Billiards tables—a minimal model for particles moving in a confined region—are known to present different classical (and quantum) features according to their shape, ranging from strongly chaotic to integrable dynamics. Here, we consider the role of a stochastic perturbation of the elastic reflection…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033312] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

In the brain, neural activity undergoes directed flows between states, thus breaking time-reversal symmetry. At the same time, animals also exhibit irreversible flows between behavioral states. Yet it remains unclear whether—and how—irreversibility in the brain relates to irreversibility in behavior…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033315] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

We theoretically investigate supercurrents of ultracold atoms in angularly ac-shaken ring lattices subjected to external rotation. Our results demonstrate how these supercurrents can be harnessed for the development of high-precision atomtronic angular accelerometers. Using both analytical and numer…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033316] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

In $s$-wave superconductors with a small concentration of magnetic impurities, the only electronic excitations that remain available at low temperatures are the excitations of the system of localized spins. We discuss a mechanism of interaction between electromagnetic waves and the localized spins in …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033317] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

We uncover a previously unrecognized hierarchical algebraic structure in the Bose-Hubbard model that enables a systematic construction of its spectrum without relying on integrability. We develop a recursive framework in which, within each fixed particle-number sector, the eigenproblem of a $p$-site s…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033318] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

We present a theoretical scheme for a family of fast and high-fidelity two-qubit iswap gates between neutral atoms separated by more than $20\mu \mathrm{m}$, enabled by resonant dipole-dipole spin-exchange interactions between Rydberg states. The protocol harnesses coherent excitation-exchange-deexcitation dynami…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033319] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

Multiple phenotypic protein expressions arise from one genome represent variations in the protein relative abundance and their stoichiometry. A lack of definite compositional parts challenges the modeling of protein megacomplexes and cellular architectures. Despite the advance in protein structural …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033320] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

The spatial distribution of cloud droplets is relevant for various microphysical processes, such as condensational growth, collision coalescence, riming and aggregation, and radiative transfer. Cloud droplets and other hydrometeors exhibit clustering at dissipation scales and above due to turbulence…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033321] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

The evolution of a charged lepton in the field of an electromagnetic plane wave can be described as a superposition of Volkov states. Here, we demonstrate that imposing specific momentum correlations among Volkov states produces a spatiotemporally structured wave packet whose probability-density pea…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033322] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

Correlations between consecutively emitted pulses in quantum key distribution transmitters violate the assumptions underlying many security proofs. This problem is addressed by showing that security proofs based on phase-error estimation developed for imperfect but uncorrelated sources can be directly extended to incorporate such correlations.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032045] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

Governed by the Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem, Weyl points (WPs) function as topological monopoles that cannot exist in isolation but must form charge-neutral assemblies in the momentum space of crystals. While these WPs are locally characterized by quantized chiral charges, the finite generating family …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033304] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

The discrimination of quantum states is fundamental to quantum information processing. Inverse-squeezing Kennedy (IS-Kennedy) receivers can outperform the coherent-state binary phase-shift-keyed Helstrom benchmark at the same energy by converting transmitter-side squeezing into an effective coherent…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033305] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

In quantum computations of gauge theories at finite temperature and finite density, enforcing Gauss's law for all states contributing to the thermal ensemble is a nontrivial challenge. In this work, we adapt the quantum minimally entangled typical thermal states (QMETTS) algorithm to ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ gauge-constr…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033306] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

The emergence of functional connectivity between distant brain regions that lack a direct structural link remains a long-standing question in neuroscience. Remote synchronization (RS) offers a promising framework for uncovering the underlying mechanisms. So far, RS has been well studied in artificia…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033307] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

Actin flow in the cortical cytoskeleton underneath the cell membrane generates mechanical stresses that shape the cell surface. We study this mechanism using a hydrodynamic model of a compressible active gel polymerizing at the membrane and undergoing turnover. We determine how actin flow, density r…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033308] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

The encounter of diffusing entities underlies a wide range of natural phenomena. The dynamics of these first-passage dynamics are strongly influenced by confining geometries. Confinement modifies microscopic diffusion through conservative and hydrodynamic interactions, making it essential for realis…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033309] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

