Engineering proximity effects in twisted van der Waals heterostructures offers a powerful platform for designing electronic properties. While theoretical predictions of quantum interference in transition metal dichalcogenide-encapsulated graphene can selectively control the spin-orbit coupling component, experimental realizations have remained elusive. Here, we report pure valley-Zeeman spin-orbit coupling in monolayer graphene, achieved by encapsulation between two parallel twisted WSe$_2$ monolayers. We observed a symmetry-enforced reordering of Landau levels, which is driven by the competition between the fixed valley-Zeeman energy and the magnetic-field-dependent cyclotron energy. This reordering is characterized by a transition from symmetry-broken states in the quantum Hall effect to a restored fourfold degeneracy with integer or half-integer quantum Hall sequences. We also demonstrate the ability to completely quench the proximity spin-orbit coupling by tuning the encapsulated geometry.

Soft (sub)micron-sized particles with bounded interactions can form cluster crystals, periodic structures in which multiple particles occupy the same lattice site. While the thermodynamics of monodisperse cluster crystals is well understood, less is known about how compositional disorder affects their stability. Using Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory we show that binary cluster crystals undergo a density driven transition from a homogeneous mixed state to a heterogeneous ``alloy" like solid in which lattice sites spontaneously differentiate into populations with distinct compositions and occupancies while preserving the underlying crystal symmetry. The transition is accompanied by a sharp increase in the equilibrium lattice site density and by increased compositional fluctuations, but we see no evidence for macroscopic phase separation. We demonstrate that this transition is governed by competition between clustering and demixing instabilities and derive a simple scaling law for the demixing density as a function of temperature, composition, and particle size mismatch, in quantitative agreement with simulation.

We theoretically investigate the realization of gapless Floquet topological superconducting phases in a two-dimensional magnet-superconductor heterostructure (2D Shiba lattice) in the presence of a harmonic drive implemented in the chemical potential. Employing a real-space tight-binding model, we obtain both the regular $0$- and anomalous $π$-Floquet Majorana flat edge modes (FMFEMs) in the quasi-energy spectrum. We also study the real-time evolution of the FMFEMs and analyze their local density of states in the presence of such a periodic drive. The topological characterization is performed using the winding number, exploiting the chiral symmetry of the equivalent bulk effective momentum-space Hamiltonian. This is also supported by the corresponding edge state spectra. Furthermore, we employ the Brillouin-Wigner (BW) and Floquet perturbation theory (FPT) to gain analytical insight into the problem. We compare our exact (numerical), BW, and FPT results in terms of the quasi-energy spectra obtained across different frequency regimes. We find good agreement between the exact numerical, BW, and FPT results in the higher-frequency and high-amplitude domain, particularly close to the $0$-quasi-energy modes.

The breakdown of conventional bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC) in non-Hermitian system can be resolved by the generalized Brillouin zone (GBZ) theory. However, extending the GBZ theory to interacting many-body systems remains an open problem. Here, we consider an interacting non-Hermitian model characterized by a circular GBZ. We show that, based on a GBZ transformation, a quasi-reciprocal many-body Hamiltonian can be constructed which, under periodic boundary conditions (PBC), captures the physics of the original non-Hermitian model under open boundary conditions (OBC). Using exact diagonalization (ED), we determine the phase diagram for the quasi-reciprocal many-body Hamiltonian by computing the Zak phase and the structure factor of the charge-density-wave (CDW) phase. We further investigate the entanglement properties and find that the degeneracy of the low-lying entanglement spectrum characterizes each phase in the phase diagram. These findings demonstrate that the topological properties in interacting non-Hermitian system is encoded in the entanglement spectrum of the quasi-reciprocal model. Our work establishes a route to studying many-body non-Hermitian physics within the GBZ formalism.

