We consider scenarios in which a shallow bound state undergoes breakup by a probe whose energy is high compared to the binding energy. The first two scenarios, which serve as warm-up exercises, involve a single heavy particle bound to a light particle, analogous to a core nucleus bound to a neutron. We show that in quasi-free kinematics, the leading effect comes from the heavy particle being knocked out by the probe, with corrections suppressed by inverse powers of the probe momentum. This formally justifies extracting neutron form factors from high-energy deuteron breakup in quasi-free kinematics. In Scenario 1, the probe is a local current; in Scenario 2, it is hadron scattering. In Scenarios 3 and 4 we consider, respectively, a local current and hadron scattering, but now on a three-body bound state of a heavy particle and two light particles. Hard knockout of the heavy particle leaves two low-energy particles behind, which can interact with one another. In all four scenarios, we prove that the amplitude is dominated by the nearby on-shell pole of the heavy-particle propagator and derive a closed-form expression for this contribution. When two bodies are left behind, the leading amplitude is the product of the scattering of the two light particles, a dynamical function depending on the probe, and a real function related to the bound-state wavefunction. Thus, quasi-free removal of a core nucleus from a system with halo neutrons provides access to on-shell data on multi-neutron interactions. The resulting amplitudes are relativistic and satisfy unitarity for the remnant subsystem exactly. We also provide complementary non-relativistic derivations. While the derivations are for spinless particles, the generalization to spin is straightforward, since the results depend only on quasi-free knockout kinematics; we make no assumptions about the inter-particle dynamics.

In the Min-Sum-Radii (MSR) clustering problem, we are given a finite set X of n points in a metric space. The objective is to find at most k clusters centered at a subset of these points such that every point of X is assigned to one of the clusters, minimizing the sum of the radii of the clusters. The problem is known to be NP-hard even on metrics induced by weighted planar graphs and metrics with constant doubling dimension, as shown by Gibson et al. (SWAT 2008). In this work, we investigate the parameterized complexity of MSR on metrics induced by undirected graphs. We distinguish between weighted graph metrics (with positive edge weights) and unweighted graph metrics (where all edges have unit weight). Weighted Graph Metrics: We show that MSR is W[1]-hard on metrics induced by weighted bipartite graphs, when parameterized by the combined parameter k (the number of clusters) and Delta (the cost of the clustering). We then investigate the structural parameterized complexity of the problem. Drexler et al. (arXiv:2310.02130) showed that the MSR problem admits an XP algorithm on metrics induced by weighted graphs when parameterized by treewidth, and asked whether this can be improved to fixed-parameter tractability. We first answer their question in the negative, and more strongly show that MSR stays W[1]-hard on metrics induced by undirected weighted bipartite graphs when parameterized by the vertex cover number plus k. We then turn our attention to parameters for dense graphs and show that MSR remains W[1]-hard when parameterized by k+Delta even on cliques and complete bipartite graphs. On the positive side, we employ the known XP algorithm parameterized by treewidth, to show that the MSR problem is FPT when parameterized by the parameter treewidth plus Delta.

We introduce $p$-uniformity to characterize the scaling of density fluctuations in spatial random systems in $\mathbb{R}^d$, ranging from hyperfluctuation to stealthy hyperuniformity. Our central theorem establishes sufficient conditions to preserve $p$-uniformity under transport. The first condition, a finite $(d+p)$-th moment of the transport distance, allows for a Taylor expansion of the transport. The second condition controls the corresponding terms. We thus solve a previously stated open problem; indeed we extend it, since our result applies to a general $p$-uniform source in any dimension, and the source and transport may be dependent. As an application, we construct new classes of point processes that are isotropic and $p$-uniform with arbitrarily high $p$, and that can be simulated in linear time. We conclude with an outlook on a converse statement.