In active matter and living matter, such as clusters of migrating cells, collective dynamics emerges from the underlying interactions. A common assumption of theoretical descriptions of collective cell migration is that these interactions are pairwise additive. It remains unclear, however, whether t…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033310] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

From numerical simulations, it is known that the barrier-crossing time of a non-Markovian one-dimensional reaction coordinate with a single exponentially decaying memory function exhibits a memory turnover: For intermediate values of the memory decay time, the barrier-crossing time is reduced compar…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033311] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

Quantum entanglement is defined as nonseparability of density operators, yet experimental phase-space statistics alone cannot distinguish classical from quantum sources, so classical data can be used to violate entanglement inequalities. Imposing uncertainty bounds, or full tomography, can map the s…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033313] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

Local detailed balance (LDB) is a central guiding principle for modeling nonequilibrium stochastic dynamics, yet it only constrains the ratio of forward and backward transition rates and does not fix the steady state. Although the functional form of rates under the same LDB has been shown to affect …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033314] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

Optically addressed ensembles of qubits offer scalable control through global operations. Motivated by these platforms, robust composite pulse sequences are introduced that realize arbitrary site-dependent single-qubit unitaries in parallel using global pulses and requiring only minimal individual control.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032043] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

In a disorder-free non-Hermitian lattice with an entirely real spectrum and without any external force, a moving wave packet can exhibit sudden jumps or oscillations. Near a boundary, a wave packet can reflect with delay or advance in time, which is the temporal analogue of the Goos-Hänchen shift.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032044] Published Mon Sep 14, 2026

Scattering processes are essential for understanding the structure of matter, yet their real-time dynamics remain challenging to simulate classically. Quantum computers offer a promising path toward efficient simulation of such physical systems. Here, we present a general and scalable framework for …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033298] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

The isomorphic property of strongly coupled three-dimensional (3D) Yukawa liquidlike fluids under steady shear is systematically investigated using nonequilibrium molecular dynamical simulations. It is discovered that, as the shear rate increases substantially, the shear viscosity $\eta$ and the radial d…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033299] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

Ponderomotive electron optics has attracted attention because structured optical fields provide round-lens functionalities, including negative lens power and negative spherical aberration, that are difficult to achieve with conventional Einzel and solenoid lenses. How ponderomotive lenses disperse w…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033300] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

Many complex systems—be they financial, natural, or social—are composed of units—such as stocks, neurons, or agents—whose joint activity can be represented as a multivariate time series. An issue of both practical and theoretical importance concerns the possibility of inferring the presence of a sta…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033301] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

We develop the semiconductor Wannier equations (SWEs), a real-time, real-space formulation of ultrafast light-matter dynamics in crystals, by deriving the equations of motion for the electronic reduced density matrix in a localized Wannier basis. Working in real space removes the structure-gauge amb…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033302] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

High-harmonic generation in solids enables probing of strong-field electron dynamics in condensed matter and the development of compact ultrafast light sources. Whereas most studies have focused on above-bandgap high-order harmonics, which are usually interpreted through short electron-hole trajecto…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033303] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference has now been observed with pairs of indistinguishable x-rays from a high-brightness synchrotron source, using a thin silicon crystal beam splitter.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032042] Published Fri Sep 11, 2026

To date, the laser cooling of rubidium atoms has inevitably relied on 780 nm cooling light corresponding to the first excited state $5{\mathrm{P}}_{3/2}$. Here, we demonstrate diffuse laser cooling of ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms using the 420 nm $5{\mathrm{S}}_{1/2}\to 6{\mathrm{P}}_{3/2}$ transition without a preceding 780 nm cooling stage. A high-power $420\mathrm{nm}$ las…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033293] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

We report time-resolved x-ray diffraction measurements of lead (Pb) subjected to laser-driven shock compression up to the melt on nanosecond timescales. Along its Hugoniot, Pb exhibits a sequence of structural transitions markedly different from those observed under static compression. The conventio…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033294] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

Recent advances in time-resolved cathodoluminescence have enabled ultrafast studies of single emitters in quantum materials with femtosecond temporal resolution. Here, we develop a quantum theory modeling the dynamics of free electrons interacting with quantum emitters in arbitrary initial states. O…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033295] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

We propose and implement a quantum-informed reduction algorithm for the maximum independent set problem that integrates classical kernelization techniques with information extracted from quantum devices. Our larger framework consists of dedicated application, algorithm, and hardware layers, and easi…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033296] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

