CMP Journal 2026-09-24
Statistics
Nature Materials: 1
Nature Physics: 3
Nature Reviews Materials: 1
Science: 19
arXiv: 78
Research Square: 1
Nature Materials
Multilevel molecular weaving
Original Paper | Mechanical properties | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
Liya Chen, Zhewen Guo, Ding Xiao, Yikuan Liu, Tianyu Shan, Xue Yang, Zhenguo Zhang, Dingyue Hu, Xiaohe Miao, Shuai Liu, Qiaoshi Zeng, Xuedong Xiao, Mengbin Wang, Yihan Zhu, Guangfeng Li, Feihe Huang
The emergence of molecular weaving provides a bottom-up strategy for topological control of material properties. However, current molecularly woven polymer networks are fundamentally limited by their single-level woven structures, containing only one type of woven topology. Here we present a two-dimensional, multilevel woven polymer network that incorporates multiple woven topologies, similar to the structure of macroscale complex fabrics. Single-crystal X-ray analysis and integrated low-dose and cryogenic electron microscopy imaging confirm the presence of a multilevel woven structure. In situ pressure-dependent Raman spectroscopy combined with theoretical calculations reveals a hierarchical stress-regulation mechanism in the multilevel woven polymer network distinct from that of its single-level counterpart. Breakthrough experiments simulating industrial separation processes further demonstrate that the synergistic channels generated by the multilevel woven topology provide distinct advantages for precise toluene/methylcyclohexane separation. Hence, the transition from single-level to multilevel woven topologies is not merely a structural upgrade, but introduces unique properties and functions that lie beyond the reach of single-level systems.
Mechanical properties, Porous materials, Self-assembly, Supramolecular polymers
Nature Physics
Probing picosecond depairing currents in type-II superconductors
Original Paper | Superconducting devices | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
E. Wang, M. Chavez-Cervantes, J. Satapathy, T. Matsuyama, G. Meier, X. Zhang, L. You, F. Marijanovic, J. B. Curtis, E. Demler, A. Cavalleri
Accessing the intrinsic critical current density in type-II superconductors can provide a means to probe microscopic superconducting properties and increase current limits in high-magnetic-field devices and electrical power systems. However, the critical current density measured using direct currents generally lies below this intrinsic limit, mainly because of vortex motion and self-heating. Here we show that picosecond electrical pulses, which act on timescales too short for vortices to move, drive supercurrents up to the intrinsic depairing limit. We probe picosecond critical currents in NbN and YBa2Cu3O7, representative s-wave and d-wave superconductors, respectively. In NbN, we find a sharp onset of the picosecond depairing at a current density of about 2.2 times the conventional critical current density, consistent with microscopic dynamics based on Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory. By contrast, YBa2Cu3O7 exhibits a gradual suppression of superconductivity with increasing current, reflecting its d-wave symmetry. These results provide a probe of superconductors beyond the reach of conventional transport measurements. Attaining the depairing current could also support superconducting electronics operating closer to intrinsic current limits.
Superconducting devices, Superconducting properties and materials
Strange metal behaviour from underlying bad metallicity
Original Paper | Electronic properties and materials | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
Simone Fratini, Ivan Duchemin, Arnaud Ralko, Sergio Ciuchi
Metals that host strong electronic interactions, including high-temperature superconductors, behave in ways that do not conform to the conventional Fermi liquid theory. The microscopic origin of this so-called strange metal behaviour has not yet been clarified. Here we show that within the two-dimensional t-J model, strange metallicity is pervasive in the temperature-doping phase diagram whenever antiferromagnetic order is suppressed. We do this by examining the d.c. and frequency-dependent conductivity within this model, taking advantage of recent improvements made on the finite-temperature Lanczos method that enable numerically exact calculations at low temperatures and high spectral resolution. Key insights about the putative Planckian relaxation in the strange metal can be gained by extending the study to the frequency and time domains. Our results indicate that Planckian behaviour is rooted in the quantum statistical nature of the charge response, rather than the temperature dependence of the scattering processes they undergo.
Electronic properties and materials, Superconducting properties and materials
An information-theoretic proof of the Planckian bound for thermalization
Original Paper | Quantum information | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
Paolo Abiuso, Alberto Rolandi, John Calsamiglia, Pavel Sekatski, Martí Perarnau-Llobet
It has been conjectured that the speed of thermalization is universally constrained by a Planckian timescale, τPl = ℏ/(kBT), determined solely by the reduced Planck constant ℏ, Boltzmann’s constant (kB) and the temperature (T). However, a general and model-independent derivation of this limit has remained elusive. Here we provide a general proof of the emergence of Planckian thermalization based on quantum information geometry and quantum metrology. We formulate thermalization as a process that prepares states close to the corresponding thermal ensemble for a set of distinct Hamiltonians, and show that quantum mechanics imposes a universal lower bound τ ≥ τPl/2 on the thermalization time τ at finite temperature. In the low-temperature regime, the spectral gap Δ between the ground and first excited states replaces the temperature as the relevant energy scale and determines the lower bound on the thermalization time, in close connection with the quantum adiabatic theorem. These bounds, rooted in Hamiltonian estimation, establish operational limits on thermalization governed exclusively by fundamental constants and the intrinsic energy scale.
Quantum information, Quantum mechanics, Quantum metrology, Thermodynamics
Nature Reviews Materials
Electrolyte design for future batteries
Review Paper | Batteries | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
Seongjae Ko
(고성제), Qiu Zhang
(张秋), Chunsheng Wang
(王春生), Atsuo Yamada
(山田淳夫)
Electrolyte design remains a central challenge for advancing batteries, which underpin carbon-neutral energy systems and modern technological infrastructures. Progress in electrolyte research, however, has largely relied on empirical discovery of materials and formulations that target individual performance metrics without fully accounting for the thermodynamic and kinetic constraints governing practical full-cell operation. Electrolytes do more than transport ions; they reshape the energetic landscape of battery systems. This Review examines electrolyte design through the lens of charge-carrier chemical potentials, focusing on how their modulation regulates electrode reaction potentials, redefines the electrolyte potential window and influences interphase dynamics during repeated cycling. Intrinsic challenges associated with advanced electrolytes are also discussed, including the simultaneous requirements of chemical and electrochemical stability, robust interphase formation and durability, rapid ion transport, and operational safety. Integrating these considerations establishes a framework for rational electrolyte design and provides a comprehensive perspective on optimizing full-cell energetics and stabilizing interphases in next-generation batteries.
Batteries
Science
Ancient introgression drives wild boar expansion and phenotypic diversification of domestic pigs
Research Article | Pig genomics | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Jian-Hai Chen, Xiaoyong Du, Zhuqing Zheng, Neena Amatya Gorkhali, Changyi Xiao, Shilin Zhu, Jie Zhong, Liangliang Fu, Jingjin Li, Zhuofan Yan, Edward S. Ricemeyer, Fan Jiang, Thuy Nhien Thi Tran, Pan Ni, Nicholas VanKuren, Guanglin He, Yalan Yang, Supamit Mekchay, San San Hmwe, Mikhail Sablin, Nikica Šprem, Le Thi Thuy, Abdullah Omar, M. O. Faruque, Ali Akbar Bhuiyan, G. L. L. Pradeepa Silva, Amali Malshani Samaraweera, Debabrata Phukon, Mukesh Thakur, Saroj Sapkota, S. M. Farhad Vahidi, Faiz-ul Hussan, Hidayat Ashari, Bayu Dewantoro Putro Soewandi, Ivan Jakovlić, Kevin G. Daly, Ming-Shan Wang, Xiaolei Liu, Malavanh Chittavong, Daniel Falush, Jeffrey Spence, Richard Bishop, David W. G. Stanton, Xuewen Xu, Xinyun Li, Matthew W. Hahn, Lingzhao Fang, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Greger Larson, Jianlin Han, Shuhong Zhao
Despite the ubiquity of wild boar populations across Eurasia, their origins, routes of dispersal, and phenotypic evolution remain uncertain. Here, using 745 genomes representing populations across Eurasia, we demonstrate that wild boar expanded from South Asia during the Middle Pleistocene. This expansion was preceded by a Pliocene introgression (~3 to 5 million years ago) in South Asia from an archaic Suinae lineage that introduced a ~43 megabase X-chromosomal haplotype into the ancestral wild boar population. This haplotype includes loci associated with increased body size and adaptation to cold climates. During domestication, this region was selected at least three times independently to develop modern large-bodied breeds. Our findings reveal a long-lasting evolutionary legacy of this ancient introgression, which provided genetic material that was later shaped by natural and artificial selection.
2D theoretically twistable material database
Research Article | 2d materials | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Yi Jiang, Urko Petralanda, Hanqi Pi, Grigorii Skorupskii, Qiaoling Xu, Dumitru Călugăru, Haoyu Hu, Jiaze Xie, Rose Albu Mustaf, Peter Höhn, Vicky Haase, Abdelmajid Ouahchi, Soumyajit Samal, Jiacheng Zhu, Dongyang Yang, Zuhan Geng, Garen Avedissian, Yongsong Wang, Maia G. Vergniory, Martin Claassen, Luis Elcoro, Nicolas Regnault, Miguel M. Ugeda, Jie Shan, Kin Fai Mak, Dmitri K. Efetov, Emilia Morosan, Dante M. Kennes, Angel Rubio, Lede Xian, Claudia Felser, Leslie M. Schoop, B. Andrei Bernevig
The study of twisted two-dimensional (2D) materials, in which twisting layers create moiré superlattices, has created opportunities for investigating topological phases and strongly correlated physics. The broader potential of a seemingly infinite set of twistable 2D materials remains largely unexplored. Here, we define “theoretically twistable materials” as single- or multilayer structures that allow for the construction of simple continuum models of their moiré structures. Our high-throughput algorithm systematically searches for theoretically twistable semimetals and insulators based on the Topological 2D Materials Database (2D-TQCDB). By analyzing key electronic properties, we identify thousands of candidate materials, propose representative twistable materials, and provide examples of crystal growth and exfoliation for several of them. Our results provide a resource for future experimental and theoretical studies of moiré systems.
Two-dimensional topological quantum chemistry and catalog of topological materials
Research Article | 2d materials | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Urko Petralanda, Yi Jiang, Hanqi Pi, Maia G. Vergniory, B. Andrei Bernevig, Nicolas Regnault, Luis Elcoro
Two-dimensional (2D) topological materials host symmetry-protected, disorder-robust edge states central to quantum technologies. Yet they remain scarce compared with their 3D counterparts. We adapted the topological quantum chemistry formalism to layer groups and studied the band topology of 8872 entries from the computational materials databases C2DB and MC2D. We found 4073 topological or obstructed entries, including 905 topological insulators and 1003 obstructed atomic insulators, greatly expanding the library of such materials in two dimensions. Detailed electronic and topological properties of all materials have been compiled into a Topological 2D Materials Database (2D-TQCDB), and the edge states of selected new materials have been studied in detail. Our methodology has been implemented in publicly available programs, designed to study the topology of any nonmagnetic monolayer or multilayer material.
Neural evidence that dogs segment the speech they hear with a humanlike consonant bias
Research Article | Comparative cognition | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Boglárka Morvai, Kinga G. Tóth, Marianna Boros, Dorottya S. Rácz, Ivaylo Iotchev, Kitti Szabó, Attila Andics
Across many human languages, consonants carry more lexical information than vowels. During speech segmentation, humans, unlike nonhuman primates, rely more on consonant than vowel patterns, despite vowels’ greater acoustic saliency. To investigate whether this consonant bias is specific to humans or could also emerge in other species exposed to human speech, we performed noninvasive electroencephalography in humans and dogs. Intertrial coherence measures of neural entrainment and event-related potentials revealed enhanced word-level tracking for consonant- compared with vowel-structured streams in both species. This suggests that dogs, similar to humans, exhibit consonant bias when segmenting the speech they hear. Linguistic regularity-based processing biases can thus also emerge in a nonspeaking species exposed to speech.
Ceramide synthesis mediates colorectal cancer metastasis through a YAP-driven regenerative program
Research Article | Cancer | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Swagata Goswami, Qiming Zhang, Abdullah Burak Yildiz, Upasana Das Adhikari, Akhouri Kishore Raghawan, Manon Bulliard, Sabhyata Sedhain, Odai Darawshi, Cigdem Elif Celik, Feyza Cansiz, Constantin P. Krempe, Jonas Rösler, Gabriele Allies, Sven W. Meckelmann, Chiashin Chi, Felix-Levin Hormann, Sven Heiles, Joseph Sedlak, Wesley Grace, George Eng, Ethan Reich, Chiara Alquati, Kevin J. Williams, Benjamin J. Read, Edrees H. Rashan, Zhixin Li, Anup Jnawali, Jose A. Ortiz, Chesta Jain, Charles A. Whittaker, Osman H. Yilmaz, Vikram Deshpande, Oliver J. Schmitz, Albert Sickmann, Autumn G. York, Douglas S. Kwon, Ulf Neumann, Maria Fedorova, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, Besim Ogretmen, Nilay S. Sethi, Alpaslan Tasdogan, Ömer H. Yilmaz
Mechanisms by which primary tumor cells acquire metastatic capability through metabolic and signaling adaptations are currently poorly understood. We demonstrate that tumor-intrinsic ceramide metabolism, amplified by dietary fat, initiates colorectal cancer metastasis. We observed that dietary fat exposure triggers a sustained increase in de novo ceramide biosynthesis, mediated by the dihydroceramide desaturase Degs1. Ceramide accumulation activates yes-associated protein (YAP) through protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-mediated dephosphorylation, promoting a durable shift toward a distinct YAP-driven regenerative (YAP-DR) program, marked by Basp1, that promotes metastasis. Selective elimination of Basp1high cancer cells prevented metastatic seeding. Degs1 loss reduced ceramide levels, YAP activity, YAP-DR signatures, and metastasis without affecting primary tumor growth, whereas blocking ceramide degradation enhanced YAP activity and metastasis. These findings identify ceramide-induced YAP signaling as a key mediator of metastatic initiation, operating independently of primary tumor expansion.
Antiferroelectric hafnia down to the 2D limit
Research Article | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Xin Li, Guodong Ren, Haidong Lu, Kartik Samanta, Amit Kumar Shah, Kai Huang, Pravan Omprakash, Yu Yun, Pratyush Buragohain, Huibo Cao, Yan Wu, Jordan A. Hachtel, Andrew R. Lupini, Miaofang Chi, Juan Carlos Idrobo, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Alexei Gruverman, Rohan Mishra, Xiaoshan Xu
Antiferroelectricity is a material property characterized by alternating electric dipoles spontaneously ordered in antiparallel directions. Antiferroelectrics are promising for energy storage, solid-state cooling, and memory technologies; however, these materials are scarce, and their scalability remains largely unexplored. In this work, we demonstrate that single-crystalline hafnia, a lead-free CMOS-compatible material, exhibits antiferroelectricity under compressive-strain conditions. We observe antiparallel sublattice polarization and stable double-hysteresis in single-crystalline (111)-oriented epitaxial La-doped hafnia films grown on yttrium-stabilized zirconia and show that the antipolar orthorhombic phase of hafnia adheres to the Kittel model of antiferroelectricity. Notably, compressive strain strengthens the orthorhombic order in thinner La-doped hafnia films, achieving a very high ordering temperature of 850°C in the two-dimensional limit, highlighting hafnia’s potential for advanced antiferroelectric devices.
An in-body networking system for communication between wearable and implantable therapeutics
Research Article | Bioelectronics | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Ramy Ghanim, Yoon Jae Lee, Garan Byun, Joy Jackson, Julia Z. Ding, Jihoon Park, Markella Bibidakis, Elaine Feller, Eugene Kim, Dilay Aygun, Anika Kaushik, Alaz Cig, Sean Healy, Camille E. Cunin, Aristide Gumyusenge, Woon-Hong Yeo, Alex Abramson
Networks of bioelectronic sensors and actuators enable closed-loop therapies that connect distant, related physiological dynamics. Currently, device interactions are limited by communication methods that inefficiently penetrate tissue and require bulky components. Inspired by the ionic signaling of the nervous system, we engineered a communication platform that uses tissue as a conductive medium to transmit signals among implants and wearables through epidermal, subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, and gastrointestinal spaces. Devices generate transient electric fields that selectively activate other devices when receiving pulses that switch on their specific transistor circuits. Implants are syringe-injectable, require negligible power consumption in listening states, and provide >10× greater tissue communication coverage than Bluetooth. In vivo in rats, we demonstrate coordinated, full-body networks of sensors and neural interfaces that enable wireless dual-limb motor control.
