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1. Highly-excited Rydberg excitons in synthetic thin-film cuprous oxide

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41465-y  

   DeLange, Jacob; Barua, Kinjol; Paul, Anindya Sundar; Ohadi, Hamid; Zwiller, Val; Steinhauer, Stephan; Alaeian, Hadiseh (December 2023, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract Cuprous oxide ($$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$) has recently emerged as a promising material in solid-state quantum technology, specifically for its excitonic Rydberg states characterized by large principal quantum numbers (n). The significant wavefunction size of these highly-excited states (proportional to$$n^2$$ $n^2$) enables strong long-range dipole-dipole (proportional to$$n^4$$ $n^4$) and van der Waals interactions (proportional to$$n^{11}$$ $n^{11}$). Currently, the highest-lying Rydberg states are found in naturally occurring$$\hbox {Cu}_2\hbox {O}$$ ${\text{Cu}}_2\text{O}$. However, for technological applications, the ability to grow high-quality synthetic samples is essential. The fabrication of thin-film$$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$samples is of particular interest as they hold potential for observing extreme single-photon nonlinearities through the Rydberg blockade. Nevertheless, due to the susceptibility of high-lying states to charged impurities, growing synthetic samples of sufficient quality poses a substantial challenge. This study successfully demonstrates the CMOS-compatible synthesis of a$$\hbox {Cu}{}_2\hbox {O}$$ $\text{Cu}{}_2\text{O}$thin film on a transparent substrate that showcases Rydberg excitons up to$$n = 8$$ $n=8$which is readily suitable for photonic device fabrications. These findings mark a significant advancement towards the realization of scalable and on-chip integrable Rydberg quantum technologies. 

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2. Measurement of the production cross section for a W boson in association with a charm quark in proton–proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 13\,\hbox {TeV}$$

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-12258-4  

   Tumasyan, A; Adam, W; Andrejkovic, J W; Bergauer, T; Chatterjee, S; Damanakis, K; Dragicevic, M; Valle, A_Escalante Del; Hussain, P S; Jeitler, M; et al (January 2024, The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract The strange quark content of the proton is probed through the measurement of the production cross section for a W boson and a charm (c) quark in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13$$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ $\text{Te}\text{V}$. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ ${\text{fb}}^{-1}$collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The W bosons are identified through their leptonic decays to an electron or a muon, and a neutrino. Charm jets are tagged using the presence of a muon or a secondary vertex inside the jet. The$$\hbox {W}+\hbox {c}$$ $\text{W}+\text{c}$production cross section and the cross section ratio$$R_\textrm{c}^{\pm }= \sigma ({\hbox {W}}^{+}+\bar{\text {c}})/\sigma (\hbox {W}^{-}+{\textrm{c}})$$ $R_{\text{c}}^{\pm }=\sigma ({\text{W}}^{+}+\overline{\text{c}})/\sigma ({\text{W}}^{-}+\text{c})$are measured inclusively and differentially as functions of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the lepton originating from the W boson decay. The precision of the measurements is improved with respect to previous studies, reaching 1% in$$R_\textrm{c}^{\pm }= 0.950 \pm 0.005\,\text {(stat)} \pm 0.010 \,\text {(syst)} $$ $R_{\text{c}}^{\pm }=0.950\pm 0.005\text{(stat)}\pm 0.010\text{(syst)}$. The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions up to next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. 

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3. Non-toric Brane Webs, Calabi–Yau 3-Folds, and 5d SCFTs

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00220-025-05461-9  

   Alexeev, Valery; Argüz, Hülya; Bousseau, Pierrick (October 2025, Communications in Mathematical Physics)