YZ Ret (Nova Reticuli 2020) is the first VY Scl-type nova-like variable observed to undergo a classical nova eruption. Following the outburst, timing analysis of 20-s cadence TESS data revealed a periodicity at approximately 42 s, suggesting a possible classification as a fast-spinning Intermediate Polar. To definitively identify the nature of this modulation, we performed a multi-instrument timing analysis using high-speed ground-based photometry Zorro/Gemini South (1 s cadence) and the South African Astronomical Observatory (5 s cadence) alongside TESS Sector 97 observations. Our ground-based data reveal a highly coherent period of 37.69131 +- 0.00001 s, which we identify as the true rotation period of the white dwarf. We demonstrate that the apparent 42.61 s signal in the TESS data is a Nyquist alias of this fundamental frequency. Furthermore, the signal amplitude in the TESS data is suppressed by a factor of ~0.6 relative to the Gemini observations, a result consistent with the theoretical sinc-function damping expected for a 20-s integration time. The extreme coherence and long-term stability of the 37.69131 s signal rule out transient phenomena such as dwarf nova oscillations or non-radial pulsations. We conclude that YZ Ret hosts a fast-spinning magnetic white dwarf in an Intermediate Polar configuration. This discovery implies that mass loss during the nova eruption was likely driven by a fast magnetic rotator wind and provides a physical explanation for the missing supersoft X-ray phase, suggesting that nearly the entire accreted envelope was exhausted, promptly quenching the nuclear burning.

We investigate the weak-field regime of generalized hybrid metric-Palatini theories, described by a generic function \(f(R,\mathcal{R})\), where \(R\) is the metric Ricci scalar and \(\mathcal{R}\) is constructed from an independent torsionless connection. Linearizing the field equations about Minkowski spacetime, we show, without using the scalar-tensor representation, that the theory propagates the usual massless spin-2 mode and two massive scalar modes, with an effective gravitational coupling. The absence of tachyonic and ghostlike instabilities at the linearized level, together with the nondegeneracy of the scalar sector, is shown to impose algebraic restrictions on the derivatives of \(f(R,\mathcal R)\) evaluated on the Minkowski background, which generalize previously obtained conditions. The Newtonian limit for an extended static source is derived, yielding a gravitational potential with two Yukawa corrections whose amplitudes are fixed by the scalar residues, while finite-size effects are encoded in source-dependent form factors. We determine the conditions under which the usual Newtonian limit is recovered and derive the effective post-Newtonian parameter \(γ_Σ\) governing light propagation. Finally, we compute the radial epicyclic frequency and the corresponding anomalous periapsis advance, and compare it with planetary precession data to constrain the parameters of a viable hierarchical scalar-mass regime.

We construct charged wormhole solutions with an even number of asymptotically flat regions in the four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-massless phantom scalar system via the Harrison transformation. The solutions are characterized by five parameters: the mass $M$, the electric charge $Q_\mathrm{e}$, the magnetic charge $Q_\mathrm{m}$, the scalar charge $P$ and the number of sheets $2n$. The regularity condition then determines the throat radius. Although the Harrison transformation directly generates the solutions only in the parameter region $Q_{\mathrm{e}}^2 + Q_{\mathrm{m}}^2 < M^2$, we show that regular solutions exist in a wider parameter region beyond this bound. In addition, we introduce a spheroidal coordinate system that covers one complete asymptotically flat region and its adjacent ones, and allows the solution to be expressed in a simple form.

We develop the differential theory of complex spinorial forms associated with irreducible complex spinors across all dimensions and signatures. This framework enables the study of constrained parallelicity conditions for irreducible complex spinors by reformulating them as equivalent differential systems for exterior forms within a prescribed semi-algebraic body of the Kähler-Atiyah bundle. To illustrate this approach, we first apply it to the spin-c Killing spinor equation in low dimensions, refining existing results by relaxing standard assumptions of simply connectedness and completeness. Then, we proceed to apply our framework to supersymmetry conditions in supergravity, and we prove that every quasi-supersymmetric solution of Freedman's gauged supergravity belongs to an explicit four-parameter family of geodesically complete, globally hyperbolic gyratonic Brinkmann waves with spherical wave fronts. Finally, we study the quasi-supersymmetric solutions of six-dimensional minimal supergravity, defined by a system that couples a self-dual curving on a bundle gerbe to a Lorentzian metric with an irreducible chiral spinor parallel under a metric connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion given by the curvature of the aforementioned curving. Along the way, we prove that a Lorentzian six-manifold admits a skew-torsion parallel spinor with an integrable screen bundle only if it admits a foliation whose leaves are locally conformally Kähler complex surfaces.

