Search

Controlling ultracold atoms with laser light has greatly advanced quantum science. The wavelength of light sets a typical length scale for most experiments to the order of 500 nanometers (nm) or greater. In this work, we implemented a super-resolution technique that localizes and arranges atoms on a sub–50-nm scale, without any fundamental limit in resolution. We demonstrate this technique by creating a bilayer of dysprosium atoms and observing dipolar interactions between two physically separated layers through interlayer sympathetic cooling and coupled collective excitations. At 50-nm distance, dipolar interactions are 1000 times stronger than at 500 nm. For two atoms in optical tweezers, this should enable purely magnetic dipolar gates with kilohertz speed.

Heat transport is a fundamental property of all physical systems and can serve as a fingerprint identifying different states of matter. In a normal liquid a hot spot diffuses while in a superfluid heat propagates as a wave called second sound. Despite its importance for understanding quantum materials, direct imaging of heat transport is challenging, and one usually resorts to detecting secondary effects, such as changes in density or pressure. Here we establish thermography of a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas, a paradigmatic system whose properties relate to strongly correlated electrons, nuclear matter and neutron stars. Just as the color of a glowing metal reveals its temperature, the radiofrequency spectrum of the interacting Fermi gas provides spatially resolved thermometry with sub-nanokelvin resolution. The superfluid phase transition is directly observed as the sudden change from thermal diffusion to second sound propagation, and is accompanied by a peak in the second sound diffusivity. The method yields the full heat and density response of the strongly interacting Fermi gas, and therefore all defining properties of Landau’s two-fluid hydrodynamics. Our measurements serve as a benchmark for theories of transport in strongly interacting fermionic matter.

Molecules containing heavy radioactive nuclei are predicted to be extremely sensitive to violations of the fundamental symmetries of nature. The nuclear octupole deformation of certain radium isotopes massively boosts the sensitivity of radium monofluoride molecules to symmetry-violating nuclear properties. Moreover, these molecules are predicted to be laser coolable. Here we report measurements of the rovibronic structure of radium monofluoride molecules, which allow the determination of their laser cooling scheme. We demonstrate an improvement in resolution of more than two orders of magnitude compared to the state of the art. Our developments allowed measurements of minuscule amounts of hot molecules, with only a few hundred per second produced in a particular rotational state. The combined precision and sensitivity achieved in this work offer opportunities for studies of radioactive molecules of interest in fundamental physics, chemistry and astrophysics.

A search for supersymmetry is presented in events with a single charged lepton, electron or muon, and multiple hadronic jets. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search targets gluino pair production, where the gluinos decay into final states with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and either a top quark-antiquark ( t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ ) pair, or a light-flavor quark-antiquark ( q q ¯ $$ \textrm{q}\overline{\textrm{q}} $$ ) pair and a virtual or on-shell W boson. The main backgrounds, t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ pair and W+jets production, are suppressed by requirements on the azimuthal angle between the momenta of the lepton and of its reconstructed parent W boson candidate, and by top quark and W boson identification based on a machine-learning technique. The number of observed events is consistent with the expectations from standard model processes. Limits are evaluated on supersymmetric particle masses in the context of two simplified models of gluino pair production. Exclusions for gluino masses reach up to 2120 (2050) GeV at 95% confidence level for a model with gluino decay to a t t ¯ $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ pair (a q q ¯ $$ \textrm{q}\overline{\textrm{q}} $$ pair and a W boson) and the LSP. For the same models, limits on the mass of the LSP reach up to 1250 (1070) GeV.

Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum Computing (NISQ) has dominated headlines in recent years, with the longer-term vision of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation (FTQC) offering significant potential albeit at currently intractable resource costs and quantum error correction (QEC) overheads. For problems of interest, FTQC will require millions of physical qubits with long coherence times, high-fidelity gates, and compact sizes to surpass classical systems. Just as heterogeneous specialization has offered scaling benefits in classical computing, it is likewise gaining interest in FTQC. However, systematic use of heterogeneity in either hardware or software elements of FTQC systems remains a serious challenge due to the vast design space and variable physical constraints. This paper meets the challenge of making heterogeneous FTQC design practical by introducing HetArch, a toolbox for designing heterogeneous quantum systems, and using it to explore heterogeneous design scenarios. Using a hierarchical approach, we successively break quantum algorithms into smaller operations (akin to classical application kernels), thus greatly simplifying the design space and resulting tradeoffs. Specializing to superconducting systems, we then design optimized heterogeneous hardware composed of varied superconducting devices, abstracting physical constraints into design rules that enable devices to be assembled into standard cells optimized for specific operations. Finally, we provide a heterogeneous design space exploration framework which reduces the simulation burden by a factor of 104 or more and allows us to characterize optimal design points. We use these techniques to design superconducting quantum modules for entanglement distillation, error correction, and code teleportation, reducing error rates by 2.6 ×, 10.7 ×, and 3.0 × compared to homogeneous systems.