How 8 years of social and individual learning interact to shape ecological competence in orangutans
Research Article | Learning | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
T. Revathe, Marie-Theres Weidling, Sri Suci Utami-Atmoko, Tatang Mitra Setia, Imran Razik, Carel P. van Schaik, Andrew Whiten, Paul-Christian Bürkner, Caroline Schuppli
Cultural learning permeates human skill and knowledge acquisition. To understand its importance for nonhuman apes, we analyzed just under 7000 records of behavioral bouts of social and individual learning across wild orangutans’ 8-year dependency period to assess their combined effects on ecological competence, which is crucial for independent survival. Social learning was five times more frequent than individual learning and influenced subsequent learning for hours. Immature orangutans varied substantially in their learning propensities, and those with heightened social and individual learning propensities developed the most expansive diet profiles at independence. Furthermore, social learning had a compensatory effect on diet profile development when individual learning was low. Our findings advance the science of cultural evolution by showing how multiyear social and individual learning interact to shape great apes’ broad ecological competence.
Mammals produce cyclo-octasulfur to suppress lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis
Research Article | Biochemistry | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Uladzimir Barayeu, Seiryo Ogata, Tsuyoshi Takata, Minkyung Jung, Tetsuro Matsunaga, Masanobu Morita, Tomoaki Ida, Mike Lange, Yuka Unno, Saber Boushehri, Paulius Greicius, Akira Nishimura, Lorenzo Catti, Yuexuan Pan, Tianli Zhang, Takayuki Shimizu, Ryo Ushioda, Takakazu Nakabayashi, Seji Asamitsu, Kazuki Fusegawa, Takashi Suzuki, Takanori Ishida, Naoko Tanda, Yasuo Watanabe, Yukihiro Tsuchiya, Ryo Yamaguchi, Shintaro Noguchi, Eikan Mishima, Fumiko Yano, Mieko Arisawa, Dennis J. Stuehr, Ning Xia, Huige Li, Bernd Moosmann, Frauke Gräter, Camilo Aponte-Santamaría, James A. Olzmann, Marcus Conrad, Albert van der Vliet, Tobias P. Dick, Hozumi Motohashi, Michito Yoshizawa, Takaaki Akaike
Elemental sulfur is an evolutionarily ancient metabolite, yet its generation, storage, and function in animals have remained unclear. We show that mammals harbor elemental sulfur in the form of its most stable allotrope, cyclo-octasulfur (S8). We found that S8 accumulates to millimolar concentrations in mitochondrial membranes and in lipid droplets in both mouse and human cells. We further identified lipid droplet-associated nitric oxide synthase as a source of S8 biosynthesis and found that S8 accumulation in lipid droplets limits lipid peroxidation and suppresses ferroptosis. Accordingly, intra-articular injection of solubilized S8 reduces lipid peroxidation in a mouse model of osteoarthritis. Together, these findings reveal an endogenous pool of S8 in mammals that may protect cells from oxidative membrane damage by modulating cellular sensitivity to ferroptosis.
Unlocking cycle life of lithium metal batteries
Research Article | Batteries | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Zheng Li, Chang-Xin Zhao, Yuchen Niu, Dejian Dong, Tengrui Wang, Yue Li, Nan Zhang, Yawei Chen, Pei Li, Weiran Zhang, Joseph Burke Roschella, Xilin Chen, Fu Chen, Yijie Liu, Ai-Min Li, Chunsheng Wang
Lithium-ion Coulombic efficiency (Li CE) is widely used to evaluate interfacial stability and predict cycle life in lithium-ion batteries but fails in lithium-metal batteries (LMBs), in which higher Li CE does not reliably lead to longer cycle life. Here, we reveal that electrolyte depletion caused by unstable solid electrolyte interphases (SEIs) leads to electrolyte dry-out and induces lithium compensation through anode-to-cathode cross-talk, whereby soluble anionic species formed at the anode migrate to the cathode and release Li+ from electrolyte salts upon oxidation. We establish quantitative relationships among SEI quality, electrolyte consumption, and lithium compensation, enabling accurate cycle life prediction. The SEI quality-based framework derives quantitative guidelines for electrolyte design to extend electrolyte lifetime and sustain long cycle life in high-energy LMBs under ultra-lean electrolyte conditions.
Embracing triplet nitrenes for C-to-N replacement of complex bicyclic (hetero)aryl azides
Research Article | Organic chemistry | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Dong-Il Park, Johanna M. Masterson, Yuri Gelato, Jing Ke, Artem V. Tsymbal, Mark D. Levin
Despite recent proof-of-concept advances, aromatic carbon-to-nitrogen replacement reactions remain substrate specific and exhibit an overreliance on harsh oxidation methods that preclude their deployment in demanding contexts. Transformations relying on singlet nitrene valence isomerization, in particular, have suffered from competitive intersystem crossing to the triplet spin state, which does not undergo the same rearrangement. In this work, we report a reaction that productively engages triplet aryl nitrenes for carbon-to-nitrogen replacement on the benzenoid ring of a range of bicyclic heteroarenes, including naphthalenes, anthracene, indoles, benzofurans, benzothiophene, indazoles, and benzisothiazoles. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, which enables its application to complex, sensitive natural products.
Prussian blue regulates ion dynamics in perovskite solar cells
Research Article | Solar cells | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Fang Cao, Mengen Ma, Junjie Zhou, Fangwen Cheng, Zheng Dai, Linyuan Chen, Yuhao Hong, Di Tian, Shaoqi Zhan, Yu Chen, Pengfei An, Xin Li, Xinyu Lin, Zhenhuang Su, Xingyu Gao, Jianhao Yang, Xiaofeng Huang, Jun Yin, Jing Li, Hua Zhang, Xian-Kui Wei, Zhiguo Qu, Chong Liu, Chenyi Yi, Yaohua Mai, Binghui Wu, Nanfeng Zheng
Perovskite photovoltaics are limited by structural instabilities initiated during crystallization and amplified under operation. We report that a lattice-matched Prussian blue scaffold directs heterogeneous nucleation to produce highly oriented, strain-relaxed films. Its redox-active Fe-C≡N-Fe network mediates the conversion of Pb0 and I0 defects, and its rigid open framework suppresses A-site cation redistribution and the resulting electronic inhomogeneity under bias. This strategy yielded champion power conversion efficiencies of 26.1% (n-i-p) and 26.9% (p-i-n; 26.2% certified), scaling to 23.4% in 6-centimeter-by-6-centimeter minimodules and a certified 22.9% in 30-centimeter-by-30-centimeter submodules. Submodules with initial power conversion efficiencies ranging from 20.2 to 21.0% showed robust durability under accelerated aging and no discernible decline relative to a silicon reference over 5 months of outdoor testing.
Senescence-directed nanotherapy ameliorates fibrosis and overcomes immune exclusion in cancer
Research Article | Nanomedicine | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Clemens Hinterleitner, Valentin J. A. Barthet, Hailey V. Goldberg, Kristen C. Vogt, Ana Marie Perea, Logan R. Hillger, Stephen Ruiz, Domhnall McHugh, Yu-Jui Ho, Almudena Chaves-Perez, Maria Skamagki, Sara Flowers, Hannah C. Styers, Natasha Rekhtman, Xueqian Zhuang, Gabriel Dessotti Barretto, Xiang Li, Jadae T. Watson, Wei Luan, Janelle Simon, Tuomas Tammela, Rui Gardner, Charles M. Rudin, Paul B. Romesser, Matthew J. Bott, Aveline Filliol, Daniel A. Heller, Scott W. Lowe
Fibrotic remodeling of tissues and tumors establishes immunosuppressive microenvironments that drive organ dysfunction and, in cancer, limit response to immunotherapy. Senescent-like cells are conserved drivers of fibrosis and therapeutic targets, yet their functional heterogeneity complicates therapeutic intervention. Here, we show that P-selectin is expressed by a subset of senescent-like cells in fibrotic tissues and tumors. Leveraging fucoidan-based nanoparticles that bind P-selectin, we developed senescence-modulating nanoparticles (SMNPs) to selectively target these disease-associated states. SMNPs exerted potent antifibrotic and immunomodulatory effects while improving the therapeutic index. Mechanistically, we identified a pathogenic, immunosuppressive macrophage population as a functional target in vivo. In fibrotic tumors, niche remodeling restored immune infiltration and sensitized tumors to immune checkpoint-based therapies. These findings establish SMNPs as a generalizable strategy to target pathogenic senescent cell subsets across fibrosis and cancer.
Escape of the BC200 gene to a human poxvirus reveals its persistent transposition in primates
Research Article | Evolution | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Pu Gao, Ellen J. Pritham, Cedric Feschotte, Cheng Sun
Transposable elements mobilize within and occasionally between genomes, including from host to virus. We identified two insertions of the human BC200 noncoding RNA gene in the poxvirus molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV), which were likely acquired through long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1 or L1)-mediated retrotransposition during modern human history. Although BC200 was co-opted approximately 40 million years ago to regulate neuronal translation, we show that it never lost its mobilization capacity. Rather, BC200 functioned as a “master” source of L1-mediated germline retrotransposition events throughout anthropoid evolution, spawning hundreds of lineage-specific insertions. Additionally, BC200 has produced insertion polymorphisms segregating in the human population, including individual-specific insertions indicative of ongoing transposition activity. Thus, BC200 blurs the line between gene and transposon, combining stable function with persistent mobilization, including a recent escape into a human poxvirus.
Stereodivergent telomerization of linear functionalized dienes with amines
Research Article | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Wen-Qian Wang, Ren-En Li, Hui Xu, Han-Zhe Miao, Liang Chen, Chao Zheng, Shu-Li You, Zhi-Tao He
Despite the importance of divergent synthesis to obtain different isomers for medicinal and material chemistry, divergent stereocontrol over four distinct selectivity factors remains a fundamental challenge. The telomerization reaction is limited to the transformation of simple unfunctionalized 1,3-dienes to circumvent intractable stereoisomeric mixtures. Here we report an orthogonal telomerization platform using linear functionalized 1,3-dienes as the substrates, which simultaneously dictates regio-, geometric, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities. Diverse types of γ-amino esters are prepared from identical, readily available unsaturated esters and amines via synergistic palladium and acid catalysis, with each precisely obtained out of hundreds of potential telomers. Several chiral phosphoramidite ligands have been developed to promote the transformation. This study showcases the potential of multidimensional stereo-manipulation for the industrially valuable telomerization reaction.
Fibroblasts restrain gut inflammation by IGF1-dependent regulation of innate lymphocytes
Research Article | Immunology | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Qingxia Lin, Ruichao E. Liu, Qiang Wang, Lan Kang, Boyuan Chen, Yu Lu, Yanting Zhang, Zhijie Gu, Yu Zhou, Hongzhi Liu, Xitao Xu, Zhijun Cao, Zirun Tang, Wenxuan Xu, Yi Wang, Zhe Cui, Minhao Yu, Shanhao Jin, Quan Zhang, Chong Liu, Hua Tang, Xiaoyu Hu, Gregory F. Sonnenberg, Coco Chu, Lei Zhou
Fibroblasts exhibit phenotypic and functional heterogeneity in chronic inflammatory diseases, but how these changes impact immune outcomes remains poorly understood. We identified that a fibroblast population expressing insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) was reduced in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Using mouse models of intestinal inflammation, we found cross-talk between IGF1-expressing fibroblasts and group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s). IGF1 stimulation limited the ability of ILC3s to produce C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10) and recruit plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) to restrain gut inflammation. We propose that this regulatory pathway is conserved in human ILC3s but may become impaired in IBD. Our results define that anti-inflammatory fibroblasts safeguard the gut through regulation of an innate lymphocyte-pDC axis.
Conformal oxides decouple chemical stability and energetics at NiOx/perovskite interfaces
Research Article | Solar cells | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Chenchao Xie, Shuai You, Melissa A. Davis, Ross A. Kerner, Kelly Schutt, Ryan A. DeCrescent, Tianran Liu, Manuel A. Rodriguez, Rosemary C. Bramante, Christian Velez, Mirzo Mirzokarimov, Marc J. Migliozzi, Todd Russell, Adam Lorenz, Benjia Dak Dou, Michael Owen-Bellini, Axel F. Palmstrom, Duong Nguyen Minh, Michael D. McGehee, Joseph J. Berry, Laura T. Schelhas, Kai Zhu, Joseph M. Luther
Nickel oxide (NiOx) is a common hole transport layer (HTL) in perovskite photovoltaics, but the chemical reactivity of NiOx surfaces accelerates degradation when contacting perovskites. We developed an ultrathin, conformal tin oxide (SnOx) interlayer to suppress interfacial reactivity between NiOx and perovskite. SnOx is typically an electron transport layer, but we show that the energy alignment can be modified for hole extraction using molecules with dipoles. This synergy yielded high efficiency in perovskite photovoltaic devices and showed an ~10x improvement in T90 lifetime in open-circuit conditions under AM1.5G at 65°C. This structure also improves resilience to thermomechanical durability, as minimodules retained 95.7% of their initial performance after 1000 thermal cycles (-65° to 85°C), highlighting the importance of interfaces for robust perovskite photovoltaic modules.
In-cell structures visualize human pre-ribosome assembly in the nucleolus
Research Article | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Xiaohan Zhao, Yuki Hayashi, Herman K.H. Fung, Sara Cuylen-Haering, Julia Mahamid, Christoph W. Müller
In eukaryotes, ribosome biogenesis initiates within the nucleolus, a hallmark multilayered compartment of the nucleus. Structures of pre-ribosomes have been characterized ex situ, but their assembly pathways within human nucleoli have not been described. Here, we used cryogenic correlative light and electron tomography to visualize molecular landscapes within HeLa cell nucleoli and obtained in-cell structural snapshots of both ribosomal subunit precursors, the SSU processome and the pre-60S. These recapitulate major states resolved previously ex situ and reveal additional critical interaction partners, including the RNA exosome, rixosome, and nuclear export receptor CRM1-RanGTP. We further show how pre-ribosome assembly landscapes are altered upon RNA polymerase I inhibition. Our study combines molecular structures with cellular context to elucidate the spatiotemporal assembly pathway of the human ribosome.
Targeting an atypical G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway for cardiac fibrosis therapy
Research Article | Cardiology | 2026-09-24 03:00 EDT
Hao Zhang, Rabindra V. Shivnaraine, Lu Ren, Phung N. Thai, Remi Janicot, Wenjuan Zhu, Rihua Huang, Dirk H. Siepe, Chengyi Tu, Wenqiang Liu, Marcin Maziarz, Jonathan C. Deutsch, Yu Liu, Chun Liu, Danielle H. Shin, Hyeonyu Kim, Mark Chandy, Marian Kalocsay, Nipavan Chiamvimonvat, Mikel Garcia-Marcos, Brian K. Kobilka, Joseph C. Wu
Cardiac fibrosis independently predicts adverse outcomes in heart failure (HF), yet no Food and Drug Administration-approved therapy directly targets fibrotic remodeling in the heart. To address this unmet clinical need, we used a multidimensional drug discovery pipeline centered on a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based platform. Through high-throughput screening, we identified CGS15943 (CGS) as the lead antifibrotic compound and validated its activity in human cardiac fibroblasts, three-dimensional engineered heart tissues, and animal models of HF. Mechanistic studies revealed an atypical adenosine receptor (AR)-dependent signaling pathway in which AR subtypes converge on Gβγ (the βγ subunits of heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins) to activate phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT and yes-associated protein (YAP). CGS suppressed this signaling axis, thereby reducing fibrotic gene expression and fibroblast activation. These findings establish AR-driven Gβγ signaling as a potential therapeutic target for cardiac fibrosis.
