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Quantum phase estimation based on Gaussian states plays a crucial role in many application fields. In this paper, we study the precision bound for the scheme using two-mode squeezed Gaussian states. The quantum Fisher information is calculated and its maximization is used to determine the optimal parameters. We find that two single-mode squeezed vacuum states are the optimal inputs and the corresponding precision bound is superior to the Heisenberg limit by a factor of 2. For practical purposes, we consider the effects originating from photon loss. The precision bound can still outperform the shot-noise limit when the lossy rate is below 0.4. Our work may demonstrate a significant and promising step towards practical quantum metrology.

This paper aims to efficiently enable large language models (LLMs) to use external knowledge and goal guidance in conversational recommender system (CRS) tasks. Advanced LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT) are limited in domain-specific CRS tasks for 1) generating grounded responses with recommendation-oriented knowledge, or 2) proactively leading the conversations through different dialogue goals. In this work, we first analyze those limitations through a comprehensive evaluation, showing the necessity of external knowledge and goal guidance which contribute significantly to the recommendation accuracy and language quality. In light of this finding, we propose a novel ChatCRS framework to decompose the complex CRS task into several sub-tasks through the implementation of 1) a knowledge retrieval agent using a tool-augmented approach to reason over external Knowledge Bases and 2) a goal-planning agent for dialogue goal prediction. Experimental results on two multi-goal CRS datasets reveal that ChatCRS sets new state-of-the-art benchmarks, improving language quality of informativeness by 17% and proactivity by 27%, and achieving a tenfold enhancement in recommendation accuracy., Comment: Main paper 8 pages; References and Appendix 9 pages; 7 figures and 14 tables

Possible light bosonic dark matter interactions with the Standard Model photon have been searched by microwave resonant cavities. In this paper, we demonstrate the cryogenic readout system calibration of a 7.138 GHz copper cavity with a loaded quality factor $Q_l=10^4$, operated at 22 mK temperature based on a dilution refrigerator. Our readout system consists of High Electron Mobility Transistors as cryogenic amplifiers at 4 K, plus room-temperature amplifiers and a spectrum analyzer for signal power detection. We test the system with a superconducting two-level system as a single-photon source in the microwave frequency regime and report an overall 95.6 dB system gain and -71.4 dB attenuation in the cavity's input channel. The effective noise temperature of the measurement system is 7.5 K., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, version to appear in CPC

The demand for improved efficiency and accuracy in vaccine safety assessments is increasing. Here, we explore the application of computer vision technologies to automate the monitoring of experimental mice for potential side effects after vaccine administration. Traditional observation methods are labor-intensive and lack the capability for continuous monitoring. By deploying a computer vision system, our research aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of vaccine safety assessments. The methodology involves training machine learning models on annotated video data of mice behaviors pre- and post-vaccination. Preliminary results indicate that computer vision effectively identify subtle changes, signaling possible side effects. Therefore, our approach has the potential to significantly enhance the monitoring process in vaccine trials in animals, providing a practical solution to the limitations of human observation., Comment: 1 figure

The dark photon is a promising candidate for the dark matter which comprises most of the matter in our visible Universe. Via kinetic mixing with the Standard Model it can also be resonantly converted to photons in an electromagnetic cavity, offering novel experimental possibilities for the discovery and study of dark matter. We report the results of a pathfinder dark photon dark matter cavity search experiment performed at Hunan Normal University and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, representing the first stage of the APEX (Axion and dark Photon EXperiment) program. Finding no statistically significant excess, we place an upper limit on the kinetic mixing parameter $|\chi|<3.7\times 10^{-13}$ around $m_A\simeq 29.5$ $\mu$eV at 90% confidence level. This result exceeds other constraints on dark photon dark matter in this frequency range by roughly an order of magnitude., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Updated to match journal version

Cognitive impairments in older adults represent a significant public health concern, necessitating accurate diagnostic and monitoring strategies. In this study, the principal cognitive and neuropsychological evaluations employed for the diagnosis and longitudinal observation of cognitive deficits in the elderly are investigated. An analytical review of instruments including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Trail Making Test (TMT) is conducted. This examination encompasses an assessment of each instrument's methodology, efficacy, advantages, and limitations. The objective is to enhance comprehension of these assessments for the early identification and effective management of conditions such as dementia and mild cognitive impairment, thereby contributing to the advancement of cognitive health within the geriatric population.

