 2D Ga2O3
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Md Akibul Islam, Uichang Jeong, Nima Barri, Azmeera Jannat, Ali Zavabeti, Seungbum Hong, Tobin Filleter
Atomically thin oxides are increasingly recognized as an emerging class of 2D materials, yet their multifunctional properties have been far less investigated compared to other layered materials. Among these, gallium oxide is distinguished by its ultrawide bandgap, thermal stability, and mechanical rigidity, positioning it as a candidate material for nanoelectromechanical systems. In this study, the tribological, transport, and electromechanical properties of beta-Ga2O3 nanosheets were probed using atomic force microscopy (AFM)–based techniques. Friction force microscopy (FFM) was used to investigate interfacial sliding, and a dependence of friction on external bias was observed, which was attributed to defect-mediated charge trapping. Van der Pauw Hall measurements were conducted up to 400 $ ^{\circ}$ C, through which the ultrawide bandgap nature of beta-Ga2O3 was confirmed, as electronic transport remained suppressed despite high thermal activation. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) was further applied, and a measurable converse electromechanical response on the order of a few pm/V was revealed, consistent with oxygen-vacancy–induced symmetry breaking. By integrating tribological, electrical, and electromechanical measurements, it was demonstrated that beta-Ga2O3 nanosheets present a unique platform in which insulating stability, bias-tunable interfacial mechanics, and defect-enabled electromechanical activity coexist, offering new opportunities for multifunctional oxide nanodevices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
NA
Boundaries Program Deformation in Isolated Active Networks
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Zixiang Lin, Shichen Liu, Shahriar Shadkhoo, Jialong Jiang, Heun Jin Lee, David Larios, Chunhe Li, Hongyi Bian, Anqi Li, Rob Phillips, Matt Thomson, Zijie Qu
Cellular structures must organize themselves within strict physical constraints, operating with finite resources and well-defined boundaries. Classical systems demonstrate only passive responses to boundaries, from surface energy minimization in soap films to strain distributions in elastic networks. Active matter fundamentally alters this paradigm - internally generated stresses create a bidirectional coupling between boundary geometry and mass conservation that enables dynamic control over network organization. Here we demonstrate boundary geometry actively directs network deformation in reconstituted microtubule-kinesin systems, revealing a programmable regime of shape transformation through controlled boundary manipulation. A coarse-grained theoretical framework reveals how boundary geometry couples to internal stress fields via mass conservation, producing distinct dynamical modes that enable engineered deformations. The emergence of shape-preserving and shape-changing regimes, predicted by theory and confirmed through experiments, establishes boundary geometry as a fundamental control parameter for active materials. The control principle based on boundaries advances both the understanding of biological organization and enables design of synthetic active matter devices with programmable deformation.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2101.08464
Electric spin and valley Hall effects
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
The electric Hall effect (EHE) is a newly identified Hall effect characterized by a perpendicular electric field inducing a transverse charge current in two-dimensional (2D) systems. Here, we propose a spin and valley version of EHE. We demonstrate that the transverse spin and valley currents can be generated in an all-in-one tunnel junction based on a buckled 2D hexagonal material in response to a perpendicular electric field, referred to as the electric spin Hall effect and electric valley Hall effect, respectively. These effects arise from the perpendicular-electric-field-induced backreflection phase of electrons in the junction spacer, independent of Berry curvature. The valley Hall conductance exhibits an odd response to the perpendicular electric field, whereas the spin Hall conductance shows an even one. The predicted effects can further enable the transverse separation of a pair of pure spin-valley-locked states with full spin-valley polarization while preserving time-reversal symmetry, as manifested by equal spin and valley Hall angles. Our findings present a new mechanism for realizing the spin and valley Hall effects and provide a novel route to the full electric-field manipulation of spin and valley degrees of freedom, with significant potential for future applications in spintronics and valleytronics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
6 pages, 4 figures
Orbital Magnetization in Correlated States of Twisted Bilayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Xiaoyu Liu, Chong Wang, Xiao-Wei Zhang, Ting Cao, Di Xiao
Recent observations of quantum anomalous Hall effects in moiré systems have revealed the emergence of interaction-driven ferromagnetism with significant orbital contributions. To capture this physics, we extend the modern theory of orbital magnetization to Hartree-Fock states and show that the standard expression remains valid with Hartree-Fock orbitals and Hamiltonians. We then benchmark our theory against the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model in a weak field, which yields excellent agreement with direct numerical calculations. Applying our theory to twisted MoTe$ _2$ bilayers, we find orbital magnetization of order one Bohr magneton per moiré cell with a non-monotonic twist-angle dependence. Our work establishes a general theory of orbital magnetization in interacting moiré systems and provides quantitative guidance for interpreting recent experiments.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Hopf symmetry-protected topological phase at the intersection of magnetic and spin loop-current order
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Hopf terms are topological theta terms that are associated with a host of interesting physics, including anyons, statistical transmutation, chiral edge states, and the quantum spin-Hall effect. Here, we show that Hopf terms generically appear in two-dimensional metals without spin-orbit coupling at the intersection of magnetic and spin loop-current order. In the locally ordered, but globally disordered, phase the system is governed by the Hopf term and realizes a Hopf symmetry-protected topological phase. This phase is protected by the $ \mathrm{SU}(2)$ spin rotation symmetry, is gapped in the bulk, has chiral gapless edge states, and its spin-Hall conductance is quantized. Lattice models that realize this phase are introduced. In addition, we provide an elementary proof that the $ \theta$ angle of the Hopf term must be quantized to multiples of $ \pi$ in non-relativistic systems, thereby precluding anyonic skyrmions in condensed matter systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