We report graphene films composed mostly of one or two layers of graphene grown by controlled carbon precipitation on the surface of polycrystalline Ni thin films during atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Controlling both the methane concentration during CVD and the substrate cooling rate during graphene growth can significantly improve the thickness uniformity. As a result, one- or two- layer graphene regions occupy up to 87% of the film area. Single layer coverage accounts for 5%–11% of the overall film. These regions expand across multiple grain boundaries of the underlying polycrystalline Ni film. The number density of sites with multilayer graphene/graphite (>2 layers) is reduced as the cooling rate decreases. These films can also be transferred to other substrates and their sizes are only limited by the sizes of the Ni film and the CVD chamber. Here, we demonstrate the formation of films as large as 1 in2. These findings represent an important step towards the fabrication of large-scale high-quality graphene samples., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CTS 05-06830), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DMR07-04197)

The first measurement of the top quark pair (t¯t) production cross section in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 13.6 TeV is presented. Data recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in Summer 2022, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.21 fb−1 , are analyzed. Events are selected with one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and additional jets. A maximum likelihood fit is performed in event categories defined by the number and flavors of the leptons, the number of jets, and the number of jets identified as originating from b quarks. An inclusive t¯t production cross section of 881 ± 23 (stat + syst) ± 20 (lumi) pb is measured, in agreement with the standard model prediction of 924+32 −40 pb.

A search for pairs of dijet resonances with the same mass is conducted in final states with at least four jets. Results are presented separately for the case where the four jet production proceeds via an intermediate resonant state and for nonresonant production. The search uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 collected by the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV. Model-independent limits, at 95% confidence level, are reported on the production cross section of four-jet and dijet resonances. These first LHC limits on resonant pair production of dijet resonances via high mass intermediate states are applied to a signal model of diquarks that decay into pairs of vector-like quarks, excluding diquark masses below 7.6 TeV for a particular model scenario. There are two events in the tails of the distributions, each with a four-jet mass of 8 TeV and an average dijet mass of 2 TeV, resulting in local and global significances of 3.9 and 1.6 standard deviations, respectively, if interpreted as a signal. The nonresonant search excludes pair production of top squarks with masses between 0.50 TeV to 0.77 TeV, with the exception of a small interval between 0.52 and 0.58 TeV, for supersymmetric R-parity-violating decays to quark pairs, significantly extending previous limits. Here, the most significant excess above the predicted background occurs at an average dijet mass of 0.95 TeV, for which the local and global significances are 3.6 and 2.5 standard deviations, respectively.

A search is presented for vector-like T and B quark-antiquark pairs produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Data were collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016–2018, with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Events are separated into single-lepton, same-sign charge dilepton, and multi-lepton channels. In the analysis of the single-lepton channel a multilayer neural network and jet identification techniques are employed to select signal events, while the same-sign dilepton and multilepton channels rely on the high-energy signature of the signal to distinguish it from standard model backgrounds. The data are consistent with standard model background predictions, and the production of vector-like quark pairs is excluded at 95% confidence level for T quark masses up to 1.54 TeV and B quark masses up to 1.56 TeV, depending on the branching fractions assumed, with maximal sensitivity to decay modes that include multiple top quarks. The limits obtained in this search are the strongest limits to date for T T ¯ $$ \textrm{T}\overline{\textrm{T}} $$ production, excluding masses below 1.48 TeV for all decays to third generation quarks, and are the strongest limits to date for B B ¯ $$ \textrm{B}\overline{\textrm{B}} $$ production with B quark decays to tW.

To compute the string one-loop correction to the Kähler potential of moduli fields of string compactifications in Einstein-frame, one must compute: the string one-loop correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action, the string one-loop correction to the moduli kinetic terms, the string one-loop correction to the definition of the holomorphic coordinates. In this note, in the small warping limit, we compute the string one-loop correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action of type II string theory compactified on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefolds. We find that the one-loop correction is determined by the new supersymmetric index studied by Cecotti, Fendley, Intriligator, and Vafa and the Witten index. As a simple application, we apply our results to estimate the size of the one-loop corrections around a conifold point in the Kähler moduli space.

A search for pair production of the supersymmetric partner of the top quark, the top squark, in proton-proton collisions at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV is presented in final states containing at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton and large missing transverse momentum. This final state is highly sensitive to scenarios of supersymmetry in which the decay of the top squark to tau leptons is enhanced. The search uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1, which was recorded with the CMS detector during 2016–2018. No significant excess is observed with respect to the standard model predictions. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of the top squark and the lightest neutralino are presented under the assumptions of simplified models. The results probe top squark masses up to 1150 GeV for a nearly massless neutralino. This search covers a relatively less explored parameter space in the context of supersymmetry, and the exclusion limit is the most stringent to date for the model considered here.