The strategic induction of cell death serves as a crucial immune defense mechanism for the eradication of pathogenic infections within host cells. Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying immunogenic cell pathways has significantly enhanced our understanding of the host's immunity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the immunogenic cell death mechanisms triggered by pathogen infections, focusing on the critical role of pattern recognition receptors. In response to infections, host cells dictate a variety of cell death pathways, including apoptosis, pyroptosis, necrosis, and lysosomal cell death, which are essential for amplifying immune responses and controlling pathogen dissemination. Key components of these mechanisms are host cellular receptors that recognize pathogen-associated ligands. These receptors activate downstream signaling cascades, leading to the expression of immunoregulatory genes and the production of antimicrobial cytokines and chemokines. Particularly, the inflammasome, a multi-protein complex, plays a pivotal role in these responses by processing pro-inflammatory cytokines and inducing pyroptotic cell death. Pathogens, in turn, have evolved strategies to manipulate these cell death pathways, either by inhibiting them to facilitate their replication or by triggering them to evade host defenses. This dynamic interplay between host immune mechanisms and pathogen strategies highlights the intricate co-evolution of microbial virulence and host immunity., Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures

Previous zero-shot dialogue state tracking (DST) methods only apply transfer learning, ignoring unlabelled data in the target domain. We transform zero-shot DST into few-shot DST by utilising such unlabelled data via joint and self-training methods. Our method incorporates auxiliary tasks that generate slot types as inverse prompts for main tasks, creating slot values during joint training. Cycle consistency between these two tasks enables the generation and selection of quality samples in unknown target domains for subsequent fine-tuning. This approach also facilitates automatic label creation, thereby optimizing the training and fine-tuning of DST models. We demonstrate this method's effectiveness on general language models in zero-shot scenarios, improving average joint goal accuracy by 8% across all domains in MultiWOZ., Comment: Accepted to Findings of NAACL 2024

Conversational recommender systems (CRS) generate recommendations through an interactive process. However, not all CRS approaches use human conversations as their source of interaction data; the majority of prior CRS work simulates interactions by exchanging entity-level information. As a result, claims of prior CRS work do not generalise to real-world settings where conversations take unexpected turns, or where conversational and intent understanding is not perfect. To tackle this challenge, the research community has started to examine holistic CRS, which are trained using conversational data collected from real-world scenarios. Despite their emergence, such holistic approaches are under-explored. We present a comprehensive survey of holistic CRS methods by summarizing the literature in a structured manner. Our survey recognises holistic CRS approaches as having three components: 1) a backbone language model, the optional use of 2) external knowledge, and/or 3) external guidance. We also give a detailed analysis of CRS datasets and evaluation methods in real application scenarios. We offer our insight as to the current challenges of holistic CRS and possible future trends., Comment: Accepted by 5th KaRS Workshop @ ACM RecSys 2023, 8 pages

Integrating CNNs and RNNs to capture spatiotemporal dependencies is a prevalent strategy for spatiotemporal prediction tasks. However, the property of CNNs to learn local spatial information decreases their efficiency in capturing spatiotemporal dependencies, thereby limiting their prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new recurrent cell, SwinLSTM, which integrates Swin Transformer blocks and the simplified LSTM, an extension that replaces the convolutional structure in ConvLSTM with the self-attention mechanism. Furthermore, we construct a network with SwinLSTM cell as the core for spatiotemporal prediction. Without using unique tricks, SwinLSTM outperforms state-of-the-art methods on Moving MNIST, Human3.6m, TaxiBJ, and KTH datasets. In particular, it exhibits a significant improvement in prediction accuracy compared to ConvLSTM. Our competitive experimental results demonstrate that learning global spatial dependencies is more advantageous for models to capture spatiotemporal dependencies. We hope that SwinLSTM can serve as a solid baseline to promote the advancement of spatiotemporal prediction accuracy. The codes are publicly available at https://github.com/SongTang-x/SwinLSTM., Comment: This paper has been accepted by ICCV 2023

Optically levitated microspheres are an excellent candidate for force and acceleration sensing. Here, we propose an acceleration sensing protocol based on an optically levitated microsphere array (MSA). The system consists of an $N$-microsphere array levitated in a driven optical cavity via holographic optical tweezers. By positioning the microspheres suitably relative to the cavity, only one of the collective modes of the MSA is coupled to the cavity mode. The optomechanical interaction encodes the information of acceleration acting on the MSA onto the intracavity photons, which can then be detected directly at the output of the cavity. The optically levitated MSA forms an effective large mass-distributed particle, which not only circumvents the problem of levitating a large mass microsphere but also results in a significant improvement of sensitivity. Compared with the traditional single-microsphere measurement scheme, our method presents an improvement in sensitivity by a factor of $\sqrt{N}$.