arXiv
Exact Collision Vertex for Stress and Heat Flux
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
For the hard-sphere Boltzmann equation, we derive an exact nonlinear generating vertex for collisional stress and heat-flux production. The complete two-input Hermite hierarchy for stress resums to a universal traceless tensor times one scalar radial law, while the heat-flux vertex follows from the same law by an exact contraction. Taylor differentiation yields universal bilinear collision tensors with exact stress and heat-flux gradings, without a finite moment closure. DSMC tests, including wall-driven flows and a bimodal Mach-5 shock, recover independently sampled Boltzmann productions and the predicted convergence, while the converged production is independent of the thermal Gaussian foot used for its Hermite representation.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
5 pp., 1 fig
Electrothermal Compact Drift Model of TiO$_2$ Memristors: Verilog-A Implementation and Dimensionless Regime Mapping
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
N.G. Koudafokê, Hilda A. Cerdeira, L.A. Hinvi, A.V. Monwanou
Compact models of titanium-dioxide memristors used in circuit simulation commonly follow the drift formulation of Strukov \textit{et al.} and assume a constant ionic mobility, although oxygen-vacancy migration is thermally activated and Joule self-heating is unavoidable. We present ATDM (Arrhenius Thermally Activated Drift Model), a minimal electrothermal compact model that couples the drift equation to a lumped heat balance through an Arrhenius mobility. It adds one thermal state while preserving the electrical state variable, the relation $ v=iR(x)$ , and the isothermal limit. The model is implemented in \textsc{Verilog-A}, compiled with OpenVAF, and simulated as a device in \texttt{ngspice}, where it reproduces an independent reference implementation within $ 0.009,%$ of the peak voltage and recovers the isothermal excursion at zero activation energy. A dimensionless formulation introduces a thermal lag $ \varepsilon$ and an effective switching number $ \Theta$ . Across $ 2.5\times10^{5}$ simulations, $ \Theta$ orders the state-variable excursion over the tested quasi-static domain with a robust relative scatter of $ 4,%$ and no fitted constant, and the $ (\varepsilon,\Theta)$ regime map quantifies when the quasi-static thermal reduction remains valid. Under current drive, the stroboscopic map of the reduced model is proved to be strictly increasing, which excludes period-doubling and chaos in that reduction. Within the sampled ranges, a variance-based sensitivity analysis identifies the effective thermal resistance as a first-order contributor to self-heating, while separate capacitance sweeps show a weak influence of the thermal capacitance in the quasi-static regime. The results characterize the specified model with representative, uncalibrated parameters.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
24 Pages, 25figures
Suppressed Defect Emission and Enhanced Blue Luminescence of Zn-Doped CuBr Quantum Dots synthesized in Room-Temperature Synthesis
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Aryamol Stephen, Ruchi Kumari, Saparja Roy, P. Jayaram, A. Biju, P. M. Sarun
Deep-blue-emitting CuBr quantum dots (QDs) hold promise as nontoxic and heavy-metal-free optoelectronic materials, yet their efficiency is limited by intrinsic defects. We report Zn doping as an effective strategy to mitigate defect-mediated recombination in CuBr QDs synthesized via an eco-friendly supersaturated recrystallization method under ambient conditions. XRD shows lattice contraction, Rietveld refinement confirms substitutional doping, and XPS verifies Cu$ ^+$ / Zn$ ^{2+}$ states without secondary phases. HR-TEM analysis reveals uniform 3.46 $ \pm$ 0.12 nm Zn:CuBr QDs with reduced bandgap, after doping, indicating weaker quantum confinement. The dominant emission peaks appear at 406 nm ($ Z_f$ ) and 431 nm ($ Z_{1,2}$ ) under 365 nm excitation. Narrows defect FWHM, elevated band-edge emission, and extends carrier lifetimes, achieving 96.4 % color purity with CIE coordinates (0.1520, 0.0395). These findings demonstrate that Zn doping is a simple, scalable, and environmentally benign strategy for engineering efficient blue-emitting CuBr QDs.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Analytical Solution of the Nonlinear Boltzmann Equation For Multicomponent Systems
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Linyuan Wei, Yi Wang, Jin Hu, Baoyi Chen
We present exact analytical solutions to the nonlinear relativistic Boltzmann equation for homogeneous, isotropic massless multi-component systems with non-isotropic scattering cross sections. For a two-component system, we identify three distinct classes of exact solutions, each corresponding to specific constraints among initial energy densities, particle number densities, and scattering cross sections. These solutions comprise the equilibrium state and two novel classes: a hybrid structure featuring a non-equilibrium Maxwell-Juttner distribution coupled with a nontrivial distribution; the former is unprecedented in kinetic theory, while the latter refers to nontrivial dynamics shared by both species, which is novel in the relativistic context.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph), Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
5 pages, 0 figures,comments welcome
Easy-plane anisotropy of magnetic fluctuations in UTe2
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Zehao Wang, Ewan Scott, David W. Tam, Philippe Bourges, Keke Feng, Tyler W. Wannamaker, Paul Steffens, Arno Hiess, Ryan E. Baumbach, M. Brian Maple, Michal P. Kwasigroch, Pengcheng Dai
The large directional anisotropy of superconducting UTe2 along the lattice a, b, c directions in magnetic susceptibility, upper critical fields, and Knight shift suggests spin-triplet Cooper pairing. If spin fluctuations bind the Cooper pair, one needs to determine their anisotropy in spin space to characterize the superconducting state. Here we use polarised and unpolarised inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments to show that antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuations at the Y point are highly isotropic within the ac-plane but have no observable magnitude along the b-axis. Our results rule out the assumed Ising anisotropy and constrain the possible pairing channels. AFM exchange is no longer pair forming in the triplet channel and the d vector along b is strongly favoured. We capture the experimental observations within a microscopic framework that encompasses the dual nature of 5f electrons. We include itinerant and localized 5f-moments in a tight-binding model fitted to quantum oscillations data. In congruence with INS, the exchange between localized moments generically consists of a strong FM intra-dimer interaction, maxima close to the Y and T points, mediated by 5p_y and 6d_{3z^2-r^2} orbitals respectively, and magnetically decoupled ab-planes. We find that anisotropy and dimerization of the moments can lead to gapped excitations that, in combination with Landau damping, can produce the observed overdamped response at the Y point. We suggest that enhancement of the response and its observed near-O(2)-symmetry could both be driven by proximity to a quantum critical point where the dimer excitation gap closes and gives place to incommensurate helical order. Analysis of the linearized gap equation for a nearest-neighbour pairing interaction favours the B1u triplet with a dominant d-vector component along b, although the possibility of spin singlet pairing cannot be ruled out.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
23 pages, 4 figures
Experimental Characterization of the Passive Mechanical Behavior of Rat Pelvic Floor Muscles: Effects of Test Conditions and Pregnancy
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jose L. Monclova, Matthew Shankel, Ava M. English, Mona Eskandari, Heidi P. Feigenbaum
Purpose: Pelvic floor muscles undergo large deformations during vaginal delivery, yet the passive tensile behavior of pregnant and non-pregnant pelvic floor muscle and the influence of testing protocols remain incompletely characterized. This study evaluated how pregnancy, loading rate, preconditioning, and storage affect passive tensile mechanics of rat pelvic floor muscle.
Methods: Levator ani samples from pregnant and non-pregnant rats were tested in uniaxial tension to failure across multiple preconditioning amplitudes, two loading rates, and fresh or frozen storage conditions. Peak and transition metrics, strain energy density, toe-region stiffness, and high-strain stiffness were extracted using automated region-detection methods. Rat properties were also compared with digitized human cadaver levator ani data.
Results: Pregnant rat samples reached greater peak strains than controls, although the difference was not significant. Preconditioning affected peak strain in a loading-rate-dependent manner: responses tapered near 2% preconditioning strain at 0.5% strain/s, whereas no comparable tapering occurred through 15% at 1% strain/s. Compared with human cadaver data, rat samples reached substantially larger peak strains and lower high-strain stiffness.
Conclusion: This study provides one of the first direct experimental comparisons of passive pelvic floor muscle mechanics between pregnant and non-pregnant tissue, while systematically evaluating how multiple testing-protocol variables influence the measured response. Distinguishing protocol-dependent variability from biological differences provides a more reproducible basis for cross-study comparison and constitutive model calibration. Rat pelvic floor muscle is a useful model for pregnancy-associated adaptation, but absolute mechanical values should be translated to human tissue cautiously.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph), Medical Physics (physics.med-ph)
Fermion bag study of the two-dimensional Majorana-Hubbard model at finite hopping
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
The two-dimensional Majorana-Hubbard model on the $ \pi$ -flux lattice involves the most local interaction possible for a lattice with one relativistic Majorana fermion per site. It is predicted to host a Majorana semimetal, dimerized phases, and quantum-critical points with an emergent $ U(1)$ symmetry. Nonperturbative lattice calculations for this model remain a major open challenge, thus far limited to zero hopping. We present quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the model at finite hopping using Hamiltonian fermion bags, which are based on a continuous-time expansion with Boltzmann weights that are Pfaffians of a matrix with dimension set by the expansion order, and which give the sign of the weight. Sign problem severity is related to the location of zero modes in the free hopping matrix, and for couplings $ g\lesssim 0.7$ and $ \beta=L/4$ it is fully removed for lattices up to at least $ 256$ sites. The interaction strength $ g>0$ enhances the $ U(1)$ -charged dimerization doublet and suppresses the neutral channel, as the renormalization group predicts. Increasing the interactions also restores $ U(1)$ symmetry in the component of the dimerization correlator that is even under bond orientation exchange, but not its odd component. There is a persistent anisotropy in the odd component with the symmetry of a lattice nematic. The data is consistent with a gapless semimetal throughout the sign-problem-minimal window.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
8 pages, 4 figures
Interlayer-correlated fractional quantum Hall state in a trilayer electron system
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Chengyu Wang, C. T. Tai, N. Toemtrisna, A. Gupta, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. Baldwin, M. Shayegan
In multilayer quantum Hall systems, when the layer separation is sufficiently small, the interplay between intralayer and interlayer Coulomb interactions can lead to exotic, multi-component, many-body states. A particular example is the even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state (FQHS) at total filling factor $ \nu=1/2$ in bilayer systems with negligible interlayer tunneling. This state can be understood as a generalized Laughlin state described by the Halperin-Laughlin $ \Psi_{331}$ wavefunction. While such correlated states have been extensively explored in bilayers, little is known about their counterparts in systems with more than two layers. Here, we investigate a trilayer two-dimensional electron system confined to ultrahigh-quality GaAs triple quantum wells. We observe an exotic FQHS at total filling factor $ \nu=5/7$ , evinced by a deep longitudinal resistance minimum and a quantized Hall plateau, when the side layers have a density larger than the middle layer and $ d/l_B \simeq 2.2$ ($ d$ is the interlayer distance and $ l_B$ the magnetic length). This state is naturally interpreted as the long-predicted trilayer, generalized Laughlin ($ \Psi_{33311}$ ) state, characterized by $ \nu=1/3$ -like intralayer correlation within each layer and $ \nu=1$ -like interlayer correlation between neighboring layers. Our observation establishes a new member of the Halperin-Laughlin many-body states that extends interlayer coherence to three coupled layers.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
7 + 11 pages, 4 + 9 figures
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 136504 (2026)
First Passage in the Presence of Jump Rate Fluctuations: A Transition from Infinite to Finite Mean
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
A simple symmetric random walk on a one-dimensional lattice is guaranteed to reach any target site, yet its mean first-passage time diverges. Here, we show that stochastic fluctuations in the jump rate can fundamentally alter this classic result. We find a phase transition in the mean first-passage time: sufficiently broad rate fluctuations render it finite, whereas weaker fluctuations leave it infinite. Our results demonstrate that temporal fluctuations in the jump rate—and hence in the diffusivity—can overcome spatial wandering and regularize otherwise divergent first-passage times.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
Viscous Dissipation Governs Bubble Morphology and Failure in Soft Matter
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Sushma SP, Anshul Shrivastava, Imnatoshi Jamir, Aritra Chatterjee, Namrata Gundiah
Cavitation, the growth of bubbles in fluids and soft matter, plays a central role in tissue damage, ultrasound therapies, and material failure, yet the influence of viscoelastic dissipation on bubble dynamics remains unclear. Here, we investigate cavitation in polyacrylamide hydrogels with identical elastic moduli but different viscous dissipation. We observe a striking symmetry breaking transition: elastic gels rapidly develop ellipsoidal cavities before rupture, whereas viscoelastic gels sustain large, nearly spherical bubbles. A modified Rayleigh Plesset framework shows that viscous stresses suppress shape instabilities and delay symmetry breaking, whereas elastic stresses accelerate cavity deformation. Finite element simulations independently validate these findings. The Deborah number (De) further captures the competition between material relaxation and cavity growth, with higher De associated with predominantly elastic growth and lower De with greater relaxation. Together, our results establish viscous dissipation as a key stabilizing mechanism that governs bubble morphology and failure in soft materials. These results have direct implications for understanding cavitation-mediated damage in biological tissues, optimizing therapeutic ultrasound, and advancing mechanical characterization of hydrogels for engineering and food processing applications.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
Matrix Density Waves and Fractionally Charged Point Defects in Flavor Weyl Semimetals
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Shantonu Mukherjee, Hridis K. Pal
A conventional interaction-driven Weyl density wave is a complex scalar and supports vortex lines, but no topologically stable point defects. We show that two Weyl flavors do not merely duplicate this order. Starting from the matrix-valued internode coherence, a local flavor-symmetric repulsion selects a traceless adjoint condensate within the density-wave sector, while the fermionic ground-state energy locks its complex components into the collinear form $ \mathbf{\Delta}=\Phi_0\mathbf{n} e^{i\theta}$ . The resulting order-parameter manifold, $ (S^2\times S^1)/\mathbb Z_2$ , supports both unit hedgehogs and half-quantum Alice strings of the same electronic mass that gaps the Weyl fermions. An elementary hedgehog binds a single normalizable zero mode whose empty and occupied sectors carry charges $ -e/2$ and $ +e/2$ at neutrality. An elementary Alice string carries a single chiral electronic mode despite its $ \pi$ phase winding, and transporting a hedgehog around it reverses the hedgehog winding, $ N\rightarrow-N$ . Flavor therefore converts spontaneous translation breaking into a route to point-defect fractionalization and intertwines the point- and line-defect sectors of an interaction-generated electronic mass.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
An interdimensional funnel enhances topologically protected oscillations in high-dimensional stochastic systems
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Varsha Traynor, Jaime Agudo-Canalejo
Biochemical systems such as protein complexes often occupy configuration spaces whose dimensionality grows with the number of molecular components. Although usually viewed as an obstacle to coherent dynamics, here we show that high dimensionality can enhance topologically protected oscillations. In the topological regime, a stochastic system with a $ D$ -dimensional configuration space develops a steady-state current confined to a one-dimensional edge cycle. The intervening boundary faces between the $ D$ -dimensional bulk and the one-dimensional cycle form an interdimensional funnel, sequentially pushing the system towards lower dimensional faces, down to the one-dimensional cycle. As a consequence, increasing $ D$ enhances the funnel, leading to improved one-dimensional localization and oscillatory coherence. A quantized biorthogonal Zak phase identifies the transition to the topological regime, which additionally exhibits a highly structured non-Hermitian skin effect. In contrast with previous realizations of topological states in stochastic systems, the phenomena we uncover have no counterpart in quantum condensed matter or active matter systems.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
Robust Strange Metallicity across Attractive and Repulsive Hubbard Models
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Xiaoyue Ma, Emily Z. Zhang, Thomas P. Devereaux
Using determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we compare charge transport in the two-dimensional attractive and repulsive Hubbard models at strong coupling, $ |U|/t=6$ . Although the interaction with opposite signs generates qualitatively different low-energy spin, charge, and pairing correlations, both exhibit approximately linear-in-temperature resistivity over a broad intermediate- and high-temperature regime. At asymptotically high temperature this common behavior follows from the moment expansion of the conductivity, whose leading contribution is even in $ U$ . More strikingly, the similarity persists to temperatures well below $ |U|$ , where strong interaction-dependent correlations have already developed, and also irrespective of whether resistivity crosses the MIR limit. Using the Nernst–Einstein relation, we find that the common linear-in-temperature resistivity is primarily associated with an approximately Curie-like charge compressibility and weakly temperature-dependent diffusivity. The two models separate only at lower temperatures, where the attractive model develops a pronounced feature in the charge diffusivity correlated with signatures of pair formation. These results show that linear-in-temperature incoherent transport in the Hubbard model can be remarkably insensitive to the microscopic nature of the low-energy correlations. Our results suggest that transport in the incoherent regime appears insensitive to what the system will ultimately become at low temperature; the distinction between competing low-energy states becomes visible only when their characteristic correlations acquire sufficiently long spatial or temporal coherence.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Control of filament network rigidity by the condensation of crowding molecules