15 pages, 4 figures
Giant enhancement of terahertz high-harmonic generation by cavity engineering of Dirac semimetal
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Siyu Duan, Lili Shi, Patrick Pilch, Anneke Reinold, Sergey Kovalev, Renato M. A. Dantas, Yunkun Yang, Faxian Xiu, Miriam Serena Vitiello, Zhe Wang
Engineered micro- or nano-structures based on nonlinear optical materials offer versatile opportunities for optoelectronic applications. While extensive efforts have been devoted to design tailored microcavities to promote and increase the optical nonlinearities of graphene, the potential of engineering its three-dimensional counterparts – three-dimensional Dirac semimetals – remains largely unexplored. Here we report on exceptionally strong terahertz nonlinearities in a cavity-engineered Dirac semimetal microstructure, and demonstrate a giant enhancement of terahertz third- and fifth-order harmonic yields by more than three orders of magnitude. By fabricating a designed structure of metallic metasurface microcavities on a nanometer thin film of the threedimensional Dirac semimetal Cd3As2, we significantly enhance the near-field intensity of a picosecond terahertz excitation pulse in resonance with the microcavity eigenmode. This transiently modifies the nonlinearities of the thin film and drives the nonlinear responses of the Dirac fermions from a weakly to a deeply nonperturbative regime where the observed high-harmonic generation essentially saturates.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Optics (physics.optics)
Metallurgy at the nanoscale: domain walls in nanoalloys
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Grégoire Breyton (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Hakim Amara (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Jaysen Nelayah (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Christine Mottet (CINaM), Riccardo Gatti, Jérôme Creuze (ICMMO), Adrien Moncomble (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Damien Alloyeau (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Nathaly Ortiz Peña (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Guillaume Wang (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Christian Ricolleau (MPQ (UMR_7162))
In binary alloys, domain walls play a central role not only on the phase transitions but also on their physical properties and were at the heart of the 70’s metallurgy research. Whereas it can be predicted, with simple physics arguments, that such domain walls cannot exist at the nanometer scale due to the typical lengths of the statistical fluctuations of the order parameter, here we show, with both experimental and numerical approaches how orientational domain walls are formed in CuAu nanoparticles binary model systems. We demonstrate that the formation of domains in larger NPs is driven by elastic strain relaxation which is not needed in smaller NPs where surface effects dominate. Finally, we show how the multivariants NPs tend to form an isotropic material through a continuous model of elasticity.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Tunable Wigner Molecules in a Germanium Quantum Dot
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Chenggang Yang, Jun Lu, Hongzhang Wang, Jian Zeng, Wendong Bian, Zhengshan Guo, Jiankun Li, Yulei Zhang, Junwei Luo, Tian Pei
The interplay between Coulomb interactions and kinetic energy underlies many exotic phases in condensed matter physics. In a two-dimensional electronic system, If Coulomb interaction dominates over kinetic energy, electrons condense into a crystalline phase which is referred as Wigner crystal. This ordered state manifests as Wigner molecule for few electrons at the microscopic scale. Observation of Wigner molecules has been reported in quantum dot and moire superlattice systems. Here we demonstrate hole Wigner molecules can be formed in a gate-defined germanium quantum dot with high tunability. By varying voltages applied to the quantum dot device, we can precisely tune the hole density by either changing the hole occupancy or the quantum dot size. For densities smaller than a certain critical value, Coulomb interaction localizes individual holes into ordered lattice sites, forming a Wigner molecule. By increasing the densities, melting process from a Wigner molecule to Fermi liquid-like particles is observed. An intermediate configuration which indicates the coexistence of ordered structure and disordered structure can be formed within a narrow effective density range. Our results provide a new platform for further exploration of the microscopic feature of strong correlated physics and open an avenue to exploit the application of Wigner molecules for quantum information in a very promising spin qubit platform.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
A variational formulation of stochastic thermodynamics. Part I: Finite-dimensional systems
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Héctor Vaquero del Pino, François Gay-Balmaz, Hiroaki Yoshimura, Lock Yue Chew
In this paper, we develop a variational foundation for stochastic thermodynamics of finite-dimensional, continuous-time systems. Requiring the second law (non-negative average total entropy production) systematically yields a consistent thermodynamic structure, from which novel generalized fluctuation-dissipation relations emerge naturally, ensuring local detailed balance. This principle extends key results of stochastic thermodynamics including an individual trajectory level description of both configurational and thermal variables and fluctuation theorems in an extended thermodynamic phase space. It applies to both closed and open systems, while accommodating state-dependent parameters, nonlinear couplings between configurational and thermal degrees of freedom, and cross-correlated noise consistent with Onsager symmetry. This is achieved by establishing a unified geometric framework in which stochastic thermodynamics emerges from a generalized Lagrange-d’Alembert principle, building on the variational structure introduced by Gay-Balmaz and Yoshimura [Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 381, 2256 (2023)]. Irreversible and stochastic forces are incorporated through nonlinear nonholonomic constraints, with entropy treated as an independent dynamical variable. This work provides a novel approach for thermodynamically consistent modeling of stochastic systems, and paves the way to applications in continuum systems such as active and complex fluids.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
Machine-learning-enabled methodology for the ab-initio simulations of sub-$μ$m-wide nanoribbons
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Guan-Hao Peng, Chin-Jui Huang, Wen-Teng Yang, Shun-Jen Cheng