We experimentally demonstrate a nano-scale stochastic Stirling heat engine operating in the underdamped regime. The setup involves an optically levitated silica particle that is subjected to a power-varying optical trap and periodically coupled to a cold/hot reservoir via switching on/off active feedback cooling. We conduct a systematic investigation of the engine's performance and find that both the output work and efficiency approach their theoretical limits under quasi-static conditions. Furthermore, we examine the dependence of the output work fluctuation on the cycle time and temperature difference between the hot and cold reservoirs. We observe that the distribution has a Gaussian profile in the quasi-static regime, whereas it becomes asymmetric and non-Gaussian as the cycle duration time decreases. This non-Gaussianity is qualitatively attributed to the strong correlation of the particle's position within a cycle in the non-equilibrium regime. Our experiments provide valuable insights into stochastic thermodynamics in the underdamped regime and open up new possibilities for the design of future nano-machines.

It is predicted that a vortex in a topological superconductor contains a Majorana zero mode (MZM). The confirmative Majorana signature, i.e., the $2e^2/h$ quantized conductance, however is easily sabotaged by unavoidable interruptions, e.g. instrument broadening, non-Majorana signal, and extra particle channels. We propose to avoid the signal interruption by introducing disorder-induced dissipation that couples to the tip-sample tunneling. With dissipation involved, we highlight three features, each of which alone can provide a strong evidence to identify MZM. Firstly, dissipation suppresses a finite-energy Caroli-de Gennes-Matricon (CdGM) conductance peak into a valley, while it does not split MZM zero-bias conductance peak. Secondly, we predict a dissipation-dependent scaling feature of the zero-bias conductance peak. Thirdly, the introduced dissipation manifests the MZM signal by suppressing non-topological CdGM modes. Importantly, the observation of these features does not require a quantized conductance value $2e^2/h$., Comment: We express our gratitude to Dr. Odobesko for bringing to our attention an intriguing and pertinent experimental paper: Phys. Rev. B 102, 174502 (2020), which is Ref. [71] of the current arXiv version

In the recent work~\cite{Wang:2021p2}, the author proposed the expanded Maxwell's equations for moving charged media system, which seems subtle. Considering a very short time, we can approximately define the inertial frame of reference. If we assume all the physical quantities are defined in the same reference frame by default, Maxwell's equations for the static media system and moving media system are definitely the traditional Maxwell's equations, which are covariant and consistent with the two fundamental postulates of special relativity. We even prove the covariance of Maxwell's equations explicitly by considering the Lorentz transformation under the ${\cal O} (v)$ order approximation and the Galileo approximation, respectively. Therefore, it seems to us that the fields in the expanded Maxwell's equations cannot be in the same reference frame. Defining the fields in the lab and co-moving frames explicitly, we derive the expanded Maxwell's equations for moving media system. Furthermore, we discuss another possible variant of Maxwell's equations, which has an additional coefficient $\alpha$ related to the media. However, it is still subtle from theoretical point of view., Comment: 14 pages

There has been experimental evidence for the Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in solid state systems, which are building blocks for potential topological quantum computing. It is important to design devices, in which MZMs are easy to manipulate and possess a broad topological non-trivial parameter space for fusion and braiding. Here, we propose that the Majorana vortex states in iron-based superconducting nanowires fulfill these desirable conditions. This system has a radius-induced topological phase transition, giving a lower limit to the radius of the nanowire. In the topological phase, there is only one pair of MZMs in the nanowire over a wide range of radius, chemical potential, and external magnetic field. The wavefunction of the MZM has a sizable distribution at the side edge of the nanowire. This property enables one to control the interaction of the MZMs in neighboring vortex nanowires, and paves the way for Majorana fusion and braiding., Comment: 13 pages and 7 figures