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jiyong Cheon, Zhengyan Lin, Dean Kim, Anirudh Malli, Itamar Kolvin
Understanding how liquid-liquid phase separation impacts the mechanics of filament networks 6 is a fundamental physical problem at the heart of biological cellular processes and soft material 7 design. While a few theoretical mechanisms have been proposed, a clear demonstration of the direct 8 coupling of phase separation to the overall network stiffness is missing. We report experiments 9 that reveal a universal mechanism by which the condensation of macromolecular crowders induces 10 a rigidity transition in a model filament network. We reconstituted stiff sterically interacting helical 11 filaments and polymeric crowders. Initially, the macromolecules were uniformly dissolved and the 12 filaments formed bundles that assembled a rigid entangled network. Once the crowders condensed 13 into droplets, the network structure lost its rigidity and its mechanical response weakened by an 14 order-of-magnitude. The subsequent dissolution of the condensates was accompanied by the re15 establishment of rigidity. Our results show that crowder phase separation modulates the mechanics 16 of filament networks by tuning the osmotic pressure holding the network together. This principle 17 may serve as a paradigm for devising dynamically tunable filamentous materials.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
15 pages, 6 main figures, 3 appendices, 6 supplementary figures
Electronic Effects of a Twisted Graphene Catenoid Bridge
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
The interplay between non-trivial background geometries and quantum dynamics has emerged as a powerful tool to tailor the electronic properties of 2D materials. In this work, we investigate the effective quantum dynamics of massless Dirac fermions confined to a twisted graphene structure called a catenoid bridge, which connects two single-layer sheets. By adopting a continuum approach, where the electron dynamics is governed by a purely covariant curved Dirac equation, we obtain the effective Hamiltonian containing both curvature and twist interactions. We found that the torsion modifies the electronic states by producing a geometric phase on the wave function. In addition, the twist also deforms the surface geometry, which leads to a new geometric term in the effective Hamiltonian. This twist potential enhances the barrier around the catenoid throat, which increases the suppression of the inter-layer transmission coefficient. Like the spin-curvature interaction, the spin-twist term has a chiral dependence which is invariant under a combined parity and spin flip transformation. As a result, the electronic states can be restricted to the upper or lower layer. These findings provide valuable insights into how mechanical deformations can be harnessed to control quantum transport in graphene-based wormhole architectures.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
28 pages
Spin Configurations of Anyonic excitations in Moiré Fractional Chern Insulators
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Vadym Apalkov, Tapash Chakraborty
We have examined the nature of elementary excitations in particular, their spin polarization, in recently discovered zero-field fractional Chern insulator in twisted bilayer MoTe$ _2$ . We have found that the finite-size bilayer system, in close proximity to a planar parabolic quantum dot containing a single electron (or a hole), forms an incompressible spin-unpolarized fractional Chern insulator at 1/3 filling factor. The corresponding energy gap is found to be large and weakly dependent on the separation between the quantum dot and the bilayer. We predict that in this fractional Chern insulator coupled to a quantum dot, spin-unpolarized quasiparticles and quasiholes are expected to appear as low-energy elementary excitations. The charge density results indicate that, for the spin-unpolarized quasiparticles, the positive charge is strongly localized near the negatively charged QD within the spin-flipped component, whereas for the spin-polarized quasiparticles, such localization is much less pronounced.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
7 pages, 3 figures
On quantum confinement without barriers
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Usually in semiconductor heterostructures, such as quantum wells, the quantum confinement is realized by means of heterobarriers, which are simply the band offsets in adjacent materials. Here the arguments are provided, that the energy dispersions in materials (in simple case determined by effective masses) are important as well. Using a simple model system, such as quantum well with an additional heterojunction, it is shown the predominant localization of the carrier density in the regions with higher effective mass. The possibility of different spatial localization of wave function for different subbands is predicted. This can be applied in semiconductor structures such as quantum cascade lasers.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
4 pages + 1 page of Supplementary Materials, 3 figures
Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relations in Chaotic Andreev Billiards
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
I. R. A. C. Lucena, T. J. A. Mori, M. M. Soares, D. Bazeia, A. R. Rocha
We investigate how particle-hole symmetry, quantum interference, and tunnel barriers shape thermodynamic uncertainty relations in chaotic Andreev billiards. Using random-matrix theory and the Mahaux-Weidenmüller scattering approach, we study charge conductance and shot noise across the four Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes, from the single-channel extreme quantum limit to the multichannel semiclassical regime and from ideal to opaque contacts. We characterize thermodynamic precision through two complementary ensemble observables: either by averaging the sample-resolved noise-to-conductance ratio, or from the separately averaging noise and conductance. Their pronounced discrepancy in the extreme quantum regime reveals the non-self-averaging character of mesoscopic transport and persists over a broad range of barrier transparencies. For ideal contacts, the first provides a sensitive fingerprint of the Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry class. In the opaque regime, this hierarchy changes. Despite these strong symmetry- and barrier-dependent effects, the standard thermodynamic uncertainty relation remains satisfied throughout all regimes investigated. Our results establish thermodynamic uncertainty as a symmetry-sensitive probe of universal transport in chaotic normal-superconducting systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Spectroscopic signatures of persistent exciton condensation in a bulk magnetic topological insulator
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Paulina Majchrzak, Chakradhar Sahoo, Manuel Tuniz, Wibke Bronsch, Denny Puntel, Federico Cilento, Xing-Chen Pan, Jakob Kjærulff Svaneborg, Yong P. Chen, Søren Ulstrup
Exciton condensates are long-sought correlated quantum states arising from macroscopic coherence of bound electron-hole pairs. Although equilibrium and transient excitonic states have been reported in several material platforms, direct evidence for a light-induced exciton condensate state has been challenging to achieve as an intrinsic property of a bulk quantum material. Here, we use time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate long-lived photoexcited carriers in the intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi$ _2$ Te$ _4$ with the chemical potential tuned to the topological surface state by Sb substitution. Following optical excitation, we observe the delayed emergence of a transient state whose formation coincides with depopulation of the bulk conduction band and whose lifetime extends to the microsecond timescale. The quasiparticle dispersion exhibits a pronounced flattening and develops a Mexican-hat-like profile. These spectral signatures are consistent with the formation of a metastable excitonic condensate state. Our results establish magnetic topological insulators as a promising platform for investigating long-lived photoinduced many-body states and their interplay with topology and magnetism.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
21 pages, 8 figures
Resonantly Enhanced Phonon Transport by Magnon Pumping in a Ferromagnetic/Piezoelectric Bilayer
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
André José, Carlos Eduardo, Adrielson Dias, José Araújo, José Holanda
We report the first experimental observation of resonantly enhanced propagating phonon transport induced by magnon pumping in a ferromagnetic/piezoelectric bilayer. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) generated in a 128$ ^{\circ}$ Y-cut LiNbO$ _3$ delay-line device resonantly excite magnetization dynamics in an adjacent Co film through magnetoelastic coupling. The enhancement of the transmitted acoustic signal occurs exclusively when the SAW frequency satisfies the ferromagnetic resonance condition predicted by the Kittel dispersion, providing a direct experimental fingerprint of resonant magnon-phonon coupling. A systematic comparison between the Co/LiNbO$ _3$ bilayer and the bare LiNbO$ _3$ substrate demonstrates that the observed transmission enhancement originates solely from the dynamic interaction between propagating phonons and coherent magnetization precession. Furthermore, measurements performed at different SAW harmonics reveal that only the harmonic satisfying the FMR condition produces a measurable enhancement, confirming the frequency-selective nature of the phenomenon. These findings establish an efficient mechanism for transferring energy from magnons to propagating phonons and provide a new strategy for actively controlling coherent acoustic transport in hybrid spintronic, straintronic, and quantum phononic platforms.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Detecting a large magneto-optical shift in Py/NiO bilayers
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Adrielson Dias, Maria Clara, Ozéas Rodrigues, Gabriel Henrique, José Lucas, José Holanda
Here, magneto-optical magnetometry measurements on Py/NiO bilayers reveal a pronounced magnetic-field-induced wavelength shift, demonstrating strong magneto-optical coupling in this antiferromagnetic system. A systematic and monotonic spectral shift of up to ~ 400 nm is observed as the applied magnetic field increases, saturating at higher fields. Quantitative analysis shows that the associated magneto-optical energy variation is on the order of 107 eV, comparable to the magnon energy scale in NiO. Owing to the large NiO thickness, the observed effect originates from magnons intrinsic to the antiferromagnetic NiO layer rather than from spin currents injected by the Py underlayer. These results provide direct experimental evidence for magnetic-field control of antiferromagnetic magnon energies via magneto-optical interactions, establishing Py/NiO bilayers as a promising platform for optically probing and manipulating antiferromagnetic spin dynamics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Applied Physics (physics.app-ph), Optics (physics.optics)
Towards Extended Active Learning for Modelling Ferroelectric Switching: the Need for ‘Gold Standards’
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jeffrey R. Reimers, Wenbin Zhang, Zhe Su, Musen Li, Carla Verdi, Tim Gould, Wei Ren
For the purpose of modelling ferroelectric switching in wurtzite-structured materials, four cost-effective density-functional theory (DFT) methods (PBE, PBEsol, r2SCAN, and r2SCAN-rVV10) are considered and compared to various ab initio approaches based on the random-phase approximation (RPA), including RPA with singles corrections (RPAR+S), as well as second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2). The purpose is to determine whether an ab initio approach could act as a ‘gold standard’ for estimating the reliability of DFT, thus determining an optimal DFT method for use in exhaustive tasks such as the training of machine-learning interatomic potentials (MLIP) for large-scale simulations of materials of arbitrary composition and structure such as Al1-xScxN and Zn1-xMgxO, using AlN, Al0.5Sc0.5N, ZnO, and Zn0.5Mg0.5O as model materials. Applications of active learning (AL) are now common, in which results from MLIP simulations are used to enhance the DFT training data set, but future extended active learning (EAL) methods will also need to systematically assess the DFT methodology against a gold standard. Herein, the variability of the ab initio results is found to exceed that required for a robust gold standard, but the DFT and ab initio approaches appear to converge on RPAR+S and r2SCAN-rVV10 as optimal method choices to initiate EAL. The electron correlation energy is found to be dominated by covalent binding effects associated with the high-electron-density anions involved, but the van der Waals dispersion force is seen to be too significant to ignore in ferroelectric modelling.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables
Exact Equivariance from Ordinary Neural Networks for Lattice Many-Body Dynamics
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Ho Jang, Sankha Subhra Bakshi, Gia-Wei Chern
Large-scale simulations of correlated electron systems require repeated evaluations of the electronic forces and transition energies driving collective dynamics. Machine-learning surrogates alleviate this bottleneck, but incorporating symmetry often involves carefully designed descriptors or specialized network architectures. We show that ordinary multilayer perceptrons equipped with finite-group averaging provide exactly equivariant surrogates directly from microscopic configurations. The construction separates symmetry enforcement from the internal network architecture and applies to both discrete and continuous lattice degrees of freedom. In the Falicov–Kimball model, it predicts directional hopping free-energy differences; in the Holstein model, its invariant limit generates conservative lattice forces. Benchmarks against exact diagonalization establish microscopic accuracy and agreement of dynamical correlations, while large-scale simulations recover multiscale charge ordering and charge-density-wave coarsening. These results demonstrate an accessible, reusable route to symmetry-preserving many-body dynamics for systems with finite lattice point groups.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
11 pages, 6 figures
Electric-field switchable interlayer magnetic order and anomalous valley Hall effect in Janus VSSe bilayers with different interfaces
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Yueli Li, Yunfan Zhang, Jiayu Dai, Zhongjun Li, Hongyan Lv
Electric-field control of magnetic order and valley polarization holds great promise for spintronic and valleytronic applications. However, achieving such electrical modulation remains a fundamental challenge in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) magnets. Herein, via first-principles calculations, we verify that electrically tunable interlayer magnetic order and valley polarization can be realized in Janus VSSe bilayers with different interfaces. Although the magnitudes of dipole moments within each constituent Janus monolayer are identical, the vertical built-in electrostatic potential difference $ \Delta\phi$ across the bilayer depends strongly on the orientations of these dipoles, which originates from the distinct interfacial configurations. As a consequence, the VSSe bilayers with different interfaces possess distinct interlayer magnetic couplings and show dramatically varied responses to external electric fields. For Se-S interface, reversible electric-field switching between antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) states can be achieved due to the competition between itinerant-electron-mediated FM exchange coupling and interlayer $ \Delta\phi$ -dependent AFM/FM super-superexchange interactions mediated by interfacial Se and S atoms. For Se-Se interface, both the valley polarization and spin splitting can be effectively reversed by the out-of-plane electric field, realizing an all-electric-field controlled anomalous valley Hall effect. Our results demonstrate that the interface of the magnetic Janus bilayer could act as an additional degree of freedom to tune the electronic, magnetic, and valley properties in 2D vdW materials. The Janus VSSe bilayers are identified as a promising platform for the design of low-power spintronic and valleytronic devices.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Unmodeled states and uncertain action outcomes in agentic scanning tunneling microscopy
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Siyu Cheng, Muxian Xu, Christopher Candelora, Ilija Zeljkovic
In physical experiments, interventions can alter hidden experimental states in ways that cannot be predicted in advance. Autonomous scientific agents must therefore interpret the consequences of their interventions while operating with incomplete knowledge of the experimental state. Here we investigate this problem using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip conditioning, traditionally a human-expert-intensive task governed by inaccessible tip apex conditions and uncertain action outcomes. We introduce quailbot, an agent harness that places the LLM inside the instrument feedback loop by linking physical interventions with experimental readbacks. After a brief apprenticeship with a human expert, frontier LLM agents autonomously completed end-to-end tip conditioning on an STM and passed an independent verification. The contingencies that arose during the experiments further exposed the limits of LLM agentic autonomy when relevant experimental states or dynamics were hidden or unmodeled. Our results show that future autonomous physical experimentation requires agents to infer hidden and unmodeled experimental states, track the outcomes of their actions, and operate within the observability and action limits of real instruments.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
16 pages, 4 figures, 1 table
Mobility-Gap Robustness and Středa-Hall Separation in Disordered Axion Pumping
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
We show that the noncommutative second Chern number of a $ (3+1)$ D disordered axion pump remains quantized beyond global spectral gap closure at $ W_g \approx 14.5$ . Large-scale computation of the second Chern number and finite-size scaling demonstrate convergence of $ \mathrm{Ch}2$ toward $ -1$ well into the mobility-gap regime ($ W \lesssim 16.5$ ), while the Středa-Hall response $ \partial\phi \mathrm{Ch}_{0,3}$ departs rapidly after global spectral gap closure, serving as an internal control that distinguishes bulk mobility-gap protection from finite-size artifacts. Level statistics identify a 3D unitary Anderson transition at each pump slice and locate the mobility-edge bottleneck at $ \tau=0$ , with critical disorder $ W_c \approx 18$ .
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
5 pages + supplemental material
THz-Driven Quantum Ionic Magnetism in a Quantum Paraelectric SrTiO3
New Submission | Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
In Hyeok Choi, Sergei Urazhdin, Man Tou Wong, Zi-Jie Liu, Keith A. Nelson
Magnetic moments carried by rotating ionic motion in crystals are becoming recognized as an important contribution to magnetism, angular momentum transport, and optical activity. However, efficient approaches to their dynamical control are lacking. Here, we report THz-driven generation and optical detection of quantum ionic magnetism in quantum paraelectric SrTiO3. We observe an oscillatory ionic magnetization without a corresponding oscillatory polarization, contradicting from the classical relation M~PXdP/dt while its suppression above the quantum paraelectric regime points to a quantum ionic origin. Analysis shows that this effect results from the beating between quantum ionic eigenstates whose degeneracy is lifted due to the directional symmetry breaking by the THz pulse. The presented approach provides a pathway for the ultrafast control of ionic magnetization in quantum materials for spintronic and thermotronic applications.
Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
Anisotropic upper critical field in the van der Waals superconducting quasicrystal (Ta${0.7}$Nb${0.3}$)$_{1.6}$Te
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Koki Kasai, Yuki Tokumoto, Taichi Terashima, Takako Konoike, Keiichi Edagawa
We investigated the upper critical field of a large single grain of the Nb-substituted van der Waals layered quasicrystal (Ta$ {0.7}$ Nb$ {0.3}$ )$ {1.6}$ Te. The sample exhibits a sharp superconducting transition at $ T{\mathrm{c}}$ = 1.35 K, the highest value reported to date among quasicrystal superconductors. The angular dependence of the critical field exhibits a pronounced criterion dependence: the field determined using the 10% $ R{\mathrm{N}}$ ($ R{\mathrm{N}}$ : normal-state resistance) criterion is well described by the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau model, whereas those determined using the 65% and 90% $ R_{\mathrm{N}}$ criteria exhibit Tinkham-like angular dependence characteristic of two-dimensional superconductivity. The high-field part of the resistive transition is well described by a surface-superconductivity model and exhibits a pronounced excitation-current dependence for magnetic fields close to the $ ab$ plane, supporting the presence of surface superconductivity on the quasiperiodic $ ab$ -plane surfaces. The bulk $ H_{\mathrm{c2}}$ is strongly anisotropic, with the in-plane $ H_{\mathrm{c2}}$ exceeding the weak-coupling Pauli limit by a factor of approximately 2.5. For both field orientations, $ H_{\mathrm{c2}}(T)$ deviates upward from the conventional dirty-limit Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg prediction at low temperatures. A phenomenologically modified Ginzburg-Landau-Abrikosov-Gorkov model incorporating a spatial distribution of the electronic diffusivity substantially improves the description of $ H_{\mathrm{c2}}(T)$ , suggesting that spatial variations in electronic transport properties may contribute to its anomalous temperature dependence.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Strain Engineering of the Topological Gap and Tunable Chern Numbers in the 2D Kagome Metal-Organic Framework Eu$_2$(C$_6$H$_4$)$_3$
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jiaxuan Guo, Simin Nie, Fritz B. Prinz
The quantum anomalous Hall effect carries dissipationless chiral edge currents without an external magnetic field, yet raising its operating temperature and controlling the number of edge channels remain difficult. Using first-principles calculations, we identify the two-dimensional metal-organic kagome ferromagnet Eu$ _2$ (C$ _6$ H$ _4$ )$ _3$ as an intrinsic Chern insulator whose topological gap can be enlarged by mechanical strain. The monolayer has a spin-orbit-coupling-induced gap of 72.7 meV that widens to 124.7 meV under -8% biaxial strain, realizing a quantum anomalous Hall phase with Chern number $ \mathcal{C}=-1$ and a single chiral edge state. The local moments come from the half-filled Eu $ 4f^{7}$ shell, while the gap-opening spin-orbit coupling is carried by Eu $ 5d$ states hybridized into the carbon kagome bands. The AB-stacked bilayer couples ferromagnetically and accumulates the per-layer Chern numbers, giving $ \mathcal{C}=-2$ with two co-propagating chiral channels. An out-of-plane electric field then drives the bilayer through a sequence of topological transitions among $ \mathcal{C}=-2$ , $ -3$ , and $ -1$ , switching the number of edge channels. Together, strain, stacking, and gating give three distinct handles on the gap and the Chern number within a single stoichiometric material.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Fractionation as a Tool to Control Mn/Al Site Mixing and Magnetism in CaMn_{2+x}Al_{10-x}
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Szymon Królak, Sushma Kumari, Sergey L. Bud’ko, Paul C. Canfield
We report single crystal growth and physical property characterization of CaMn_{2+x}Al_{10-x} crystals grown using a fractionation approach. Three consecutive batches were obtained from the same initial melt composition, systematically sampling neighboring, narrow regions of the ternary Ca-Mn-Al phase diagram. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements reveal Mn/Al site mixing, with the excess Mn concentration, x, decreasing systematically with decreasing decanting temperature. A low-temperature upturn in magnetization and a maximum in electrical resistivity both become progressively weaker with decreasing excess Mn content, suggesting that the previously reported magnetic properties attributed to stoichiometric CaMn_{2}Al_{10} instead arise from an inhomogeneous distribution of excess Mn atoms. More broadly, the results presented in this work demonstrate how fractionation can help distinguish intrinsic magnetic behavior from disorder-induced effects associated with an inhomogeneous distribution of magnetic ions in materials with a finite width of formation, particularly when itinerant magnetism is under consideration.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
14 pages, 10 figures
Physics-guided inverse design of Co-based superalloys using machine learning and multi-objective optimization for enhanced $γ’$ solvus temperature
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
The discovery of next-generation Co-based superalloys with improved high-temperature stability is hindered by the vast compositional design space and complex interactions among alloying elements governing gamma-prime phase stability. This study presents a physics-informed machine learning framework for the inverse design of Co-based superalloys with higher gamma-prime solvus temperature while accounting for alloy density. Four descriptors representing atomic size mismatch (delta-MV), mixing enthalpy (Delta-Hm), electronegativity mismatch (delta-EN), and valence electron concentration mismatch (delta-VEC) were used to characterize the chemistry governing phase stability. Regression algorithms were evaluated using leave-one-out cross-validation, with Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) achieving the best performance (R2 = 0.932, RMSE = 34.7 deg C, and MAE = 25.9 deg C). The probabilistic nature of GPR enabled uncertainty-aware Bayesian optimization for exploring the uncharted composition space. Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Genetic Algorithms were used to simultaneously increase gamma-prime solvus temperature and reduce alloy density. The optimization generated numerous previously unexplored Co-based alloy compositions, with predicted gamma-prime solvus temperatures of 1248-1353 deg C, including candidates approaching or exceeding the maximum value in the experimental dataset. Descriptor analysis identified atomic size mismatch and mixing enthalpy as key factors governing gamma-prime stability, while principal component analysis confirmed that the proposed alloys occupy chemically relevant descriptor regions. This physics-informed inverse design framework provides an efficient route for identifying high-performance Co-based superalloys and can be adapted to other advanced structural alloys.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
37 pages, 11 figures
Multigeometric Breathing Mode Framework for viruses
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Krish Bardhan, Charu Sharma, Shivansh Bhatnagar, Prafulla K Jha
The estimation of the breathing mode frequency for viral capsids remains a persistent challenge across literature which spawned various frameworks and methodologies. However, discrepancies were observed between the experimental Low Frequency Raman Scattering (LFRS) and calculated pre-existing values. To solve this discrepancy, we propose a framework which is developed to determine the breathing-mode frequency by modelling the virus as a macroscopic coupled harmonic oscillator. By integrating mass-loading directly into the classical elastodynamic equations, this model yields an analytical expression that couples the system’s total inertia with its specific geometry. Moreover, the viruses are segregated according to their geometries into three coordinates to acquire their respective geometric eigen values. Here we illustrate how the proposed Multigeometric Breathing mode Framework for Virus (MBFV) outperforms prior models by yielding closer values than the pre-existing frameworks upon validating against LFRS.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
29 pages, 10 figures
Uphill and downhill first passage of an active Brownian particle: Asymmetry and exact path reweighting
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Mykola Tasinkevych, Xuan My Le, Artem Ryabov
First passage processes in active systems combine stochastic transport with self-propulsion and orientational persistence, making motion along and against an external bias sensitive to the internal active dynamics. For passive biased diffusion, opposite exits can have different splitting probabilities while their conditional first passage time distributions remain identical. We study how this relation changes for an active Brownian particle driven by a constant external force between two absorbing boundaries. Self-propulsion breaks the equality of the uphill and downhill first passage time distributions and modifies the splitting probabilities. Nevertheless, the two directional path ensembles remain exactly related by spatial reflection, which pairs downhill and uphill first passage paths of the same duration while preserving their orientational history. The log-ratio of the probabilities of a path and its reflected partner defines a path-dependent asymmetry functional and provides an exact reweighting between the two ensembles. In the symmetric half-weighted representation, the uphill and downhill first passage time distributions coincide for arbitrary orientational persistence. The same path relation also allows rare uphill statistics to be reconstructed from the more frequently sampled downhill trajectories. Numerical simulations confirm the weighted equality across the explored bias and persistence regimes, while perturbative and asymptotic analyses clarify how orientational persistence produces the directional asymmetry of the unweighted statistics. The exact relation between the two directional path ensembles suggests that similar symmetry-based reconstruction protocols may be found in other nonequilibrium first-passage problems.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Investigation of Hopping Conduction and Its Impact on the Subthreshold and Transition Region Transport in Oxide Semiconductor Transistors by Magneto-Transport Measurements
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Chen Wang, Liankai Zheng, Kai Jiang, Jinxiu Zhao, Zhenyu Zhang, Xuefei Li, Mengwei Si
In this work, magneto-transport measurements, including Hall effects and magnetoresistance (MR) at various temperatures, are employed to directly probe the electron transport properties in crystalline indium oxide (In2O3) and amorphous indium-zinc oxide (IZO) transistors. For the first time, we develop a subgap density of states (DOS) extraction method based on the MR measurements at low temperature, considering both the interference and orbital shrinkage effects. The sign and magnitude of MR are used as direct evidence to distinguish the dominating transport mechanisms between hopping conduction and free-electron conduction. It is found that crystalline In2O3 exhibits a subgap DOS more than two orders of magnitude lower than that of amorphous IZO, together with a smaller localization radius of hopping sites. As a result, crystalline In2O3 not only enhances the carrier mobility but also significantly reduces the supply voltage (VDD) because of the smaller transition region enabled by the much-suppressed subgap DOS. This study reveals that structural disorder critically influences the device operation in the subthreshold and transition regions of oxide semiconductor transistors.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Spurious spin nutation modes arising from truncated memory effects
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Markus Weißenhofer, Ritwik Mondal, M. S. Mrudul, Peter M. Oppeneer
Spin dynamics is conventionally treated as inertia-free. The inertial Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (iLLG) extends this with a second-order time derivative, predicting a high-frequency nutational mode that recent experiments have claimed to observe and interpreted as direct evidence for spin inertia. We show that when spin inertia is generated by eliminating additional dynamical degrees of freedom, the resulting exact spin-only description is generally non-Markovian. The iLLG is recovered as the low-frequency, second-order truncation of the underlying memory kernel. Using a minimal spin–cavity model, we show that the exact eigenfrequencies and those obtained via the iLLG differ and that the spin nutation mode predicted by the latter is a truncation-induced high-frequency artifact. This raises a broader question of the applicability of the iLLG obtained from analogous low-frequency truncations, which may likewise generate spurious high-frequency roots. Consequently, agreement of a high-frequency spectral feature with the iLLG nutation frequency does not, by itself, establish a physical nutation mode.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Ultrastrong coupling of topologically protected edge and bulk magnetoplasmons without a dedicated cavity
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
F. Velli, P. Sai, M. Dub, J. Dzian, F. Le Mardele, M. Mittendorff, M. Orlita, W. Knap, C. Lange
In the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime, the ability to confine the electric field to subwavelength scales and define an electromagnetic mode is essential. This task is typically achieved through dedicated cavities, such as THz metal resonators. Here, we instead introduce ultrastrong coupling directly between distinct magnetoplasmon excitations, leveraging solely the spatial symmetry of a confined electronic medium in the presence of a magnetic field. By patterning an AlGaN/GaN single quantum well hosting a two-dimensional electron gas into micrometer-scale patches, we tailor the mutual interactions between topologically protected edge and bulk magnetoplasmons, achieving coupling strengths of up to 0.1. The progressive breaking of rotational symmetry determines the coupling rules and leads to the emergence of energy gaps and unique chiral-mode hybridization. Our results highlight a path towards exploiting the symmetry class and topology of the magnetoplasmon wavefunction as a new parameter space for ultrastrong light-matter interaction without a dedicated cavity.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
22 pages, 9 figures
Tough and high-temperature stable nacre-like Bi4Ti3O12-based piezoceramics
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Ruxue Yang, Temesgen Tadeyos Zate, Elo Overgaard Mogensen, Astri Bjørnetun Haugen, Florian Bouville
Bi4Ti3O12-based ceramics are promising candidates for high-temperature piezoelectric devices owing to their high Curie temperature (> 600 °C). However, their low piezoelectric constants and poor mechanical reliability hinder their use in some engineering applications. Here, we fabricate nacre-like <00l>-textured (f_00l > 94%) Bi3.96Ce0.04Ti2.965W0.0175Nb0.0175O12 (NL-BCWNT) ceramics via a scalable magnetic-assisted slip casting (MASC) self-assembly process. In addition to crystallographic texture, the final material presents a brick-and-mortar microstructure with micro-sized grains with a median aspect ratio of 15. NL-BCWNT exhibits a high fracture toughness for piezoceramics, with both $ K_{IC}$ and $ K_J$ reaching 2.2 $ \pm$ 0.4 $ MPa \cdot m^{0.5}$ and 4.2 $ \pm$ 0.4 $ MPa \cdot m^{0.5}$ , respectively. The toughening originates from deflection and stable crack propagation within the nacre-like structure. The $ d_{33}$ is 30 $ \pm$ 3 $ pC/N$ with a Curie temperature of 661$ °C$ , and $ d_{33}^\ast$ reaches 46 $ \pm$ 3 $ pm/V$ at 160 $ ° C$ with less remanent strain than random BCWNT. The improvements are attributed to aligned domain along spontaneous polarization direction
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Emergence of Chiral Dynamical Multiferroicity in a Ferroelectric Lattice Nonadiabatically Driven by Ultrafast Achiral Electric Fields
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Chuanbao Zhang, Zhizhong Ding, Ping Cui, Zhenyu Zhang
It has been shown recently that chiral dynamical multiferroicity can be generated on a ferroelectric lattice whose electric dipoles respond masslessly under chiral optical pumping. Here we demonstrate that, when driven by ultrafast electric pulses, chiral dynamical multiferroicity can also emerge even in situations where the external field is achiral. We reveal this striking phenomenon using a prototypical system of a BaTiO$ _3$ moiré ferroelectric lattice, emphasizing the key factor that its chiral electric dipoles inevitably behave massively upon ultrafast driving. At a deeper level, the massive nature is attributed to the anisotropic and nonadiabatic dipolar responses, as captured by the phase difference between the faster longitudinal and slower transverse components of the ferroelectric polarization. Crucially, such a phase difference naturally also gives rise to dynamical magnetization, which exhibits chiral magnetic textures with monopole-like topology coexisting with the ferroelectric chirality. These findings establish the dipolar mass as an enabling and tunable degree of freedom in inducing chiral dynamical multiferroicity, offering new avenues for ultrafast, non-contact magnetic control using pure electric probes.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Observation of the orbital Nernst effect
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Yuto Masuda, Takamasa Hirai, Daegeun Jo, Naoki Yano, Peter M. Oppeneer, Hossein Sepehri-Amin, Ken-ichi Uchida, Kazuya Ando
The Nernst effect, which converts a temperature gradient into a transverse charge current, is fundamental to thermoelectrics. Its spin analogue, the spin Nernst effect, enables thermal generation of transverse spin currents and is central to spin caloritronics. Recently, the discovery of orbital currents, the orbital counterpart of spin currents, has extended angular-momentum transport beyond spin, leading to the prediction of the orbital Nernst effect, in which a temperature gradient drives a transverse orbital current. However, experimental evidence for this effect has been lacking. Here, we report the observation of the orbital Nernst effect in Ti. Using Ni electrodes on Ti, we detect a thermally induced voltage that depends on the magnetization direction and scales linearly with the temperature gradient. This voltage is strongly suppressed both when Ni is replaced with Ni$ _{81}$ Fe$ _{19}$ and when Ti is replaced with Cr, providing strong evidence that the signal originates from the orbital Nernst effect rather than the anomalous Nernst or spin Nernst effect. These results establish thermally driven orbital transport, opening a pathway toward orbital caloritronics.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
High-Throughput Photovoltaic Screening and Spacer-Dependent Shift Current in Two-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskites
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Vikrant Chaudhary, Fu Li, Yue Zhao, José A. Márquez, Wei Xie, Claudia Draxl, Zhihua Sun, Hongbin Zhang
High-throughput first-principles screening of structurally diverse two-dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (2D HOIPs) provides a route to systematically explore their photovoltaic properties. Here, we develop a computational workflow with two distinct objectives: spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency (SLME) screening to identify materials with promising photovoltaic potential and nonlinear shift current calculations to characterize their bulk photovoltaic response. Applying this workflow to a curated dataset of experimentally reported 2D HOIPs, we identify more than 25 compounds with SLME values above 25% and more than 25 compounds exhibiting shift current responses exceeding 10~$ \mu$ A/V$ ^2$ . We then focus on the Pb-I-based 2D HOIPs with $ n=1$ to investigate the influence of spacer chemistry on the shift current response, revealing substantial spacer-dependent variations in both its magnitude and spectral peak position. Overall, these results highlight the potential of high-throughput first-principles calculations to accelerate the discovery of experimentally relevant 2D HOIPs with promising photovoltaic properties while revealing how organic spacer chemistry influences their nonlinear shift photocurrent response.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Asymmetric magnetoresistance in 3$d$-5$d$ based La${0.67}$Ca${0.33}$MnO$_3$/SrIrO$_3$ bilayer: The role of unidirectional anisotropy
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
A. G. A. Rahman, Subham Naskar, R. K. Patel, S. Manna, Chandrani Nath, Kranti Kumar, A. K. Pramanik
The complex interplay between spin-orbit coupling, magnetism, and magnetic field at the interface of a heterostructure consisting of ferromagnet (FM) and heavy metal (HM), often exhibit extraordinary magnetic and electric phenomena where an in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction plays a crucial role to stabilize local spin texture in FM layer. Here, we report detailed magnetic and magneto-transport behaviour on an epitaxially grown thin heterostructure with 3$ d$ FM La$ _{0.67}$ Ca$ _{0.33}$ MnO$ _3$ (LCMO) and 5$ d$ HM SrIrO$ _3$ (SIO). Magnetic measurements show an unusual development of magnetic ordering in SrIrO3 around 42 K, which further leads to a Mn/Ir magnetic coupling at the interface. The magnetoresistance (MR) measurements show an evolution of its value and shape with the magnetic state of this bilayer. While MR is negative at high temperature, it shows a positive to negative crossover with stable magnetic ordering of LCMO, and finally the positive MR exhibits an asymmetry at low temperature with the ordering of SIO. While we ascribe this unusual MR behaviour to interface-driven varying spin scattering between itinerant and localized electrons, our results shed a light to comprehend the complex but tunable interface behavior on charge transport in a particularly designed heterostructure, offering valuable insights for future functional material engineering.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
10 pages, 7 figures
ACS Appl. Electron. Mater. 8, 7301 (2026)
Charge and spin qubits in interacting quantum dots coupled to Rashba-active leads
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Grazia Di Bello, Fabrizio Pavan, Mattia Trama, Roberta Citro, Giulio De Filippis, Carmine Antonio Perroni
We present a unified study of charge and spin qubits encoded in a single interacting quantum dot tunnel-coupled to Rashba fermionic leads. The dot is described by an Anderson impurity Hamiltonian with either repulsive or attractive local interactions and a magnetic field of arbitrary orientation. In the repulsive regime, a spin qubit is encoded in the singly occupied spin sector, whereas in the attractive regime, close to the degeneracy between the empty and doubly occupied configurations, these two states define a charge-qubit subspace. We combine a weak-coupling Lindblad master equation in the Markovian secular limit with numerically controlled matrix-product-state simulations of the full dot-reservoir system. In equilibrium, we identify magnetic pair breaking in the attractive regime and a weak Rashba-induced magnetic anisotropy when the magnetic field is rotated relative to the spin-orbit axis. In the dynamical regime, relaxation and decoherence are controlled by the energetic gap between the logical manifold and nearby leakage states, and are further enhanced by Rashba-dependent tunneling. These findings show that even a minimal Anderson-impurity description captures key ingredients for coherent spin and charge qubits: the energetic structure of leakage states and spin-orbit-dependent dot-lead hybridization.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
10 pages and 8 figures in main text, 6 pages and 3 figures in the Appendices
Direct observation of the electronic structure of even-layer puckered SnTe monolayer films on graphene
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Satoru Ichinokura, Shunsuke Tsuda, Kiyohisa Tanaka, Koichiro Yaji