We present a general framework for extracting conformal data from critical two-dimensional classical lattice models using finite-size tensor-network flow. The central idea is to identify, from transfer-matrix spectra, a self-consistent finite-size window together with a crossover scale that separate…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033297] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 039003] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 039004] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

The strong asymmetry of Autler-Townes doublets in intense-field ionization has been attributed to either interfering ionization pathways or strong-field dressing of the continuum. These seemingly distinct interpretations are here shown to arise from a time-dependent effective Hamiltonian formalism, which is demonstrated to reproduce $ab$ $initio$ photoelectron spectra.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032041] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

One of the surprising, and potentially very useful, capabilities of analog quantum computers, such as D-Wave quantum annealers, is sampling from the Boltzmann, or Gibbs, distribution defined by a classical Hamiltonian. In this study, we thoroughly examine the ability of D-Wave quantum annealers to s…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033280] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Nanoscale engineered spin systems, ranging from spins on surfaces to nanographenes, provide flexible platforms to realize entangled quantum magnets from a bottom-up approach. However, assessing the quantum many-body Hamiltonian realized in a specific experiment remains an exceptional open challenge,…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033281] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Block encoding of sparse matrices underpins quantum algorithms such as quantum singular value transformation, Hamiltonian simulation, and quantum linear system solvers, yet its efficient gate-level realization remains challenging, with index-mapping oracles constituting one important source of overh…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033282] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

We experimentally demonstrate a nonlinear dependence of the spin-noise variance on atomic density in a warm alkali vapor. Implementing high-bandwidth spin-noise spectroscopy (SNS) near the ${\mathit{D}}_2$ transition of rubidium, a quadratic spin-noise contribution is shown to arise at high densities, in contrast…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033283] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

We characterize spectroscopic and coherence properties of the 1451.37 nm excited-state zero-phonon line (ZPL) between the ${}^3\mathrm{F}_4$ and the ${}^3\mathrm{H}_4$ manifolds of a thulium-doped yttrium aluminum perovskite (${\mathrm{Tm}}^{3+}:{\mathrm{YAlO}}_3$) crystal at temperatures around 1.5 K. We measure the absorption spectrum between ${}^3\mathrm{H}_6\text{−}{}^3\mathrm{F}_4$ and…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033284] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Molecules containing short-lived isotopes, namely, radioactive molecules, are among the most promising candidates for probing new physics beyond the standard model, although their production and spectroscopic measurements remain technically challenging. Here, we demonstrate an integrated methodology…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033285] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Levitated nanoparticles are being investigated as ultrasensitive quantum sensors of forces and accelerations, with applications ranging from fundamental physics phenomena such as dark matter or quantum gravity to real-world applications. Attention is now turning to multiparticle regimes, and an impo…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033286] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Data assimilation (DA) optimally fuses observational data with mathematical models, serving as a core computational framework for forecasting complex dynamical systems like the weather. Because manipulating large-scale high-rank error covariances is classically intractable, conventional DA is forced…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033287] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Unital quantum channels, defined by their property of leaving the maximally mixed state invariant, form an important class of quantum operations. A distinguished subset of these channels can be represented as a probabilistic mixture of unitary evolutions. Characterizing channels that do not admit su…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033288] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

We propose a method to measure the interaction between an ultracold gas of neutral atoms and a surface. This solution combines an optical dipole trap reflected by the surface, a magnetic trap formed by current carrying wires embedded below the surface, and a rotation of the surface itself. It allows…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033289] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Resolving the ultrafast decay of metastable electronic states into channels associated with spin-orbit-split ionization thresholds is a long-standing goal of attosecond photoelectron spectroscopy. Here, we use a variant of the rainbow reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photo…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033290] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

For the BCS theory of superconductivity, the electron-phonon interaction is transformed to an attractive electron-electron interaction in the vicinity of the Fermi energy only. At the same time, its formal derivation using a unitary transformation reveals that the electrons attract one another whene…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033291] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