The CP asymmetries of seven B− decays to two charm mesons are measured using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment. Decays involving a D*0 or D s ∗ − $$ {D}_s^{\ast -} $$ meson are analysed by reconstructing only the D0 or D s − $$ {D}_s^{-} $$ decay products. This paper presents the first measurement of A $$ \mathcal{A} $$ CP(B− → D s ∗ − $$ {D}_s^{\ast -} $$ D0) and A $$ \mathcal{A} $$ CP(B− → D s − $$ {D}_s^{-} $$ D∗0), and the most precise measurement of the other five CP asymmetries. There is no evidence of CP violation in any of the analysed decays. Additionally, two ratios between branching fractions of selected decays are measured.

Traditional optical elements and conventional metasurfaces obey shift-invariance in the paraxial regime. For imaging systems obeying paraxial shift-invariance, a small shift in input angle causes a corresponding shift in the sensor image. Shift-invariance has deep implications for the design and functionality of optical devices, such as the necessity of free space between components (as in compound objectives made of several curved surfaces). We present a method for nanophotonic inverse design of compact imaging systems whose resolution is not constrained by paraxial shift-invariance. Our method is end-to-end, in that it integrates density-based full-Maxwell topology optimization with a fully iterative elastic-net reconstruction algorithm. By the design of nanophotonic structures that scatter light in a non-shift-invariant manner, our optimized nanophotonic imaging system overcomes the limitations of paraxial shift-invariance, achieving accurate, noise-robust image reconstruction beyond shift-invariant resolution., Department of Defense (DoD)

A search for a charged Higgs boson H± decaying into a heavy neutral Higgs boson H and a W boson is presented. The analysis targets the H decay into a pair of tau leptons with at least one of them decaying hadronically and with an additional electron or muon present in the event. The search is based on proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment during 2016–2018 at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The data are consistent with standard model background expectations. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for an H± in the mass range of 300–700 GeV, assuming an H with a mass of 200 GeV. The observed limits range from 0.085 pb for an H± mass of 300 Ge V to 0.019 pb for a mass of 700 GeV. These are the first limits on H± production in the H± → HW± decay channel at the LHC.

This article reviews recent developments in the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), particularly on its rich interplay with topology. The review starts off with a pedagogical introduction on the modified bulk-boundary correspondence, the synergy and hybridization of NHSE and band topology in higher dimensions, as well as, the associated topology on the complex energy plane such as spectral winding topology and spectral graph topology. Following which, emerging topics are introduced such as non-Hermitian criticality, dynamical NHSE phenomena, and the manifestation of NHSE beyond the traditional linear non-interacting crystal lattices, particularly its interplay with quantum many-body interactions. Finally, we survey the recent demonstrations and experimental proposals of NHSE.

A search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalars, each of which subsequently decays into a pair of photons, is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 132 fb−1. The analysis probes pseudoscalar bosons with masses in the range 15–62 GeV, coming from the Higgs boson decay, which leads to four well-isolated photons in the final state. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and branching fraction into four photons. The observed (expected) limits range from 0.80 (1.00) fb for a pseudoscalar boson mass of 15 GeV to 0.26 (0.24) fb for a mass of 62 GeV at 95% confidence level.

Background Accurate estimation of the effective reproductive number ( $$R_e$$ R e ) of epidemic outbreaks is of central relevance to public health policy and decision making. We present estimateR, an R package for the estimation of the reproductive number through time from delayed observations of infection events. Such delayed observations include confirmed cases, hospitalizations or deaths. The package implements the methodology of Huisman et al. but modularizes the $$R_e$$ R e estimation procedure to allow easy implementation of new alternatives to the currently available methods. Users can tailor their analyses according to their particular use case by choosing among implemented options. Results The estimateR R package allows users to estimate the effective reproductive number of an epidemic outbreak based on observed cases, hospitalization, death or any other type of event documenting past infections, in a fast and timely fashion. We validated the implementation with a simulation study: estimateR yielded estimates comparable to alternative publicly available methods while being around two orders of magnitude faster. We then applied estimateR to empirical case-confirmation incidence data for COVID-19 in nine countries and for dengue fever in Brazil; in parallel, estimateR is already being applied (i) to SARS-CoV-2 measurements in wastewater data and (ii) to study influenza transmission based on wastewater and clinical data in other studies. In summary, this R package provides a fast and flexible implementation to estimate the effective reproductive number for various diseases and datasets. Conclusions The estimateR R package is a modular and extendable tool designed for outbreak surveillance and retrospective outbreak investigation. It extends the method developed for COVID-19 by Huisman et al. and makes it available for a variety of pathogens, outbreak scenarios, and observation types. Estimates obtained with estimateR can be interpreted directly or use