Simulation of mesoscopic nanostructures is a central challenge in condensed matter physics and device applications. First-principles methods provide accurate electronic structures but are computationally prohibitive for large systems, while empirical band theories are efficient yet limited by parameter fitting that neglects wavefunction information and often yields non-transferable parameters. We propose a methodology that bridges these approaches, achieving first-principles-level reliability with computational efficiency through a machine-learning-enabled tight-binding framework. Our approach starts with Wannier tight-binding (WTB) parameters from small nanostructures, which serve as training data for machine learning (ML). To remove the gauge freedom of Wannier functions that obscures size- and geometry-dependent parameter trends, we construct gauge-independent (GI) bases and transform the WTB model into a gauge-independent WTB (GI-WTB) model. This enables robust parameter fitting and ML prediction of parameter variations, yielding the machine-learning GI-WTB (ML-GI-WTB) model. Applied to MoS2 armchair-edge nanoribbons, the ML-GI-WTB model shows excellent agreement with first-principles results and enables reliable simulations of sub-$ \mu$ m-wide nanoribbons. This framework provides a scalable tool for predicting electronic properties of realistic nanostructures beyond the reach of conventional first-principles methods.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
27 pages, 6 figures
Intermediate diffusive-ballistic electron conduction around mesoscopic defects in graphene
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Toni Markovic, Wei Huang, William S. Huxter, Pietro Gambardella, Sebastian Stepanow
Non-diffusive effects in charge transport become relevant as device sizes and features become comparable to the electronic mean free path. As a model system, we investigate the electric transport around mesoscopic defects in graphene with scanning tunneling potentiometry. Diffusive and ballistic contributions to the scattering dipole are probed by simultaneously resolving the nanoscale topography of pits in the graphene layer and measuring the local electrochemical potential in the surrounding area. We find evidence of transport in the intermediate regime between the diffusive and ballistic limits, such that the magnitude of the electrochemical potential around the defects is substantially underestimated by diffusive models. Our experiments and modeling are supported by lattice Boltzmann simulations, which highlight the importance of the ratio between defect size and mean free path in the intermediate transport regime. The magnitude of the scattering dipole depends on the shape of the pits in both the ballistic and diffusive transport modes. Remarkably, ballistic contributions to the electron transport are found at feature sizes larger than the mean free path and rapidly increase at lower sizes, having a noticeable impact already at mesoscopic length scales.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
ACS Nano, volume 19, issue 12, pages 12323-12331, date March 01, 2025
Optimal Control of Engineered Swift Equilibration of Nanomechanical Oscillators
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Julia Sanders, Paolo Muratore-Ginanneschi
We propose a reformulation of the problem of optimally controlled transitions in stochastic thermodynamics. We impose that any terminal cost specified by a thermodynamic functional should depend only on state variables and not on control protocols, according to the canonical Bolza form. In this way, we can unambiguously discriminate between transitions at minimum dissipation between genuine equilibrium states, and transitions at minimum work driving a system from a genuine equilibrium to a non-equilibrium state. For underdamped dynamics subject to a mechanical force, genuine equilibrium means a Maxwell-Boltzmann probability distribution defining a vanishing current velocity. Transitions at minimum dissipation between equilibria are a model of optimal swift engineered equilibration. Remarkably, we show that transitions at minimum work do not directly imply explicit boundary conditions on terminal values of parameters of the mechanical force and on control protocols. Thus, the problem often discussed in the literature, that optimal protocols need terminal jumps to satisfy boundary conditions, completely disappears. The quantitative properties of optimal controls are entirely determined by the form of the penalty modelling an experimental setup. More generally, we use centre manifold theory to analytically account for the tendency of optimal controls to exhibit a turnpike property: optimal protocols in the bulk of the control horizon tend to converge to a universal centre manifold determined only by the running cost. Exponential deviations from the centre manifold occur at the ends of the control horizon in order to satisfy the boundary conditions. Our findings are supported numerically.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
42 pages, 10 figures
Ultrafast giant enhancement of second harmonic generation in a strongly correlated cobaltite YbBaCo4O7
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yuchen Cui, Qiaomei Liu, Qiong Wu, Shuxiang Xu, Junhan Huang, Hao Wang, Rongsheng Li, Shanshan Han, Wei Xu, Li Du, Ming Lu, Chunmei Zhang, Shangfei Wu, Xinbo Wang, Tao Dong, Li Yue, Dong Wu, Nanlin Wang
We report the observation of ultrafast photoinduced giant enhancement of optical second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency in cobaltite YbBaCo4O7. Upon femtosecond pumping at energies above the band gap, the system exhibits an ultrafast enhancement in SHG intensity, reaching up to 60% higher than the initial value, then decays into a metastable state maintaining the enhancement. The enhancement scales linearly with pump fluence but shows no dependence on pump polarization. A pure electronic process sets in within the first ~200 fs and is accompanied by a pronounced anisotropic amplification of nonlinear susceptibility. We propose this anomalous SHG enhancement originates from ultrafast electronic band renormalization arising from dynamical modification of multi-electron correlations. In stark contrast to conventional asymmetric systems where SHG is typically suppressed upon photoexcitation, our experimental findings shed a new light on ultrafast optical control nonlinear properties in quantum materials.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Accurate Machine-Learning Description for SiC in Extreme Environments
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Jintong Wu, Zhuang Shao, Junlei Zhao, Flyura Djurabekova, Kai Nordlund, Fredric Granberg, Qingmin Zhang, and Jesper Byggmästar
Silicon carbide (SiC) polymorphs are widely employed as nuclear materials, mechanical components, and wide-bandgap semiconductors. The rapid advancement of SiC-based applications has been complemented by computational modeling studies, including both ab initio and classical atomistic approaches. In this work, we develop a computationally efficient and general-purpose machine-learned interatomic potential (ML-IAP) capable of multimillion-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations over microsecond timescales. Using ML-IAP, we systematically map the comprehensive pressure-temperature phase diagram (P-T phase diagram) and the threshold displacement energy (TDE) distributions for the 2H and 3C polymorphs. Furthermore, collision cascade simulations provide in-depth insights into polymorph-dependent primary radiation damage clustering, a phenomenon that conventional empirical potentials fail to accurately capture.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