We consider the problem of single-photon transmission through an atomic medium, using quantum channel fidelity to describe the resulting information loss. We find that the normalized fidelity decreases monotonically with coupling strength, establishing a performance bound for quantum communication through such media. Our results hold for several channel types and for deterministic and random media.

Using temperature retrievals from Akatsuki radio occultation measurements, we characterize gravity wave activity as a function of vertical wavenumber and altitude and, for the first time, estimate the absolute horizontal momentum fluxes and the magnitude of the associated gravity wave drag (i.e., wave acceleration), which quantify the potential effects of these waves in the Venusian middle atmosphere between 40--95 km. Observed temperature perturbations, which are indicative of atmospheric gravity wave activity, reach amplitudes of approximately $\pm$10 K, and significant momentum flux (10--30 m$^2$ s$^{-2}$) and wave drag (0.003--0.03 m s$^{-2}$) are detected across all analyzed profiles. The inferred wave drag represents a lower bound on the total gravity wave-induced drag in the Venusian atmosphere. Momentum flux tends to increase exponentially with altitude below approximately 50--60 km, then peaks and attenuates at higher altitudes. Wave drag becomes prominent where momentum flux begins to decrease, which is a consequence of wave dissipation. Both quantities exhibit multiple altitude-localized maxima, which is consistent with upward wave propagation followed by dissipation at different altitudes for different vertical wavelengths. Damping due to gravity wave nonlinear interactions is likely to play the major role in limiting the growth of wave amplitudes and fluxes with height. These features are observed across a range of latitudes and local times. Overall, the results provide observational constraints on gravity wave momentum transport and dissipation in the Venusian middle atmosphere and could guide numerical models in their effort to quantify wave-mean flow interactions in Venus's atmosphere.

Biopsy sampling relies on hollow needles that puncture soft tissues by propagating and opening a cylindrical crack, yet the mechanics governing this coring process remain only partially understood. Motivated by this gap, we develop a simple, energy based model for puncture by blunt hollow needles, grounded in brittle fracture mechanics and extended to include frictional interactions at the needle tissue interface. The model describes puncture as the competition between the fracture energy and the elastic energy. This energetic balance is controlled by the interplay among needle geometry (radius and wall thickness), material properties (toughness and elastic modulus), and interfacial parameters (adhesion and friction). This model provides semi analytical predictions for five key quantities, core size, frictionless force, frictional force slope, critical insertion depth, and critical insertion force. Model predictions are validated against experiments, demonstrating that friction significantly improves force estimation and alters the puncture regime. These results offer quantitative insight into the mechanics of tissue coring and force generation during biopsy, providing a predictive foundation for needle design, sampling performance, and real time control in robotic biopsy and needle insertion systems.

We study the mass function of primordial black holes (PBHs) within the excursion-set theory, in which the response of the stochastic density contrast to the variation of the coarse-graining scale is described by colored noises. For several window functions often used in the literature, we investigate how this choice affects the formation probability as well as the resultant mass function of PBHs. It is found that the low-mass tail of the mass function differs from the one predicted from Carr's formula. The difference comes from the prevalence of correlated noises, by which degeneracy of the formation probabilities ceases to exist. Nevertheless, Carr's formula still provides a practical estimation in the vicinity of the characteristic mass scale, as long as a smooth window function in Fourier space is used.

We study the equivalence classes of slice-regular functions $f:Ω\to\mathbb{H}$ on a symmetric slice domain $Ω$, and of their subclass made of polynomial slice-regular functions, with respect to the natural action of $\mathrm{PGL}(2,\mathbb{H})$ and its subgroups, by employing the twistor construction. In particular, we characterize slice--regular functions whose twistor lift is planar and belongs to a given orbit, and we find normal classes of slice-regular polynomials with respect to the action of a parabolic subgroup of $\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{H})$.

