As the closest known active galactic nucleus, Centaurus A (Cen A) provides a rich environment for astrophysical exploration. It has been observed across wavelengths from radio to gamma rays, and indications of ongoing particle acceleration have been found on different scales. Recent measurements of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-rays ($>240$ GeV) by the HESS observatory have inferred the presence of ultra-relativistic electrons along Cen A's jet, yet the underlying acceleration mechanism remains uncertain. Various authors have proposed that jet substructures, known as knots, may serve as efficient particle accelerators. In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that knots are the particle acceleration sites along Cen A's jets. We focus on stationary knots, and assume that they result from interactions between the jet and the stellar winds of powerful stars. By combining relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and shock acceleration theory with the radio and X-ray data, we compare theoretical predictions with morphological and spectral data from different knots. We estimate the maximum electron energy and the resulting VHE gamma-ray emission. Our findings suggest that electrons accelerated at the knots are responsible for the gamma-ray spectrum detected in the VHE band.

Quantum annealing (QA) is an efficient method for finding the ground-state energy of the problem Hamiltonian. However, in practical implementation, the system suffers from decoherence. On the other hand, recently, ``Localized virtual purification" (LVP) was proposed to suppress decoherence in the context of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Suppose observables have spatially local support in the lattice. In that case, the requirement for LVP is to calculate the expectation value with a reduced density matrix on a portion of the total system. In this work, we propose a method to mitigate decoherence errors in QA using LVP. The key idea is to use the so-called classical shadow method to construct the reduced density matrix. Thanks to the CS, unlike the previous schemes to mitigate decoherence error for QA, we do not need either two-qubit gates or mid-circuit measurements, which means that our method is hardware-efficient.

In order to test the quantum nature of gravity, it is essential to explore the construction of classical gravity theories that are as consistent with experiments as possible. In particular, the classical gravity field must receive input regarding matter distribution. Previously, such input has been constructed by taking expectation values of the matter density operator or by using the outcomes of all measurements being performed on the quantum system. We propose a framework that unifies these models, and argue that the Causal Conditional Formulation of Schroedinger-Newton (CCSN) theory, which takes classical inputs only from experimental and environmental channels, is a minimum model within this framework. Since CCSN can be viewed as a quantum feedback control scheme, it can be made causal and free from pathologies that previously plagued SN theories. Since classical information from measurement results are used to generate classical gravity, CCSN can mimic quantum gravity better than one would naively expect for a classical theory. We predict experimental signatures of CCSN in two concrete scenarios: (i) a single test mass and (ii) two objects interacting via mutual gravity. In case (i), we show that the mass-concentration effect of self classical gravity still makes CCSN much easier to test than testing the mutual entanglement, yet the signatures are more subtle than previously thought for classical gravity theories. Using time-delayed and non-stationary measurements, which delay or suspend the flow of classical information into classical gravity, one can make CCSN more detectable. In case (ii), we show that mutual gravity generated by CCSN can lead to correlations that largely mimic signatures of quantum entanglement. Rigorous protocols that rule out LOCC channels, which are experimentally more challenging than simply testing entanglement, must be applied to completely rule out CCSN.

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the main candidates for ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) sources. However, while some theoretical and phenomenological works favor AGNs as the main sources, recent works have shown that using the very-high-energy (VHE) $γ$-ray flux as a proxy for the UHECR flux leads to a bad agreement with data. In this context, the energy spectrum and composition data are hardly fitted. At the same time, the arrival directions map is badly described and a spurious dipole direction is produced. In this work, we propose a possible solution to these contradictions. Using the observed $γ$-ray flux as a proxy may carry the implicit assumption of beamed UHECR emission and, consequently, its beam will remain collimated up to its detection on Earth. We show that assuming an isotropic UHECR emission and correcting the $γ$-ray emission proxy by Doppler boosting can overcome the problem. The combined fit of the spectrum and composition is improved, with a change of reduced $χ^2$ from 4.6 to 3.1. In particular, the tension between the observed and modeled dipole directions can be reduced from $5.9 \ (2.1)σ$ away from the data to $3.5 \ (1.1)σ$ for $E > 8$ EeV ($E > 32$ EeV). We also show that this effect is particularly important when including AGNs of different classes in the same analysis, such as radio galaxies and blazars.