   Abstract We study webs of 5-branes with 7-branes in Type IIB string theory from a geometric perspective. Mathematically, a web of 5-branes with 7-branes is a tropical curve in$$\mathbb {R}^2$$ $R^2$with focus-focus singularities introduced. To any such a webW, we attach a log Calabi–Yau surface (Y, D) with a line bundleL. We then describe supersymmetric webs, which are webs defining 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs), in terms of the geometry of (Y, D, L). We also introduce particular supersymmetric webs called “consistent webs, and show that any 5d SCFT defined by a supersymmetric web can be obtained from a consistent web by adding free hypermultiplets. Using birational geometry of degenerations of log Calabi–Yau surfaces, we provide an algorithm to test the consistency of a web in terms of its dual polygon. Moreover, for a consistent webW, we provide an algebro-geometric construction of the mirror$$\mathcal {X}^{\textrm{can}}$$ $X^{\text{can}}$to (Y, D, L), as a non-toric canonical 3-fold singularity, and show that M-theory on$$\mathcal {X}^{\textrm{can}}$$ $X^{\text{can}}$engineers the same 5d SCFT asW. We also explain how to derive explicit equations for$$\mathcal {X}^{\textrm{can}}$$ $X^{\text{can}}$using scattering diagrams, encoding disk worldsheet instantons in the A-model, or equivalently the BPS states of an auxiliary rank one 4d$$\mathcal {N}=2$$ $N=2$theory. 

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4. Measurement of non-prompt $${{\textrm{D}}^{0}}$$-meson elliptic flow in Pb–Pb collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02$$ TeV

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-12259-3  

   Acharya, S; Adamová, D; Aglieri_Rinella, G; Agnello, M; Agrawal, N; Ahammed, Z; Ahmad, S; Ahn, S U; Ahuja, I; Akindinov, A; et al (December 2023, The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract The elliptic flow$$(v_2)$$ $\left(v_2\right)$of$${\textrm{D}}^{0}$$ ${\text{D}}^0$mesons from beauty-hadron decays (non-prompt$${\textrm{D}}^{0})$$ ${\text{D}}^0)$was measured in midcentral (30–50%) Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02$$ $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The$${\textrm{D}}^{0}$$ ${\text{D}}^0$mesons were reconstructed at midrapidity$$(|y|<0.8)$$ $\left(\right|y|<0.8)$from their hadronic decay$$\mathrm {D^0 \rightarrow K^-\uppi ^+}$$ $D^0\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}$, in the transverse momentum interval$$2< p_{\textrm{T}} < 12$$ $2<p_{\text{T}}<12$ GeV/c. The result indicates a positive$$v_2$$ $v_2$for non-prompt$${{\textrm{D}}^{0}}$$ ${\text{D}}^0$mesons with a significance of 2.7$$\sigma $$ $\sigma$. The non-prompt$${{\textrm{D}}^{0}}$$ ${\text{D}}^0$-meson$$v_2$$ $v_2$is lower than that of prompt non-strange D mesons with 3.2$$\sigma $$ $\sigma$significance in$$2< p_\textrm{T} < 8~\textrm{GeV}/c$$ $2<p_{\text{T}}<8\text{GeV}/c$, and compatible with the$$v_2$$ $v_2$of beauty-decay electrons. Theoretical calculations of beauty-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding medium describe the measurement within uncertainties. 

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5. Spin density matrix elements in exclusive $$\rho ^0$$ meson muoproduction

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11359-4  

   Alexeev, G D; Alexeev, M G; Alice, C; Amoroso, A; Andrieux, V; Anosov, V; Augsten, K; Augustyniak, W; Azevedo, C_D R; Badelek, B; et al (October 2023, The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160 GeV/cpolarised$$ \mu ^{+}$$ ${\mu }^{+}$and$$ \mu ^{-}$$ ${\mu }^{-}$beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0 GeV/$$c^2$$ $c^2$$$< W<$$ $<W<$17.0 GeV/$$c^2$$ $c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$$$< Q^2<$$ $<Q^2<$10.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$and 0.01 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$$$< p_{\textrm{T}}^2<$$ $<p_{\text{T}}^2<$0.5 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ ${}^2$. Here,Wdenotes the mass of the final hadronic system,$$Q^2$$ $Q^2$the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$the transverse momentum of the$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($$\gamma ^*_T \rightarrow V^{ }_L$$ ${\gamma }_T^{\ast }\to V_L^{}$) indicate a violation ofs-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive$$\rho ^0$$ ${\rho }^0$production. 

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