We prove a complete characterization of the extremal invariant measures for half-space geometric last-passage percolation with an arbitrary boundary parameter. This is the first result of its kind for a model in the KPZ universality class that has boundary effects and an unbounded domain. A description of a class of invariant measures was previously given in a work of Barraquand and Corwin, where it was conjectured that these should comprise all extremal invariant measures. To complete the classification, we prove a one force--one solution principle: when started in the distant past from an arbitrary initial condition with a given asymptotic slope at $\infty$, the recentered solution at time $0$ converges to a process which is distributed as the associated invariant measure with the specified slope. This limiting process is called the Busemann process, the first of its kind constructed for a half-space model. The Busemann process across all slopes is distributed as the joint invariant measure for geometric half-space LPP, recently constructed by Dauvergne and Zhang. There, it was conjectured that the constructed family of jointly invariant measures comprises all extremal jointly invariant measures; our analysis also confirms this conjecture. When the model has a strong (attractive) boundary, the collection of slopes for the invariant measures has a discontinuity, which does not arise in the full-space case. To handle this difficulty, we combine the control of the directions of semi-infinite geodesics with techniques from the theory of half-space Gibbsian line ensembles. Along the way, we classify the set of directions of semi-infinite geodesics for half-space geometric LPP, confirming a recent conjecture of Dauvergne and Zhang.

We present a unified algebraic framework utilizing the formal Bell transform to bridge the Dirichlet convolution of arithmetic functions with the combinatorial structure of infinite Euler-type products. By analyzing the logarithmic derivative of exponential generating functions, we establish explicit mappings between Bell exponents and Möbius inversions. We apply this framework to derive exact vanishing properties and congruence inheritances for classical sequences, including Ramanujan's tau function and prime-colored partitions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the inverse Bell transform seamlessly recovers classical partition recurrences and provides a discrete combinatorial engine for generating special polynomial families, including classical Appell and Sheffer sequences.

FeCl2 is a promising single-layer material with sizeable magnetic susceptibility and insulating character that can be easily grown by molecular beam epitaxy on various surfaces. In order to include it into the select palette of van der Waals materials used to engineer functional heterostructures, it is necessary to confirm its magnetic and electronic ground states, and understand the influence of the supporting substrate. In this work, we unambiguously demonstrate ferromagnetic ordering in a single-layer FeCl2 on Au(111) by means of spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy. The material features a relatively wide insulating gap of 3.3 eV and a strongly spin-polarized conduction band that emerges at 1.5 eV above the Fermi level. Atomic scale defects with triangular shape play a primary role in the electronic gap and spin density distribution. Specifically, in a region of 1.6 nm around each defect, the conduction band is locally suppressed and the tunnelling magneto-conductance is reduced a factor of four. By tracking the spin-dependent tunnelling conductance as a function of the applied magnetic field, we record atomically resolved hysteresis loops, revealing a soft ferromagnetic ground state with pronounced out-of-plane anisotropy and coercive fields in the range of 15-50 mT.

We show that the total Cartier index of varieties with rational singularities in a bounded family is bounded. This solves a problem of Han and Jiang. The overall structure of the proof, which treats the surface case and the higher-dimensional case separately, was originated by generative AI, particularly the Rethlas system, and was substantially corrected and elaborated by hand.

Cloud service platforms increasingly rely on elastic infrastructures to support dynamic workloads. Spot instances provide discounted computing resources but introduce uncertainty due to dynamic pricing, resource availability, and interruption risks that vary across geographical regions. In Amazon Web Services, the EC2 Spot Service simplifies fleet provisioning through allocation strategies, but it cannot estimate fleet costs before deployment and restricts provisioning to a single region. This paper presents an AI-driven provisioning service for multi-region spot fleets. The proposed approach combines monitoring of provisioning plans with predictive models to estimate fleet configurations and prices before launch, enabling cost-aware deployment decisions across regions while preserving the operational behavior of the EC2 Spot Service. The system was validated with fleets of up to 1500 vCPUs. Experimental results show a prediction accuracy of 99.79% compared to the EC2 Spot Service and potential cost savings of up to 64% by exploiting regional price variability.

