Understanding quantum materials—solids in which interactions among constituent electrons yield a great variety of novel emergent quantum phenomena—is a forefront challenge in modern condensed matter physics. This goal has driven the invention and refinement of several experimental methods, which can spectroscopically determine the elementary excitations and correlation functions that determine material properties. Here we focus on the future experimental and theoretical trends of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS), which is a remarkably versatile and rapidly growing technique for probing different charge, lattice, spin, and orbital excitations in quantum materials. We provide a forward-looking introduction to RIXS and outline how this technique is poised to deepen our insight into the nature of quantum materials and of their emergent electronic phenomena. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Planet obliquity is the alignment or misalignment of a planet spin axis relative to its orbit normal. In a multiplanet system, this obliquity is a valuable signature of planet formation and evolutionary history. The young β Pictoris system hosts two coplanar super-Jupiters and upcoming JWST observations of this system will constrain the obliquity of the outer planet, β Pictoris b. This will be the first planet obliquity measurement in an extrasolar, multiplanet system. First, we show that this new planet obliquity is likely misaligned by using a wide range of simulated observations in combination with published measurements of the system. Motivated by current explanations for the tilted planet obliquities in the Solar System, we consider collisions and secular spin-orbit resonances. While collisions are unlikely to occur, secular spin-orbit resonance modified by the presence of an exomoon around the outer planet can excite a large obliquity. The largest induced obliquities ( ∼60∘) occur for moons with at least a Neptune-mass and a semimajor axis of 0.03−0.05au ( 40−70 planet radii). For certain orbital alignments, such a moon may observably transit the planet (transit depth of 3−7%, orbital period of 3−7 weeks). Thus, a nonzero obliquity detection of β Pictoris b implies that it may host a large exomoon. Although we focus on the β Pictoris system, the idea that the presence of exomoons can excite high obliquities is very general and applicable to other exoplanetary systems.

In humans, misprocessed mRNAs containing intact 5' Splice Site (5'SS) motifs are nuclear retained and targeted for decay by ZFC3H1, a component of the Poly(A) Exosome Targeting complex, and U1-70K, a component of the U1 snRNP. In S. pombe, the ZFC3H1 homolog, Red1, binds to the YTH domain-containing protein Mmi1 and targets certain RNA transcripts to nuclear foci for nuclear retention and decay. Here we show that YTHDC1 and YTHDC2, two YTH domain-containing proteins that bind to N-6-methyladenosine (m6A) modified RNAs, interact with ZFC3H1 and U1-70K, and are required for the nuclear retention of mRNAs with intact 5'SS motifs. Disruption of m6A deposition inhibits both the nuclear retention of these transcripts and their accumulation in YTHDC1-enriched foci that are adjacent to nuclear speckles. Endogenous RNAs with intact 5'SS motifs, such as intronic poly-adenylated transcripts, tend to be m6A-modified at low levels. Thus, the m6A modification acts on a conserved quality control mechanism that targets misprocessed mRNAs for nuclear retention and decay.

Abstract I discuss an analysis of changes in the Scandinavian runic alphabet, or futhark, by Jørgen Rischel (1966). Rischel’s article accounts for some puzzling changes in the futhark by employing contrastive feature hierarchies represented as branching trees. Feature hierarchies can be traced back to the work of Roman Jakobson and his colleagues. They enjoyed a brief period of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, but then disappeared from mainstream phonological theory. However, they were employed in a number of interesting studies of Germanic and other languages whose insights we can still profit from today. The goal of this paper is to bring attention to this largely forgotten approach to phonological analysis, and to spell out the principles that underlie it.

In recent years, severe electromagnetic interference among electronic devices has been caused by the unprecedented growth of communication systems. Therefore, microwave absorbing materials are required to relieve these problems by absorbing the unwanted microwave. In the design of microwave absorbers, magnetic nanomaterials have to be used as fine particles dispersed in an insulating matrix. Besides the intrinsic properties of these materials, the structure and morphology are also crucial to the microwave absorption performance of the composite. In this study, Ni-Co- MWCNT composites were synthesized, and the changes in electric permittivity, magnetic permeability, and reflectance loss of the samples were evaluated at frequencies of 2 to 18 GHz. Nickel-Cobalt-Multi Wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) composites were successfully synthesized by the co-precipitation chemical method. The structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of the samples were characterized and investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM), and Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). The results revealed that the Ni-Co-MWCNT composite has the highest electromagnetic wave absorption rate with a reflectance loss of -70.22 dB at a frequency of 10.12 GHz with a thickness of 1.8 mm. The adequate absorption bandwidth (RL <-10 dB) was 6.9 GHz at the high-frequency region, exhibiting excellent microwave absorbing properties as a good microwave absorber patent. Based on this study, it can be argued that the Ni-Co-MWCNT composite can be a good candidate for making light absorbers of radar waves at frequencies 2- 18 GHz.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent type of dementia, but its etiopathogenesis is not yet fully understood. Recent preclinical studies and clinical evidence indicate that changes in the gut microbiome could potentially play a role in the accumulation of amyloid beta. However, the relationship between gut dysbiosis and AD is still elusive. In this review, the potential impact of the gut microbiome on AD development and progression is discussed. Pre-clinical and clinical literature exploring changes in gut microbiome composition is assessed, which can contribute to AD pathology including increased amyloid beta deposition and cognitive impairment. The gut-brain axis and the potential involvement of metabolites produced by the gut microbiome in AD are also highlighted. Furthermore, the potential of antibiotics, prebiotics, probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, and dietary interventions as complementary therapies for the management of AD is summarized. This review provides valuable insights into potential therapeutic strategies to modulate the gut microbiome in AD.

We study neighbourhoods of submanifolds in generalized complex geometry. Our first main result provides sufficient criteria for such a submanifold to admit a neighbourhood on which the generalized complex structure is B -field equivalent to a holomorphic Poisson structure. This is intimately tied with our second main result, which is a rigidity theorem for generalized complex deformations of holomorphic Poisson structures. Specifically, on a compact manifold with boundary we provide explicit conditions under which any generalized complex perturbation of a holomorphic Poisson structure is B -field equivalent to another holomorphic Poisson structure. The proofs of these results require two analytical tools: Hodge decompositions on almost complex manifolds with boundary, and the Nash–Moser algorithm. As a concrete application of these results, we show that on a four-dimensional generalized complex submanifold which is generically symplectic, a neighbourhood of the entire complex locus is B -field equivalent to a holomorphic Poisson structure. Furthermore, we use the neighbourhood theorem to develop the theory of blowing down submanifolds in generalized complex geometry.

Quantum enhanced optical target detection provides a unique route to increased noise resilience of classical LiDARs (laser imaging, detection, and ranging) by using time correlation of non-classical photon pairs. Such enhancement is dictated by the detector temporal uncertainty that is typically orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic correlation time. To circumvent such detector limitation, we explore the possibility of measuring correlation in the fractional-order Fourier domain (FrFD), which can be realized with the non-local dispersion cancellation. Experimentally, we verify this principle using a fiber-coupled waveguide source of photon pairs, showing enhanced noise rejection as compared with conventional time-domain coincidence detection and classical intensity detection. For false alarm rates of 10−9, an 89 dB improved detection rate is measured using receiver operating characteristics when comparing our FrFD protocol with classical intensity detection. Additionally, we discussed the resilience of FrFD correlation against intentionally prepared counterfeit signal photons. The possibility enabled by measuring correlation in the FrFD should also provide potential benefit for various sensing and communication protocols that relies on coincidence detection.