Search

Angle-resolved photoemission is a direct probe of the momentum-resolved electronic structure and proved influential in the study of bulk crystals with novel electronic properties. Thanks to recent technical advances, this technique can now be applied for the first time for the study of van der Waals heterostructures built by stacking two-dimensional crystals. In this article we will present the current state of the art in angle-resolved photoemission measurements on two-dimensional materials and review this still young field. We will focus in particular on devices similar to those used in transport and optics experiments, including the latest developments on magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene and on the in-operando characterization of gate tunable devices.

Extreme wind events affect lake phytoplankton amongst others by deepening the mixed layer and increasing internal nutrient loading. Both increases and decreases of phytoplankton biomass after storms have been observed, but the precise mechanisms driving these responses remain poorly understood or quantified. In this study, we coupled a one-dimensional physical model to a biogeochemical model to investigate the factors regulating short-term phytoplankton responses to summer storms, now and under expected warmer future conditions. We simulated physical, chemical and biological dynamics in Lake Erken, Sweden, and found that wind storms could increase or decrease the phytoplankton concentration one week after the storm, depending on antecedent lake physical and chemical conditions. Storms had little effect on phytoplankton biomass if the mixed layer was deep prior to storm exposure. Higher incoming shortwave radiation and hypolimnetic nutrient concentration boosted growth, whereas higher surface water temperatures decreased phytoplankton concentration after storms. Medium-intensity wind speeds resulted in more phytoplankton biomass after storms than high-intensity wind. Simulations under a future climate scenario did not show marked differences in the way wind affects phytoplankton growth following storms. Our study shows that storm impacts on lake phytoplankton are complex and likely to vary as a function of local environmental conditions. Title in thesis list of papers:Drivers of phytoplankton responses to summer storms in a stratified lake: a modelling study

Most physics theories are deterministic, with the notable exception of quantum mechanics which, however, comes plagued by the so-called measurement problem. This state of affairs might well be due to the inability of standard mathematics to "speak" of indeterminism, its inability to present us a worldview in which new information is created as time passes. In such a case, scientific determinism would only be an illusion due to the timeless mathematical language scientists use. To investigate this possibility it is necessary to develop an alternative mathematical language that is both powerful enough to allow scientists to compute predictions and compatible with indeterminism and the passage of time. We argue that intuitionistic mathematics provides such a language and we illustrate it in simple terms., First presented at the workshop "Experiencing Reality Directly" (Jerusalem, May 22-24, 2019)

This work reports the longitudinal thermal conductivity, κ, of Ag- and Cu/Ag-sheathed Ba 1-x K x Fe 2 As 2 conductors. Our investigation has been carried out between 4 K and 80 K with magnetic fields up to 19 T. In the case of Ag-sheathed tapes, the thermal conductivity reaches maximum values of ~80 Wm -1 K -1 and is weakly dependent on the field. The use of Cu/Ag in the place of Ag allows increasing κ up to ~250 Wm -1 K -1 . Zero-field κ values are about one order of magnitude lower than those achieved in other technical superconductors that employ a silver matrix, as Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+x (Bi2212) and Bi 2-x Pb x Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10-x (Bi2223). This is a consequence of the contamination of the metal sheaths because of elemental diffusion occurring during the tape sintering. The differences in κ between the Ba 1-x K x Fe 2 As 2 tapes and the other technical superconductors with an Ag matrix become smaller at high field. We suggest that performing the sintering at high pressure could represent a way to reduce the elemental contamination and thus improving the thermal conductivity.

We use angle-resolved photoemission to map the Fermi surface and quasiparticle dispersion of bulk-like thin films of SrMoO$_3$ grown by pulsed laser deposition. The electronic self-energy deduced from our data reveals weak to moderate correlations in SrMoO$_3$, consistent with our observation of well-defined electronic states over the entire occupied band width. We further introduce spectral function calculations that combine dynamical mean-field theory with an unfolding procedure of density functional calculations and demonstrate good agreement of this approach with our experiments.

Journal of power sources 535, 231317 (2022). doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231317, Sodium chromium oxide, NaCrO$_2$, has received significant attention as positive electrode (cathode) for Na-ion batteries mainly due the high capacity retention of the material. In this paper, we use operando powder X-ray diffraction to investigate the structural evolution of O3–NaCrO$_2$ during Na-ion extraction and insertion with use of both liquid and solid-state electrolytes. This reveals a previously overlooked phase transition, causing formation of an unexplored O′3-Na$_x$CrO$_2$ intermediate during Na-ion extraction (charge). The phase transitions within the electrode are investigated by sequential Rietveld refinement and distortion analysis, which shows that the discovered O′3-Na$_x$CrO$_2$ intermediate accommodates the increasing interlayer repulsion and in-plane contraction with less distortion of the [NaO$_6$]-polyhedra as compared to the other observed phases. Our structural findings are corroborated by analysis of the Na-ion diffusion coefficients through the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique. Furthermore, the operando powder X-ray diffraction reveals substantial charge-discharge asymmetry with a significant preference for solid-solution and two-phase behavior during charge (Na-extraction) and discharge (Na-insertion), respectively., Published by Elsevier, New York, NY [u.a.]