Quantum phase estimation (QPE) is a central algorithmic primitive that estimates eigenvalues of a Hamiltonian up to precision $ε$ in Heisenberg-limited time $T=Θ(1/ε)$. Standard gate-based implementations of QPE require deep controlled time-evolution circuits and are not native to analog hardware. Here, we present a simple adiabatic protocol for QPE that achieves (up to logarithmic factors) the optimal Heisenberg-limited scaling $T = O\left( \frac{1}ε \log\left(δ^{-1}\right)\right)$ in both the precision $ε$ and failure probability $δ$. By encoding eigenvalues in populations of computational basis states rather than complex phases, our approach is naturally robust against certain dephasing errors. The adiabatic protocol only requires the ability to couple a single ancilla qubit to the system Hamiltonian as well as pairwise couplings within the ancilla register.

The interior crust and much of the liquid core of neutron stars is believed to be a quantum liquid mixture of neutron and proton superfluids and a relativistic electron liquid. Quantized vortices in the neutron superfluid and quantized flux lines in the proton superconductor are topological defects of these hadronic condensates. I consider the formation of the superfluid state in young neutron stars under non-equilibrium conditions imposed by the neutrino cooling rate. The nonequilibrium phase transition implies that the onset of superfluidity is accompanied by the generation of quantized vortices based on the mechanism envisioned by Kibble in the context cosmic string formation in an evolutionary models of an expanding universe, and further developed by Zurek for nonequilibrium phase transitions in quantum liquids such as \Hefour. I discuss the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) and scaling relations for topological defect formation starting from the Cooper pair fluctuation propagator for temperatures approaching $T_c$. I then calculate the predicted vortex densities based on Urca and modified Urca cooling mechanisms in the cores of neutron stars for several models of the superfluid gap and transition temperature of the interior neutron superfluid. In all cases studied the KZM leads to a large density of topological defects in the condensate phase, which in 3D form a random network of vortex lines and loops, i.e. the generation of quantum turbulence.

Model cards describe model behavior through a mixture of textual descriptions and structured artifacts, including performance, configuration, and dataset tables. Existing model search systems rely predominantly on semantic similarity over text, which can produce homogeneous result sets and limit exploration of alternatives. We argue that model search is inherently comparative: users want models that are task-aligned yet differentiated in measurable ways. We hypothesize that this balance requires retrieval over condensed, high-quality evidence rather than verbose descriptions, and much of that evidence is concentrated in structured tables. We present StructuredSemanticSearch, a table-driven model search framework built on the ModelTables benchmark. Given a query, StructuredSemanticSearch combines a semantic baseline for task alignment with a structure-aware pipeline that discovers query-related model-card tables using table discovery operators such as unionability, joinability, and keyword search. Retrieved tables are mapped back to model cards under a controlled top-k budget, enabling fair comparison between text-based and table-based retrieval. Beyond retrieval, StructuredSemanticSearch adapts table integration to the model-table domain through orientation-aware integration, producing compact integrated views of tables from partially overlapping and sometimes transposed evidence tables. For evaluation, we introduce a nugget-based, auditable protocol that extracts compact evidence items from model cards, matches queries to condition- or intent-specific nuggets, and measures evidence coverage and diversity over retrieved model-card candidate sets. This protocol also provides a scalable path toward approximate, evidence-based labeling in dynamic model lakes. Experiments on 597 model-recommendation queries show improved nugget coverage for the structure-aware pipeline than semantic baseline

The parallel minority game (PMG) extends the classical minority game to many choices, with each agent restricted to two predetermined alternatives. In this condition, minimizing the population variance across all choices is a complex combinatorial optimization problem. We show that this minimization is exactly equivalent to finding the ground state of an Ising spin glass in the mean-field limit, i.e., the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. By encoding the agent choices as spin variables, the variance becomes a quadratic Hamiltonian with quenched random couplings $J_{ij}$ and random fields $h_i$. This mapping reveals inherent frustration and connects the PMG to the well developed theory of spin glasses, providing a new perspective on the frozen, sub-optimal configurations observed in stochastic strategies.