A search for new physics in final states consisting of at least one photon, multiple jets, and large missing transverse momentum is presented, using proton-proton collision events at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC from 2016 to 2018. The events are divided into mutually exclusive bins characterized by the missing transverse momentum, the number of jets, the number of b-tagged jets, and jets consistent with the presence of hadronically decaying W, Z, or Higgs bosons. The observed data are found to be consistent with the prediction from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of pair production of supersymmetric particles via strong and electroweak interactions. Depending on the details of the signal models, gluinos and squarks of masses up to 2.35 and 1.43 TeV, respectively, and electroweakinos of masses up to 1.23 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

In this paper, we present a method of embedding physics data manifolds with metric structure into lower dimensional spaces with simpler metrics, such as Euclidean and Hyperbolic spaces. We then demonstrate that it can be a powerful step in the data analysis pipeline for many applications. Using progressively more realistic simulated collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, we show that this embedding approach learns the underlying latent structure. With the notion of volume in Euclidean spaces, we provide for the first time a viable solution to quantifying the true search capability of model agnostic search algorithms in collider physics (i.e. anomaly detection). Finally, we discuss how the ideas presented in this paper can be employed to solve many practical challenges that require the extraction of physically meaningful representations from information in complex high dimensional datasets.

The production of a top quark-antiquark pair in association with a W boson ( t t ¯ W $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{W} $$ ) is measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analyzed data was recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Events with two or three leptons (electrons and muons) and additional jets are selected. In events with two leptons, a multiclass neural network is used to distinguish between the signal and background processes. Events with three leptons are categorized based on the number of jets and of jets originating from b quark hadronization, and the lepton charges. The inclusive t t ¯ W $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{W} $$ production cross section in the full phase space is measured to be 868 ± 40(stat) ± 51(syst) fb. The t t ¯ W $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{W} $$ + and t t ¯ W $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{W} $$ − cross sections are also measured as 553 ± 30(stat) ± 30(syst) and 343 ± 26(stat) ± 25(syst) fb, respectively, and the corresponding ratio of the two cross sections is found to be 1.61 ± 0.15 stat − 0.05 + 0.07 syst $$ 1.61\pm 0.15{\left(\textrm{stat}\right)}_{-0.05}^{+0.07}\left(\textrm{syst}\right) $$ . The measured cross sections are larger than but consistent with the standard model predictions within two standard deviations, and represent the most precise measurement of these cross sections to date.

New sets of parameter tunes for two of the colour reconnection models, quantum chromodynamics-inspired and gluon-move, implemented in the pythia 8 event generator, are obtained based on the default CMS pythia 8 underlying-event tune, CP5. Measurements sensitive to the underlying event performed by the CMS experiment at centre-of-mass energies $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ s = 7 and 13 $$\,\text {Te\hspace{-.08em}V}$$ Te V , and by the CDF experiment at 1.96 $$\,\text {Te\hspace{-.08em}V}$$ Te V are used to constrain the parameters of colour reconnection models and multiple-parton interactions simultaneously. The new colour reconnection tunes are compared with various measurements at 1.96, 7, 8, and 13 $$\,\text {Te\hspace{-.08em}V}$$ Te V including measurements of the underlying-event, strange-particle multiplicities, jet substructure observables, jet shapes, and colour flow in top quark pair ( $${{\text {t}} {}{\bar{\text {t}}}}$$ t t ¯ ) events. The new tunes are also used to estimate the uncertainty related to colour reconnection modelling in the top quark mass measurement using the decay products of $${{\text {t}} {}{\bar{\text {t}}}}$$ t t ¯ events in the semileptonic channel at 13 $$\,\text {Te\hspace{-.08em}V}$$ Te V .

A search is reported for pairs of light Higgs bosons ( $${\textrm{H}} _1$$ H 1 ) produced in supersymmetric cascade decays in final states with small missing transverse momentum. A data set of LHC $$\hbox {pp}$$ pp collisions collected with the CMS detector at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV} $$ s = 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 is used. The search targets events where both $${\textrm{H}} _1$$ H 1 bosons decay into pairs that are reconstructed as large-radius jets using substructure techniques. No evidence is found for an excess of events beyond the background expectations of the standard model (SM). Results from the search are interpreted in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM, where a “singlino” of small mass leads to squark and gluino cascade decays that can predominantly end in a highly Lorentz-boosted singlet-like $${\textrm{H}} _1$$ H 1 and a singlino-like neutralino of small transverse momentum. Upper limits are set on the product of the squark or gluino pair production cross section and the square of the branching fraction of the $${\textrm{H}} _1$$ H 1 in a benchmark model containing almost mass-degenerate gluinos and light-flavour squarks. Under the assumption of an SM-like branching fraction, $${\textrm{H}} _1$$ H 1 bosons with masses in the range 40–120 $$\,\text {GeV}$$ GeV arising from the decays of squarks or gluinos with a mass of 1200–2500 $$\,\text {GeV}$$ GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

