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The Microwave SQUID Multiplexer ({\mu}MUX) is the device of choice for the readout of a large number of Low-Temperature Detectors in a wide variety of experiments within the fields of astronomy and particle physics. While it offers large multiplexing factors, the system noise performance is highly dependent on the cold and warm-readout electronic systems used to read it out, as well as the demodulation domain and parameters chosen. In order to understand the impact of the readout systems in the overall detection system noise performance, first we extended the available {\mu}MUX simulation frameworks including additive and multiplicative noise sources in the probing tones (i.e. phase and amplitude noise), along with the capability of demodulating the scientific data, either in resonator's phase or scattering amplitude. Then, considering the additive noise as a dominant noise source, the optimum readout parameters to achieve minimum system noise were found for both open-loop and flux-ramp demodulation schemes in the aforementioned domains. Later, we evaluated the system noise sensitivity to multiplicative noise sources under the optimum readout parameters. Finally, as a case study, we evaluated the optimal demodulation domain and expected system noise level for a typical Software-Defined Radio (SDR) readout system. This work leads to an improved system performance prediction and noise engineering based on the available readout electronics and selected demodulation domain., Comment: This article has been submitted to the Journal of Applied Physics. This is the revised version (V1)

The emergence of a vast repository of van der Waals (vdW) materials supporting polaritons - light coupled to matter excitations - offers a plethora of different possibilities to tailor electromagnetic waves at the subwavelength-scale. In particular, the development of twistoptics - the study of the optical properties of twisted stacks of vdW materials - allows the directional propagation of phonon polaritons (PhPs) along a single spatial direction, which has been coined as canalization. Here we demonstrate a complementary type of nanoscale unidirectional propagation that naturally emerges thanks to twistoptics: unidirectional ray polaritons (URPs). This natural phenomenon arises in two types of twisted hyperbolic stacks: homostructures of $\alpha$-MoO$_3$ and heterostructures of $\alpha$-MoO$_3$ and $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$, each with very different thicknesses of its constituents. URPs are characterized by the absence of diffraction and the presence of a single phase of the propagating field. Importantly, we demonstrate that this ray behavior can be tuned by means of both relative twist angle and illumination frequency variations. Additionally, an unprecedented "pinwheel-like" propagation emerges at specific twist angles of the homostructure. We show that URPs emerge due to the twist between asymmetrically stacked biaxial slabs, while the shear effect in monoclinic $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ is of minor importance. Our findings demonstrate a natural way to excite unidirectional ray-like PhPs and offer a unique platform for controlling the propagation of PhPs at the nanoscale with many potential applications like nanoimaging, (bio)-sensing or polaritonic thermal management., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

This work reports the performance evaluation of an SDR readout system based on the latest generation (Gen3) of the AMD's Radio Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC) processing platform, which integrates a full-stack processing system and a powerful FPGA with up to 32 high-speed and high-resolution 14-bit Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) and Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). The proposed readout system uses a previously developed multi-band, double-conversion IQ RF-mixing board targeting a multiplexing factor of approximately 1,000 bolometers in a bandwidth between 4 and 8 GHz, in line with state-of-the-art microwave SQUID multiplexers ($\mu$MUX). The characterization of the system was performed in two stages, under the conditions typically imposed by the multiplexer and the cold readout circuit. First, in transmission, showing that noise and spurious levels of the generated tones are close to the values imposed by the cold readout. Second, in RF loopback, presenting noise values better than -100 dBc/Hz totally in agreement with the state-of-the-art readout systems. It was demonstrated that the RFSoC Gen3 device is a suitable enabling technology for the next generation of superconducting detector readout systems, reducing system complexity, increasing system integration, and achieving these goals without performance degradation., Comment: 10 pages, peer reviewed, Journal of Low Temperature Physics special issue: LTD20

The Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) is the first bolometric interferometer designed to measure the primordial B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Bolometric interferometry is a novel technique that combines the sensitivity of bolometric detectors with the control of systematic effects that is typical of interferometry, both key features in the quest for the faint signal of the primordial B-modes. A unique feature is the so-called "spectral imaging", i.e., the ability to recover the sky signal in several sub-bands within the physical band during data analysis. This feature provides an in-band spectral resolution of \Delta{\nu}/{\nu} \sim 0.04 that is unattainable by a traditional imager. This is a key tool for controlling the Galactic foregrounds contamination. In this paper, we describe the principles of bolometric interferometry, the current status of the QUBIC experiment and future prospects., Comment: To appear in Proc. of the mm Universe 2023 conference, Grenoble (France), June 2023, published by F. Mayet et al. (Eds), EPJ Web of conferences, EDP Sciences

In this work we present an application of the Goertzel Filter for the channelization of multi-tonal signals, typically used for the read-out of cryogenic sensors which are multiplexed in the frequency domain (FDM), by means of Microwave Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) Multiplexer ($\mu$MUX). We demonstrate how implementing a bank of many of these filters, can be used to perform a channelization of the multi-tonal input signal to retrieve the data added by the sensors. We show how this approach can be implemented in a resource-efficient manner in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) within the state-of-the-art, which allows great scalability for reading thousands of sensors; as is required by Radio Telescopes in Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) surveys using cryogenic bolometers, particles detection like Neutrino mass estimation using cryogenic calorimeters or Quantum Computing., Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, paper submitted for review for the Journal of Instrumentation (JINST)

The Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) is a novel kind of polarimeter optimized for the measurement of the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Back-ground (CMB), which is one of the major challenges of observational cosmology. The signal is expected to be of the order of a few tens of nK, prone to instrumental systematic effects and polluted by various astrophysical foregrounds which can only be controlled through multichroic observations. QUBIC is designed to address these observational issues with a novel approach that combines the advantages of interferometry in terms of control of instrumental systematics with those of bolometric detectors in terms of wide-band, background-limited sensitivity., Comment: Contribution to the 2022 Cosmology session of the 33rd Rencontres de Blois. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2203.08947

The NASA InSight Lander on Mars includes the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package HP$^3$ to measure the surface heat flow of the planet. The package uses temperature sensors that would have been brought to the target depth of 3--5 m by a small penetrator, nicknamed the mole. The mole requiring friction on its hull to balance remaining recoil from its hammer mechanism did not penetrate to the targeted depth. Instead, by precessing about a point midway along its hull, it carved a 7 cm deep and 5-6 cm wide pit and reached a depth of initially 31 cm. The root cause of the failure - as was determined through an extensive, almost two years long campaign - was a lack of friction in an unexpectedly thick cohesive duricrust. During the campaign -- described in detail in this paper -- the mole penetrated further aided by friction applied using the scoop at the end of the robotic Instrument Deployment Arm and by direct support by the latter. The mole finally reached a depth of 40 cm, bringing the mole body 1--2 cm below the surface. The penetration record of the mole and its thermal sensors were used to measure thermal and mechanical soil parameters such as the thermal conductivity and the penetration resistance of the duricrust and its cohesion. The hammerings of the mole were recorded by the seismometer SEIS and the signals could be used to derive a P-wave velocity and a S-wave velocity and elastic moduli representative of the topmost tens of cm of the regolith. The combined data were used to derive a model of the regolith that has an about 20 cm thick duricrust underneath a 1 cm thick unconsolidated layer of sand mixed with dust and above another 10 cm of unconsolidated sand. Underneath the latter, a layer more resistant to penetration and possibly consisting of debris from a small impact crater is inferred., Comment: 78 pages 22 figures, , submitted to Space Science Reviews

Structured light are custom light fields where the phase, polarization, and intensity vary with position. It has been used for nanotweezers, nanoscale imaging, and quantum information technology, but its role in exciting optical transitions in materials has been little examined so far. Here we use group theory to derive the optical selection rules for nanosystems that get excited by structured light. If the size of the nanostructure is comparable to the light wavelength, it will sample the full beam profile during excitation with profound consequences on optical excitations. Using nanooligomers as model nanosystems, we show that structured light excites optical transitions that are forbidden for linearly polarized or unpolarized light. Such dipole forbidden modes have longer lifetimes and narrower resonances than dipole allowed transitions. We derive symmetry-adapted eigenmodes for nanooligomers containing up to six monomers. Our study includes tables with selection rules for cylindrical vector beams, for beams with orbital angular momentum, and for field retardation along the propagation direction. We discuss multi-photon processes of nonlinear optics in addition to one-photon absorption. Structured light will unlock a broad range of excitations in nanooligomers and other nanostructures that are currently inaccessible to optical studies.

Chirality transfer between fermions and gauge fields plays a crucial role for understanding the dynamics of anomalous transport phenomena such as the Chiral Magnetic Effect. In this proceeding we present a first principles study of these processes based on classical-statistical real-time lattice simulations of strongly coupled QED $(e^2N_f=64)$. Our simulations demonstrate that a chirality imbalance in the fermion sector triggers chiral plasma instabilities in the gauge field sector, which ultimately lead to the generation of long range helical magnetic fields via a self-similar turbulent cascade of the magnetic helicity., Comment: Quark Matter 2019 conference proceeding

Aiming at a better understanding of anomalous and topological effects in gauge theories out-of-equilibrium, we study the real-time dynamics of a prototype model for CP-violation, the massive Schwinger model with a $\theta$-term. We identify dynamical quantum phase transitions between different topological sectors that appear after sufficiently strong quenches of the $\theta$-parameter. Moreover, we establish a general dynamical topological order parameter, which can be accessed through fermion two-point correlators and, importantly, which can be applied for interacting theories. Enabled by this result, we show that the topological transitions persist beyond the weak-coupling regime. Finally, these effects can be observed with table-top experiments based on existing cold-atom, superconducting-qubit, and trapped-ion technology. Our work, thus, presents a significant step towards quantum simulating topological and anomalous real-time phenomena relevant to nuclear and high-energy physics., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

We investigate axial charge production in two-color QCD out of equilibrium. We compute the real-time evolution starting with spatially homogeneous strong gauge fields, while the fermions are in vacuum. The idealized class of initial conditions is motivated by glasma flux tubes in the context of heavy-ion collisions. We focus on axial charge production at early times, where important aspects of the anomalous dynamics can be derived analytically. This is compared to real-time lattice simulations. Quark production at early times leading to anomalous charge generation is investigated using Wilson fermions. Our results indicate that coherent gauge fields can transiently produce significant amounts of axial charge density, while part of the induced charges persist to be present even well beyond characteristic decoherence times. The comparisons to analytic results provide stringent tests of real-time representations of the axial anomaly on the lattice., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures; To appear in Phys. Rev. D

We demonstrate and analyze a strongly driven quantum pendulum in the angular motion of stateselected and laser aligned OCS molecules. Raman-couplings during the rising edge of a 50-picosecond laser pulse create a wave packet of pendular states, which propagates in the confining potential formed by the polarizability interaction between the molecule and the laser field. This wave-packet dynamics manifests itself as pronounced oscillations in the degree of alignment with a laser-intensity dependent period., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose-Einstein condensation transition. An electrode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg--Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to a special issue of 'Frontiers of Physics' dedicated to 'Quantum Foundation and Technology: Frontiers and Future'