Every transitive cellular automaton (CA) is sensitive to initial conditions. We study this implication in the more general context of non-uniform cellular automata (NUCA) with finitely many different local update rules assigned to cells. We construct a two-dimensional NUCA that is minimal -- and hence transitive -- but that is not sensitive to initial conditions. The construction is based on an odometer NUCA on $\{0,1,2\}^\mathbb{N}$ which is nearly uniform in the sense that only the first cell uses a different local rule. Then we show that if the assignment of local rules in the cells is recurrent then transitivity implies sensitivity.

We propose a method of estimating the proportion of open and closed cells in a porous material based on measuring Betti numbers on the structures. Based on this method, we define a cell-openness index τ which can be used instead of or complementary to the proportion of open-celled volume reported by gas pycnometry, which is the current gold standard for pore type characterization. We discuss in what types of structures mismatches between the two measures can occur and how such mismatches convey additional information about the structure. We also demonstrate initial examples of significant correlations between τ and measurable physical quantities in numerically generated structures. We also discuss how Betti curves can be used to estimate characteristic feature sizes in porous structures.

We study the high excursion probability of a centered Gaussian field on a square. Writing \(σ\) and \(r\) for its standard deviation and correlation function, we assume that \(σ\) has a unique maximum at the corner \(\boldsymbol{0}=(0,0)\) and \[ 1-σ(\boldsymbol{t}) \sim t_1^β+t_2^β+t_1^a t_2^a , \qquad \boldsymbol{t}=(t_1,t_2)\to\boldsymbol{0} \] in \(\mathbb R_+^2\). The local correlation is assumed to satisfy \[ 1-r(\boldsymbol{t},\boldsymbol{s})\sim |t_1-s_1|^α+|t_2-s_2|^α, \qquad 0<α<β. \] This product form of the standard-deviation loss is not covered by the usual locally additive assumptions. In the range \(a<β/2\), the classical essential rectangle at the variance-loss scale no longer captures the leading contribution; the relevant localization becomes side-attached and, in one regime, effectively one-dimensional. We determine the corresponding high-level asymptotics, including the logarithmic and side-dominated regimes which do not arise in the locally additive case.

The nearside-farside (NF) decomposition method developed originally by Fuller for elastic scattering of a nonidentical nucleus-nucleus system was generalized to study the nuclear rainbow pattern in a symmetric or core-symmetric dinuclear system. It has been shown that the projectile-target identity of an identical system implies a symmetric interchange of the nearside and farside components of elastic scattering amplitude around $θ_{\mathrm{c.m.}}=90^\circ$. A similar interchange appears also in a nonidentical core-symmetric system due to elastic transfer of cluster or nucleon between two identical cores. The analysis of the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$, ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$, and ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ systems shows how the generalized NF decomposition method reveals the nuclear rainbow pattern in these systems, which can be helpful in probing the real optical potential and nuclear clustering.

Understanding the environmental drivers of forest transpiration is critical for improving global predictions of water availability and ecosystem health. Due to many competing controls on plant water stress and ecosystem transpiration, however, these drivers may vary widely across tree species which have adapted hydraulically to local climate conditions. Here, clustered machine learning models were used to analyze global drivers of forest transpiration rates using the SAPFLUXNET database. Sap flux data from a total of ninety-five sites spanning seven biomes were grouped using two clustering strategies: by biome and by plant functional type. Two supervised machine learning algorithms, a random forest algorithm and a neural network algorithm, were used to predict rates of sap flux for each cluster. The performance and feature importance in each model were analyzed and compared to evaluate the environmental variables that control each cluster's performance. By defining site clusters, these models are able to predict transpiration and its environmental drivers across a wide variety of geographical sites and tree species. Unlike models trained on the entire dataset, high-performing clustered models achieved R$^2$ values to measurement data in the range of 0.74 to 0.90, with the highest performance being achieved in mid-sized clusters of up to thirty-six sites. There was high variance in feature importance between clusters, indicating that key predictors of transpiration varied strongly across both plant functional type and biome. Overall, water-limited climates tended to be more controlled by soil moisture, whereas climates with high mean annual temperature tended to be more controlled by solar radiation and less dependent on air temperature. These findings provide insights into how forest transpiration responds to environmental factors across a wide range of climate types and tree species.