13 pages, 7 figures; the supplementary material will be published with the final version of the paper
Non-Gaussian Rotational Diffusion and Swing Motion of Dumbbell Probes in Two Dimensional Colloids
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Jeongmin Kim, Taejin Kwon, Bong June Sung
Two dimensional (2D) colloids exhibit intriguing phase behaviors distinct from those in three dimensions, as well as dynamic heterogeneity reminiscent of glass-forming liquids. Here, using discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the reporting dynamics of dicolloidal dumbbell probes in 2D colloids across the liquid-hexatic phase transition, where hexagonal bond-orientational order (HBOO) extends to quasi-long-ranged one. The rotational dynamics of dumbbell probes faithfully capture the structural and dynamical features of the host: Brownian in the isotropic liquid, and non-Gaussian in the hexatic and solid phases, reflecting both HBOO and dynamic heterogeneity of the medium. In the 2D hexatic and solid phases, probe rotation reflects heterogeneity as the dumbbells sample multiple dynamical domains of the host system: in mobile domains, they undergo rotational jumps of $ \pi/3$ in accordance with HBOO, whereas in immobile domains they librate within cages formed by surrounding discs. Such non-Gaussianity disappears upon reentrant melting of the host medium driven by size polydispersity, highlighting a close connection between HBOO and probe dynamics. Furthermore, probe dynamics reveal both coupling (at a single particle level) and decoupling (at an ensemble-averaged level) between translation and rotation: swing motion emerges as their primary diffusion mode, while the Debye-Stokes-Einstein relation breaks down regardless of how the rotational diffusion coefficient is defined.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
12 pages, 8 figures
Enhancing the Efficiency of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Calculations of Dynamic Response Properties
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Zhandos A. Moldabekov, Sebastian Schwalbe, Uwe Hernandez Acosta, Thomas Gawne, Jan Vorberger, Michele Pavanello, Tobias Dornheim
X-ray Thomson scattering (XRTS) constitutes an essential technique for diagnosing material properties under extreme conditions, such as high pressures and intense laser heating. Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is one of the most accurate available ab initio methods for modeling XRTS spectra, as well as a host of other dynamic material properties. However, strong thermal excitations, along with the need to account for variations in temperature and density as well as the finite size of the detector significantly increase the computational cost of TDDFT simulations compared to ambient conditions. In this work, we present a broadly applicable method for optimizing and enhancing the efficiency of TDDFT calculations. Our approach is based on a one-to-one mapping between the dynamic structure factor and the imaginary time density–density correlation function, which naturally emerges in Feynman’s path integral formulation of quantum many-body theory. Specifically, we combine rigorous convergence tests in the imaginary time domain with a constraints-based noise attenuation technique to improve the efficiency of TDDFT modeling without the introduction of any significant bias. As a result, we can report a speed-up by up to an order of magnitude, thus potentially saving millions of CPU hours for modeling a single XRTS measurement of matter under extreme conditions.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph), Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
Spin-phonon coupling and isotope-related pseudo-molecule vibrations in layered Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ ferromagnet
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Grzegorz Krasucki, Katarzyna Olkowska-Pucko, Tomasz Woźniak, Mihai I. Sturza, Holger Kohlmann, Adam Babiński, Maciej R. Molas
The vibrational structure of chromium germanium telluride (Cr$ _2$ Ge$ _2$ Te$ _6$ , CGT) is investigated and a strong spin-phonon coupling is revealed. The measured high-resolution Raman scattering (RS) spectra are composed of the 10 Raman-active modes: 5A$ _\textrm{g}$ and 5E$ _\textrm{g}$ , predicted by calculation using the density functional theory and identified using polarization-resolved RS measurements. We also studied the effect of temperature on the RS spectra of CGT from 5K to 300K. A strong magneto-phonon coupling in CGT is revealed at temperatures of about 150K and 60K, which are associated with the appearance of the local magnetic order in the material and the transition to the complete ferromagnetic phase, respectively. Moreover, a unique shape of the A$ _g^5$ mode composed of a set of very narrow Raman peaks is simulated using a model that takes into account vibrations of Ge-Ge pseudo-molecules for various Ge isotopes.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
8 pages, 5 figures + SI
Strong-coupling functional renormalization group: Nagaoka ferromagnetism and non-Fermi liquid physics in the Hubbard model at $ U = \infty $
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Jonas Arnold, Peter Kopietz, Andreas Rückriegel
We develop an extension of the fermionic functional renormalization group for systems where strong correlations give rise to projected Hilbert spaces. We use our method to calculate the phase diagram and the electronic spectral function of the Hubbard model at infinite on-site repulsion where many-body states involving doubly occupied lattice sites are eliminated from the physical Hilbert space. For a square lattice with nearest-neighbor hopping we find that the ground state evolves from a paramagnetic Fermi liquid at low densities via a state with antiferromagnetic stripe order at intermediate densities to an extended Nagaoka ferromagnet at high densities. In the strongly correlated magnetic phases, the electrons form an incoherent non-Fermi liquid. Both at high and low densities, the volume of the Fermi surface is not constrained by Luttinger’s theorem.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
7 pages, 4 figures
Band Gap Engineering of Nitrogen-Doped Monolayer WSe$_2$ Superlattice and its application to Field Effect Transistor
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yi-Cheng Lo, Liao Jia Wang, Yu-Chang Chen