Modular data is a significant invariant of a modular tensor category. We pursue an approach to the classification of modular data of modular tensor categories by building the modular S and T matrices directly from irreducible representations of $${{\text {SL}}_2({\mathbb {Z}}/ n {\mathbb {Z}})}$$ SL 2 ( Z / n Z ) . We discover and collect many conditions on the $${{\text {SL}}_2({\mathbb {Z}}/ n {\mathbb {Z}})}$$ SL 2 ( Z / n Z ) representations to identify those that correspond to some modular data. To arrive at concrete matrices from representations, we also develop methods that allow us to select the proper basis of the $${{\text {SL}}_2({\mathbb {Z}}/ n {\mathbb {Z}})}$$ SL 2 ( Z / n Z ) representations so that they have the form of modular data. We apply this technique to the classification of rank-6 modular tensor categories, obtaining a classification of modular data, up to Galois conjugation and changing spherical structure. Most of the calculations can be automated using a computer algebraic system, which can be employed to classify modular data of higher rank modular tensor categories. Our classification employs a hybrid of automated computational methods and by-hand calculations.

The first observation of the B s 0 $$ {B}_s^0 $$ → D∗+D∗− decay and the measurement of its branching ratio relative to the B0 → D∗+D∗− decay are presented. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions recorded by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV between 2011 and 2018. The decay is observed with more than 10 standard deviations and the time-integrated ratio of branching fractions is determined to be B B s 0 → D ∗ + D ∗ − B B 0 → D ∗ + D ∗ − = 0.269 ± 0.032 ± 0.011 ± 0.008 , $$ \frac{\mathcal{B}\left({B}_s^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{D}^{\ast -}\right)}{\mathcal{B}\left({B}^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{D}^{\ast -}\right)}=0.269\pm 0.032\pm 0.011\pm 0.008, $$ where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third due to the uncertainty of the fragmentation fraction ratio fs/fd. The B s 0 $$ {B}_s^0 $$ → D*+D*− branching fraction is calculated to be B B s 0 → D ∗ + D ∗ − = 2.15 ± 0.26 ± 0.09 ± 0.06 ± 0.16 × 10 − 4 , $$ \mathcal{B}\left({B}_s^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{D}^{\ast -}\right)=\left(2.15\pm 0.26\pm 0.09\pm 0.06\pm 0.16\right)\times {10}^{-4}, $$ where the fourth uncertainty is due to the B0 → D*+D*− branching fraction. These results are calculated using the average B s 0 $$ {B}_s^0 $$ meson lifetime in simulation. Correction factors are reported for scenarios where either a purely heavy or a purely light B s 0 $$ {B}_s^0 $$ eigenstate is considered.

The Pandora Software Development Kit and algorithm libraries provide pattern-recognition logic essential to the reconstruction of particle interactions in liquid argon time projection chamber detectors. Pandora is the primary event reconstruction software used at ProtoDUNE-SP, a prototype for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment far detector. ProtoDUNE-SP, located at CERN, is exposed to a charged-particle test beam. This paper gives an overview of the Pandora reconstruction algorithms and how they have been tailored for use at ProtoDUNE-SP. In complex events with numerous cosmic-ray and beam background particles, the simulated reconstruction and identification efficiency for triggered test-beam particles is above 80% for the majority of particle type and beam momentum combinations. Specifically, simulated 1 GeV/c charged pions and protons are correctly reconstructed and identified with efficiencies of 86.1 $$\pm 0.6$$ ± 0.6 % and 84.1 $$\pm 0.6$$ ± 0.6 %, respectively. The efficiencies measured for test-beam data are shown to be within 5% of those predicted by the simulation.

Experiments in inverse kinematics are a novel approach to study short-range correlations in atomic nuclei. Such fully exclusive experiments offer unique advantages over normal kinematics as they allow to study the structure of short-lived radioactive-nuclei using quasi-free scattering reactions and measure the complete final state directly. In pilot experiments at JINR using a $$^{12}$$ 12 C beam at 4 GeV/c/nucleon on a proton target, we show that challenges posed by final-state interactions can be overcome taking advantage of post-selection. This opens a new research path to study the dynamics of high-momentum nucleons in extremely asymmetric nuclei.