Borophene has attracted extensive interest due to its structural flexibility and emergent topological electronic states. However, semimetallic borophenes hosting robust Dirac states remain rare among the large number of predicted allotropes. Here, we develop a transferable tight-binding framework for planar borophenes and combine it with a graph- and group-theory-based random generation strategy to perform high-throughput screening of 522 borophene candidates. Eight previously unreported semimetallic borophenes are identified, hosting diverse topological band crossings, including type-I and type-III Dirac cones, Dirac nodal lines, and quadratic nodal points. Notably, quadratic nodal-point semimetals are predicted in borophene for the first time. Symmetry analysis reveals crystalline-symmetry-protected Dirac states, while first-principles calculations confirm their dynamical and thermal stability. These findings establish borophene as a versatile platform for engineering emergent Dirac physics in two dimensions.

Thouless pumping provides a paradigmatic platform for studying the effects of interactions on topological transport in periodically driven systems. However, most studies have been constrained by adiabatic conditions, which preclude exploration of interaction-driven novel topological states at high driving frequencies. Here, we experimentally investigate the interplay between interaction and modulation frequency in Thouless pumping realized in a periodically modulated lattice in momentum space of atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We observe fast Thouless pumping of matterwave solitons at intermediate interactions, with no counterpart in the non- or weakly interacting regimes. Beyond the boundary of topological phase transition induced by interaction, nonadiabatic quantized pumping of solitons emerges at high modulation frequencies over a broad interaction range, in good agreement with theoretical calculations, while the solitons remain trapped in the low-frequency adiabatic pumping regime. Our work opens new avenues for accelerating topological transport in driven quantum systems and engineering fast topological devices.

We investigate the energetics, interactions, and ordering tendencies of bimerons (cholesteric fingers of the second type, CF--2) and hopfions in thin films of chiral magnets and chiral liquid crystals hosting a conical background state. Although isolated bimerons possess positive eigen-energy with respect to the conical phase, they develop an attractive interaction mediated by the restructuring and partial overlap of their positive-energy shells, i.e., intermediate regions formed relative to the conical state. This attraction promotes the formation of bound pairs and extended bimeron chains, even in parameter regimes where a periodic bimeron lattice is no longer thermodynamically stable. Extending the analysis to three dimensions, we show that circularization of bimerons into hopfions renders their energy finite and gives rise to a well-defined metastability window closely linked to the stability range of cholesteric fingers. Isolated hopfions likewise exhibit an attractive interaction within the conical phase, leading to the formation of hexagonally ordered clusters. The attraction originates from the competition between favorable and unfavorable twist regions and from the energetic cost of the shell structures imposed by the conical background. Despite the presence of attractive pair potentials and cluster formation, we demonstrate that hexagonal hopfion lattices do not exhibit an equilibrium lattice period. Instead, the system evolves toward states in which the conical spiral or the CF--1 phase (cholesteric fingers of the first type) progressively invade the inter-soliton regions, thereby preventing crystallization. Our results reveal a regime of attraction without stable long-range order and clarify the interplay between topology, confinement, and conical-phase frustration in chiral magnet and liquid-crystal thin films.

This study investigates the influence of material density, disorder in onsite energies, and localization length on relaxation dynamics within a two-dimensional random site Coulomb glass model at half-filling. To explore relaxation laws, we calculate the eigenvalue distribution of the linear dynamical matrix using mean-field approximations. Our findings indicate that the system initially undergoes rapid relaxation through energy-lowering transitions. The depletion of the single-particle density of states (DOS) near the Fermi level leads to slow relaxation, with fluctuations diminishing according to a power law. Subsequently, the system adheres to an exponential decay law after a specific period, defined as the relaxation time, which is inversely related to the minimum eigenvalue of the dynamical matrix. As the density of the system decreases, the relaxation rate slows down, resulting in an increase in the relaxation time. For a constant density and localization length, an increase in the disorder of onsite energies results in a longer relaxation time. A significant portion of the eigenvalue spectrum remains unaffected, suggesting that a reduction in localization length concurrent with increased disorder may play an equally vital role in the slow dynamics observed.

We study the effective s-wave scattering of two heteronuclear atoms harmonically confined in quasi-low dimensions, where the atoms have unequal masses and are subject to different confinement frequencies. The resulting effective scattering parameters in low dimensions, including scattering length and effective range, are derived as functions of three-dimensional scattering parameters and confinement strengths. Using realistic Li-K and Li-Cr mixtures as examples, we further compute the binding energies of universal $(1+N)$ clusters in quasi-low dimensions using the effective scattering parameters. Our findings suggest a promising pathway for practically observing universal clusters and their associated many-body phases in low-dimensional ultracold heteronuclear systems.