We employ a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) approach to characterize the spatial distribution and mass segregation of compact millimeter continuum sources within the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way. We use a modified form of the complete version of the 1.3 mm dust continuum catalog from the CMZoom survey, which identifies 685 compact sources with typical effective radii of $\sim0.1$ pc. For 22 of 35 CMZ clouds, we calculate the thermal and turbulent Jeans lengths and masses, and determine that compact source separations, as well as compact source masses, are more consistent with thermal fragmentation at $\sim0.1$ pc size scales. We construct the mass segregation ratios for compact sources in 17 CMZ clouds and determine that 5 of the analyzed clouds display some form of mass segregation ($Λ_{MSR} > 1.5$), while the remaining clouds show either inverse mass segregation ($Λ_{MSR} < 0.75$), or no evidence of true mass segregation ($0.75 < Λ_{MSR} < 1.5$). Finally, we find that although some actively star-forming clouds do exhibit mass segregation, other similarly active clouds do not, indicating an unclear correlation with evolutionary stage for star forming clouds in the CMZ, given the current available data.

We use scanning near-field optical microscopy to image hyperbolic phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) billiards with integrable and chaotic geometries. In Sinai billiards, we observe irregular mode patterns consistent with quantum scarring, together with an unexpected sensitivity to weak probe perturbations. These random-wave features coexist with non-chaotic one-dimensional boundary modes arising from nontrivial polariton reflection at the billiard edge. As the billiard boundary becomes increasingly complex, the Fourier transforms of the measured signals evolve toward ring-like structures consistent with Berry's random-wave conjecture. We develop a numerical framework based on the Helmholtz equation with generalized boundary conditions that encode angle-dependent reflection phase shifts. The calculated level statistics exhibit a crossover from Poisson-like behavior in integrable billiards to Wigner-Dyson-like behavior in chaotic geometries, with small deviations from the canonical form arising from nonlinear boundary conditions that require self-consistent bulk-boundary analysis. Theoretical analysis based on dissipative Green's functions qualitatively reproduces the near-field data. These results establish mesoscopic van der Waals billiards as a rich platform for studying generalized chaotic dynamics of hybrid light-matter polaritons.

We define the grove polynomials, a set-valued extension of forest polynomials. We show that they are $K$-theoretically dual to the quasisymmetric Schubert cells which pave the quasisymmetric flag variety, in the same way that Grothendieck polynomials are dual to Schubert cells in the complete flag variety. As a consequence, the finite truncations of the multi-fundamental quasisymmetric functions of Lam-Pylyavskyy acquire a geometric interpretation as $K$-theoretic representatives of quasisymmetric Schubert cells.

We introduce a novel software-oriented model of quantum computation motivated by the practical constraints of near-term quantum hardware. In this model, gates are specified by constraints expressed in terms of Pauli observables, with each disjoint layer of gates accompanied by a pairwise or $k$-local quantum state tomography of the device. We prove that the model is equivalent to the coupling-graph-restricted circuit model and hence universal for BQP, with a polynomial overhead: simulating a depth-$D$ circuit on $N$ qubits requires at most $O(D^2 N \log N)$ complexity. The model formalizes an idiom shared by existing work that ranges from quantum imaginary time evolution for the study of quantum systems to the use of quantum computers for procedural generation in games. It therefore provides a natural interface for designing quantum software entirely in terms of physically observable quantities, relevant for the NISQ era and into fault-tolerance.