A corresponding comment, raised by Kao and Hwang, claims that the reconstructor Bob1 is unable to obtain the expected secret information in (t, n) Threshold d-level Quantum Secret Sharing (TDQSS)[Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2017), pp.6366] . In this reply, we show the TDQSS scheme can obtain the dealer's secret information in the condition of adding a step on disentanglement., Comment: 4 pages,2 figures

SU(1,1) interferometers, based on the usage of nonlinear elements, are superior to passive interferometers in phase sensitivity. However, the SU(1,1) interferometer cannot make full use of photons carrying phase information as the second nonlinear element annihilates some of the photons inside. Here, we focus on improving phase sensitivity and propose a new protocol based on a modified SU(1,1) interferometer, where the second nonlinear element is replaced by a beam splitter. We utilize two coherent states as inputs and implement balanced homodyne measurement at the output. Our analysis suggests that the protocol we propose can achieve sub-shot-noise-limited phase sensitivity and is robust against photon loss and background noise. Our work is important for practical quantum metrology using SU(1,1) interferometers.

In this work, we systematically study two phases, called Andreev $\pi$-phase and orbital-phase, and their influence on the Josephson effect. When the system is time-reversal invariant and centrosymmetric, these two phases only appear in the odd-parity pairings. The Andreev $\pi$-phase has nothing to do with the specific form of the odd-parity pairings and means an intrinsic $\pi$-phase between the spin-triplet Cooper pairs entering and leaving CTSCs in the Andreev reflections. The orbital-phase corresponds to the phase difference between the spin-triplet Cooper pairs with opposite spin polarization and depends on the specific form of the odd-parity gap functions. When the normal region of the Josephson junction contacts the same side of the CTSCs with some specific odd-parity parings, the competition between the two phases can lead to the Josephson $\pi$-junction. Note that this junction is different from that of the conventional Josephson junction (JJ) and is dubbed a U-shaped junction according to its geometry. Meanwhile, in a conventional JJ, the interplay of these two phases causes their impact on the CPR to be completely canceled out. Therefore no matter what kind of pairing symmetries the CTSC has, it will lead to Josephson 0-junction in this case. We obtain our results based on the model of the M$_{x}$Bi$_2$Se$_3$ family where M may be Cu, Sr, or Nb. Therefore, we propose to detect the pairing symmetry of M$_{x}$Bi$_2$Se$_3$ through a superconducting quantum interference device containing a U-shaped Josephson junction., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can measure the phase with antenna and microwave, which cannot be directly extended to visible light imaging due to phase lost. In this letter, we reported an active remote sensing with visible light via reflective Fourier ptychography (FP), termed coherent synthetic aperture imaging (CSAI), achieving high resolution, wide field-of-view (FOV) and phase recovery. A proof-of-concept experiment was reported with laser scanning and a collimator for the infinite object. Both smooth and rough objects are tested, and the spatial resolution increased from 15.6 um to 3.48 um with a factor of 4.5. The speckle noise can be suppressed by FP unexpectedly. Meanwhile, the CSAI method may replace the adaptive optics to tackle the aberration induced from atmospheric turbulence and optical system by one-step deconvolution., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We propose a theoretical method to enhance the coherent dipole coupling between two atoms in an optical cavity via parametrically squeezing the cavity mode. In the present scheme, conditions for coherent coupling are derived in detail and diverse dynamics of the system can be obtained by regulating system parameters. In the presence of environmental noise, an auxiliary squeezed field is employed to suppress, and even completely eliminate the additional noise induced by squeezing. In addition, we demonstrate that our scheme enables the effective suppression of atomic spontaneous emission. The results in our investigation could be used for diverse applications in quantum technologies.

This paper applies a genetic algorithm and fuzzy markup language to construct a human and smart machine cooperative learning system on game of Go. The genetic fuzzy markup language (GFML)-based Robot Agent can work on various kinds of robots, including Palro, Pepper, and TMUs robots. We use the parameters of FAIR open source Darkforest and OpenGo AI bots to construct the knowledge base of Open Go Darkforest (OGD) cloud platform for student learning on the Internet. In addition, we adopt the data from AlphaGo Master sixty online games as the training data to construct the knowledge base and rule base of the co-learning system. First, the Darkforest predicts the win rate based on various simulation numbers and matching rates for each game on OGD platform, then the win rate of OpenGo is as the final desired output. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can improve knowledge base and rule base of the prediction ability based on Darkforest and OpenGo AI bot with various simulation numbers.