We report a direct observation of the electronic structure of monolayer SnTe on graphene by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. By combining low-energy electron diffraction, momentum microscopy, core-level spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations, we show that the observed monolayer-limit electronic structure is consistent with a puckered even-layer biatomic-layer building block rather than a nonpuckered square-flat structure. The observed band dispersion and its polarization dependence are reproduced by a puckered structure with a substrate-renormalized buckling amplitude. We further show that graphene actively interacts with ultrathin SnTe by selecting its in-plane orientational texture, renormalizing the buckling amplitude, and modifying the local interfacial electrostatic environment in the monolayer limit. In comparison, multilayer SnTe exhibits a more ringlike momentum-space distribution, interlayer-split valence bands, and a stronger p-type character, revealing the onset of thickness evolution from an interface-stabilized puckered ultrathin limit toward a more bulklike state.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Phys. Rev. B 114, 165408 (2026)
Multiscale Entropies as Order Parameters for Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
We develop a multiscale entropy framework based on the wavelet conditional renormalization group that decomposes the total Shannon entropy into contributions from different spatial scales. Generative modeling enables accurate estimation of these entropies from configurations or snapshots, even in nonequilibrium systems whose underlying probability distributions are unknown. Applications to the equilibrium $ \varphi^4$ model and nonequilibrium active Model B+ show that multiscale entropies reveal criticality and spatial organization obscured in the total entropy. These entropies serve as scale-dependent order parameters for characterizing phase transitions and pattern formation.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
Aharonov-Bohm interference probing of chiral Andreev edge states via scanning gate microscopy
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
We theoretically investigate the spatial response of chiral Andreev edge states at a quantum Hall-superconductor interface probed by scanning gate microscopy. Using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism, we demonstrate that the localized potential of the scanning gate tip decouples the chiral Andreev edge states from the superconductor into independent electron and hole paths. In the $ \nu=2$ regime, this local separation forces the quasiparticles to accumulate a relative magnetic phase in the normal region, resulting in Aharonov-Bohm-type conductance oscillations that are captured by a geometric analytical model. At higher filling factors (e.g., $ \nu=4$ ), the tip progressively interacts with spatially distinct edge channels, dynamically altering the Andreev-induced mode mixing and modifying the transport resonances. Furthermore, we show that these highly localized interferometric signatures survive in the presence of disorder, even when conventional non-local transport oscillations are masked.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Resonantly Enhanced Multiphonon Scattering and Local Orbital-Phonon Coupling in Bulk and Thin Flakes of 2D Single Crystals of Antiferromagnetic (NixFe1-x)2P2S6
New Submission | Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Nasaru Khan, Miłosz Rybak, Yuliia Shemerliuk, Sebastian Selter, Bernd Büchner, Saicharan Aswartham, Krzysztof Wohlfeld, Pradeep Kumar
Orbital degrees of freedom play a pivotal role in shaping the physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals magnetic systems, strongly influencing electron-phonon coupling and intermediate-state dynamics. In this study, we present a comprehensive temperature and thickness-dependent Raman investigation of the single crystals of 2D van der Waals antiferromagnetic series (NixFe1-x)2P2S6. Utilizing Raman spectroscopy, we explore the interplay between local orbital excitations and lattice vibrations, observing higher-order phonon modes extending up to the fourth order. We observe an anomalously high and weakly temperature-dependent intensity ratio of these higher-order modes relative to low-energy first-order phonons. Theoretical cluster calculations and Franck-Condon modelling reveal that these features originate from resonantly enhanced multiphonon scattering mediated by localized intermediate Ni 3d8 multiplet excitations. The local orbital occupancy of these intermediate states couples strongly to lattice coordinates, providing a selective enhancement mechanism for specific phonon channels. Notably, these higher-order features are absent in the end-member Fe2P2S6. This distinction reflects the charge-transfer character of Ni2P2S6, which places optical transitions in resonance with local multiplet states, contrasted with the Mott-Hubbard insulator regime in Fe-rich analogues. Our findings clarify the microscopic origin of high-frequency Raman scattering in transition metal thiophosphates and underscore the central role of local orbital-phonon interactions in 2D correlated magnets.
Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
Non-Hermitian engineering of superfluidity in a Rashba spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Pingcheng Zhu, Lihong Zhou, Jianxin Zhong
We investigate superfluid pairing in a two-dimensional Rashba spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas subject to spin-selective one-body loss. Within the non-Hermitian mean-field framework, we self- consistently solve the gap and number equations and find that moderate dissipation can significantly enhance the pairing gap, resulting in a pronounced nonmonotonic dependence on the dissipation strength. Dissipation also provides an additional control parameter for driving the system across the BCS-BEC crossover. We further analyze the quasi-particle spectrum and identify two distinct superfluid regimes characterized by one and three exceptional rings, separated by an exceptional spectral transition. Interestingly, dissipation can enhance both pairing channels while simultaneously inducing a momentum-dependent phase twist in the triplet component. These results demonstrate that spin-selective dissipation provides a versatile non-Hermitian control knob for manipulating superfluid pairing, spectral structure, and crossover physics in spin-orbit-coupled quantum gases.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
7 pages, 7 figures
Movable seams in root-of-unity XXZ chains: Relative flux classes and antiunitary spectral pairing
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Boliang Yu, Ruixin Zhou, Meisen Gao
Starting from the cyclic duality tensors introduced by Vernier, Miao, and Yamazaki (VMY), whose endpoint-traced matrix-product operators obey $ \mathbb Z_N$ Tambara–Yamagami fusion and realize topological defect lines of the compactified-boson conformal field theory, we retain the virtual endpoint as an $ N$ -state dynamical degree of freedom and construct an exactly movable seam in the spin-$ \tfrac12$ XXZ chain at $ q=\mathrm e^{\mathrm i\pi M/N}$ with $ \gcd(M,N)=1$ . The local movement identity holds for any unitary $ q$ -Weyl pair; in the finite cyclic realization, all output phases are locally gauge equivalent and share the same four seam eigenvalues. On a ring, the output gauge becomes a directed twist on a single bond, while endpoint conjugacy reduces the $ 2N$ labels to two relative $ \mathbb Z_2$ flux classes. An explicit antiunitary symmetry protects the class $ \eta\equiv M-1\pmod 2$ : for even $ N$ it pairs distinct charge sectors isospectrally, whereas for odd $ N$ it fixes one sector and squares to $ -I$ there. Hence every many-body energy eigenspace in the protected class has even multiplicity. The source value $ \eta_{\rm VMY}=1-M$ satisfies this condition for every coprime root, whereas the ungauged value $ \eta=0$ does so only for odd $ M$ . Exact finite-size controls show that the opposite class can contain simple levels, so a global flux invisible to local gauge equivalence distinguishes the two classes spectrally.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
23 pages, 4 figures
Insight into ordering at nematic twist-bend interfaces
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Szymon Drzazga, Piotr Kubala, Lech Longa
Twist-bend nematics formed by achiral particles support heliconical domains of opposite handedness. Using Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations of repulsive bent particles, we study the interface between two such domains. Rather than a gradually untwisting texture, we find a density-modulated splay-bend-twist structure. The density modulation is along the helix axis with a period of approximately half the bulk pitch, while the twist is locally enhanced in magnitude, alternates in sign, and vanishes only on an undulating surface. An explicit director interpolation shows how gradients along the helix axis and across the interface combine to produce an undulating zero-twist surface.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
9 pages, 6 figures, supplementary material
SoLiD26: A First Principles Solid-Liquid Interface Dataset for Machine-learned Interatomic Potentials
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jonas Busk, Emil J. P. Frost, Yogeshwaran Krishnan, Henrik H. Kristoffersen, August E. G. Mikkelsen, Xueping Qin, Xin Yang, Heine A. Hansen, Arghya Bhowmik, Tejs Vegge
Machine-learned interatomic potentials (MLIPs) for solid-liquid interfaces in advanced materials applications, e.g., electrochemistry, catalysis and corrosion, require training data that samples both liquid environments, the solid and the interface itself. We present SoLiD26, a curated solid-liquid interface dataset, containing 15.4 million first-principles atomic structures with up to 576 atoms and 15 chemical elements for training and evaluating MLIPs. The structures were compiled from density functional theory (DFT) calculations performed in studies of solid-liquid interfaces, with most configurations originating from ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. Each record contains atomic species, positions, simulation cell, periodic boundary conditions, potential energy and atomic forces. SoLiD26 includes aqueous coinage metal interfaces, electrode-electrolyte systems, and selected bulk reference structures, calculated with VASP using the PBE functional and D3 dispersion corrections. We describe the data ingestion and preparation pipeline used to construct the dataset. The application of SoLiD26 for training and evaluating MLIPs is demonstrated with a suite of MACE models on a simple training, validation and test split. The dataset enables development and benchmarking of MLIPs for structurally and chemically heterogeneous solid-liquid interfaces.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Machine Learning (cs.LG), Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
Correlated quasiperiodicity enables efficient thermoelectric energy conversion
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Swaraj Biswas, Santanu K. Maiti
We investigate a route to enhanced thermoelectric energy conversion in nanoscale systems by exploiting a correlated quasiperiodic energy landscape in a one-dimensional chain coupled to source and drain reservoirs. The considered modulation generates a highly non-uniform electronic transmission spectrum, providing favorable conditions for achieving a large thermoelectric figure of merit. By systematically tuning the incommensurability parameter, a variety of quasiperiodic configurations are explored, several of which yield high values of the figure of merit exceeding $ 2$ . Electronic transport properties are evaluated within a tight-binding framework using the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism, while the thermoelectric coefficients, including electrical conductance, Seebeck coefficient, and electronic thermal conductance, are determined through the Landauer approach. The underlying quasiperiodic potential belongs to the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) family and exhibits a weakly varying spatial profile, leading to transmission characteristics that are favorable for thermoelectric optimization. The influence of phonon thermal conductance on the overall energy-conversion efficiency is also analyzed in detail. For the sake of completeness, we also critically inspect the effect of conductor to electrode coupling and the coupling asymmetry on $ ZT$ . We also check the thermoelectric response of conventional AAH system and an elaborate comparison is made with our chosen quantum system. Our findings highlight the potential of correlated quasiperiodic nanostructures as promising candidates for efficient thermoelectric applications.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
13 pages, 13 figures (will appear in Journal of Applied Physics)
Nonabelian vortices: From topological strings to nonvolatile memory
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Chau Dao, Eric Kleinherbers, Yaroslav Tserkovnyak
We investigate the topological classification and properties of nonabelian vortices that arise in a 2-dimensional film of a two-component condensate. For a repulsive interaction between the condensates, we realize an order parameter in the ordered configuration space of three complex numbers $ \mathcal C_3(\mathbb C)$ . Analyzing the homotopic properties, we find the emergence of elementary nonabelian vortex-antivortex pairs connected by energetic strings that are rooted in the repulsive interaction and carry the nonabelian information. Moreover, we predict the existence of Brunnian vortices, which are textures exhibiting zero net winding of the condensate phases and can only be detected by a higher-order winding number. Finally, to motivate technological applications rooted in nonabelian vortex transport, we devise a nonvolatile memory storage device that encodes topologically robust information.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
8 pages, 4 figures
Theory of optical alignment and orientation of excitons in an ensemble of semiconductor nanoplatelets
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
O. O. Druzhinina, A. V. Rodina
We present the theory of exciton optical alignment and optical orientation effects in a single semiconductor nanoplatelet (NPL) and in an ensemble of NPLs. The theoretical model is developed to take into account the emission from both bright and dark exciton states in the case of strong electron-hole exchange interaction and an isotropic distribution of in-plane orientations of the NPLs’ edges with respect to the linear polarization axis. The conditions for the linear optical response regime on the polarized resonant excitation of the bright exciton are considered, and the steady-state and time-dependent expressions for polarized photoluminescence are presented for the low temperature case in the Faraday magnetic field at normal incidence. The symmetry of the obtained optical response corresponds to the $ C_{2}$ point group for the single NPL and the $ C_{\infty}$ point group for the NPL ensemble. The bright-to-dark exciton coupling mechanism allowing one to observe the optical alignment of the dark exciton is considered. The example calculations of the effects are presented for the parameters close to those of CdSe/CdS core/shell NPLs. The effect of the fluctuations in the exciton parameters in the ensemble on the polarization dephasing in the transverse effective magnetic field is demonstrated.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Achieving 5-angstrom-resolution diffraction contrast with an uncorrected electron probe and nanosized defect characterizations
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Yao Li, Austin C. Houston, Ziang Yu, Zehui Qi, Siwei Chen, Yajie Zhao, Sung Joo Kim, Steven J. Zinkle, Gerd Duscher, Blas P. Uberuaga, Benjamin K. Derby
Atomic-resolution micrographs remain limited in application due to small field of view and low numbers of recorded defects. Defect imaging with reliable statistics in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) relies heavily on diffraction contrast. However, with 200-300 kV electrons, low-curvature Ewald sphere limits diffraction resolution at ~5 nm. Here, we imaged defects with a forbidden condition in TEM and improved the resolution in diffraction contrast from 5 to 0.5 nm. The superiority of our equal-s method is demonstrated by the discovery of a novel phase and dislocation loop structure in steels, which have not been previously reported experimentally or theoretically. Our equal-s can largely replace the classical two-beam condition for defect study.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Position-dependent friction in protein folding from a GLE derived with a non-stationary localized projection distribution
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Salma Salem, Lucas Tepper, Benjamin J. A. Héry, Henrik Kiefer, David D. Girardier, Roland R. Netz
The Generalized Langevin Equation (GLE) is an integro-differential equation of motion for a general observable of a many-body system and is rigorously derived using the projection operator formalism. In the standard derivation, a stationary canonical phase space distribution is used for the projection. Here, we derive a novel class of GLEs using a non-stationary projection distribution that constrains the initial ensemble to a hypersurface in phase space on which the observable has a fixed value $ A_0$ . As a result, all GLE parameters, and in particular the memory friction kernel, depend on $ A_0$ and can be extracted from short simulations that do not sample the entire phase space. Applying this non-stationary GLE to protein folding trajectories, we find for villin and an $ \alpha$ -helical poly-alanine segment that the total friction is higher in the folded state. These results demonstrate that observable-dependent friction effects are non-negligible and can be accounted for using non-stationary GLEs derived by constrained projection schemes.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
15 pages, 6 figures
Active Self-Consistent Field Theory for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Polymers
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Yuliang Huang, Chun-Lai Ren, Qiyun Tang
We develop an active self-consistent field theory (ASCFT) for studying the steady-state behavior of active Ornstein–Uhlenbeck polymers. Starting from the stochastic equations of motion under the unified colored noise approximation, we derive an effective Hamiltonian that extends the classical polymer field theory to non-equilibrium systems. The resulting free energy functional incorporates both the Flory–Huggins interaction parameter $ \chi N$ and the persistence time $ \tau$ of the active noise, enabling a unified description of thermodynamic and activity-driven effects. To solve the governing equations, we implement a stable implicit-explicit numerical scheme that handles the fourth-order term induced by activity. Our simulations reveal that increasing activity suppresses microphase separation, with the density modulation amplitude decaying as $ \Delta\phi \propto \tau^{-1/2}$ for large $ \tau$ . This scaling is independent of copolymer composition and is confirmed by an asymptotic analysis of the free energy functional in the large-$ \tau$ limit. The ASCFT framework provides a new theoretical tool for predicting and designing the non-equilibrium morphologies of active polymer systems, bridging the gap between traditional self-consistent field theory and active matter physics.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Helical Anomaly from Concurrent $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Topology in an Acoustic Semimetal
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Hou-Yin Li, Hua-Shan Lai, Jian-Lan Xie, Xiao-Chen Sun, Yan-Feng Chen, Cheng He
Topological classification constitutes a cornerstone of modern condensed-matter physics. Historically, topological systems have been predominantly characterized by invariants confined to a single topological class, such as topological insulators with a $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant and Weyl semimetals with an integer ($ \mathbb{Z}$ ) topological charge. While such classification frameworks in principle permit gapless phases in which bulk and boundary degeneracies are protected by distinct invariants, this regime has received limited focused attention, as coordinating the requisite symmetries within a single band structure is highly nontrivial. Here, we realize such concurrent $ \mathbb{Z}$ and $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ topology in a two-dimensional acoustic semimetal, revealing pseudospin-selective topological bulk modes arising from the interplay between these distinct invariants, termed helical anomaly bulk states (HABSs). Our lattice design exploits layer, sublattice, and gauge-staggered degrees of freedom, enabling modular control of effective time-reversal, chiral, and particle-hole symmetries. The resulting system exhibits bulk degeneracies protected by an integer $ \mathbb{Z}$ invariant and Kramers-like boundary degeneracies protected by a $ \mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant, forming twisted boundary arcs. Crucially, finite-size systems manifest helical or anti-helical edge states coexisting with HABSs, a distinctive signature absent in single-invariant topologies. Our results establish HABSs as a characteristic signature of concurrent topology and demonstrate a new regime where bulk and boundary invariants jointly govern topological transport beyond conventional single-class frameworks.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Optimal Evasion from a Resetting Searcher
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Ami Taitelbaum, Matan Shporer, Shlomi Reuveni, Michael Assaf
Returning to a familiar location can help a searcher find its target—but how should the target move to avoid being found? We address this question for a resetting Brownian searcher and a mobile target fluctuating around a home location. Keeping the target’s typical exploration range fixed, we find that the mean capture time is maximized at an intermediate correlation time: rapid motion promotes encounters, whereas slow motion leaves the target effectively stationary. Between these extremes, persistent excursions away from the searcher’s reset point can substantially delay capture. Analytical limiting results explain this optimum, while numerical solutions reveal an approximately linear relation between the maximal mean capture time and the optimal correlation time across many decades. These findings identify temporal correlations as a resource for evasion, allowing a target to prolong survival by changing how it moves rather than where it roams.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph), Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)
6 pages, 4 figures
Universal splitting of nonequilibrium phase transitions in driven Potts heat engines
New Submission | Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Vitória T. Henkes, Gustavo A. L. Forão, Andre C. Barato, Carlos E. Fiore
We investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions and thermodynamic properties of driven Potts models coupled to two thermal reservoirs at different temperatures. The interplay with the multi-state structure of the Potts model leads to distinct phase-transition scenarios. The proposed driving scheme breaks the symmetry between the Potts states and gives rise to multiple transitions within the ordered phases, where the phases are characterized by different numbers of stable fixed points. This number can vary from $ q$ fixed points to $ 1$ fixed point, corresponding to $ q-1$ distinct transitions. The driving scheme strongly affects the thermodynamic operation regimes, allowing the system to operate as a heat engine. We demonstrate that these phenomena persist for both a mean-field (MF) model and a two-dimensional model, confirming the robustness of the results with respect to dimensionality. For the MF case, we also develop a phenomenological description in the strongly ordered regime that yields analytical expressions for the power, heat currents, and efficiency. Our results show how multi-state collective interactions, nonequilibrium driving, and thermal bias jointly generate a rich phase structure and the emergence of a collective heat engine.
Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
8 pages, 9 figures
Compositionally Engineered Non-Equimolar LaCoO$_3$-Based High-Entropy Perovskites with Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Jitendra Kumar, David Bérardan, Diana Dragoe, Nita Dragoe, Ashutosh Kumar
The decoupling of phonon and electron transport remains a central challenge in the development of high-performance TE materials. Configurational-entropy maximization is widely invoked as a design principle for decoupling phonon and electron transport. This study investigates compositionally engineered LaCoO$ _3$ -based high-entropy perovskites to determine whether thermoelectric transport can be improved by tuning cation identity and concentration rather than maximizing configurational entropy. La$ _{1-x}$ Sr$ _x$ (CoFeMnCrNi)O$ _3$ ($ x=0.0$ –$ 0.2$ ) and selected non-equimolar A- and B-site perovskite compositions were prepared by solid-state reaction. The obtained samples are predominantly single-phase, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement, consistent with the calculated size-disorder parameters. Multication disorder introduces substantial mass and strain-field fluctuations that promote phonon scattering. All samples exhibit p-type, thermally activated electrical transport consistent with adiabatic SPH. Sr substitution progressively reduces the hopping barrier and $ \rho$ , whereas non-equimolar B-site engineering partially recovers electrical transport while retaining low k. La$ _{0.9}$ Sr$ _{0.1}$ Co$ _{0.4}$ Cr$ _{0.3}$ Ni$ _{0.1}$ Fe$ _{0.1}$ Mn$ _{0.1}$ O$ _3$ , featuring a Co-rich and Cr-rich B-site composition, combines Co-associated mixed valence and spin-state degeneracy that sustain a large alpha with Cr-mediated control of carrier concentration and a reduced polaron hopping barrier of 0.19eV. This composition achieves a power factor of 40–43 $ \mu$ W/(m K$ ^2$ ) and a $ zT\sim0.072$ at 1100K, approximately 2.7 times that of its equimolar analogue. These results demonstrate that targeted cation chemistry and mass contrast, rather than configurational-entropy maximization alone, provide an effective strategy for balancing electronic and phonon transport in multicomponent oxide TE.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
17 Pages, 10 Figures, 3 Tables
Rank-One Signal Recovery in Sparse Wishart Noise
New Submission | Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Preben Forer, Urte Adomaityte, Pierpaolo Vivo
We study the high-dimensional recovery of a signal vector $ \mathbf{x}$ in the presence of sparse Wishart-like noise. We define an $ N \times N$ matrix $ A = J+(\theta/N)\mathbf{xx}^{\top}$ , where $ \mathbf{xx}^{\top}$ is the rank-one deformation of the random noise matrix $ J$ . We consider a Wishart-like matrix $ J={X}^{\top} X$ , where $ X$ is a sparse $ M \times N$ random matrix with entries $ X_{ij} = c_{ij}W_{ij}$ , with $ c_{ij}$ regulating the density of non-zero elements, and $ W_{ij}$ the bond weights. Using the replica method, we compute analytically the top eigenpair statistics of $ A$ , and their dependence on the signal strength $ \theta$ , the rectangularity ratio $ \alpha=\sqrt{M/N}$ , and the average connectivity of the noise. The spectral observables are expressed in terms of a system of Recursive Distributional Equations, which are efficiently solved via a Population Dynamics algorithm. They allow us to compute the average largest eigenvalue $ \langle\lambda_1\rangle_{A}$ , the average top eigenvector component density, and the average overlap between the top eigenvector of $ A$ and $ \mathbf{x}$ . We identify a critical threshold $ \theta_{\mathrm{crit}}$ –depending on the average connectivity of the noise–that marks a BBP-like phase transition: below this value, $ \langle\lambda_1\rangle_{A}$ is unaffected by the signal, and the overlap vanishes. Thus, the signal is not recoverable from the top eigenvector of $ A$ . For $ \theta>\theta_{\mathrm{crit}}$ , the signal-related outlier eigenvalue becomes $ \langle\lambda_1\rangle_{A}$ and the overlap is nonzero, allowing for recovery of the signal. The results are in excellent agreement with numerical diagonalisation. We show that in the dense limit, the recovery threshold and eigen-statistics converge to the results predicted by the classical BBP transition for additive rank-one deformations of dense Wishart matrices.
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Machine Learning (stat.ML)
60 pages, 9 figures
Quantum dynamics of spinful impurity in ideal Bose gas
New Submission | Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
We discuss the quench dynamics of an isolated system composed of a single spinful impurity in the transverse Rabi field and bath of non-interacting three- and two-dimensional bosons. Specifically, we consider the evolution of bosons and a spin-$ \frac{1}{2}$ particle, initially prepared in a Bose-Einstein condensate state and a magnetic ground state, respectively, with the spin-dependent contact boson-impurity interaction switched on. Applying an original mean-field-like approximation, which naturally reflects the statistical effects of the bosonic bath, we calculate time-dependent components of the average impurity spin and the overlap of the wave function between initial and arbitrary time moments. A key prediction is a substantial speed-up in the decoherence (thermalization) dynamics of the spin degree of freedom compared to results obtained with the Chevy-like ansatz.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
9 pages, 10 figures; comments and missed references welcome
State-Resolved Integral of First-Passage Times for Multi-Site Polymer Adsorption
New Submission | Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Understanding the interfacial structure of multi-site polymer adsorption is critical for the rational design of functional nanomaterials. However, the distribution of chains attached via one, two, or more anchor points has remained inaccessible to experiments and conventional simulations. Experiments typically measure ensemble averages such as total adsorbed mass, while molecular dynamics simulations are limited to timescales far shorter than the relevant adsorption processes. To address this challenge, we introduce the State-Resolved Integral of First-Passage Times (SR-IFS) method. This approach decouples fast intra-layer conformational adjustments from the slow kinetics of external chain exchange, enabling quantitative prediction of the time-dependent distribution of attachment states ($ p_1$ , $ p_2$ , $ p_3$ ) within a multi-site adsorbed layer. Using 3-arm star-like polymers as a model system, we show that the interfacial state distribution evolves from an initial prevalence of three-point attachments to a more heterogeneous mixture over long time scales, and that the equilibrium distribution can be systematically tuned by adjusting the monomer binding energy. The SR-IFS method provides access to this state-resolved information, offering a connection between microscopic kinetics and macroscopic interfacial properties.
Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
Local time-reversal-invariant topological markers in two dimensions
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Thomas Klein Kvorning, Miguel F. Martínez, Julia D. Hannukainen
Local topological markers provide a real-space characterization of topological phases and are suited to noncrystalline models. We derive a local topological marker, the Chern-Simons descendant marker, for characterizing the topology of two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant near-Gaussian states from the one-particle density matrix (\rho). We construct an auxiliary three-dimensional state characterized by the local Chern-Simons marker, and use dimensional reduction to obtain the Chern-Simons descendant marker for the original two-dimensional state. This derivation introduces a local Hermitian involution (S) that is odd under time reversal. When ([S,\rho]=0), the local Chern-Simons descendant marker reduces to half the difference of the local Chern markers in the (S=\pm1) sectors. Constructing an (S) that commutes exactly with (\rho) generally requires fine-tuning, but this is not needed—the local Chern-Simon marker remains well defined whenever (\Gamma={\rho,S}-S) has a spectral gap around zero, even when ([S,\rho]\neq0). This leaves the practical problem of identifying a suitable (S) for a given state, which, importantly, is straightforward even when spin is not a candidate. We show this by considering both strong Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, for which knowledge of the physical origin of the state reduces the general problem of choosing $ S$ to a one-parameter family (S(\theta)). We evaluate the optimal angle $ \theta$ maximizing the spectral gap of $ \Gamma$ analytically assuming translation invariance, and find that the gap of $ \Gamma$ remains open for a broad range of angles around the optimum. The same value of (\theta) remains valid in disordered systems, providing an easy way to obtain choice of (S) for evaluating the local Chern-Simons descendant marker of the state.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall), Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
24 pages, 2 figures, 3 appendices
Disentangling spin polarization from driven circular ionic motion in EuTiO$_3$
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Clifford J. Allington, Matthew J. Lutz, Enoch (Sin-Hang)Ho, Fabian Graf, Martina Basini, Hiroki Ueda, Michael Grimes, Alexander B. Elliott, Megan F. Biggs, Ravi Finn, Shih-Wen Huang, Merideth A. Henstridge, Matthias C. Hoffmann, Takahiro Sato, Roberto Alonso-Mori, Diling Zhu, Quynh L. Nguyen, Vincent Esposito, Jeffrey T. Babicz Jr., Elizabeth Skoropata, Biaolong Liu, Eugenio Paris, Arnau Romaguera Camps, Elia Razzoli, Roman Mankowsky, Flavio Capotondi, Nicolas Jaouen, Daniele Pergolesi, Milan Radovic, Matteo Savoini, Steven L. Johnson, Jeremy A. Johnson, Urs Staub
Coherently driven circular ionic motion has been reported to produce large helicity-dependent optical responses attributed to transient magnetization. However, the microscopic nature and magnitude of this phenomenon, sometimes referred to as dynamical multiferroicity, remain strongly debated. Here, we directly study the connection between ionic circulation induced by a high-field circular terahertz (THz) drive and its effect on the spin system of EuTiO$ _3$ using X-rays. This material exhibits an optical response consistent with the putative magnetic signal observed in related non-magnetic materials. Furthermore, the presence of Eu$ ^{2+}$ ions enables the use of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) to test for the creation of transient spin polarization. Simultaneously, ultrafast X-ray diffraction (XRD) measures the circular ionic motion from which we determine the mechanical angular momentum. We find a classical ionic contribution of $ 3\times10^{-8}\mu_B$ from XRD and upper limits of $ 0.03\mu_B$ and $ 0.11~\mu_B$ from the sensitivity of XMCD at the europium $ M_5$ and $ L_2$ edges, probing the $ 4f$ and $ 5d$ shells of Eu$ ^{2+}$ , respectively. These observations show that large-amplitude circular ionic motion in this system is not accompanied by a detectable spin polarization despite the clear signature in the optical data, with the XMCD upper bounds and classical contribution differing by many orders of magnitude.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
19 pages, 8 figures
Active control of THz plasmon propagation in a one-dimensional electronic waveguide
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Thomas Vasselon, Uzer Ahmad, Clément Geffroy, Lucas Mazzella, Matteo Aluffi, Seddik Ouacel, Jashwanth Shaju, Kevin Bredillet, Nathan Roussel, Jean-François Roux, Pierre-Baptiste Vigneron, Arne Ludwig, Andreas D. Wieck, Matias Urdampilleta, Hermann Sellier, Giorgos Georgiou, Christopher Bäuerle
Quantum nanoelectronics is pushing towards ever higher operating frequencies in order to realise quantum technologies capable of processing information at unprecedented speeds. A particularly promising direction is the development of flying electron qubits, which offer the prospect of quantum operations on picosecond timescales. Achieving in-flight quantum control in this regime would establish a fundamentally new paradigm for studying quantum entanglement and enable a novel form of quantum information processing based on propagating electronic wavepackets. Here we report a first step towards this goal by injecting ultrashort electron wavepackets into an engineered quantum nanoelectronic device. We demonstrate active control over the propagation speed of an electron wavepacket with a temporal duration as short as 4 ps in a quasi-one-dimensional electron waveguide with a length ranging from 10 $ \mathrm{\mu}$ m to 40 $ \mathrm{\mu}$ m. This advance provides a key building block for ultrafast quantum operations using flying electrons. Beyond its technological implications, our approach offers a platform for exploring the intrinsic dynamical processes that govern quantum transport and coherence in nanoscale electronic systems.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Solid-State Dealloying Enables Local Symmetry Breaking in Ternary Intermetallic Thin Films
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Mizuki Ohno, Reiley Dorrian, Veronica Show, Salva Salmani-Rezaie, Joseph Falson
Metastable quantum materials often occupy narrow composition windows with local symmetries distinct from competing equilibrium structures. These features open pathways for realizing qualitatively new electronic properties within a similar chemical subspace while at the same time complicating their deterministic synthesis. Here we illustrate a post-growth solid-state dealloying process using epitaxial ternary thin films in the La–Ag–Ge chemical space to realize a diffraction-averaged centrosymmetric superconducting structure. The process converts polar $ P6_3mc$ -LaAgGe into diffraction-averaged centrosymmetric AlB$ _2$ -type $ P6/mmm$ La-Ag-Ge through net Ag loss during annealing at 800–900 $ ^\circ$ C. Atomic-resolution electron microscopy reveals local Ag–Ge displacements of both signs relative to the planar configuration, consistent with local inversion-symmetry-breaking distortions. The converted films exhibit composition-dependent superconductivity with critical temperatures below 1 K and in-plane upper critical fields that exceed the weak-coupling Pauli-field estimate by a factor of approximately 6 in the thinnest superconducting films. These results establish epitaxial solid-state dealloying as a route to phase-selective synthesis of metastable phases, offering control over atomic-scale structural configurations and their interplay with emergent electronic properties.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
Three-photon photoemission on metallic transition metal dichalcogenide NiTe$_{2}$
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Cheng-Tien Chiang, Mukesh Singh, Yu-Jhen Chuang, Chia-Nung Kuo, Prabesh Bista, Yu-Chan Lin, Chen-Bin Huang, Ming-Chiang Chung, Chin Shan Lue
Three-photon photoemission (3PPE) signals on NiTe$ _{2}$ are observed for the first time upon ultraviolet excitations. In the energy range beyond two-photon excitations, an energy-momentum dispersive feature is clearly identified with characteristic light polarization dependence. Based on its dispersion, spectral width, as well as intensity as a function of the parallel momentum, this dispersive 3PPE feature could be ascribed to an image potential resonance overlapping with an unoccupied Ni $ 4s$ -Te $ 4d$ /$ 5p$ bulk band in accordance with the electronic band structure. Our results underlie higher-order non-linear photoemission on metallic transition metal dichalcogenides and facilitate future ultrafast studies of coherent electron dynamics in anisotropic, two-dimensional systems.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
8 pages, 5 figures
Dynamic moiré-like band modulation in Dirac materials via multi-beam optical interference
New Submission | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Evelyn P. Sinaga, Rizky Setiawan, Herri Trilaksana, Lukas P. A. Krisna, Eddwi H. Hasdeo
We propose a purely optical Floquet framework to dynamically generate moiré-like superlattices and quasicrystalline potentials in a gapped Dirac material, entirely bypassing the need for physical twisting. The interference of three coherent circularly polarized beams produces a triangular, valley-dependent Floquet mass landscape that folds the Dirac spectrum into a mini-Brillouin zone, driving pronounced valley-selective miniband reconstruction. We further show that the bands near the Fermi level undergo a light-driven topological phase transition. Remarkably, interfering five or seven beams yields non-crystallographic spatial patterns, giving rise to optical quasicrystals with similar valley contrasting features. Although this purely optical approach provides a versatile route to band engineering, reaching deep subwavelength modulation requires overcoming the free-space diffraction limit. To overcome this limitation, we consider highly confined, linearly polarized surface plasmon polariton fields with controlled relative phases. Their phase-controlled interference generates a spatially alternating chiral mass with zero spatial average. Consequently, the two valleys exhibit degenerate energy spectra while hosting opposite valley-resolved miniband Chern numbers. Our findings establish a reconfigurable, all-optical platform for dynamically engineering moiré-like bands, quasicrystalline electronic states, and valley-dependent topology without mechanical twisting.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
10 pages, 7 figures
Topological Fingerprints of Commensurate Order in Twisted Moiré Lattices
New Submission | Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Collin J. Kovacs, Jiangxu Li, Yang Zhang, Konstantinos D. Vogiatzis, Adrian Del Maestro, Vasileios Maroulas
Moiré patterns in twisted bilayer materials exhibit long-range periodic order that is highly sensitive to twist angle. Identifying commensurate angles from real-space atomic structures remains challenging, as spectral and geometric methods emphasize global periodicity and are sensitive to disorder and finite-size effects. Here, we introduce a data-driven topological framework that quantifies moiré periodicity by treating atomic configurations as point-cloud data and extracting multiscale signatures using persistent homology. At the core of our approach is a small-neighborhood separation filter that removes redundant local motifs in persistence diagrams while preserving key structural features, enabling sharp minima in Wasserstein distances between twisted and untwisted reference configurations that accurately recover commensurate angles. We benchmark this framework against geometric and spectral similarity measures and show that the resulting topological descriptors remain stable under positional disorder ranging from weak to strong perturbations in the bond length. We further transfer these descriptors using a constrained Gaussian process surrogate to sparsely sampled configurations of a twisted MoTe$ _2$ dichalcogenide bilayer. These results establish topological descriptors with neighborhood separation as a robust framework for identifying commensurate order in moiré systems and tracking commensurate structural similarity under disorder, sparsity, and finite-size effects.