An emerging concept for identification of different types of spin liquids is through the use of spontaneous spin noise. Here we develop spin noise spectroscopy for spin liquid studies by considering Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$, a material hypothesized to be either a quantum or a spiral spin liquid. By enhancing techniques introduced for magnetic monopole noise studies we measure the time and temperature dependence of spontaneous flux $\varPhi(t, T)$ and thus magnetization $M(t, T)$ of Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$ samples. The resulting power spectral density of magnetization noise $S_M(ω,T)$ reveals intense spin fluctuations with $S_M(ω,T) \propto ω^{-α(T)}$ and 0.84 < $α(T)$ < 1.04 . Both the variance $σ_M^2(T)$ and the correlation function $C_M(t,T)$ of this spin noise undergo crossovers at a temperature $T^* \approx$ 450 mK. While predictions for quantum spin liquids are inconsistent with this phenomenology, those from Monte-Carlo simulations of a 2D spiral spin liquid state in Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$ yield overall quantitative correspondence with the measured frequency and temperature dependences of $S_M(ω,T), C_M(t,T)$ and $σ_M^2(T)$, thus indicating that Ca$_{10}$Cr$_7$O$_{28}$ is a spiral spin liquid.

Photon Number Resolving Detectors (PNRDs) are devices capable of measuring the number of photons present in an incident optical beam, enabling light sources to be measured and characterized at the quantum level. In this paper, we explore the performance and design considerations of a linearly multiplexed photon number-resolving single-photon detector array, integrated on a single mode waveguide. Our investigation focus on defining and analyzing the fidelity of such an array under various conditions and proposing practical designs for its implementation. Through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we show how propagation losses and dark counts may have a strong impact on the performance of the system and highlight the importance of mitigating these effects in practical implementations.

Multiferroic materials combine multiple ferroic orders that may enable cross-functionalities, e.g. control of one ferroic order by the field conjugate to the other one. BaCoSiO$_4$, a recently proposed multiferroic combines multiple unit cell-tripling modes, structural chirality and ferroelectric polarization, whose interactions result in a peculiar ground state. We derive the Landau free energy for interacting trimerization, electric polarization and structural chiral modes and find the corresponding coefficients from first-principles calculations. This results in a quantitative model for the description of domain walls and vortices, observed in recent experiments.

We introduce the electron attachment equation-of-motion pair coupled cluster doubles (EA-EOM-pCCD) ansatz, which allows us to inexpensively compute electron affinities, energies of unoccupied orbitals, and electron attachment spectra. We assess the accuracy of EA-EOM-pCCD for a representative data set of organic molecules for which experimental data is available, as well as the electron attachment process in uranyl dichloride. EA-EOM-pCCD provides more reliable energies for the LUMO than its ionization potential EOM counterpart for the HOMO. The advantage of EA-EOM-pCCD is demonstrated for rylene and rylene diimide units of different chain lengths, where the differences between theoretical and experimental EAs approach chemical accuracy.

In this work, we use modern electronic structure methods to model the catalytic mechanism of different variants of the molybdenum cofactor (Moco). We investigate the dependence of various Moco model systems on structural relaxation and the importance of environmental effects for five critical points along the reaction coordinate with the DMSO and NO$_3^-$ substrates. Furthermore, we scrutinize the performance of various coupled-cluster approaches for modeling the relative energies along the investigated reaction paths, focusing on several pair coupled cluster doubles (pCCD) flavors and conventional coupled cluster approximations. Moreover, we elucidate the Mo--O bond formation using orbital-based quantum information measures, which highlight the flow of $σ_{\rm M-O}$ bond formation and $σ_{\rm N/S-O}$ bond breaking. Our study shows that pCCD-based models are a viable alternative to conventional methods and offer us unique insights into the bonding situation along a reaction coordinate. Finally, this work highlights the importance of environmental effects or changes in the core and, consequently, in the model itself to elucidate the change in activity of different Moco variants.

We report the feasibility of detecting the gravity-induced entanglement (GIE) with optomechanical systems, which is the first investigation that clarifies the feasible experimental parameters to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of S/N=1. Our proposal focuses on GIE generation between optomechanical mirrors, coupled via gravitational interactions, under continuous measurement, feedback control, and Kalman filtering process, which matured in connection with the field of gravitational wave observations. We solved the Riccati equation to evaluate the time evolution of the conditional covariance matrix for optomechanical mirrors that estimated the minimum variance of the motions. The results demonstrate that GIE is generated faster than a well-known time scale without optomechanical coupling. The fast generation of entanglement is associated with quantum-state squeezing by the Kalman filtering process, which is an advantage of using optomechanical systems to experimentally detect GIE.

We investigate the effect of weak disorder on the superfluid properties of two-component quasi-two-dimensional dipolar Fermi gases. The dipole-dipole interaction amplitude is momentum dependent, which violates the Anderson theorem claiming that the weak disorder has practically no influence on the superfluid transition temperature in the weakly interacting regime. We find that for dipolar fermions the transition temperature in this regime can be strongly increased by the disorder like in the purely two-dimensional case. However, the effect becomes smaller with increasing the intercomponent fermion-fermion interaction, and in the strongly interacting regime the superfluid transition temperature in the weak disorder becomes very close to that in the absence of disorder.