The EDGES collaboration's observation of an anomalously strong 21 cm absorption feature around the cosmic dawn era has energised the cosmological community by suggesting a novel signature of dark matter in the cooling of cosmic hydrogen. In a recent letter we have argued that by virtue of the ability to mediate cooling processes whilst in the condensed phase, a small amount of axion dark matter can explain these observations within the context of standard models of axions and axion-like particles. These axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) can thermalize through gravitational self-interactions and so eventually form a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), whereupon large-scale long-range correlation can produce experimentally observable signals such as these. In this context the EDGES best-fit result favours an axion-like-particle mass in the (6, 400) meV range. Future experiments and galaxy surveys, particularly the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) and EUCLID, should have the capability to directly test this scenario. In this paper, we will explore this mechanism in detail and give more thorough computational details of certain key points., Comment: Updated to match published version

In a superconducting topological insulator, superconducting vortex line may trap 1-dimensional topological band with Majorana zero modes (MZMs) localized at its ends. In this work, we study the effect of hexagonal warping to the vortex phase transition. We carry out both analytical calculations based on a semiclassical formula and numerical calculations based on full quantum mechanics of Bogliubov de Gennes equation. We find that the hexagonal warping term enlarges the topological region of the vortex line as the chemical potential changes, and leads to the MZMs even in the absence of topological surface states.

Motivated by D-brane model building, we evaluate the $\cal{F}$-$SU(5)$ model with additional vector-like particle multiplets, referred to as flippons, within the framework of No-Scale Supergravity with non-vanishing general supersymmetry breaking soft terms at the string scale. The viable phenomenology is uncovered by applying all current experimental constraints, including but not limited to the correct light Higgs boson mass, WMAP and Planck relic density measurements, and several LHC constraints on supersymmetric particle spectra. Four interesting regions of the parameter space arise, as well as mixed scenarios, given by: (i) light stop coannihilation; (ii) pure Higgsino dark matter; (iii) Higgs funnel; and (iv) light stau coannihilation. All regions can generate the observed value of the relic density commensurate with a 125 GeV light Higgs boson mass, with the exception of the relatively small relic density value for the pure Higgsino lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). This work is concluded by gauging the model against present LHC search constraints and derivation of the final states observable at the LHC for each of these scenarios., Comment: 13 pages, 4 Figures, 4 Tables

The EDGES Collaboration has reported an anomalously strong 21cm absorption feature corresponding to the era of first star formation, which may indirectly betray the influence of dark matter during this epoch. We demonstrate that, by virtue of the ability to mediate cooling processes whilst in the condensed phase, a small amount of axion dark matter can explain these observations within the context of standard models of axions and axion-like-particles. The EDGES best-fit result favours an axion-like-particles mass in the (10, 450) meV range, which can be compressed for the QCD axion to (100, 450) meV in the absence of fine tuning. Future experiments and large scale surveys, particularly the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) and EUCLID, should have the capability to directly test this scenario., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. v3: updated to match version appearing in Phys. Rev. Lett

Based on Lyapunov control theory in closed and open systems, we propose a scheme to generate W state of many distant atoms in the cavity-fiber-cavity system. In the closed system, the W state is generated successfully even when the coupling strength between the cavity and fiber is extremely weak. In the presence of atomic spontaneous emission or cavity and fiber decay, the photon-measurement and quantum feedback approaches are proposed to improve the fidelity, which enable efficient generation of high-fidelity W state in the case of large dissipation. Furthermore, the time-optimal Lyapunov control is investigated to shorten the evolution time and improve the fidelity in open systems., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