Wave breaking is the main mechanism that dissipates energy input into ocean waves by wind and transferred across the spectrum by nonlinearity. It determines the properties of a sea state and plays a crucial role in ocean-atmosphere interaction, ocean pollution, and rogue waves. Owing to its turbulent nature, wave breaking remains too computationally demanding to solve using direct numerical simulations except in simple, short-duration circumstances. To overcome this challenge, we present a blended machine learning framework in which a physics-based nonlinear evolution model for deep-water, non-breaking waves and a recurrent neural network are combined to predict the evolution of breaking waves. We use wave tank measurements rather than simulations to provide training data and use a long short-term memory neural network to apply a finite-domain correction to the evolution model. Our blended machine learning framework gives excellent predictions of breaking and its effects on wave evolution, including for external data.

Non-equilibrium evolution of wave fields, as occurring over sudden bathymetry variations, can produce rogue seas with anomalous wave statistics. We handle this process by modifying the Rayleigh distribution through the energetics of second-order theory and a non-homogeneous reformulation of the Khintchine theorem. The resulting probability model reproduces the enhanced tail of the probability distribution of unidirectional wave tank experiments. It also describes why the peak of rogue wave probability appears atop the shoal, and explains the influence of depth on variations in peak intensity. Furthermore, we interpret rogue wave likelihoods in finite depth through the $H$ – $\sigma$ diagram, allowing a quick prediction for the effects of rapid depth change apart from the probability distribution.

We have measured the electronic structure of the two-dimensional electron system (2DES) found at the Al/SrTiO3 (Al/STO) and LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interfaces by means of laser angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, taking advantage of the large photoelectron escape depth at low photon energy to probe these buried interfaces. We demonstrate the possibility of tuning the electronic density in Al/STO by varying the Al layer thickness and show that the electronic structure evolution is well described by self-consistent tight binding supercell calculations, but differs qualitatively from a rigid band shift model. We show that both 2DES are strongly coupled to longitudinal optical phonons, in agreement with previous reports of a polaronic ground state in similar STO based 2DESs. Tuning the electronic density in Al/STO to match that of LAO/STO and comparing both systems, we estimate that the intrinsic LAO/STO 2DES has a bare band width of ~ 60 meV and a carrier density of ~ 6 10^13 cm-2., This is the submitted version of the manuscript. Accepted for publication in Advanced Electronic Materials

Long-duration quantum memories for photonic qubits are essential components for achieving long-distance quantum networks and repeaters. The mapping of optical states onto coherent spin-waves in rare earth ensembles is a particularly promising approach to quantum storage. However, it remains challenging to achieve long-duration storage at the quantum level due to read-out noise caused by the required spin-wave manipulation. In this work, we apply dynamical decoupling techniques and a small magnetic field to achieve the storage of six temporal modes for 20, 50 and 100 ms in a $^{151}$Eu$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal, based on an atomic frequency comb memory, where each temporal mode contains around one photon on average. The quantum coherence of the memory is verified by storing two time-bin qubits for 20 ms, with an average memory output fidelity of $F=(85\pm 2)\%$ for an average number of photons per qubit of $\mu_\text{in}$ = 0.92$\pm$0.04. The qubit analysis is done at the read-out of the memory, using a type of composite adiabatic read-out pulse we developed., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Version updated to the published one on npj Quantum Inf

Characterizing quantum nonlocality in networks is a challenging, but important problem. Using quantum sources one can achieve distributions which are unattainable classically. A key point in investigations is to decide whether an observed probability distribution can be reproduced using only classical resources. This causal inference task is challenging even for simple networks, both analytically and using standard numerical techniques. We propose to use neural networks as numerical tools to overcome these challenges, by learning the classical strategies required to reproduce a distribution. As such, the neural network acts as an oracle, demonstrating that a behavior is classical if it can be learned. We apply our method to several examples in the triangle configuration. After demonstrating that the method is consistent with previously known results, we give solid evidence that the distribution presented in [N. Gisin, Entropy 21(3), 325 (2019)] is indeed nonlocal as conjectured. Finally we examine the genuinely nonlocal distribution presented in [M.-O. Renou et al., PRL 123, 140401 (2019)], and, guided by the findings of the neural network, conjecture nonlocality in a new range of parameters in these distributions. The method allows us to get an estimate on the noise robustness of all examined distributions., This is a pre-print of an article published in npj Quantum Information. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-020-00305-x Implementation can be found at: https://github.com/tkrivachy/neural-network-for-nonlocality-in-networks

This dataset improves on previous products in its spatial resolution, spatial extent and time period covering the Black Sea catchment (BSC). The spatial prediction of daily datasets was performed using the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) methodology. The results show that for minimum and maximum temperature, the model with the elevation and distance to shorelines predictors is the best fitted model. The best fitted model for precipitation is obtained with the elevation predictor. The downscaling of climate change scenarios is based on HIRHAM regional climate model (RCM) from the European project PRUDENCE. The downscaling was made by means of a modified delta method. The modified delta method applied in this study explicitly considers the spatial differences of the climate scenarios and the monthly variability. For each grid point, the delta method is applied according to the rank order of values in the monthly distribution of the closest RCM grid point. The results show that the delta method gives satisfying results when considering the monthly variability. Impacts on minimum temperature, maximum temperature, precipitation, number of days without precipitation, dry spell length, number and length of days above maximum temperature above 30∘C, under conditions of climate change are also examined for this region.