We solve the two-body problem of ultracold heteronuclear atoms in a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) geometry. The quasi-2D confinement is realized by a harmonic trap along the longitudinal ($z$-) direction, with different trap frequencies for the two atoms, as in many current experiments on ultracold heteronuclear gases. As a consequence, the longitudinal center-of-mass (CoM) motion is coupled to the relative motion, which significantly complicates the two-body problem. We solve this problem exactly and derive the 2D scattering length $a_{\rm 2D}$, the 2D effective range parameter $R_{\rm 2D}$, and the bound-state energies, as functions of the $s$-wave scattering length and effective range of the two atoms in free three-dimensional (3D) space. We show that multiple 2D scattering resonances can be induced by the coupling between the longitudinal CoM and relative motion. Around these resonances, $a_{\rm 2D}$ varies rapidly with the 3D scattering parameters, while $R_{\rm 2D}$ is strongly enhanced. Since the effective pairwise interaction in quasi-2D ultracold gases is determined by i.e., the two-body scattering amplitudes and bound-state energies, our results can be used for manipulating the effective 2D interatomic interaction in quasi-2D ultracold heteronuclear gases by tuning the confinement frequencies and the 3D scattering parameters.

Achieving synaptic functionality electronically in a single-element quantum material is a fundamental challenge, as conventional methods rely on the introduction of extrinsic charge-traps or polar components. Here, we demonstrate that twisted double bilayer graphene (tDBLG) moiré superlattices, composed purely of carbon, exhibit electronic hysteresis and plasticity in presence of twist-angle disorder. Inversion symmetry breaking at the moiré length scales also gives rise to second-order nonlinear electrical response via disorder-mediated extrinsic mechanisms. Such second-order nonlinearity is highly tunable in both sign and magnitude by varying carrier concentration and vertical displacement field. We harness the coexistence of electronic plasticity and second-order nonlinearity to realize a second-order synaptic memory device. Our findings establish strained moiré carbon systems as a powerful new platform for energy-efficient neuromorphic computing, demonstrating that complex electronic functionality can emerge purely from symmetry breaking physics in a single-element material.

We present a new method for the efficient imaginary time evolution of quantum many-body wavefunctions represented by matrix product states (MPS). We first show that logarithmic time grids are sufficient to resolve long imaginary time dynamics, yielding an exponential reduction in the number of time steps compared with standard approaches. We then show that A-stable implicit time-stepping methods for ordinary differential equations allow stable propagation for any time step size. The resulting scheme requires only matrix-vector products and linear solves, standard operations in the MPS toolbox. We validate our approach with two examples: a Heisenberg spin chain, which we use to demonstrate a speedup of several orders of magnitude over the standard time-dependent variational principle method with uniform time steps, and a single-site Anderson impurity model with a metallic bath, for which propagation to large imaginary times allows one to observe the exponential dependence of the Kondo temperature on the interaction strength.

The Gilbert damping of magnetic materials is an important magnetic parameter that determines the switching speed and energy dissipation of spintronic devices. In simple metals, the intrinsic Gilbert damping increases with temperature and diverges near the Curie temperature as a result of spin fluctuations. Here we present atomistic simulations and experimental measurements showing surprising and opposite behavior in Py/Nd bilayers, where the Gilbert damping decreases with increasing temperature. The effect arises because of the enhanced damping at the interface as a result of spin pumping, where elevated temperatures cause a dynamic separation of the interfacial and bulk magnetization during relaxation. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the damping can be controlled by varying the thickness of the Nd capping layer. Our findings present a new spintronic effect that can be used to modify the dynamic properties of nanoscale materials and devices for enhanced energy efficiency or with improved switching dynamics.