In this paper, a scheme for the generation of long-living entanglement between two distant {\Lambda}-type three-level atoms separately trapped in two dissipative cavities is proposed. In this scheme, two dissipative cavities are coupled to their own non-Markovian environments and two three-level atoms are driven by the classical fields. The entangled state between the two atoms is produced by performing Bell state measurement (BSM) on photons leaving the dissipative cavities. Using the time-dependent Sch\"ordinger equation, we obtain the analytical results for the evolution of the entanglement. It is revealed that, by manipulating the detunings of classical field, the long-living stationary entanglement between two atoms can be generated in the presence of dissipation, Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Sau, Lutchyn, Tewari and Das Sarma (SLTD) proposed a heterostructure consisting of a semiconducting thin film sandwiched between an s-wave superconductor and a magnetic insulator and showed possible Majorana zero mode. Here we study spin polarization of the vortex core states and spin selective Andreev reflection at the vortex center of the SLTD model. In the topological phase, the differential conductance at the vortex center contributed from the Andreev reflection, is spin selective and has a quantized value $(dI/dV)^{topo}_A =2e^2/h$ at zero bias. In the topological trivial phase, $(dI/dV)^{trivial}_A$ at the lowest quasiparticle energy of the vortex core is spin selective due to the spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Unlike in the topological phase, $(dI/dV)^{trivial}_A$ is suppressed in the Giaever limit and vanishes exactly at zero bias due to the quantum destruction interference.

We study the naturalness, dark matter, and muon anomalous magnetic moment in the Supersymmetric Standard Models (SSMs) with a pseudo-Dirac gluino (PDGSSMs) from hybrid $F-$ and $D-$term supersymmetry (SUSY) breakings. To obtain the observed dark matter relic density and explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment, we find that the low energy fine-tuning measures are larger than about 30 due to strong constraints from the LUX and PANDAX experiments. Thus, to study the natural PDGSSMs, we consider multi-component dark matter and then the relic density of the lighest supersymmetric particle (LSP) neutralino is smaller than the correct value. We classify our models into six kinds: (i) Case A is a general case, which has small low energy fine-tuning measure and can explain the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon; (ii) Case B with the LSP neutralino and light stau coannihilation; (iii) Case C with Higgs funnel; (iv) Case D with Higgsino LSP; (v) Case E with light stau coannihilation and Higgsino LSP; (vi) Case F with Higgs funnel and Higgsino LSP. We study these Cases in details, and show that our models can be natural and consistent with the LUX and PANDAX experiments, as well as explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment. In particular, all these cases except the stau coannihilation can even have low energy fine-tuning measures around 10., Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures

Although extensive experimental and theoretical works have been conducted to understand the ballistic and diffusive phonon transport in nanomaterials recently, direct observation of temperature and thermal nonequilibrium of different phonon modes has not been realized. Herein, we have developed a method within the framework of molecular dynamics to calculate the temperatures of phonon in both real and phase spaces. Taking silicon thin film and graphene as examples, we directly obtained the spectral phonon temperature (SPT) and observed the local thermal nonequilibrium between the ballistic and diffusive phonons. Such nonequilibrium also generally exists across interfaces and is surprisingly large, and it provides an additional thermal interfacial resistance mechanism. Our SPT results directly show that the vertical thermal transport across the dimensionally mismatched graphene/substrate interface is through the coupling between flexural acoustic phonons of graphene and the longitudinal phonons in the substrate with mode conversion. In the dimensionally matched interfaces, e.g. graphene/graphene junction and graphene/boron nitride planar interfaces, strong coupling occurs between the acoustic phonon modes on both sides, and the coupling decreases with interfacial mixing. The SPT method together with the spectral heat flux can eliminate the size effect of the thermal conductivity prediction induced from ballistic transport. Our work shows that in thin films and across interfaces, phonons are in local thermal nonequilibrium., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) have been predicted to exist in the topological insulator (TI)/superconductor (SC) heterostructure. Recent spin polarized scanning tunneling microscope (STM) experiment$^{1}$ has observed spin-polarization dependence of the zero bias differential tunneling conductance at the center of vortex core, which may be attributed to the spin selective Andreev reflection, a novel property of the MZMs theoretically predicted in 1-dimensional nanowire$^{2}$. Here we consider a helical electron system described by a Rashba spin orbit coupling Hamiltonian on a spherical surface with a s-wave superconducting pairing due to proximity effect. We examine in-gap excitations of a pair of vortices with one at the north pole and the other at the south pole. While the MZM is not a spin eigenstate, the spin wavefunction of the MZM at the center of the vortex core, r = 0, is parallel to the magnetic field, and the local Andreev reflection of the MZM is spin selective, namely occurs only when the STM tip has the spin polarization parallel to the magnetic field, similar to the case in 1-dimensional nanowire2. The total local differential tunneling conductance consists of the normal term proportional to the local density of states and an additional term arising from the Andreev reflection. We also discuss the finite size effect, for which the MZM at the north pole is hybridized with the MZM at the south pole. We apply our theory to examine the recently reported spin-polarized STM experiments and show good agreement with the experiments., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, 1 table. Comments are welcome!