The effect of cold high pressure densification (CHPD) on anisotropy of the critical current density (Jc) in « in situ » single core binary and alloyed MgB2 tapes has been determined as a function of temperatures at 4.2 K, 20 K and 25 K as well as at applied magnetic fields up to 19 T. The study includes binary and C4H6O5 (malic acid) doped MgB2 tapes before and after CHPD. It is remarkable that the CHPD process not only improved the Jc values, in particular at the higher magnetic fields, but also decreased the anisotropy ratio, Γ = Jc///Jc┴. In binary MgB2 tapes, the anisotropy factor Γ increases with higher aspect ratios, even after applying CHPD. In malic acid (C4H6O5) doped tapes, however, the application of CHPD leads only to small enhancements of Γ, even for higher aspect ratios. This is attributed to the higher carbon content in the MgB2 filaments, which in turn is a consequence of the reduced chemical reaction path in the densified filaments. At all applied field values, it was found that CHPD processed C4H6O5 doped tapes exhibit an almost isotropic behavior. This constitutes an advantage in view of industrial magnet applications using wires with square or slightly rectangular configuration.

Females of some Asian salamanders of the genus Hynobius deposit in streams their eggs embedded in a translucent envelope called an 'egg sac'. The edges of the envelope exhibit a spectacular blue-to-yellow iridescent glow, which instantaneously disappears when the sac is removed from water. First, our scanning electron microscopy analyses reveal that the inner surface of the 100 μm-thick envelope displays striations (length scale of about 3 μm), which are themselves covered by much smaller (190 ± 30 nm) and quasi-periodic corrugations. The latter could constitute a surface diffraction grating generating iridescence by light interference. Second, our transmission electron microscopy and focused-ion-beam scanning electron microscopy analyses show that the bulk of the egg sac wall is composed of meandering fibres with a quasi-periodic modulation of 190 ± 60 nm along the thickness of the envelope, generating a photonic crystal. Third, Fourier power analyses of 450 electron microscopy images with varying incident angles indicate that changing the surrounding medium from water to air shifts most of the backscattered power spectrum to the ultraviolet range, hence, explaining that the egg sac loses visible iridescence when removed out of the water. Fourth, the results of our photography and optical spectroscopy experiments of submerged and emerged egg sacs rule out the possibility that the iridescence is due to a thin film or a multilayer, whereas the observed non-specular response is compatible with the backscattering expected from surface diffraction gratings and volumetric photonic crystals with spatial 1D modulation. Finally, although we mention several potential biological functions of the egg sac structural colours and iridescence, we emphasise that these optical properties might be the by-products of the envelope material internal structure selected during evolution for its mechanical properties.

Topological string theory near the conifold point of a Calabi-Yau threefold gives rise to factorially divergent power series which encode the all-genus enumerative information. These series lead to infinite towers of singularities in their Borel plane (also known as "peacock patterns"), and we conjecture that the corresponding Stokes constants are integer invariants of the Calabi-Yau threefold. We calculate these Stokes constants in some toric examples, confirming our conjecture and providing in some cases explicit generating functions for the new integer invariants, in the form of q-series. Our calculations in the toric case rely on the TS/ST correspondence, which promotes the asymptotic series near the conifold point to spectral traces of operators, and makes it easier to identify the Stokes data. The resulting mathematical structure turns out to be very similar to the one of complex Chern-Simons theory. In particular, spectral traces correspond to state integral invariants and factorize in holomorphic/anti-holomorphic blocks., Comment: 51 pages, 11 figures, typos corrected, new clarification added

The recent detection of gravitational waves (GWs) in 2015 opened a completely new way to constrain cosmology and gravity. In this thesis, I start by reviewing how gravitational waves emitted by compact binaries may be used as distance indicators in the context of general relativity. I then discuss scalar-tensor modifications of gravity motivated as dark-energy models and how those can affect gravitational waves and evade local constraints from the Solar System via so-called screening mechanisms. In particular, I present how the effective distance probed by standard sirens may be affected by scalar-tensor modifications of gravity. I show how this distance is only affected by local properties of the source and of the observer, which are assumed and constrained to live in screened environments. To do so, I present a formalism to study the evolution of the amplitude of scalar and tensor waves which propagate in a generically curved background spacetime, which allows to account for inhomogeneities which appear in the Universe, as well as in the background scalar field, necessary to account for screening. I present a way to diagonalize the system of equations of motion for the scalar and tensor degrees of freedom and find that interactions are always negligible, although the argument depends on the scalar phase velocity. Next, I focus on subluminal scalar waves interacting with matter fields and discuss scalar Cherenkov radiation from high-energy cosmic rays, which may slow them down. I show how this effect is negligible if the effective field theory (EFT) of gravity is designed to explain cosmic acceleration but how it may be significant if the EFT is applicable at higher energy scales. Finally, I challenge the geometric optics approximation in a general relativistic GW lensing scenario. I show how in certain configurations, a point-like lens can affect the transport of the polarization of the gravitational waves in such a way that may be confused with a smoking gun signature of deviations from general relativity. I discuss the probability to generate significant effective non-tensorial polarizations in a realistic Universe and find that the probability is small for the expected binary black hole merger rates, thereby confirming the robustness of the geometric optics approximation.