Department of Energy (DOE)

A search for direct CP violation in the Cabibbo-suppressed decay D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → K−K+K+ and in the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decay D+ → K−K+K+ is reported. The analysis is performed with data collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 fb−1. The search is conducted by comparing the D s + $$ {D}_{(s)}^{+} $$ and D s − $$ {D}_{(s)}^{-} $$ Dalitz-plot distributions through a model-independent binned technique, based on fits to the K−K+K+ invariant-mass distributions, with a total of 0.97 (1.27) million D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ (D+) signal candidates. The results are given as p-values for the hypothesis of CP conservation and are found to be 13.3% for the D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → K−K+K+ decay and 31.6% for the D+ → K−K+K+ decay. No evidence for CP violation is observed in these decays.

We study the performance of a cloud-based GPU-accelerated inference server to speed up event reconstruction in neutrino data batch jobs. Using detector data from the ProtoDUNE experiment and employing the standard DUNE grid job submission tools, we attempt to reprocess the data by running several thousand concurrent grid jobs, a rate we expect to be typical of current and future neutrino physics experiments. We process most of the dataset with the GPU version of our processing algorithm and the remainder with the CPU version for timing comparisons. We find that a 100-GPU cloud-based server is able to easily meet the processing demand, and that using the GPU version of the event processing algorithm is two times faster than processing these data with the CPU version when comparing to the newest CPUs in our sample. The amount of data transferred to the inference server during the GPU runs can overwhelm even the highest-bandwidth network switches, however, unless care is taken to observe network facility limits or otherwise distribute the jobs to multiple sites. We discuss the lessons learned from this processing campaign and several avenues for future improvements.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and their implications for early universe and particle physics, from the MeV to the Planck scale. However, the range of potential cosmological applications of gravitational-wave observations extends well beyond these two objectives. This publication presents a summary of the state of the art in LISA cosmology, theory and methods, and identifies new opportunities to use gravitational-wave observations by LISA to probe the universe.

National Science Foundation (NSF), DARPA, DTRA

A measurement of the jet mass distribution in hadronic decays of Lorentz-boosted top quarks is presented. The measurement is performed in the lepton + jets channel of top quark pair production ( $$\hbox {t}\overline{\hbox {t}}$$ t t ¯ ) events, where the lepton is an electron or muon. The products of the hadronic top quark decay are reconstructed using a single large-radius jet with transverse momentum greater than 400 $$\,\text {Ge}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ Ge V . The data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 . The differential $$\hbox {t}\overline{\hbox {t}}$$ t t ¯ production cross section as a function of the jet mass is unfolded to the particle level and is used to extract the top quark mass. The jet mass scale is calibrated using the hadronic W boson decay within the large-radius jet. The uncertainties in the modelling of the final state radiation are reduced by studying angular correlations in the jet substructure. These developments lead to a significant increase in precision, and a top quark mass of $$173.06 \pm 0.84\,\text {Ge}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$ 173.06 ± 0.84 Ge V .

Correlations of same-sign charged pions are analysed using proton-lead collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.06 nb−1. Bose-Einstein correlations are observed in the form of an enhancement of pair production for same-sign charged pions with a small four-momentum difference. The dependence of the correlation radius and the intercept parameter on the reconstructed charged-particle multiplicity is investigated. The measured correlation radii scale linearly with the cube root of the reconstructed charged-particle multiplicity, being compatible with predictions of hydrodynamic models on the collision system evolution.

A search for long-lived particles decaying in the outer regions of the CMS silicon tracker or in the calorimeters is presented. The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. A novel technique, using nearly trackless and out-of-time jet information combined in a deep neural network discriminator, is employed to identify decays of long-lived particles. The results are interpreted in a simplified model of chargino-neutralino production, where the neutralino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, is long-lived, and decays to a gravitino and either a Higgs or Z boson. This search is most sensitive to neutralino proper decay lengths of approximately 0.5 m, for which masses up to 1.18 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. The current search is the best result to date in the mass range from the kinematic limit imposed by the Higgs boson mass up to 1.8 TeV.

In this note, we prove that the one-loop pfaffian of the non-perturbative superpotential generated by Euclidean D-branes in type II compactifications on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefolds is determined by the moduli integral of the new supersymmetric index defined by Cecotti, Fendley, Intriligator, and Vafa. As this quantity can be computed via topological string theory, Chern-Simons theory, matrix models, or by solving the holomorphic anomaly equation, this result provides a method to directly compute the one-loop pfaffian of the non-perturbative superpotential. The relation between the one-loop pfaffian, threshold corrections to the gauge coupling, and the one-loop partition function of open topological string theory is discussed.