We investigate the motion amid grains of an intruder undergoing an imposed force that oscillates with a given frequency. For that, we made use of discrete numerical simulations where the intruder was a larger disk on which a force oscillating in direction was applied, and the grains consisted of smaller disks. All disks were placed on a surface with basal friction over which they could slide, the system was confined in the sliding directions, and we varied the system packing fraction, oscillation frequency, and magnitude of the forcing. The results show intermittent and very complex motions of the intruder depending on both the packing fraction and frequency of oscillation: it can move sideways while slowly progressing forward, it can be blocked during a long period after and/or before start moving, or it can simply be blocked after a given time. Interestingly, we find that the displacement velocity is much higher when the system packing fraction is above a given threshold, contrary to intuition. The results show that there is an optimal frequency that minimizes the transit time for some ranges of packing fraction, and we propose a model based on the system elasticity that explains this behavior and agrees with the numerical simulations. Our findings shed new light on how to better explore oscillating motion to move objects within granular media.

We investigate the bulk photovoltaic effect in monolayer SnS using an effective tight-binding model derived from first-principles calculations. By comparing short-range and long-range hopping models, we show that the essential features of the shift current conductivity are captured by a minimal model. The shift current is decomposed into transition intensity and shift vector, enabling identification of dominant interband transitions. The comparison reveals that long-range hopping processes quantitatively modify the peak positions and magnitudes, while the short-range model retains the characteristic low-energy structure of the nonlinear response. Our findings provide a transparent framework for understanding and designing bulk photovoltaic effects in two-dimensional materials.

We combine two ways of determining the phase diagram of the spin-$1/2$ XXZ chain with a staggered Ising interaction and uniform transverse exchange, based on exact diagonalization. The model realizes a competition between Néel order and bond-dimerized phases generated by the alternating Ising interaction. The simplest approach to determine the phase boundaries is to use topological indicators based on generalized position operators. We show that in general, the bosonized and numerical results for the topological indicators agree. The second is based on crossings of excited energy levels and justified by conformal-field theory. In spite of the partial loss of translational symmetry caused by the alternating Ising interaction, we find that the latter method provides an accurate determination of the boundary between Néel and dimerized phases. Instead, while the jumps of a topological indicator provide a qualitatively correct phase diagram, its accuracy is affected when the gap is very small (or the correlation length very large) at one side of the transition, as we show using field-theoretical arguments. The combination of both methods provides a more efficient way of calculating phase diagrams for correlated one-dimensional models than other widely used conventional approaches.

We consider the spectral properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, describing the electronic properties of high-$T_c$ compounds, within the SU(2) gauge theory, which assumes the separation of electronic degrees of freedom into those of spinon and chargon subsystems. We use the dynamic mean-field theory (DMFT) approach to describe magnetic long-range order in the chargon subsystem while also treating spinon fluctuations on top of this state. We show that DMFT supplemented by long-wavelength magnetic fluctuations is essential for describing the asymmetry in the damping between the inner and outer regions of the hole pockets and the resulting formation of Fermi arcs in the underdoped regime, especially at low hole doping. The underlying hole pockets in the chargon subsystem can be associated with those observed in quantum oscillation measurements.

We show the emergence of a contribution characteristic of the boson peak in the spectral density of structural glasses. To model the vitreous state, we consider static density-fluctuation fields coupled to a multiplicative quenched disorder. Performing an ensemble average over all disorder realizations, a functional series representation of the average free energy is obtained. In this series representation of the average free energy for the glassy state of matter, we identify in the function space effective actions. These effective actions present a large number of metastable states and ground states. Random first-order transition, widely discussed in the literature as a description of the transition from the supercooled liquid to the glassy state of matter, emerges naturally in our formalism. We establish the connection between the use of hyperbolic differential equations with random coefficients and the presence of many ground states in the average free energy. This connection allows us to study emergent excitations in such amorphous materials.