We investigate electronic transport through exfoliated multilayers of CrSBr, a 2D semiconductor that is attracting attention because of its magnetic properties. We find an extremely pronounced anisotropy that manifests itself in qualitative and quantitative differences of all quantities measured along the in-plane \textit{a} and \textit{b} crystallographic directions. In particular, we observe a qualitatively different dependence of the conductivities $\sigma_a$ and $\sigma_b$ on temperature and gate voltage, accompanied by orders of magnitude differences in their values ($\sigma_b$/$\sigma_a \approx 3\cdot10^2-10^5$ at low temperature and large negative gate voltage). We also find a different behavior of the longitudinal magnetoresistance in the two directions, and the complete absence of the Hall effect in transverse resistance measurements. These observations appear not to be compatible with a description in terms of conventional band transport of a 2D doped semiconductor. The observed phenomenology -- together with unambiguous signatures of a 1D van Hove singularity that we detect in energy resolved photocurrent measurements -- indicate that electronic transport through CrSBr multilayers is better interpreted by considering the system as formed by weakly and incoherently coupled 1D wires, than by conventional 2D band transport. We conclude that CrSBr is the first 2D semiconductor to show distinctly quasi 1D electronic transport properties., Comment: Accepted for publication in Advanced Materials

We consider a disordered Hubbard model, and show that, at sufficiently weak disorder, a single spin-down mobile impurity can thermalize an extensive initially localized system of spin-up particles. Thermalization is enabled by resonant processes which involve correlated hops of the impurity and localized particles. This effect indicates that certain localized insulators behave as "supercooled" systems, with mobile impurities acting as ergodic seeds. We provide analytical estimates, supported by numerical exact diagonalization (ED), showing how the critical disorder strength for such mechanism depends on the particle density of the localized system. In the $U\rightarrow\infty$ limit, doublons are stable excitations, and they can thermalize mesoscopic systems by a similar mechanism. The emergence of an additional conservation law leads to an eventual localization of doublons. Our predictions apply to fermionic and bosonic systems and are readily accessible in ongoing experiments simulating synthetic quantum lattices with tunable disorder., Comment: 5 pages + supplementary material (8 pages)

We generalize the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis to systems with global symmetries. We present two versions, one with microscopic charge conservation and one with exponentially suppressed violations. They agree for correlation functions of simple operators, but differ in the variance of charged one-point functions at finite temperature. We then apply these ideas to holography and to gravitational low-energy effective theories with a global symmetry. We show that Euclidean wormholes predict a non-zero variance for charged one-point functions, which is incompatible with microscopic charge conservation. This implies that global symmetries in quantum gravity must either be gauged or explicitly broken by non-perturbative effects., 6 pages, 1 figure; v2 references and comments added, correction of the Wilson line argument. Version as published in Scipost

Probabilistic computing is a paradigm in which data are not represented by stable bits, but rather by the probability of a metastable bit to be in a particular state. The development of this technology has been hindered by the availability of hardware capable of generating stochastic and tunable sequences of "1s" and "0s". The options are currently limited to complex CMOS circuitry and, recently, magnetic tunnel junctions. Here, we demonstrate that metal-insulator transitions can also be used for this purpose. We use an electrical pump/probe protocol and take advantage of the stochastic relaxation dynamics in VO

Networks have advanced the study of nonlocality beyond Bell's theorem. Here, we introduce the concept of full network nonlocality, which describes correlations that necessitate all links in a network to distribute nonlocal resources. Showcasing that this notion is stronger than standard network nonlocality, we prove that the most well-known network Bell test does not witness full network nonlocality. In contrast, we demonstrate that its generalisation to star networks is capable of detecting full network nonlocality in quantum theory. More generally, we point out that established methods for analysing local and theory-independent correlations in networks can be combined in order to systematically deduce sufficient conditions for full network nonlocality in any network and input/output scenario. We demonstrate the usefulness of these methods by constructing polynomial witnesses of full network nonlocality for the bilocal scenario. Then, we show that these inequalities can be violated via quantum Elegant Joint Measurements., 5+6 pages, 2+2 figures. RevTeX 4.1. The computational appendix is available at https://www.github.com/apozas/fullnn V2: Updated to match published version

Next generation ion therapy magnets both for gantry and for accelerator (synchrotron) are under investigation in a re-cently launched European collaboration that, in the frame of the Eu-ropean H2020 HITRIplus and I.FAST programmes, has obtained some funding for work packages on superconducting magnets. De-sign and technology of superconducting magnets will be developed for ion therapy synchrotron and -especially- gantry, taking as refer-ence beams of 430 MeV/nucleon ions (C-ions) with 1010 ions/pulse. The magnets are about 60-90 mm diameter, 4 to 5 T peak field with a field change of about 0.3 T/s and good field quality. The paper will illustrate the organization of the collaboration and the technical pro-gram. Various superconductor options (LTS, MgB2 or HTS) and different magnet shapes, like classical CosTheta or innovative Canted CosTheta (CCT), with curved multifunction (dipole and quadrupole), are under evaluation, CCT being the baseline. These studies should provide design inputs for a new superconducting gan-try design for existing facilities and, on a longer time scale, for a brand-new hadron therapy centre to be placed in the South East Eu-rope (SEEIIST project).

Sub-lm thin samples are essential for spectroscopic purposes. The development of flat micro-jets enabled novel spectroscopic and scattering methods for investigating molecular systems in the liquid phase. However, the temperature of these ultra-thin liquid sheets in vacuum has not been systematically investigated. Here, we present a comprehensive temperature characterization using optical Raman spectroscopy of sub-micron flatjets produced by two different methods: colliding of two cylindrical jets and a cylindrical jet compressed by a high pressure gas. Our results reveal the dependence of the cooling rate on the material properties and the source characteristics, i.e., nozzle-orifice size, flow rate, and pressure. We show that materials with higher vapor pressures exhibit faster cooling rates, which is illustrated by comparing the temperature profiles of water and ethanol flatjets. In a sub-lm liquid sheet, the temperature of the water sample reaches around 268 K and the ethanol around 253 K close to the flatjet’s terminus, Structural Dynamics, 9 (1), ISSN:2329-7778

The interaction between large inland water bodies and the atmosphere impacts the evolution of regional weather and climate, which in turn affects the lake dynamics, thermodynamics, ice-formation, and, therefore, ecosystems. Over the last decades, various approaches have been used to model lake thermodynamics and dynamics in standalone mode or coupled to numerical atmospheric models. We assess a turbulence-closure $$k-\epsilon$$ k - ϵ multi-column lake model in standalone mode as a computationally-efficient alternative to a full three-dimensional hydrodynamic model in the case of Lake Geneva. While it struggles to reproduce some short-term features, the multi-column model reasonably reproduces the seasonal mean of the thermal horizontal and vertical structures governing heat and mass exchanges between the lake surface and the lower atmosphere (stratified period, thermocline depth, stability of the water column). As it requires typically two orders of magnitude less computational ressources, it may allow a two-way coupling with a RCM on timescales or spatial resolutions where full 3D lake models are too demanding.