A search for decays to invisible particles of Higgs bosons produced in association with a top-antitop quark pair or a vector boson, which both decay to a fully hadronic final state, has been performed using proton-proton collision data collected at $${\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}}$$ s = 13 Te V by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 . The 95% confidence level upper limit set on the branching fraction of the 125 $$\,\text {Ge}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ Ge V Higgs boson to invisible particles, $${\mathcal {B}({\textrm{H}} \rightarrow \text {inv})}$$ B ( H → inv ) , is 0.54 (0.39 expected), assuming standard model production cross sections. The results of this analysis are combined with previous $${\mathcal {B}({\textrm{H}} \rightarrow \text {inv})}$$ B ( H → inv ) searches carried out at $${\sqrt{s}=7}$$ s = 7 , 8, and 13 $$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ Te V in complementary production modes. The combined upper limit at 95% confidence level on $${\mathcal {B}({\textrm{H}} \rightarrow \text {inv})}$$ B ( H → inv ) is 0.15 (0.08 expected).

Motivated by questions related to the landscape of flux compactifications, we combine new and existing techniques into a systematic, streamlined approach for computing vertical fluxes and chiral matter multiplicities in 4D F-theory models. A central feature of our approach is the conjecturally resolution-independent intersection pairing of the vertical part of the integer middle cohomology of smooth elliptic Calabi–Yau fourfolds, relevant for computing chiral indices and related aspects of 4D F-theory flux vacua. We illustrate our approach by analyzing vertical flux backgrounds for F-theory models with simple, simply-laced gauge groups and generic matter content, as well as models with $${\text {U}}(1)$$ U ( 1 ) gauge factors. We explicitly analyze resolutions of these F-theory models in which the elliptic fiber is realized as a cubic in $${\mathbb {P}}^2$$ P 2 over an arbitrary (e.g., not necessarily toric) smooth base, and confirm the independence of the intersection pairing of the vertical part of the middle cohomology for the resolutions we study. In each model, we find that vertical flux backgrounds can produce nonzero multiplicities for a spanning set of anomaly-free chiral matter field combinations, suggesting that F-theory geometry imposes no additional linear constraints on allowed matter representations beyond those implied by 4D anomaly cancellation.

We use the recently developed methods of arXiv:2108.07810 to analyze vertical flux backgrounds and associated chiral matter spectra in the 4D universal (SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1))/ℤ6 model introduced in arXiv:1912.10991, which is believed to describe the most generic family of F-theory vacua with tuned (SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1))/ℤ6 gauge symmetry. Our analysis focuses on a resolution of a particular presentation of the (SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1))/ℤ6 model in which the elliptic fiber is realized as a cubic in ℙ2 fibered over an arbitrary smooth threefold base. We show that vertical fluxes can produce nonzero multiplicities for all chiral matter families that satisfy 4D anomaly cancellation, which include as a special case the chiral matter families of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.

Aims This study aims to compare the performance of a handheld fundus camera (Eyer) and standard tabletop fundus cameras (Visucam 500, Visucam 540, and Canon CR-2) for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema screening. Methods This was a multicenter, cross-sectional study that included images from 327 individuals with diabetes. The participants underwent pharmacological mydriasis and fundus photography in two fields (macula and optic disk centered) with both strategies. All images were acquired by trained healthcare professionals, de-identified, and graded independently by two masked ophthalmologists, with a third senior ophthalmologist adjudicating in discordant cases. The International Classification of Diabetic Retinopathy was used for grading, and demographic data, diabetic retinopathy classification, artifacts, and image quality were compared between devices. The tabletop senior ophthalmologist adjudication label was used as the ground truth for comparative analysis. A univariate and stepwise multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine the relationship of each independent factor in referable diabetic retinopathy. Results The mean age of participants was 57.03 years (SD 16.82, 9–90 years), and the mean duration of diabetes was 16.35 years (SD 9.69, 1–60 years). Age (P = .005), diabetes duration (P = .004), body mass index (P = .005), and hypertension (P < .001) were statistically different between referable and non-referable patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed a positive association between male sex (OR 1.687) and hypertension (OR 3.603) with referable diabetic retinopathy. The agreement between devices for diabetic retinopathy classification was 73.18%, with a weighted kappa of 0.808 (almost perfect). The agreement for macular edema was 88.48%, with a kappa of 0.809 (almost perfect). For referable diabetic retinopathy, the agreement was 85.88%, with a kappa of 0.716 (substantial), sensitivity of 0.906, an

We study the massless charged spectrum of U(1) gauge fields in F-theory that arise from flux breaking of a nonabelian group. The U(1) charges that arise in this way can be very large. In particular, using vertical flux breaking, we construct an explicit 4D F-theory model with a U(1) decoupled from other gauge sectors, in which the massless/light fields have charges as large as 657. This result greatly exceeds prior results in the literature. We argue heuristically that this result may provide an upper bound on charges for light fields under decoupled U(1) factors in the F-theory landscape. We also show that the charges can be even larger when the U(1) is coupled to other gauge groups.

