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The advent of layered materials has unveiled new opportunities for tailoring electromagnetic waves at the subwavelength scale, particularly through the study of polaritons, a hybrid light–matter excitation. In this context, twist-optics, which investigates the optical properties of twisted stacks of van der Waals (vdW) layered specimens, has emerged as a powerful tool. Here, we explore the tunability of phonon polaritons in α-V₂O₅via interlayer twisting using scanning nano-infrared (IR) imaging. We show that the polaritonic response can be finely adjusted by varying their interlayer electromagnetic coupling, allowing for precise control over the propagation direction and phase transition from open unidirectional iso-frequency contours to closed elliptic geometries. Our experimental results, in conjugate with theoretical modeling, reveal the mechanisms underpinning this tunability, highlighting the role of twist-induced nano-light modifications for advanced nanophotonic control at the nanoscale. 

We investigate medium-induced modifications to jet substructure observables that characterize hard components in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Using a multistage Monte Carlo simulation of in-medium jet shower evolution, we explore flavor-dependent medium effects through simulations of inclusive and $\gamma$ -tagged jets. The results show that quark jets undergo a nonmonotonic modification compared with gluon jets in observables such as the Pb-Pb to $p\text{−}p$ ratio of the soft drop prong angle $r_g$ , the relative prong transverse momentum $k_{T,g}$ , and the groomed mass $m_g$ distributions. Due to this nonmonotonic modification, $\gamma$ -tagged jets, enriched in quark jets, provide surprisingly clear signals of medium-induced structural modifications, distinct from effects dominated by selection bias. Further systematic studies demonstrate that these effects are dominated by recoil medium response. This work highlights the potential of hard substructures in $\gamma$ -tagged jets as powerful tools for probing the jet-medium interactions in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, in particular by enabling detailed investigations of jet-medium parton scatterings via their associated medium response. All simulations for $\gamma$ -tagged jet analyses carried out in this paper used triggered events containing at least one hard photon, which highlights the utility of these observables for future Bayesian analysis. 

Microtubule-kinesin active fluids are distinguished from conventional passive fluids by their unique ability to consume local fuel, ATP, to generate internal active stress. This stress drives internal flow autonomously and promotes micromixing, without the need for external pumps. When confined within a looped boundary, these active fluids can spontaneously self-organize into river-like flows. However, the influence of a moving boundary on these flow behaviors has remained elusive. Here, we investigate the role of a moving boundary on the flow kinematics of active fluids. We confined the active fluid within a thin cuboidal boundary with one side serving as a mobile boundary. Our data reveals that when the boundary's moving speed does not exceed the intrinsic flow speed of the active fluid, the fluid is dominated by chaotic, turbulence-like flows. The velocity correlation length of the flow is close to the intrinsic vortex size induced by the internal active stress. Conversely, as the boundary's moving speed greatly exceeds that of the active fluid, the flow gradually transitions to a conventional cavity flow pattern. In this regime, the velocity correlation length increases and saturates to those of water. Our work elucidates the intricate interplay between a moving boundary and active fluid behavior. *We acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF-CBET-2045621). 

A new framework, called , for the combined study of both hard and soft transverse momentum sectors in high-energy proton-proton ( $p\text{−}p$ ) and proton-nucleus ( $p\text{−}A$ ) collisions is set up. A dynamical initial state is set up using the model with transverse locations of hotspots within each incoming nucleon. A hard scattering that emanates from two colliding hotspots is carried out using the Pythia generator. Initial state radiation from the incoming hard partons is carried out in a new module called , which includes the longitudinal location of initial splits. The energy-momentum of both the initial hard partons and their associated beam remnants is removed from the hot spots, depleting the energy-momentum available for the formation of the bulk medium. Outgoing showers are simulated using the generator, and results are presented for both cases, allowing for and not allowing for energy loss. First comparisons between this hard-soft model and single inclusive hadron and jet data from $p\text{−}p$ and minimum bias $p\text{−}\text{Pb}$ collisions are presented. Single hadron spectra in $p\text{−}p$ are used to carry out a limited (in number of parameters) Bayesian calibration of the model. Fair comparisons with data are indicative of the utility of this new framework. Theoretical studies of the correlation between jet $p_T$ and event activity at mid and forward rapidity are carried out.