We systematically investigate the electronic structures of pristine monolayer WSe$ _2$ and WSe$ 2$ superlattices with periodic nitrogen substitution. Unlike random doping, which often introduces in-gap impurity states, periodic nitrogen doping primarily modulates the band gap, thereby facilitating effective band gap engineering for electronic and optoelectronic applications. The gap narrows monotonically with increasing dopant density (pristine $ >$ 8-row $ >$ 6-row $ >$ 4-row), directly influencing device switching. We also evaluate the FET performance of nanojunctions created by these configurations by examining the contour plot of current density as a function of temperature and gate voltage, which quantifies how bandgap engineering affects switching characteristics. Our calculations clarify the classical-quantum crossover in sub-10 nm 2D FETs: as $ T$ rises, $ J$ approaches the thermionic current; as $ T$ falls, quantum tunneling dominates, and the steep energy dependence of $ \tau(E)$ may break the classical limit of subthreshold swing imposed by the Boltzmann tyranny. The optimal gating range ($ V_g^\mathrm{ON}$ , $ V_g^\mathrm{OFF}$ ) is investigated for each temperature, insensitive to temperature in the high-temperature regime, confirming the good thermal stability of the FET devices. A comparison study demonstrates that the 4-row structure, with large $ J\mathrm{OFF}$ and restricted operation range, is inappropriate for realistic FET applications. The pristine structure has a high $ V_g^\mathrm{OFF}$ ($ \sim$ 1.1 V) makes it less practical, since such a large threshold voltage may promote time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) of the oxide layer, reducing device dependability. The 6-row and 8-row structures exhibit more favorable $ V_g^\mathrm{OFF}$ values ($ \sim$ 0.75 V), achieving compromise, making them more promising candidates for future FET integration.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
11 pages, 8 figures
Electrically tunable ultrafast dynamics and interactions of hybrid excitons in a 2D semiconductor bilayer
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Edoardo Lopriore, Charalambos Louca, Armando Genco, Irantzu Landa, Daniel Erkensten, Charles J. Sayers, Samuel Brem, Raul Perea-Causin, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Christoph Gadermaier, Ermin Malic, Giulio Cerullo, Stefano Dal Conte, Andras Kis
Extended efforts have been devoted to the study of strongly-interacting excitons and their dynamics, towards macroscopic quantum states of matter such as Bose-Einstein condensates of excitons and polaritons. Momentum-direct layer-hybridized excitons in transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted considerable attention due to their high oscillator strength and dipolar nature. However, the tunability of their interactions and dynamics remains unexplored. Here, we achieve an unprecedented control over the nonlinear properties of dipolar layer-hybridized excitons in an electrically gated van der Waals homobilayer monitored by transient optical spectroscopy. By applying a vertical electric field, we reveal strong Coulomb interactions of dipolar hybrid excitons, leading to opposite density-dependent energy shifts of the two main hybrid species based on their dipolar orientation, together with a strongly enhanced optical saturation of their absorption. Furthermore, by electrically tuning the interlayer tunneling between the hybridized carriers, we significantly extend the formation time of hybrid excitons, while simultaneously increasing their decay times. Our findings have implications for the search on quantum blockade and condensation of excitons and dipolaritons in two-dimensional materials.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Measuring the measurement problem: controlling decoherence with measurement duration in molecular MCB junctions
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
We investigate the influence of the measurement duration on quantum coherence in molecular mechanically controlled break junctions operating in a tetrahydrofuran (THF) partially wet phase. These systems represent a distinct class of enclosed open quantum systems with unusually long decoherence times at ambient conditions, on the order of 1-20 ms. By tuning the integration time of the current measurement in current-voltage (IV) characteristics, relative to the decoherence time, we observe a transition from quantum interference patterns, manifested as structured bands of data points, to classical behavior characterized by a single averaged response. This demonstrates that the duration of a measurement acts as a controllable parameter for probing quantum behavior in molecular junctions, offering new insights into decoherence dynamics in quantum mechanics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Topological interactions in vortex-wave collisions in Bose-Einstein condensates
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Vebjørn Øvereng, Andrew Baggaley, Luiza Angheluta
We study vortex-vortex and vortex-wave collisions in two-dimensional weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates, processes that play a central role in decaying quantum turbulence. Using numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we show that during collisions of vortex-antivortex dipoles, the kinetic energy is transferred from incompressible to compressible modes by two distinct mechanisms. Below the critical vortex separation for annihilation, the transfer is mediated by quantum energy released during annihilation events, while above the threshold it arises from vortex acceleration. In wave-vortex collisions, an incoming solitary wave splits into transient phase slips that interact with the vortex, one of the phase slips contributes to vortex annihilation, and the other phase slip acquires a stable core and forms a new vortex. By analyzing vortex trajectories and energy spectra, we provide new insights into energy transfer mechanisms in quantum turbulence and offer broader implications for topological interactions mediated by vortices.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
Pulsed-laser induced gold microparticle fragmentation by thermal strain
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Yogesh Pokhrel, Meike Tack, Sven Reichenberger, Matteo Levantino, Anton Plech
Laser fragmentation of suspended microparticles is an upcoming alternative to laser ablation in liquid (LAL) that allows to streamline the the delivery process and optimize the irradiation conditions for best efficiency. Yet, the structural basis of this process is not well understood to date. Herein we employed ultrafast x-ray scattering upon picosecond laser excitation of a gold microparticle suspension in order to understand the thermal kinetics as well as structure evolution after fragmentation. The experiments are complemented by simulations according to the two-temperature model to verify the spatiotemporal temperature distribution. It is found that above a fluence threshold of 750 J/m$ ^2$ the microparticles are fragmented within a nanosecond into several large pieces where the driving force is the strain due to a strongly inhomogenous heat distribution on the one hand and stress confinement due to the ultrafast heating compared to stress propagation on the other hand. The additional limited formation of small clusters is attributed to photothermal decomposition on the front side of the microparticles at the fluence of 2700 J/m$ ^2$ .