The Lieb-Robinson correlation function can be used to characterize the propagation of quantum information in Ising chains. Considerable work has been done to establish bounds on this correlation function in various circumstances. To actually calculate the value of the correlation function directly t…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033292] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Quantum networks promise scalable distributed quantum information processing. Realizing this potential depends critically on the efficient use of nonclassical resources. Sequential sharing of quantum nonlocality provides a resource-efficient route for recycling entanglement across multiple observers…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033274] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

Despite extensive experimental efforts over the past two decades, topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions have remained elusive. By shifting focus from superconductors—whose topological nature is often debated—to the well-established $p$-wave superfluid ${}^3\mathrm{He}$, we propose an experimental appr…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033275] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

Biological cells and synthetic analogues use liquid-liquid phase separation to dynamically compartmentalize their environment for various applications. In many cases, multiple droplets need to coexist, and their size needs to be controlled, which is challenging because large droplets tend to grow at…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033276] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

Functional connectivity (FC) is fundamentally nonstationary, undergoing continuous reconfigurations that track shifting behavioral and cognitive states. Despite the importance of these transitions, existing analytical frameworks struggle to reconcile the high-dimensional nature of these reconfigurat…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033277] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

We elaborate a mechanism for the creation of stable three-dimensional (3D) solitons in spin-orbit-coupled (SOC) atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein condensates, modeled by the mean-field equations with the quadratic three-wave interaction, characterized by mismatch $\alpha$. The planar (effectively two-dimensio…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033278] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

Flocking is a prime example of how robust collective behavior can emerge from simple interaction rules. The flocking transition has been studied extensively since the inception of the original Vicsek model. Here, we introduce a self-propelled particle model with quenched disorder in the pairwise ali…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033279] Published Fri Sep 04, 2026

The divergence of the electron density of states (DOS) plays an important role in enhancing many-body interactions and inducing various quantum phases in low-dimensional systems. However, such unique electronic structures remain experimentally elusive in three-dimensional (3D) systems, particularly …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033253] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

There is widespread interest in many-body quantum systems that exhibit limit-cycle or time-crystalline behavior. An ideal quantum limit cycle would be realized using fully coherent driving (to minimize noise) and also have a continuous internal symmetry (to ensure generation of monochromatic radiati…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033264] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Active matter generates order or patterns through nonequilibrium dynamics. An open research challenge is to determine how efficiently a nonequilibrium self-organizing system can convert consumed energy into macroscopic order. We study an information-theoretic quantity that directly addresses this ch…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033265] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Point defects play a central role in driving the properties of materials. First-principles methods are widely used to compute defect energetics and structures, including at scale for high-throughput defect databases. However, these methods are computationally expensive, making machine learning force…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033266] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Recently proposed analog solvers based on dynamical systems, such as Ising machines, are promising platforms for large-scale combinatorial optimization. Yet, given the heuristic nature of the field, there is very limited insight on optimality guarantees of the solvers, as well as how parameter sched…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033267] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

This article is part of a Physical Review Collection on the Physics in a Changing Climate.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has been identified as a tipping element in the Earth system. Under the current climate change scenarios, it is urgent to develop robust methods for deter…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033268] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

We present a native realization of iSWAP and parametrized exchange gates for neutral-atom quantum processing units. Our approach leverages strong dipole-dipole interactions between two different dipole-coupled Rydberg states, employing optimal control techniques to design high-fidelity, time-efficie…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033269] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

We study the triangular lattice optical Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model using determinant quantum Monte Carlo. By varying the model's carrier concentration $\langle n\rangle$, electron-phonon coupling strength, and phonon energy $\mathrm{\Omega }$, we identify two doping regimes of interest. At one-quarter filling ($\langle n\rangle =0.5$), corr…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033270] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Disorder in photonic lattices creates localized states inside the photonic band gap. The energy distribution of these states is often described as a Lifshitz tail, even though it is inconsistent with Lifshitz statistics near the band edge. Here, we show that in photonic-crystal waveguides with inten…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033271] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Remote state preparation (RSP) allows one party to remotely prepare a known quantum state on another party's qubit using entanglement. This can be used in quantum networks to perform applications such as blind quantum computing or long-distance quantum key distribution (QKD) with quantum repeaters. …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033272] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Understanding the entanglement dynamics in quantum many-body systems under steady-state transport conditions is an actively pursued challenging topic. Hydrodynamic equations, akin to transport equations for charge or heat, would be of great interest but face severe challenges because of the inherent…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033273] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Fractional Chern insulators are generally associated with topologically nontrivial bands. Here, it is demonstrated that realistic Coulomb interactions stabilize a Laughlin-like fractional Chern insulator in a trivial ($C$ = 0) moiré band, revealing how quantum geometry can enable many-body topology without band topology.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032039] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