Scaling laws, the power-law relations between loss, architecture size, and compute observed in modern neural networks, offer a quantitative way to characterize the complexity of a learning problem, with the exponent governing the decay of the loss reflecting how rapidly additional resources translate into improved accuracy, and thus how hard the target is to learn. Whether an analogous framework can characterize the complexity of physical problems remains open. We address this question for Neural-Network Quantum States, a leading variational approach for strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. Using transformer wave functions to approximate ground states of the $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on triangular and square lattices with up to $20\times 20$ sites, we find that the $V$-score, a measure of accuracy of a variational state, decays as a power law in training compute. Under an appropriate rescaling of compute, results for different system sizes collapse onto a single curve, analogous to scaling collapse in critical phenomena. The resulting power law is, to a good approximation, independent of the number of sites, showing that the transformer Ansatz is size-consistent for the systems considered. The exponent decreases systematically with frustration, identifying it as a quantitative measure of representational difficulty of the ground state and establishing scaling laws as a general framework for benchmarking variational ansätze.

In chiral magnets, magnetic skyrmions are typically stabilized by the competition between exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions under an external magnetic field, while the role of lattice degrees of freedom has received comparatively less attention. Here we study how spin-phonon (SP) coupling modifies magnetic interactions and the resulting spin textures in a two-dimensional skyrmion model in the square lattice. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we compare two simplified models describing the SP coupling: the Einstein site-phonon (ESP) and bond-phonon (BP) models. We find that ESP coupling stabilizes skyrmion crystals in field regimes that are topologically trivial in the uncoupled model and also induces additional textures, including meron-antimeron (M-aM) crystals and mixed skyrmion-bimeron (SkX-Bm) phases. Furthermore, for sufficiently strong phonon coupling, the conventional triple-$\textbf{q}$ hexagonal skyrmion lattice is distorted into a double-$\textbf{q}$ square skyrmion lattice. Overall, our results show that lattice effects provide a simple mechanism to tune topological magnetic phases.

Before conclusive evidence of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling, MQT, was published by Clarke, Devoret and Martinis in 1985, several other groups reported experimental results interpreted as MQT. The first, in chronological order, was in 1980 based on studies done at Leiden University in 1979. This paper looks back at these experiments on low capacitance Niobium point contacts in an rf SQUID, radio-frequency Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, configuration at temperatures between 1 and 4.2 K. The research was inspired by the theoretical predictions by Ivanchenko and Zilberman in 1969 on MQT in current-biased Josephson junctions and by Leggett in 1978 on MQT in closed loops with a superconducting weak link.

We investigate the ground state properties, magnetization, and low-temperature thermodynamics of the ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic spin-$s$ model on diamond-decorated lattices with ideal diamond units, incorporating bilinear Heisenberg and higher-order exchange interactions between diagonal spins-$σ$. Local conservation of the composite spin on each diamond diagonal enables exact analysis. For the pure Heisenberg case, the system undergoes a series of $2σ$ transitions between monomer-dimer (MD), ferrimagnetic (Ferri) and ferromagnetic (F) phases with different optimal composite spin values as the coupling ratio varies. In the presence of higher-order interactions, a multicritical point exists where the states with all possible values of composite spin are degenerate, leading to maximal ground state degeneracy. The case $s=σ=1$ with bilinear and biquadratic interactions is studied in detail. Its phase diagram comprises three phases - F, Ferri and MD, which meet at a triple point. On the phase boundaries, the ground state becomes macroscopically degenerate. For the diamond chain, we calculate the ground state degeneracy exactly; for higher dimensions, the problem maps onto a bond percolation framework, solved numerically. The residual entropy per spin reaches up to $60\%$ of the maximal value, peaking at the triple point. Low-temperature magnetization curves in external magnetic fields exhibit plateaus and jumps. The excitation spectrum is gapped in the MD phase, gapless in the F phase, and resembles that of the Lieb-Mattis ferrimagnet in the Ferri phase. The high residual entropy suggests potential applications in ultra-low-temperature cooling and quantum thermal machines.