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
The Finite-Temperature Behavior of a Triangular Heisenberg Antiferromagnet
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Cecilie Glittum, Olav F. Syljuåsen
We investigate the classical antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice with up to third-nearest neighbor couplings using nematic bond theory. This approach allows us to compute the free energy and the neutron scattering static structure factor at finite temperatures. We map out the phase diagram with a particular emphasis on finite-temperature phase transitions that break lattice rotational symmetries, spiral spin liquids and the broad specific heat hump that is ubiquitous in the antiferromagnetic 120 degree phase.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Ab initio calculation of atomic solid hydrogen phases based on Gutzwiller many-body wave functions
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Zhuo Ye, Jun Liu, Yong-Xin Yao, Feng Zhang, Kai-Ming Ho, Cai-Zhuang Wang
We apply two ab initio many-body methods based on Gutzwiller wave functions, i.e., correlation matrix renormalization theory (CMRT) and Gutzwiller conjugate gradient minimization (GCGM), to the study of crystalline phases of atomic hydrogen. Both methods avoid empirical Hubbard U parameters and are free from double-counting issues. CMRT employs a Gutzwiller-type approximation that enables efficient calculations, while GCGM goes beyond this approximation to achieve higher accuracy at higher computational cost. By benchmarking against available quantum Monte Carlo results, we demonstrate that while both methods are more accurate than the widely used density-functional theory (DFT), GCGM systematically captures additional correlation energy missing in CMRT, leading to significantly improved total energy predictions. We also show that by including the correlation energy from LDA in the CMRT calculation, CMRT+ produces energy in better agreement with the QMC results in these hydrogen lattice systems.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
22 pages, 4 figures
Effective-medium theory for elastic systems with correlated disorder
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Jorge M. Escobar-Agudelo, Rui Aquino, Danilo B. Liarte
Correlated structures are intimately connected to intriguing phenomena exhibited by a variety of disordered systems such as soft colloidal gels, bio-polymer networks and colloidal suspensions near a shear jamming transition. The universal critical behavior of these systems near the onset of rigidity is often described by traditional approaches as the coherent potential approximation - a versatile version of effective-medium theory that nevertheless have hitherto lacked key ingredients to describe disorder spatial correlations. Here we propose a multi-purpose generalization of the coherent potential approximation to describe the mechanical behavior of elastic networks with spatially-correlated disorder. We apply our theory to a simple rigidity-percolation model for colloidal gels and study the effects of correlations in both the critical point and the overall scaling behavior. We find that although the presence of spatial correlations (mimicking attractive interactions of gels) shifts the critical packing fraction to lower values, suggesting sub-isostatic behavior, the critical coordination number of the associated network remains isostatic. More importantly, we discuss how our theory can be employed to describe a large variety of systems with spatially-correlated disorder.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
9 pages, 5 figures
Quantum Effects or Theoretical Artifacts? A Computational Reanalysis of Hydrogen at High-Pressure
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
The stability of high-pressure phases of hydrogen remains a central question in condensed matter physics, where both experimental observations and theoretical predictions are highly sensitive to methodological choices. Here, we revisit the cold phase diagram of hydrogen between 400 and 700 GPa using the meta-GGA functionals (R2SCAN and SCAN0) and compare the results with the more common PBE. At the meta-GGA level, molecular phases (Cmca-4, Cmca-12, and C2/c) are stabilized over the atomic I41/amd phase up to significantly higher pressures than predicted by GGA, in closer agreement with diffusion Monte Carlo calculations and experimental observations of band-gap closure near 425 GPa. Furthermore, phonon spectra calculated with R2SCAN show that the dynamical instabilities and anharmonic signatures previously predicted at the GGA level vanish, indicating that such effects may partly arise from functional deficiencies rather than genuine nuclear quantum effects. Bonding analysis reveals that PBE artificially weakens intramolecular H-H bonds and enhances intermolecular interactions through charge delocalization, whereas meta-GGA preserves a more localized molecular character. Anharmonic motion remains relevant for finite-temperature dynamics; however, we demonstrate that the accurate description of the potential energy surface - particularly its curvature near equilibrium - is pivotal for assessing both phase stability and bonding of hydrogen at high-pressure.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
libMobility: A Python library for hydrodynamics at the Smoluchowski level
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Ryker Fish, Adam Carter, Pablo Diez-Silva, Rafael Delgado-Buscalioni, Raul P. Pelaez, Brennan Sprinkle
Effective hydrodynamic modeling is crucial for accurately predicting fluid-particle interactions in diverse fields such as biophysics and materials science. Developing and implementing hydrodynamic algorithms is challenging due to the complexity of fluid dynamics, necessitating efficient management of large-scale computations and sophisticated boundary conditions. Furthermore, adapting these algorithms for use on massively parallel architectures like GPUs adds an additional layer of complexity. This paper presents the libMobility software library, which offers a suite of CUDA-enabled solvers for simulating hydrodynamic interactions in particulate systems at the Rotne-Prager-Yamakawa (RPY) level. The library facilitates precise simulations of particle displacements influenced by external forces and torques, including both the deterministic and stochastic components. Notable features of libMobility include its ability to handle linear and angular displacements, thermal fluctuations, and various domain geometries effectively. With an interface in Python, libMobility provides comprehensive tools for researchers in computational fluid dynamics and related fields to simulate particle mobility efficiently. This article details the technical architecture, functionality, and wide-ranging applications of libMobility. libMobility is available at this https URL.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