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)
Morphological evolution of an Au crystalline domain in a nano-particle investigated by Bragg coherent diffraction imaging
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Seonghyun Han, Saehyun Kang, Ouyoung Kwon, Wonsuk Cha, Hyon Chol Kang, Chan Kim, Do Young Noh
Understanding the dynamic structural evolution of metallic nanoparticles is crucial for tailoring their functional properties. In this study, we utilized three-dimensional coherent X-ray diffraction to investigate the morphological transformation of Au nanocrystalline domains in a multi-domain nanoparticle during in-situ annealing. By combining Bragg coherent diffraction imaging with autocorrelation function analysis, we observed a transformation from an anisotropic multi-domain configuration toward a single crystalline equilibrium morphology. Above 600 degrees Celsius, a small subsidiary domain merged into the primary domain, which was continuously coarsened at 625 degrees Celsius, resulting in a more isotropic morphology. Finally, at 635 degrees Celsius, the low-energy {111} and {100} facets emerged, and the crystal shape converged toward an equilibrium truncated octahedral geometry. This work demonstrates a framework for interpreting complex domain dynamics, offering fundamental insights into domain growth and equilibrium shape formation.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
7 pages, 6 figures
Ferromagnetic resonance and magnetic anisotropy in YbMn$\text{6}$Sn$\text{6}$
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Philipp Schwenke, Kyle W. Fruhling, David Weffling, Vitaliy I. Vasyuchka, Fazel Tafti, Mathias Weiler
The RMn$ _\text{6}$ Sn$ _\text{6}$ (R = rare earth) family of kagome magnets exhibits a rich variety of magnetic states and unconventional electronic and magnetic properties. While the static magnetic properties of these materials have been extensively investigated, their magnetization dynamics remain less explored. Here, we investigate the magnetic anisotropy and dynamic magnetization of ferromagnetic YbMn$ _\text{6}$ Sn$ _\text{6}$ using angle-dependent ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy and DC magnetization measurements. The angular dependence of FMR reveals the expected uniaxial anisotropy along the crystallographic c-axis, which is the global magnetically hard axis. In addition, we identify a pronounced twofold anisotropy within the ab-plane, which is independently confirmed by angle-dependent DC magnetization measurements. The observed uniaxial anisotropy in the ab-plane indicates a breaking of the expected sixfold rotational symmetry in the magnetic response that is attributed to growth induced anisotropy.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in the surface conduction regime of non-magnetic narrow-gap insulator FeSi
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Yong-Cheng Pan, Hwai-Chi Lin, Li-Han Wang, Chia-Nung Kuo, Han-Shiuan Lin, Che-Ning Yeh, Chin-Shan Lue, Anne de Visser, Yu-Te Hsu
The realization of an intrinsic anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the absence of bulk magnetism is a rare phenomenon, requiring a spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry within the boundary states without a thermodynamic phase transition. Here, we report a robust, zero-field-hysteretic intrinsic AHE confined to the low-temperature surface-conduction regime of the prototypical narrow-gap insulator FeSi. By systematically investigating single crystals grown via Czochralski and chemical vapor transport methods with controlled thicknesses and surface preparations, we demonstrate that low-temperature electrical conductivity correlates with surface roughness and anti-correlates with sample thickness, confirming the emergence of surface conducting states (CSS) below $ T_{\rm CSS} \simeq 55-75\text{ K}$ . Meanwhile, a robust, field-hysteretic and temperature-independent anomalous Hall conductivity is found below $ T_{\rm AHE}\simeq45-70\text{ K}$ , implying the presence of magnetic order in the surface conduction regime. Bulk magnetic susceptibility and specific-heat measurements reveal no thermodynamic phase transitions, verifying that the sample interior remains a non-magnetic insulator. Analyses of conductivity scaling and effective three-dimensional conductivity reveal the intrinsic nature of this surface-driven AHE, evidencing the presence of an emergent magnetic order within the metallic surface of a non-magnetic bulk insulator. These findings establish FeSi as a compelling platform to investigate the interplay between strong electron correlations and anomalous Hall transport.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Cooperative Domain-Wall Dynamics in a Two-Dimensional Quasiclassical Holstein Model
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Arunangshu Bora, Sankha Subhra Bakshi, Ho Jang, Gia-Wei Chern
We investigate charge-density-wave (CDW) coarsening in a two-dimensional quasiclassical Holstein model following thermal quenches into the ordered phase. Although the staggered CDW order parameter is nonconserved, domain-wall motion remains constrained by conservation of the microscopic electronic charge. The simulations exhibit apparent growth exponents between $ 1/4$ and the Allen–Cahn value $ 1/2$ . These apparent exponents are primarily accounted for by the crossover kinetics $ \dot{L}=[D(T)/L][1+L_\times^2(T)/L^2]$ , where $ L_\times(T)$ is a temperature-dependent crossover length. At low temperature, nearly binary occupations require compatible wall segments to rearrange cooperatively, producing the $ L(t)\sim t^{1/4}$ limit. Thermal broadening creates partially occupied interfacial sites that permit local curvature-driven motion and restore $ L(t)\sim t^{1/2}$ at late times. Fits to the measured growth rate, a dimensionless rate collapse, and a long-time large-system simulation consistently support this crossover picture. These results show that a microscopic conservation law can generate long-lived anomalous coarsening even when the emergent order parameter is nonconserved.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
13 pages, 8 figures
Angular Modulations in Magnetic Torque Induced by Phase Transitions in the Triangular Supersolid $2H$-AgNiO$_2$
New Submission | Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
John S. Pearce, Zeyu Ma, Alimamy Bangura, Timo Sorgel, Martin Jansen, Radu Coldea, Amalia I. Coldea
Easy-axis frustrated triangular lattice antiferromagnets provide an important playground for stabilising a wide range of exotic magnetic phases. The delafossite $ 2H$ -AgNiO$ 2$ offers a unique model system containing a lattice of localised ($ S=1$ ) moments surrounded by a honeycomb of itinerant electrons. Below $ T{\rm N} =19$ K, the system exhibits collinear stripe antiferromagnetic order, whereas applied magnetic fields induce a cascade of transitions which has been proposed to contain a magnetic supersolid phase. In this study, we perform detailed angular and field-dependent torque measurements in static fields of up to 45~T on single crystal samples. The angular dependence of the torque displays a sawtooth-shaped signal close to the first supersolid phase, while near $ T_{\rm N}$ , an unexpected additional modulation emerges. On the other hand, the field dependence of the torque indicates the presence of four field-induced anomalies which evolve in distinct ways as a function of field orientation. To understand these complex behaviours and assess the role of local moments, we employ mean-field and Monte-Carlo calculations on a minimal spin model and construct comprehensive polar phase diagrams at different temperatures. We find that the angular dependence of the torque can be understood in terms of crossing different phase boundaries by field rotation, and we identify qualitative similarities between the experimental and theoretical polar phase diagrams. Our study highlights $ 2H$ -AgNiO$ _2$ as a rich anisotropic system that provides a robust example of how spin supersolid orders can manifest in angle-dependent magnetic torque.
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
11 pages, 6 figures
Field-induced incipient spin-density phase stabilized inside the nematic phase of FeSe$_{1-x}$S$_x$
New Submission | Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
I. Paulescu, R. M. Abedin, J. S. Pearce, W. H. Fong, Z. Zajicek, A. Morfoot, W. Knafo, O. Squire, D. Graf, A. A. Haghighirad, A. I. Coldea
Spin-density wave (SDW) order and superconductivity frequently compete and coexist in unconventional superconductors, where spin fluctuations often mediate superconducting pairing. In iron-chalcogenide superconductors, FeSe$ _{1-x}$ S$ _x$ , SDW order has only been detected under applied pressure, while both spin and nematic fluctuations are involved in determining their rich superconducting phase diagrams. Here, we report evidence for an incipient SDW phase, within the nematic state of FeSe$ _{1-x}$ S$ _x$ , revealed in magnetic fields up to 68~T. Once superconductivity is quenched, we observe sharp upturns in longitudinal resistivity accompanied by anomalies in tunnel diode oscillator frequency response and torque anisotropy, consistent with a field-induced electronic order. Dominant low-frequency quantum oscillations reveal a small reconstructed Fermi surface, consistent with a field-induced SDW order. Direct experimental comparisons with a pressure-tuned nematic, analogue, FeSe$ _{0.96}$ S$ _{0.04}$ , demonstrate that SDW phases are stabilized within the nematic phase of FeSe$ _{1-x}$ S$ _x$ via both chemical substitution and applied pressure. These findings reveal that by weakening nematicity, the SDW orders are stabilised, which promotes the dominant superconducting pairing mechanism in iron chalcogenides.
Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con), Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
10 pages, 4 figures
Nonequilibrium Phases of Repulsive Self-Attention: Chaos, Attention Condensation, and Emergent Locality
New Submission | Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
Qucheng Gao, Zuyi Yang, Xiao Chen
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a minimal recurrent transformer with $ N$ normalized tokens, $ Q=K=I$ , and a negative value map $ V=-I$ . Similarity-based attention selects nearby representations, while the negative value map drives tokens away from the selected field. This feedback can continually reorganize both the representation geometry and the attention network. For $ d=2$ , the tokens lie on a circle, where the regular polygon is an exact fixed point. As the attention feedback strength $ \gamma$ is increased, the polygon loses stability through a flip bifurcation, giving rise to period-two motion, chaos, and cluster-exchange or cluster-flip states. Despite this temporal complexity, attention remains diffuse as $ N\to\infty$ at finite fixed softmax sharpness $ \beta$ . Attention condensation instead emerges in the scaling regime $ \beta\sim N^2$ . In the hard-routing limit, repulsive updates amplify local perturbations and routing-partner switches transmit them ballistically, producing an emergent butterfly cone in representation space. High-dimensional geometry provides a distinct route to localization. For $ d=N\to\infty$ , simulations from Gaussian initial conditions provide evidence for a condensation transition at $ \beta=O(1)$ , driven by dynamically generated finite overlap gaps. Depending on $ \gamma$ , the resulting phases include diffuse simplex-like states, consensus flips, condensed active routing with signatures of chaos, and fragmented cluster flips. These results establish temporal activity, attention condensation, and geometric clustering as distinct collective phenomena, and show that sparse attention can sustain persistent dynamics rather than freeze it.
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech), Machine Learning (cs.LG)
54 pages, 21 figures, including appendices
Altermagnetism and generalised tensorial properties in the exchange multiplet framework
New Submission | Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) | 2026-09-24 20:00 EDT
A representation-theoretic framework for the calculation of time-reversal-odd tensorial properties of magnetic materials based on the Bertaut–Izyumov exchange-multiplet formalism is developed. In contrast to approaches based on distinct magnetic point groups or spin groups for different orientations of the magnetic order parameter, the exchange-multiplet framework permits the order parameter to be treated as a continuous variable. It is shown that, for constant-moment collinear structures, covariance imposes a simple set of symmetry constraints on the tensor intertwiners appearing in a Landau–Lifshitz expansion. This leads to canonical intertwiner forms that factorise the magnetic and crystallographic parts of the tensor construction. Tensor fields can be built to retain a Cartesian representation in the physical variables while acquiring a systematic dependence on the order-parameter direction through symmetry-adapted polynomial bases. Magnetic-point-group selection rules are recovered automatically for arbitrary order-parameter directions, while the framework also provides a natural separation of co-rotating (SOC-free) and non-co-rotating contributions. The approach is applicable to altermagnets and conventional antiferromagnets alike and is particularly suited to experiments and first-principles calculations in which the magnetic order parameter can be continuously varied.
Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
Research Square
Sensing-storage-computing Integration of Multiterminal ReS2 Neuromorphic Transistors with Sequence-dependent Responses for Dual-mode Authentication Systems
Article | Photonic devices | 2026-09-23 20:00 EDT
Yaping Wu, Anqi Cheng, Mengyu Liu, Feiya Xu, Xuanli Zheng, Chunmiao Zhang, Yiyuan Yang, Xu Li, Zhiming Wu, Junyong Kang
Dynamic and rapid temporal information processing is essential for sequence-critical artificial intelligence applications. While neuromorphic devices that integrate the functions of perception, memory, and processing with intrinsic temporal dynamics have attracted widespread attention, their development remains at an early stage. Here, we report ReS2/PZT neuromorphic transistors capable of sensing-storage-computing integration via synergistic modulation of optical stimuli and in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OOP) ferroelectric polarization, building a basic block for sequence-dependent intelligent systems. Electric-field-tunable ferroelectric behavior in ReS2 is induced via proximity coupling at the heterointerface. Through tailored signal control, the device achieved charge storage functionality and flexible transformation between volatile and nonvolatile states. Reconfigurable bionic functions and logic operations were implemented within a single unit. By leveraging the sequence-dependent memory characteristics and long-term synaptic plasticity of the transistors, we integrated crypto-lock and facial recognition to construct an intelligent security system with dual-mode authentication. This work provides a promising strategy for high-density, energy-efficient neuromorphic systems, advancing the development of sequence-critical intelligent technologies.
Research Square:rs-10790167 (2026)
Posted on Research Square and Under Review at Light: Science & Applications
Physical sciences/Physics/Electronics, photonics and device physics/Photonic devices, Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Applied optics/Optoelectronic devices and components