The assembly of suitably designed van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures represents a new approach to produce artificial systems with engineered electronic properties. Here, we apply this strategy to realize synthetic semimetals based on vdW interfaces formed by two different semiconductors. Guided by existing ab-initio calculations, we select WSe$_2$ and SnSe$_2$ mono and multilayers to assemble vdW interfaces, and demonstrate the occurrence of semimetallicity by means of different transport experiments. Semimetallicity manifests itself in a finite minimum conductance upon sweeping the gate over a large range in ionic liquid gated devices, which also offer spectroscopic capabilities enabling the quantitative determination of the band overlap. The semimetallic state is additionally revealed in Hall effect measurements by the coexistence of electrons and holes, observed by either looking at the evolution of the Hall slope with sweeping the gate voltage or with lowering temperature. Finally, semimetallicity results in the low-temperature metallic conductivity of interfaces of two materials that are themselves insulating. These results demonstrate the possibility to implement a state of matter that had not yet been realized in vdW interfaces, and represent a first step towards using these interfaces to engineer topological or excitonic insulating states.

Electrochemical phenomena in ferroelectrics are of particular interest for catalysis and sensing applications, with recent studies highlighting the combined role of the ferroelectric polarisation, applied surface voltage and overall switching history. Here, we present a systematic Kelvin probe microscopy study of the effect of relative humidity and polarisation switching history on the surface charge dissipation in ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films. We analyse the interaction of surface charges with ferroelectric domains through the framework of physically constrained unsupervised machine learning matrix factorisation, Dictionary Learning, and reveal a complex interplay of voltage-mediated physical processes underlying the observed signal decays. Additional insight into the observed behaviours is given by a Fitzhugh–Nagumo reaction–diffusion model, highlighting the lateral spread and charge passivation process contributors within the Dictionary Learning analysis., The authors acknowledge Dr Sergei V. Kalinin of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for helpful discussions about machine learning and the initial suggestion to explore reaction–diffusion modelling. This work was supported by Division II of the Swiss National Science Foundation under project 200021_178782. A.V. acknowledges support by the Spanish Government under the project PID2019-110907GB-I00 and the “Severo Ochoa” Program for Centres of Excellence in R&D (CEX2019-000917-S). N.D. acknowledges support by the Spanish Government under the project PID2019- 109931GB-I00. N.B.G. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under the project DMR-20269676. The authors would like to thank S. Muller for technical support., With funding from the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000917-S).

Physical review letters 127(27), 271102 (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.271102, Published by APS, College Park, Md.

International audience; We study the dynamics of the quasi-one-dimensional Ising-Heisenberg antiferromagnet BaCo2V2O8 under a transverse magnetic field. Combining inelastic neutron scattering experiments and theoretical analyses by field theories and numerical simulations, we mainly elucidate the structure of the spin excitation spectrum in the high-field phase, appearing above the quantum phase transition point μ0Hc≈10T. We find that it is characterized by collective solitonic excitations superimposed on a continuum. These solitons are strongly bound in pairs due to the effective staggered field induced by the nondiagonal g tensor of the compound and are topologically different from the fractionalized spinons in the weak-field region. The dynamical susceptibility numerically calculated with the infinite time-evolving block decimation method shows an excellent agreement with the measured spectra, which enables us to identify the dispersion branches with elementary excitations. The lowest-energy dispersion has an incommensurate nature and has a local minimum at an irrational wave number due to the applied transverse field.

Understanding and controlling the motion, stability, and equilibrium configuration of ferroelectric domain walls is key for their integration into potential nanoelectronics applications, such as ferroelectric racetrack memories. Using piezoresponse force microscopy we analyse the growth and roughness of ferroelectric domains in epitaxial thin film Pb(Zr$_{0.2}$Ti$_{0.8}$)O$_3$, driven by the electric fields at straight edges of planar electrodes at two different temperatures. This device relevant geometry allows us to confirm that the domain walls are well described as 1-dimensional monoaffine elastic interfaces driven in random-bond disorder. However, we observe a progressive increase of roughness as initially flat domain walls move through the disorder landscape, which could prove a significant limiting factor for racetrack-type memories using ferroelectrics., To appear in Applied Physics Letters (accepted)

This Perspective addresses the design, creation, characterization and control of synthetic quantum materials with strong electronic correlations. We show how emerging synergies between theoretical/computational approaches and materials design/experimental probes are driving recent advances in the discovery, understanding and control of new electronic behaviour in materials systems with interesting and potentially technologically important properties. The focus here is on transition metal oxides, where electronic correlations lead to a myriad of functional properties including superconductivity, magnetism, Mott transitions, multiferroicity and emergent behaviour at picoscale-designed interfaces. Current opportunities and challenges are also addressed, including possible new discoveries of non-equilibrium phenomena and optical control of correlated quantum phases of transition metal oxides. This Perspective addresses the properties of strongly correlated materials, with a particular focus on computational, synthetic and spectroscopic approaches.