42 pages, 7 figures
A spectrum of p-atic symmetries and defects in confluent epithelia
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Lea Happel, Griseldis Oberschelp, Anneli Richter, Gwenda Roselene Rode, Valeriia Grudtsyna, Amin Doostmohammadi, Axel Voigt
Topological defects provide a unifying language to describe how orientational order breaks down in active and living matter. Considering cells as elongated particles confluent, epithelial tissues can be interpreted as nematic fields and its defects have been linked to extrusion, migration, and morphogenetic transformations. Yet, epithelial cells are not restricted to nematic order: their irregular shapes can express higher rotational symmetries, giving rise to p-atic order. Here we introduce a framework to extract p-atic fields and their defects directly from experimental images. Applying this method to MDCK cells, we find that all symmetries generate this http URL strong positional or orientational correlations are found between nematic and hexatic defects, suggesting that different symmetries coexist largely independently. These results demonstrate that epithelial tissues should not be described by nematic order alone, but instead host a spectrum of p-atic symmetries. Our work provides the first direct experimental evidence for this multivalency of order and offers a route to test and refine emerging p-atic liquid crystal theories of living matter.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Phonon Spin Selective One-Way Axial Phonon Transport in Chiral Nanohelix
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Jia Li, Yu-Tao Tan, Yizhou Liu, Jie Ren
Selectively exciting and manipulating phonons at nanoscale becomes more and more important but still remains challenging in modern nano-energy control and information sensing. Here, we show that the phonon spin angular momentum provides an extra degree of freedom to achieve versatile manipulation of axial phonons in nanomaterials via coupling to spinful multi-physical fields, such as circularly polarized infrared absorption. In particular, we demonstrate the nanoscale one-way axial phonon excitation and routing in chiral nanomaterials, by converting the photon spin in circularly polarized optical fields into the collective interference phonon spin. As exemplified in the smallest chiral carbon nanotube, we show that the rectification rate can reach nearly 100%, achieving an ideal one-way phonon router, which is verified by molecular dynamics simulations. Our results shed new light on the flexible phonon manipulation via phonon spin degree of freedom, paving the way for future spin phononics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
4 pages, 4 figures
Emergent Hierarchy in Localized States of Organic Quantum Chains
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
L. L. Lage, A. B. Félix, D. S. Gomes, M. L. Pereira Jr., A. Latgé
Organic Quantum Chains (OQCs) represent a newly synthesized class of carbon-based nanostructures whose quasi-one-dimensional nature gives rise to unconventional electronic and transport phenomena. Here we investigate the electronic and transport properties of recently synthesized OQCs [Nature Communications, 12, 5895 (2021)]. Structural stability was first assessed through molecular dynamics relaxation combined with density functional theory (DFT). The optimized coordinates are then used in a tight-binding model with exponentially decaying hopping parameterization, which reproduces the DFT results with high accuracy. Our calculations reveal a robust and nearly constant energy gap across several OQC configurations, in agreement with experimental data. We also identify emergent hierarchical states, characterized by distinct localization behaviors within sets of localized bands. Finally, we analyze different transport responses in scenarios involving the one-dimensional OQC coupled to carbon corrals, as observed in the experimental data, highlighting their potential as promising systems for application in carbon nanodevices.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Reversal of strain state in a Mott insulator thin film by controlling substrate morphology
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Reetendra Singh, Abhishek Rakshit, Galit Atiya, Michael Kalina, Yaron Kauffmann, Yoav Kalcheim
The V2O3 phase diagram contains two insulating phases and one metallic phase with different lattice structures. The stability of these phases is very sensitive to pressure, offering a mechanism to tune phase transitions by inducing strain in thin films. The most studied source of strain is lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate. In this work, however, we find that the film/substrate thermal expansion mismatch can be made to play a dominant role by modifying the substrate morphology. When grown on sapphire, the lattice mismatch induces compressive strain in the V2O3 films, whereas thermal expansion mismatch induces tensile strain. We find that minute changes in substrate morphology may relax the compressive strain component, allowing the thermally-induced tensile component to overcome it. Thus, by simple annealing of the substrates to create either a flat or stepped morphology, strongly compressive or tensile strains may be induced in the films. This results in either full suppression of the metal-insulator transition or stabilization of insulating phases at all temperatures, exhibiting many orders of magnitude differences in film resistivity. To elucidate the strain relaxation mechanism, we use high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM) to image the atomic steps in the substrate and the adjacent crystallographic defects in the V2O3. These findings offer a hitherto underexplored mechanism to tune strain in thin films, deepen our understanding of the effects of structural degrees of freedom on phase stability of a canonical Mott insulator and may allow for applications requiring insulator-metal switching above room temperature.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Fate of entanglement in open quantum spin liquid: Time evolution of its genuine multipartite negativity upon sudden coupling to a dissipative bosonic environment