Abstract The ability to profile transcriptomes and characterize global gene expression changes has been greatly enabled by the development of RNA sequencing technologies (RNA-seq). However, the process of generating sequencing-compatible cDNA libraries from RNA samples can be time-consuming and expensive, especially for bacterial mRNAs which lack poly(A)-tails that are often used to streamline this process for eukaryotic samples. Compared to the increasing throughput and decreasing cost of sequencing, library preparation has had limited advances. Here, we describe bacterial-multiplexed-seq (BaM-seq), an approach that enables simple barcoding of many bacterial RNA samples that decreases the time and cost of library preparation. We also present targeted-bacterial-multiplexed-seq (TBaM-seq) that allows for differential expression analysis of specific gene panels with over 100-fold enrichment in read coverage. In addition, we introduce the concept of transcriptome redistribution based on TBaM-seq that dramatically reduces the required sequencing depth while still allowing for quantification of both highly and lowly abundant transcripts. These methods accurately measure gene expression changes with high technical reproducibility and agreement with gold standard, lower throughput approaches. Together, use of these library preparation protocols allows for fast, affordable generation of sequencing libraries.

The function of most lipases is controlled by the lid, which undergoes conformational changes at a water–lipid interface to expose the active site, thus activating catalysis. Understanding how lid mutations affect lipases’ function is important for designing improved variants. Lipases’ function has been found to correlate with their diffusion on the substrate surface. Here, we used single-particle tracking (SPT), a powerful tool for deciphering enzymes’ diffusional behavior, to study Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL) variants with different lid structures in a laundry-like application condition. Thousands of parallelized recorded trajectories and hidden Markov modeling (HMM) analysis allowed us to extract three interconverting diffusional states and quantify their abundance, microscopic transition rates, and the energy barriers for sampling them. Combining those findings with ensemble measurements, we determined that the overall activity variation in the application condition is dependent on surface binding and lipase mobility when bound. Specifically, the L4 variant with a TLL-like lid and wild-type (WT) TLL displayed similar ensemble activity, but WT bound stronger to the surface than L4, while L4 had a higher diffusion coefficient and thus activity when bound to the surface. These mechanistic elements can only be de-convoluted by our combined assays. Our findings offer fresh perspectives on the development of the next iteration of enzyme-based detergent.

We conduct a review of the basic definitions and the principal results in the study of wavelike spacetimes, that is spacetimes whose metric models massless radiation moving at the speed of light, focusing in particular on those geometries with parallel rays. In particular, we motivate and connect their various definitions, outline their coordinate descriptions and present some classical results in their study in a language more accessible to modern readers, including the existence of “null coordinates” and the construction of Penrose limits. We also present a thorough summary of recent work on causality in pp-waves, and describe progress in addressing an open question in the field—the Ehlers–Kundt conjecture.

Compartmental epidemic models have been widely used for predicting the course of epidemics, from estimating the basic reproduction number to guiding intervention policies. Studies commonly acknowledge these models’ assumptions but less often justify their validity in the specific context in which they are being used. Our purpose is not to argue for specific alternatives or modifications to compartmental models, but rather to show how assumptions can constrain model outcomes to a narrow portion of the wide landscape of potential epidemic behaviors. This concrete examination of well-known models also serves to illustrate general principles of modeling that can be applied in other contexts.

We explore the plasma matter content in the innermost accretion disk/jet in M87* as relevant for an enthusiastic search for the signatures of anti-matter in the next generation of the Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT). We model the impact of non-zero positron-to-electron ratio using different emission models, including a constant electron to magnetic pressure (constant model) with a population of non-thermal electrons as well as an R-beta model populated with thermal electrons. In the former case, we pick a semi-analytic fit to the force-free region of a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation, while in the latter case, we analyze the GRMHD simulations directly. In both cases, positrons are being added at the post-processing level. We generate polarized images and spectra for some of these models and find out that at the radio frequencies, both of the linear and the circular polarizations are enhanced with every pair added. On the contrary, we show that, at higher frequencies, a substantial positron fraction washes out the circular polarization. We report strong degeneracies between different emission models and the positron fraction, though our non-thermal models show more sensitivities to the pair fraction than the thermal models. We conclude that a large theoretical image library is indeed required to fully understand the trends probed in this study, and to place them in the context of a large set of parameters which also affect polarimetric images, such as magnetic field strength, black hole spin, and detailed aspects of the electron temperature and the distribution function.