Protected by the interplay of on-site Coulomb interactions and spin-orbit coupling, Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ at high pressure is a rare example of a Mott insulator with a paramagnetic ground state. Here, using optical Raman scattering, we measure both the phonon and magnon evolution in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ under pressure, and identify three different magnetically-ordered phases, culminating in a spin-disordered state beyond 18 GPa. A strong first-order structural phase transition drives the magnetic evolution at $\sim$10 GPa with reduced structural anisotropy in the IrO$_6$ cages, leading to increasingly isotropic exchange interactions between the Heisenberg spins and a spin-flip transition to $c$-axis-aligned antiferromagnetic order. In the disordered phase of Heisenberg $J_\mathrm{eff}=1/2$ pseudospins, the spin excitations are quasi-elastic and continuous to 10 meV, potentially hosting a gapless quantum spin liquid in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$.

The development of large-scale quantum networks promises to bring a multitude of technological applications as well as shed light on foundational topics, such as quantum nonlocality. It is particularly interesting to consider scenarios where sources within the network are statistically independent, which leads to so-called network nonlocality, even when parties perform fixed measurements. Here we promote certain parties to be trusted and introduce the notion of network steering and network local hidden state (NLHS) models within this paradigm of independent sources. In one direction, we show how results from Bell nonlocality and quantum steering can be used to demonstrate network steering. We further show that it is a genuinely novel effect, by exhibiting unsteerable states that nevertheless demonstrate network steering, based upon entanglement swapping, yielding a form of activation. On the other hand, we provide no-go results for network steering in a large class of scenarios, by explicitly constructing NLHS models., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

We present a very-compact bicomponent-permanent-magnet design capable of generating 1.25 T in a small volume, significantly above the 0.6 T available from a single uniformly magnetized permanent magnet. In addition to the enhanced maximum field, our design drastically limits the stray field present around a standard permanent magnet. These features make it suitable for retrofitting existing experiments with a substantial magnetic field, in particular, scanning probes and optical, Raman, and photoemission spectroscopy, in diverse environments, from ambient to ultrahigh vacuum and over a wide temperature range., This work is financed by the EU Project “Graphene Flagship” (CNECT-ICT604391) and UNIGE/Unitec via the Innogap program.

Quantum chaotic systems are often defined via the assertion that their spectral statistics coincides with, or is well approximated by, random matrix theory. In this paper we explain how the universal content of random matrix theory emerges as the consequence of a simple symmetry-breaking principle and its associated Goldstone modes. This allows us to write down an effective-field theory (EFT) description of quantum chaotic systems, which is able to control the level statistics up to an accuracy ${\cal O} \left(e^{-S} \right)$ with $S$ the entropy. We explain how the EFT description emerges from explicit ensembles, using the example of a matrix model with arbitrary invariant potential, but also when and how it applies to individual quantum systems, without reference to an ensemble. Within AdS/CFT this gives a general framework to express correlations between "different universes" and we explicitly demonstrate the bulk realization of the EFT in minimal string theory where the Goldstone modes are bound states of strings stretching between bulk spectral branes. We discuss the construction of the EFT of quantum chaos also in higher dimensional field theories, as applicable for example for higher-dimensional AdS/CFT dual pairs., 52 pages; 7 figures; 3 Appendices; minor typos corrected

Thermal transport and quantum thermodynamics at the nanoscale is nowadays garnering an increasing attention, in particular in the context of quantum technologies. Experiments relevant for quantum technology are expected to be performed in the non-linear regime. In this work, we build on previous results derived in the linear response regime for the performance of an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer operated as heat engine. In the non-linear regime, we demonstrate the tunability, large efficiency and thermopower that this mesoscopic quantum machine can achieve, confirming the exciting perspectives that this AB ring offers for developing efficient thermal machines in the fully quantum regime., 6 pages, 5 figures, invited contribution to AVS Quantum Science, Special Topic Collection on Quantum Thermodynamics, published version. Featured paper by the Editor

Impressive progress in the control of atomically thin crystals is now enabling the realization of gated structures in which two electrodes are separated by atomic scale distances. The electrical capacitance of these structures is determined by phenomena that are not relevant in capacitors with larger electrode separation. With the aim to analyze these phenomena, we use linear response theory to develop a systematic description of capacitance for two coupled electron liquids, accounting for the wave nature of electrons, as well as for the effect of both intra and interlayer Coulomb interactions. Our theory leads to a general expression for the electrical capacitance in terms of both intra and interlayer electronic polarizabilities. The intralayer polarizability is directly related to the conventional expression for the quantum capacitance, whereas the interlayer polarizability term accounts for interaction-induced correlations between charges hosted by opposite capacitor plates. We refer to this latter term as to the cross quantum capacitance. We discuss the implications of the general expression for the capacitance, show that it leads to established results when the effect of interlayer correlations is negligible, and that the intra and interlayer polarizabilities play a comparable role for capacitors with very small electrode separation. Using two different approaches, we calculate the capacitance in specific cases, and find that the interlayer polarizability can be either positive or negative, so that the cross quantum capacitance can either increase or decrease the total capacitance. We conclude by showing that the cross quantum capacitance term can lead to a non-monotonic evolution of the total capacitance with increasing separation between the capacitor plates, which would represent an unambiguous manifestation of the cross quantum capacitance if observed experimentally., Published version