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Federico Garcia-Gaitan, Branislav K. Nikolic
Topological properties of many-body entanglement in quantum spin liquids (QSLs), persisting at arbitrarily long distances, have been intensely explored over the past two decades, but mostly for QSLs viewed as {\em closed} quantum systems. However, in experiments and potential quantum computing applications, candidate materials for this exotic phase of quantum matter will always interact with a dissipative environment, such as the one generated by bosonic quasiparticles in solids at finite temperature. Here we investigate the spatial structure and stability of entanglement in the Kitaev model of QSL made {\em open} by sudden coupling to an infinite bosonic bath of Caldeira-Leggett type and time-evolved using the Lindblad quantum master equation in the Markovian regime (i.e., for weak coupling) or tensor network methods for open quantum systems in the non-Markovian regime (i.e., for strong coupling). From the time-evolved density matrix of QSL and its subregions, we extract genuine multipartite negativity (GMN), quantum Fisher information, spin-spin correlators, and expectation value (EV) of the Wilson loop operator. In particular, time-dependence of GMN offers the most penetrating insights: (i) in the Markovian regime, it remains non-zero in larger loopy subregions of QSL (as also discovered very recently for closed QSLs) up to temperatures comparable to Kitaev exchange interaction at which other quantities, such as EV of the Wilson loop operator, vanish; (ii) in the non-Markovian regime with pronounced memory effects, GMN remains non-zero up to even higher temperatures, while also acquiring non-zero value in smaller non-loopy subregions. The non-Markovian dynamics can also generate emergent interactions between spins, thereby opening avenues for tailoring properties of QSL via environmental engineering.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
9 pages, 3 figures, 84 references, Supplemental Material with additional figure and derivation is available from this this https URL
Quantum gates in coupled quantum dots controlled by coupling modulation
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Alejandro D. Bendersky, Sergio S. Gomez, Rodolfo H. Romero
We studied the dynamics of a pair of single-electron double quantum dots (DQD) under longitudinal and transverse static magnetic fields and time-dependent harmonic modulation of their interaction couplings. We propose to modulate the tunnel coupling between the QDs to produce one-qubit gates and the exchange coupling between DQDs to generate entangling gates, the set of operations required for quantum computing. We developed analytical approximations to set the conditions to control the qubits and applied them to numerical calculations to test the accuracy and robustness of the analytical model. The results shows that the unitary evolution of the two-electron state performs the designed operations even under conditions shifted from the ideal ones.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
22 pages, 5 figures
Charge order through crystallization of Frenkel excitons: realization in kagome metals
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Ruoshi Jiang, Bartomeu Monserrat, Wei Ku
Charge order is a widely observed and representative example of spontaneous broken symmetries in quantum states of matter. Owing to the large intra-atomic Coulomb energy, the charge redistribution in such an order typically implies significant alteration of the electronic and lattice properties of materials. While the standard description of charge order, namely a “charge density wave” instability of the Fermi surface, has been broadly and successfully applied to good metals, its applicability to correlated ionic materials has been rather limited. Here, we propose an alternative general scenario of charge order - crystallization of long-lived Frenkel excitons - suitable for these ionic materials. We demonstrate this scenario on the recently discovered kagome superconductors and successfully reproduce all the characteristics of experimental observations on both local charge correlations and long-range ordering. The proposed generic scenario offers a long-sought understanding of charge order applicable to modern correlated functional materials.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
14 pages, 4 figures, and 1 table
Amplified magnetic catalysis in non-Hermitian Euclidean and hyperbolic Dirac liquids
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2025-10-03 20:00 EDT
Christopher A. Leong, Bitan Roy
Due to their iconic linearly vanishing density of states near the zero-energy, half-filled two-dimensional Dirac materials in flat Euclidean and negatively-curved hyperbolic spaces exhibit dynamic mass generation only once a critical interaction strength is surpassed. Application of external magnetic fields onto these systems can, however, trigger the formation of such ordered phases yielding isotropic insulation near the band-center at arbitrarily weak coupling, a phenomenon known as magnetic catalysis. Recently, it has been proposed that a specific type of non-Hermiticity, allowing the system to feature an all-real eigenvalue spectrum otherwise squeezed toward the zero-energy, can bring down the requisite critical coupling of a specific family of ordered phases, commuting class masses, to a desired lower finite value in Dirac systems, a phenomenon known as non-Hermitian catalysis (arXiv:2501.18591). Here, we predict that a confluence of external magnetic fields and such a non-Hermiticity can amplify the magnitude of commuting class masses for subcritical strengths of interactions in Dirac liquids, an emergent phenomenon named non-Hermitian amplification of magnetic catalysis. We anchor this prediction from numerical self-consistent mean-field solutions of the commuting class mass charge-density-wave (antiferromagnetic) order displaying a staggered pattern of average electronic density (magnetization) between the nearest neighboring sites of the half-filled Euclidean honeycomb and hyperbolic {10, 3} and {14, 3} lattices, all featuring emergent non-Hermitian Dirac quasiparticles, after decomposing the nearest-neighbor Coulomb (on-site Hubbard) repulsion in the Hartree channel. We discuss the scaling behavior of these two orders with magnetic field and non-Hermiticity over a wide range of subcritical interactions.. Possible experimental setups to test our predictions are discussed.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
20 Pages, 10 Figures, and 1 Table (For full Abstract, see manuscript)