Majorana fermion (MF) whose antiparticle is itself has been predicted in condensed matter systems. Signatures of the MFs have been reported as zero energy modes in various systems. More definitive evidences are highly desired to verify the existence of the MF. Very recently, theory has predicted MFs to induce spin selective Andreev reflection (SSAR), a novel magnetic property which can be used to detect the MFs. Here we report the first observation of the SSAR from MFs inside vortices in Bi2Te3/NbSe2 hetero-structure, in which topological superconductivity was previously established. By using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS), we show that the zero-bias peak of the tunneling differential conductance at the vortex center is substantially higher when the tip polarization and the external magnetic field are parallel than anti-parallel to each other. Such strong spin dependence of the tunneling is absent away from the vortex center, or in a conventional superconductor. The observed spin dependent tunneling effect is a direct evidence for the SSAR from MFs, fully consistent with theoretical analyses. Our work provides definitive evidences of MFs and will stimulate the MFs research on their novel physical properties, hence a step towards their statistics and application in quantum computing., Comment: 4 figures 15 pages

The ATLAS and CMS Collaborations of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have reported an excess of events in diphoton channel with invariant mass of about 750 GeV. With low energy supersymmetry breaking, we systematically consider the sgoldstino scalar $S$ as the new resonance, which is a linear combination of the CP-even scalar $s$ and CP-odd pseudoscalar $a$. Because we show that $s$ and $a$ can be degenerated or have large mass splitting, we consider two cases for all the following three scenarios: (1) Single resonance. $s$ is the 750 GeV resonance decays to a pair of 1 GeV pseudoscalar $a$. With suitable decay length, these two $a$ decay into collimated pair of photons which cannot be distinguished at the LHC and may appear as diphotons instead of four photons. (2) Twin resonances. $m_{s}\approx m_{a}$ with a mass difference of about 40 GeV and both $s$ and $a$ decay into diphoton pairs. For productions, we consider three scenarios: (I) vector boson fusion; (II) gluon gluon fusion; (III) $q{\bar q}$ pair production. In all these scenarios with two kinds of resonances, we find the parameter space that satisfies the diphoton production cross section from 3 to 13 ${\rm fb}$ and all the other experimental constraints. And we address the decay width as well. In particular, in the third scenario, we observe that the production cross section is small but the decay width of $s$ or $a$ can be from 40 to 60 GeV., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

Recently, an excess of events in diphoton channel with invariant mass of about 750 GeV has been reported by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations. Considering it as a tantalizing hint for new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM), we propose a simple extension of the SM with an additional doublet Higgs $H^{'}$ and a singlet $s$. We consider the neutral component $H^{\prime }_0$ of $H'$ as the 750 GeV resonance, and assume that $s$ is lighter than 2.6 GeV. In particular, $H^{\prime }_0$ can be produced at tree level via $q{\bar q}$ production, and decay into a pair of $s$ at tree level. And then $s$ can decay into a pair of collimated photons, which cannot be distinguished at the LHC. We show that the diphoton production cross section can be from 3 to 13 ${\rm fb}$, the decay width of $H^{\prime }_0$ can be from 30 to 60 GeV, and all the current experimental constraints including dijet constraint can be satisfied., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

Waveform-controlled Terahertz (THz) radiation is of great importance due to its potential application in THz sensing and coherent control of quantum systems. We demonstrated a novel scheme to generate waveform-controlled THz radiation from air plasma produced when carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) stabilized few-cycle laser pulses undergo filamentation in ambient air. We launched CEP-stabilized 10 fs-long (~ 1.7 optical cycles) laser pulses at 1.8 {\mu}m into air and found that the generated THz waveform can be controlled by varying the filament length and the CEP of driving laser pulses. Calculations using the photocurrent model and including the propagation effects well reproduce the experimental results, and the origins of various phase shifts in the filament are elucidated., Comment: 5pages, 5 figures