This study aimed to assess the effect of biomodification before adhesive procedures on the tooth-restoration interface of class V restorations located in caries-simulated vs. sound dentin, and the quality of dentin surface by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Class V cavities located on cervical dentin were prepared on the buccal surfaces of extracted human molars under the simulation of intratubular fluid flow. Two dentin types, i.e., sound and demineralized by formic-acid, were biomodified with 1% riboflavin and calcium phosphate (CaP) prior to the application of a universal adhesive (Clearfil Universal Bond) in etch and rinse or self-etch mode, and a conventional micro hybrid composite (Clearfil APX). Restorations were subjected to thermo mechanical fatigue test and percentages of continuous margins (% CM) before/after fatigue were compared. Bio modification of dentin surfaces at the molecular level was analyzed by Time-of-Flight Secondary Mass Spectometry (ToF-SIMS). % CM were still significantly higher in tooth-restoration interfaces on sound dentin. Meanwhile, biomodification with riboflavin and CaP had no detrimental effect on adhesion and in carious dentin, it improved the % CM both before and after loading. Etching carious dentin with phosphoric acid provided with the lowest results, leading even to restoration loss. The presence of molecule fragments of riboflavin and CaP were detected by ToF-SIMS, evidencing dentin biomodification. The adhesive interface involving carious dentin could be improved by the use of a collagen crosslinker and CaP prior to adhesive procedures.

Physical review letters : PRL 127(15), 021101 (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.021101, Published by American Physical Society, College Park, Md.

The field of two-dimensional materials has been developing at an impressive pace, with atomically thin crystals of an increasing number of different compounds that have become available, together with techniques enabling their assembly into functional heterostructures. The strategy to detect these atomically thin crystals has however remained unchanged since the discovery of graphene. Such an absence of evolution is starting to pose problems because for many of the 2D materials of current interest the optical contrast provided by the commonly used detection procedure is insufficient to identify the presence of individual monolayers or to determine unambiguously the thickness of atomically thin multilayers. Here we explore an alternative detection strategy, in which the enhancement of optical contrast originates from the use of optically inhomogeneous substrates, leading to diffusively reflected light. Owing to its peculiar polarization properties and to its angular distribution, diffusively reflected light allows a strong contrast enhancement to be achieved through the implementation of suitable illumination-detection schemes. We validate this conclusion by carrying out a detailed quantitative analysis of optical contrast, which fully reproduces our experimental observations on over 60 WSe$_2$ mono-, bi-, and trilayers. We further validate the proposed strategy by extending our analysis to atomically thin phosphorene, InSe, and graphene crystals. Our conclusion is that the use of diffusively reflected light to detect and identify atomically thin layers is an interesting alternative to the common detection scheme based on Fabry-Perot interference, because it enables atomically thin layers to be detected on substrates others than the commonly used Si/SiO$_2$, and it may offer higher sensitivity depending on the specific 2D material considered.

Beyond future applications, quantum networks open interesting fundamental perspectives, notably novel forms of quantum correlations. In this work we discuss quantum correlations in networks from the perspective of the underlying quantum states and their entanglement. We address the questions of which states can be prepared in the so-called triangle network, consisting of three nodes connected pairwise by three sources. We derive necessary criteria for a state to be preparable in such a network, considering both the cases where the sources are statistically independent and classically correlated. This shows that the network structure imposes strong and non-trivial constraints on the set of preparable states, fundamentally different from the standard characterization of multipartite quantum entanglement., 7 pages, 1 figure, see related work from Navascues et al.: arXiv:2002.02773, comments are welcome!

The rare earth nickelates RNiO3 are metallic at high temperatures and insulating and magnetically ordered at low temperatures. The low temperature phase has been predicted to be type II multiferroic, i.e. ferroelectric and magnetic order are coupled and occur simultaneously. Confirmation of those ideas has been inhibited by the absence of experimental data on single crystals. Here we report on Raman spectroscopic data of RNiO3 single crystals (R = Y, Er, Ho, Dy, Sm, Nd) for temperatures between 10 K and 1000 K. Entering the magnetically ordered phase we observe the appearance of a large number of additional vibrational modes, implying a breaking of inversion symmetry expected for multiferroic order., 10 pages, 8 figures

1. Climate warming is causing changes in the physics of deep lakes, such as longer summer stratification, increased water column stability, reduced ice cover, and a shallower depth of winter overturns. An ultimate consequence of warming would be a transition to a different mixing regime. Here we investigate the role of physical, chemical, and biological feedback mechanisms that unfold during a shift in mixing regime, and whether these feedbacks could prompt and stabilise the new regime. Although climate, interannual temperature variation, and lake morphometry are the main determinants of a mixing regime, when climate change causes shifts in mixing regime, internal feedback mechanisms may gain in importance and modify lake ecosystem functioning. 2. We review the role of these feedbacks in three mixing regime shifts: from polymictic to seasonally stratified, from dimictic to monomictic, and from holomictic to oligomictic or meromictic. 3. Polymictic lakes of intermediate depth (c. 3–10 m mean depth) could experience seasonal stratification if a stratification event triggers phytoplankton blooms or dissolved organic matter release, reducing transparency and therefore further heating the surface layer. However, this feedback is only likely to have influence in small and clear lakes, it would be easily disturbed by weather conditions, and the resulting stratified state does not remain stable in the long term, as stratification is lost in winter. 4. The ice‐albedo feedback might cause an accelerated shift from ice‐covered (dimictic) to ice‐free (monomictic) winters in sufficiently deep (mean depth 50 m or more) lakes, where temperature memory is carried over from one winter to the next. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate into whether this process can persist during natural weather variations and overcome self‐stabilising mechanisms such as thermal insulation by snow. The majority of studies suggest that a gradual transition from dimictic to monomictic is more likely than an abrupt transition. 5. A shift from a holomictic to a meromictic regime can occur if anoxia is triggered by incomplete mixing and an increase in deep‐water density—through the accumulation of solutes—exceeds a density decrease by hypolimnetic warming. A shift to meromixis would strongly alter the biology of a lake and might be difficult to reverse. If solutes accumulate only minimally in the hypolimnion, an oligomictic regime is formed, in which years with complete and incomplete mixing alternate. 6. Understanding the importance of feedback mechanisms and the role of biogeochemistry when lakes shift in mixing regime could lead to a better understanding of how climate change affects lake ecosystems.