It is shown on the example of a honeycomb ferromagnet that spin inertia hybridizes the precessional and nutational magnon bands, opening a topologically nontrivial gap whose size scales linearly with the strength of pseudodipolar interaction. Chern number calculations and spectra calculated in a slab geometry demonstrate the emergence of chiral edge modes within this gap.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032040] Published Thu Sep 03, 2026

Entangling gates between neighboring physical qubits are essential for quantum error correction. Implementing them in an all-microwave manner simplifies signal routing and control apparatus of superconducting quantum processors. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-microwave controlled-Z…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033261] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

We reinterpret publicly available $K^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}\nu \overline{\nu }$ data collected by NA62 from 2016 to 2024 to constrain the fundamental vectorial coupling of the QCD axion to down and strange quarks. Using a fully reproducible likelihood analysis and a complete renormalization-group evolution of the axion couplings from t…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033262] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Morphogenesis involves complex shape changes of biological tissues. Yet, tissue shape changes depend on tissue rheology, which in turn arises from the interplay of large numbers of cells. Here, we link cell- and tissue-scale mechanics by constructing mean-field rheological relations for the vertex m…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033263] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Ultrafast strong-field laser-plasma physics is shown to offer a promising framework for relativistic nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED). As one of its key advantages, this approach to relativistic nonlinear QED does not require an external beam of relativistic particles. Instead, high-energy el…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033249] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Optical clocks have achieved remarkable estimated fractional frequency uncertainties reaching the ${10}^{-18}$ level and below, enabling applications in fundamental physics, general relativity, and geodesy. However, the challenge of verifying the international consistency of optical clocks remains critical…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033250] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

We study the Hamiltonian algebra of qubit-mapped interacting fermion models and their fast-forwardability. We prove that the dimension of the Hamiltonian algebra of the fermion model with single-site Coulomb interaction is bounded from below by the exponential function of the number of sites, and th…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033251] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Quantum query complexity studies the number of queries needed to learn some property of a black box. A closely related question is how well an algorithm can succeed with this learning task using only a fixed number of queries. In this work, we propose measuring an algorithm's performance using the m…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033252] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

We introduce a chiral Schrödinger cat qubit, a bosonic quantum code generalizing Kerr cat qubits that exploits higher-order nonlinearities. Compared to standard Kerr cats, the chiral cat qubit allows additional correction of bit-flip errors within the Hilbert space of a single bosonic oscillator. Th…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033254] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Droplets are ubiquitous in nature and industry, yet their behavior is not yet fully understood, particularly for extreme conditions not typically encountered in viscous classical fluids. In this study, we investigated the oscillations of a superfluid ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ pendant droplet formed beneath a cup by super…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033255] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Crystallites form in supercooled liquids as particles rearrange into ordered structures, driven by thermal fluctuations or external stimuli. While the thermodynamics of heterogeneous crystallization under boundary constraints is well described by classical nucleation theory, the kinetics of symmetry…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033256] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

We construct a model of a three-dimensional helical second-order topological superconductor formed by an array of weakly coupled Rashba nanowires. We identify the parameter regime in which there are energy gaps in both the bulk and surface energy spectra, while a pair of helical ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2q}$ parafermionic mo…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033257] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Recently, there has been considerable interest in studying quantum sensing near the critical points of a system evolving unitarily and undergoing a phase transition. However, there are many quantum systems in which dissipation is very important. The quantum phase transition in such systems results a…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033258] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

We provide, to our knowledge, first and unambiguous evidence of the existence of cluster crystals formed by a binary mixture of ultrasoft, cluster-forming particles. In an effort to reduce the high dimensionality of the parameter space of binary mixtures, we have restricted ourselves to a symmetric,…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033259] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

We present a quantum dynamical study of pulsed few-photon scattering from a single artificial atom, consisting of a two-level system (TLS) or qubit, in a waveguide-quantum electrodynamics system, directly comparing and contrasting two different quantum theoretical simulation methods: (1) an input-ou…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033260] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