We present a solution to Liouville's equation for an ensemble of charged particles propagating in magnetic fields. The solution is presented using an expansion in spherical harmonics of the phase space density, allowing a direct interpretation of the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays. The results are found for chosen conditions of variability and source distributions. We show there are two conditions for an initially isotropic flux of particles to remain isotropic while traveling through a magnetic field: isotropy and homogeneity of the sources. In case isotropically-distributed sources inject particles continuously in time, a transient magnetic induced dipole will appear. This dipole will vanish if the system reaches a steady-state. The formalism is used to analyze the data measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, contributing to the understanding of the dependence of the dipole amplitude with energy and predicting the energy in which the quadrupole signal should be measured.

We investigate the quantum signature of gravity in optomechanical systems under quantum control. We analyze the gravity-induced entanglement and squeezing in mechanical mirrors in a steady state. The behaviors and the conditions for generating the gravity-induced entanglement and squeezing are identified in the Fourier modes of the mechanical mirrors. The condition of generating the entanglement between the mirrors found in the present paper is more severe than that of the gravity-induced entanglement between output lights. The gravity-induced entanglement in optomechanical systems is an important milestone towards verifying the quantum nature of gravity, which should be verified in the future.

The Boltzmann machine is one of the various applications using quantum annealer. We propose an application of the Boltzmann machine to the kernel matrix used in various machine-learning techniques. We focus on the fact that shift-invariant kernel functions can be expressed in terms of the expected value of a spectral distribution by the Fourier transformation. Using this transformation, random Fourier feature (RFF) samples the frequencies and approximates the kernel function. In this paper, furthermore, we propose a method to obtain a spectral distribution suitable for the data using a Boltzmann machine. As a result, we show that the prediction accuracy is comparable to that of the method using the Gaussian distribution. We also show that it is possible to create a spectral distribution that could not be feasible with the Gaussian distribution.

This paper is an addendum to earlier papers \cite{R1,R2} in which it was shown that the unstable separatrix solutions for Painlevé I and II are determined by $PT$-symmetric Hamiltonians. In this paper unstable separatrix solutions of the fourth Painlevé transcendent are studied numerically and analytically. For a fixed initial value, say $y(0)=1$, a discrete set of initial slopes $y'(0)=b_n$ give rise to separatrix solutions. Similarly, for a fixed initial slope, say $y'(0)=0$, a discrete set of initial values $y(0)=c_n$ give rise to separatrix solutions. For Painlevé IV the large-$n$ asymptotic behavior of $b_n$ is $b_n\sim B_{\rm IV}n^{3/4}$ and that of $c_n$ is $c_n\sim C_{\rm IV} n^{1/2}$. The constants $B_{\rm IV}$ and $C_{\rm IV}$ are determined both numerically and analytically. The analytical values of these constants are found by reducing the nonlinear Painlevé IV equation to the linear eigenvalue equation for the sextic $PT$-symmetric Hamiltonian $H=\frac{1}{2} p^2+\frac{1}{8} x^6$.

An electron diffraction study of nucleation and growth of the hcp phase in large pure Ar and mixed Ar-Kr clusters formed by supersonic jet expansion is carried out. The threshold cluster size corresponding to the appearance of an hcp phase in addition to the fcc structure is determined. It is found that the relative volume of the hcp phase in clusters increases with their size. In very large aggregations, the percentage of hcp phase reaches its maximum and does not change with further cluster growth. The hcp phase relative volume in mixed clusters is almost double that in pure Ar clusters of the same size. A correlation between the hcp phase relative volume and the number of defective planes contained in the fcc matrix, which are the nuclei of the hcp phase, is established. A mechanism of nucleation and growth of the hcp phase in rare gas clusters is proposed.

Size and composition of clusters produced by adiabatic expansion of binary gas mixtures (Ar-Kr, Kr-Xe, and N2-Ar) with various component concentrations are studied by using electron-diffraction technique. The resulting homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters are shown to have compositions substantially different from those of the primary gas mixtures and dependent on cluster size. We have found that the key parameters needed for an analysis of cluster composition are the critical cluster radius and the heavier component concentration in the gas mixture that can be used to establish the regions of existence of homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters. These critical values determine the coefficient of the enrichment of clusters with the heavier component with respect to its concentration in the primary gas mixture. Theoretical relations are obtained which provide a good quantitative description of the experimental results and can be expected to be also valid for finding the composition of binary clusters of other van der Waals systems.