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  1. We report the optical conductivity in high-quality crystals of the chiral topological semimetal CoSi, which hosts exotic quasiparticles known as multifold fermions. We find that the optical response is separated into several distinct regions as a function of frequency, each dominated by different types of quasiparticles. The low-frequency intraband response is captured by a narrow Drude peak from a high-mobility electron pocket of double Weyl quasiparticles, and the temperature dependence of the spectral weight is consistent with its Fermi velocity. By subtracting the low-frequency sharp Drude and phonon peaks at low temperatures, we reveal two intermediate quasilinear interband contributions separated by a kink at 0.2 eV. Using Wannier tight-binding models based on first-principle calculations, we link the optical conductivity above and below 0.2 eV to interband transitions near the double Weyl fermion and a threefold fermion, respectively. We analyze and determine the chemical potential relative to the energy of the threefold fermion, revealing the importance of transitions between a linearly dispersing band and a flat band. More strikingly, below 0.1 eV our data are best explained if spin-orbit coupling is included, suggesting that at these energies, the optical response is governed by transitions between a previously unobserved fourfold spin-3/2 nodemore »and a Weyl node. Our comprehensive combined experimental and theoretical study provides a way to resolve different types of multifold fermions in CoSi at different energy. More broadly, our results provide the necessary basis to interpret the burgeoning set of optical and transport experiments in chiral topological semimetals.

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  2. Abstract

    Oxygen (O2) limitation contributes to persistence of large carbon (C) stocks in saturated soils. However, many soils experience spatiotemporal O2 fluctuations impacted by climate and land‐use change, and O2‐mediated climate feedbacks from soil greenhouse gas emissions remain poorly constrained. Current theory and models posit that anoxia uniformly suppresses carbon (C) decomposition. Here we show that periodic anoxia may sustain or even stimulate decomposition over weeks to months in two disparate soils by increasing turnover and/or size of fast‐cycling C pools relative to static oxic conditions, and by sustaining decomposition of reduced organic molecules. Cumulative C losses did not decrease consistently as cumulative O2exposure decreased. After >1 year, soils anoxic for 75% of the time had similar C losses as the oxic control but nearly threefold greater climate impact on a CO2‐equivalent basis (20‐year timescale) due to high methane (CH4) emission. A mechanistic model incorporating current theory closely reproduced oxic control results but systematically underestimated C losses under O2 fluctuations. Using a model‐experiment integration (ModEx) approach, we found that models were improved by varying microbial maintenance respiration and the fraction of CH4production in total C mineralization as a function of O2availability. Consistent with thermodynamic expectations, the calibrated models predicted lower microbial C‐use efficiencymore »with increasing anoxic duration in one soil; in the other soil, dynamic organo‐mineral interactions implied by our empirical data but not represented in the model may have obscured this relationship. In both soils, the updated model was better able to capture transient spikes in C mineralization that occurred following anoxic–oxic transitions, where decomposition from the fluctuating‐O2treatments greatly exceeded the control. Overall, our data‐model comparison indicates that incorporating emergent biogeochemical properties of soil O2variability will be critical for effectively modeling C‐climate feedbacks in humid ecosystems.

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