This article presents dynamical measurements of quantum geometry for systems with noncompact SU(1,1) symmetry via double quench in parameter space.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032038] Published Tue Sep 01, 2026

Inorganic structural chemistry leads naturally to a theory for crystal structure prediction formalized by a generalized disjunctive programming, which is formulated using continuous and Boolean variables to involve the algebraic equations, disjunctions, and logic propositions. Since the feasibilitie…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033246] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

Spin squeezing in atomic ensembles enables atom interferometry with sensitivities below the shot-noise limit, but the associated entanglement is highly susceptible to loss, making imperfections in atom optics a central limitation. Bragg diffraction is an established technique for driving transitions…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033247] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

While machine learning holds great promise for quantum technologies, most current methods focus on predicting or controlling a specific quantum system. Metalearning approaches, however, can adapt to new systems for which little data are available, by leveraging knowledge obtained from previous data …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033248] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 039002] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

Measurement-feedback control of driven-dissipative quantum batteries in waveguide-QED systems is investigated. The feedback enables perfect charging without coherent driving for a single-atom battery and, together with collective effects, generates a boundary time-crystal phase with persistent energy oscillations and two stationary charging phases in many-body battery arrays.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032035] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

While pushing is intuitively associated with progress, it can surprisingly cause tracers moving in disordered environments to become permanently confined. This study shows that confinement is a result of irreversible “door-closing” events, providing a minimal description of pushing-induced arrest across lattices and dimensions.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032036] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

The correlation-induced localization, that is, the Anderson localization in long-range models with correlated hopping, is found to be robust to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking up to a certain critical TRS breaking parameter. It is also shown that, unlike eigenstate localization properties, the wave-packet dynamics is fragile to any TRS breaking and undergoes a transition from subdiffusion at TRS to diffusion otherwise.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032037] Published Mon Aug 31, 2026

General spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ chains with symmetric nearest-neighbor interaction are studied. We rigorously prove that all spin models in this class, except for known integrable systems, are nonintegrable in the sense that they possess no nontrivial local conserved quantities. This result confirms that there are …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033240] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

We propose concrete protocols to realize quantum criticality due to excited-state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) experimentally in presumably the simplest and most resilient system involving a single trapped ion oscillating in a radio-frequency Paul trap. We identify a specific class of excited …

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033241] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

Entanglement entropy is a fundamental measure of quantum correlations and a key resource underpinning advances in quantum information and many-body physics. We uncover a universal relationship between bipartite entanglement entropy and particle number after the barrier in a one-dimensional Fermi-Hub…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033243] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

Counterdiabatic (CD) driving provides a powerful route to fast and robust state preparation by suppressing diabatic excitations during finite-time evolution. Yet, deriving analytical CD protocols for complex systems remains challenging, motivating the development of variational approaches. These met…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033244] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

We propose a hybrid quantum computing architecture composed of alternating fluxonium and transmon qubits, which are coupled via transmon tunable couplers. We show that this system offers excellent scaling properties, characterized by engineered zero $ZZ$ crosstalk in the idle regime, a substantial red…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033245] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

Dynamic trapping and manipulation of floating particles using reconfigurable water-wave interference patterns is demonstrated. By controlling the phases or frequencies of the interfering waves, transport of one or two particles along arbitrary prescribed trajectories is achieved.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032033] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

A geometric control framework is presented that leverages a parameterized metric space to smoothly interpolate between diabatic and adiabatic quantum dynamics for state transfer in multilevel systems. By mapping single-parameter pulse shaping to routing along geometric trajectories, the method enables high-fidelity quantum information processing.

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032034] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

We demonstrate a model-free data analysis framework that leverages escort-weighted Shannon entropy and several divergence matrices to detect phase transitions in scattering and imaging datasets. By establishing a connection between physical entropy and informational entropy, this approach provides a…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033235] Published Thu Aug 27, 2026

Optical cycling refers to repeated excitation and spontaneous emission on an electronic transition in an atom or molecule. Optical cycling in molecules can enable a wide range of quantum control and readout techniques, but unfortunately it has only been demonstrated on a small class of alkalilike or…

[Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033236] Published Thu Aug 27, 2026