Ionic liquid gated field-effect transistors (FETs) based on semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are used to study a rich variety of extremely interesting physical phenomena, but important aspects of how charge carriers are accumulated in these systems are not understood. We address these issues by means of a systematic experimental study of transport in monolayer MoSe$_2$ and WSe$_2$ as a function of magnetic field and gate voltage, exploring accumulated densities of carriers ranging from approximately 10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ holes in the valence band to 4x10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$ electrons in the conduction band. We identify the conditions when the chemical potential enters different valleys in the monolayer band structure (the K and Q valley in the conduction band and the two spin-split K-valleys in the valence band) and find that an independent electron picture describes the occupation of states well. Unexpectedly, however, the experiments show very large changes in the device capacitance when multiple valleys are occupied that are not at all compatible with the commonly expected quantum capacitance contribution of these systems, $\textit{C}$$_Q$=$\textit{e}^2$/(d$\mu$/d$\textit{n}$). This unexpected behavior is attributed to the presence of a cross quantum capacitance, which originates from screening of the electric field generated by charges on one plate from charges sitting on the other plate. Our findings therefore reveal an important contribution to the capacitance of physical systems that had been virtually entirely neglected until now. (short abstract due to size limitations - full abstract in the manuscript), Comment: 5 figures

It is usual to identify initial conditions of classical dynamical systems with mathematical real numbers. However, almost all real numbers contain an infinite amount of information. I argue that a finite volume of space can't contain more than a finite amount of information, hence that the mathematical real numbers are not physically relevant. Moreover, a better terminology for the so-called real numbers is ``random numbers'', as their series of bits are truly random. I propose an alternative classical mechanics, which is empirically equivalent to classical mechanics, but uses only finite-information numbers. This alternative classical mechanics is non-deterministic, despite the use of deterministic equations, in a way similar to quantum theory. Interestingly, both alternative classical mechanics and quantum theories can be supplemented by additional variables in such a way that the supplemented theory is deterministic. Most physicists straightforwardly supplement classical theory with real numbers to which they attribute physical existence, while most physicists reject Bohmian mechanics as supplemented quantum theory, arguing that Bohmian positions have no physical reality., Comment: 8 pages. Presented at the David Bohm Centennial Symposium, London, Octobre 2017 V2: several mineurs changes and additions

We propose a mechanism to solve the Higgs naturalness problem through a cosmological selection process. The discharging of excited field configurations through membrane nucleation leads to discrete jumps of the cosmological constant and the Higgs mass, which vary in a correlated way. The resulting multitude of universes are all empty, except for those in which the cosmological constant and the Higgs mass are both nearly vanishing. Only under these critical conditions can inflation be activated and create a non-empty universe., Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure (one reference added in revised version)

While spintronics has traditionally relied on ferromagnetic metals as spin generators and detectors, spin–orbitronics exploits the efficient spin–charge interconversion enabled by spin–orbit coupling in non-magnetic systems. Although the Rashba picture of split parabolic bands is often used to interpret such experiments, it fails to explain the largest conversion effects and their relationship with the electronic structure. Here, we demonstrate a very large spin-to-charge conversion effect in an interface-engineered, high-carrier-density SrTiO3 two-dimensional electron gas and map its gate dependence on the band structure. We show that the conversion process is amplified by enhanced Rashba-like splitting due to orbital mixing and in the vicinity of avoided band crossings with topologically non-trivial order. Our results indicate that oxide two-dimensional electron gases are strong candidates for spin-based information readout in new memory and transistor designs. Our results also emphasize the promise of topology as a new ingredient to expand the scope of complex oxides for spintronics. A very large spin-to-charge conversion arising from a combination of the Rashba effect and topologically non-trivial states is realized at the interface of strontium titanate and aluminium, with implications for the role of topology in memory and transistor designs.

The first step in exploring the properties of dynamical systems like the Earth climate is to identify the different phase space regions where the trajectories asymptotically evolve, called `attractors'. In a given system, multiple attractors can co-exist under the effect of the same forcing. At the boundaries of their basins of attraction, small changes produce large effects. Therefore, they are key regions for understanding the system response to perturbations. Here we prove the existence of up to five attractors in a simplified climate system where the planet is entirely covered by the ocean (aquaplanet). These attractors range from a snowball to a hot state without sea ice, and their exact number depends on the details of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice configuration. We characterise each attractor by describing the associated climate feedbacks, by using the principal component analysis, and by measuring quantities borrowed from the study of dynamical systems, namely instantaneous dimension and persistence., Comment: accepted for publication in Climate Dynamics, 3 tables, 8 figures, 30 pages, fixed few typos and transmissivity definition