RE$_2$MnNiO$_6$ (RE = La-Lu) family of ordered double-perovskite oxides hosts a corner-sharing network of alternating NiO$_6$ and MnO$_6$ octahedra whose electronic and magnetic ground states are systematically governed by the A-site ionic radius through the lanthanide contraction. The strong localisation of RE 4f electrons poses a fundamental challenge to density-functional treatments, yet the hybridisation between 4f and neighbouring 5d (RE) or 3d (Ni, Mn) states is central to the origin of exchange interactions and optoelectronic response across the series. We present a comprehensive first-principles study of the electronic structure, lattice dynamics, and optical properties of representative RE2NiMnO6 compounds within the DFT+U framework. To disentangle the role of Kondo-type 4f-d hybridisation, calculations are performed with the RE 4f electrons treated both as frozen core states and explicitly in the valence manifold, enabling a direct assessment of their contribution to the band structure, dielectric function, and phonon dispersion. Spin-polarised calculations reveal significant spin-channel asymmetry, with magnetic moments reaching up to 30 $μ$B per formula unit for select members of the series. The results establish a unified picture of how 4f occupancy and octahedral distortion collectively determine the magnetic and optoelectronic potential of this double-perovskite family.

The interplay between disorder and topology has become a central theme in condensed matter physics. Disorder can not only destroy topological phases but also induce them, as exemplified by the topological Anderson insulator (TAI). Here we show that, in close analogy, disorder can drive the clean-limit, time-reversal-broken(T-broken) quantum spin Hall state of ferromagnetic(FM) monolayer MnBi4Te7 into a quantum anomalous Hall phase, which was called topological Anderson Chern insulator (TACI). Using density functional theory (DFT) and nonequilibrium Green's func tion (NEGF) calculations in the presence of disorder, we identify disorder induced phases-including T-broken TAI, TACI, Normal insulator, etc., then construct a comprehensive phase diagram. To discriminate multiple phases in the strong disorder regime, we further use the density of states computed within the self-consistent Born approximation (SCBA), which in particular distinguishes gapped and ungapped topological phases. We find that the two effective band inversions of Hamiltonian are suppressed at distinct critical disorder strengths; the survival of a single inversion over a finite disorder window stabilizes the TACI. Remarkably, at strong disorder, we further propose a zero Hall plateau insulating state characterized by an insulating bulk and edge channels subject to diffusive scattering that can coexist with the TACI. This behavior is distinct from a conventional band-gap Chern insulator and provides a clear experimental signature.

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate how homogeneous strain and crystallographic surface orientation modify the vibrational and superconducting properties of niobium. For bulk Nb, tensile strain strongly softens the phonon spectrum and enhances the electron--phonon coupling, increasing the superconducting transition temperature from 9.5 K at equilibrium to 14.5 K at $\sim\!6\%$ lattice expansion. For the low-index Nb(001), Nb(110), and Nb(111) surfaces, harmonic phonon calculations exhibit imaginary modes, showing that anharmonic lattice effects are essential. To treat these effects efficiently, we train Nb-specific machine-learning interatomic potentials on bulk and slab first-principles configurations and use them to accelerate stochastic self-consistent harmonic approximation calculations, thereby obtaining anharmonically renormalized phonon modes that are combined with density-functional perturbation theory electron--phonon matrix elements to construct the Eliashberg spectral function. Among the clean free-standing slabs considered here, Nb(001) exhibits the strongest electron--phonon coupling and the highest calculated transition temperature of 10.0 K, while Nb(110) and Nb(111) show progressively reduced pairing strength. Finally, by analyzing the Eliashberg spectral function and the functional derivative $δT_\text{c}/δα^2F(ω)$, we identify the phonon energy ranges most effective for superconducting pairing. Our results show that strain, surface termination, and anharmonic phonon renormalization provide complementary and interrelated microscopic routes for tuning superconductivity in Nb.

Inspired by the electronic structure of compounds like nickel dihalides Ni$X_2$ ($X$=Cl, Br, I), we propose a low-energy two-orbital $e_g$ model featuring bond-dependent spin-orbit terms, driven by atomic spin-orbit coupling on the ligand $X$. We demonstrate that this model hosts a rich array of phenomena. In the non-interacting band limit, spin-orbit-derived spin-dependent and spin-flip hopping terms produce topological bands with spin-Chern numbers $C_s=\pm 2, \pm 4$, and higher order topological states with fractional corner charges, respectively. In the half-filled Mott insulator limit, we recover a spin-$1$ Hamiltonian with bond-dependent Kitaev exchange interactions. We explore the magnetoelectric effect in this two-orbital model using symmetry-based perspective and microscopic calculations, going beyond the generalized Katsura-Nagaosa-Balatsky theory for the single-orbital case. Our work may be relevant to study of doping, strain, or pressure on Ni$X_2$ and related materials.

Strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking has emerged as a novel form of ordering in monitored and open quantum systems, yet its characterization has so far primarily relied on nonlocal diagnostics. Here, we develop a Gutzwiller mean-field framework for monitored bosonic lattice systems, enabling the direct simulation of stochastic measurement dynamics in three spatial dimensions. Applying this approach to the monitored Bose-Hubbard model with local density measurements and Lindbladian dissipation, we identify strong-to-weak symmetry breaking through a trajectory-averaged local order parameter. We find that this local order parameter becomes critical near the same measurement strength as the charge-sharpening transition and exhibits Lorentz invariance with a correlation-length exponent, $ν\simeq 1.2$, comparable to that of the charge-sharpening transition, suggesting that the two phenomena may originate from a common underlying critical point. Our work establishes a local characterization of strong-to-weak symmetry breaking, reveals its connection to charge sharpening, and provides concrete predictions for future experiments on the monitored Bose-Hubbard model.

Phase-sensitive Josephson effect has long been central to identifying unconventional pairing symmetries in superconductors. Although the selection rules governing Josephson junctions (JJs) are generally determined by the symmetries of the constituent superconductors, we demonstrate that this paradigm is modified in the dynamic regime. By modeling a JJ where spin-singlet and spin-triplet superconductors are separated by a two-dimensional electron gas, we show that a time-dependent gate voltage qualitatively changes the underlying selection rules. This modification arises as a consequence of the gate-controlled spin-orbit coupling. A harmonic modulation of the gate voltage generates an oscillatory $\cos ϕ$ Josephson component which vanishes in the static limit. The resulting charge current contains both dissipationless and dissipative components, with the latter strongly suppressed at low temperatures. This dynamical Josephson effect could transform the use of JJs in qubits, as sources of spin-triplet currents, and as platforms for proximity effects.

In this manuscript, we explore the application of neural networks to predict the natural parameter $κ\geq 0$ of Schramm-Loewner Evolution (SLE$_κ$) theory. SLE$_κ$ is a family of random fractal curves that has significant implications in Statistical Mechanics and Conformal Field Theory. This parameter $κ\geq 0$ plays an important role in the theory as there are models of Planar Statistical Physics that are proven to have SLE as scaling limits as well as others that are conjectured to have this limit for various choices of the parameter $κ\geq 0$. In addition, there are three different statistical behaviors of the SLE curves as the parameter $κ$ changes in $[0, \infty).$ Leveraging the powerful pattern recognition capabilities of neural networks, this study aims to develop a predictive model that can estimate the $κ$ parameter with good accuracy.

In quantum theory, electromagnetic gauge fields enter directly into the phase evolution of the wavefunction and can even influence quantum systems in regions where the associated electric and magnetic fields vanish. The Aharonov-Bohm effect demonstrates that such gauge fields produce observable consequences when a coherent quantum system encloses magnetic flux along a doubly connected path. This has led to the widespread view that curl-free gauge fields are undetectable in simply connected systems, giving rise to a form of topological blindness. Here we show that this conclusion is not fundamental. During nonequilibrium processes, collective quantum systems can develop transient responses to curl-free gauge fields without enclosing magnetic flux in a static geometry. Using superconducting condensates as a concrete example, we demonstrate that the evolving phase of the macroscopic wavefunction generates supercurrents and voltage pulses whose time integral is proportional to the open-path line integral of the vector potential. In contrast to the conventional Aharonov-Bohm effect, the resulting response is not restricted modulo the flux quantum and may greatly exceed the scale associated with static doubly connected geometries. The mechanism can be interpreted as a dynamical closure of the gauge contour in spacetime and is supported by gauge-invariant arguments, time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory modeling, and numerical simulations. These results establish a general principle for detecting curl-free gauge fields and suggest new approaches for probing hidden gauge structures in quantum matter and beyond.