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A bstract The nature of the QCD chiral phase transition in the limit of vanishing quark masses has remained elusive for a long time, since it cannot be simulated directly on the lattice and is strongly cutoff-dependent. We report on a comprehensive ongoing study using unimproved staggered fermions with N f ∈ [2, 8] mass-degenerate flavours on N τ ∈ {4 , 6 , 8} lattices, in which we locate the chiral critical surface separating regions with first-order transitions from crossover regions in the bare parameter space of the lattice theory. Employing the fact that it terminates in a tricritical line, this surface can be extrapolated to the chiral limit using tricritical scaling with known exponents. Knowing the order of the transitions in the lattice parameter space, conclusions for approaching the continuum chiral limit in the proper order can be drawn. While a narrow first-order region cannot be ruled out, we find initial evidence consistent with a second-order chiral transition in all massless theories with N f ≤ 6, and possibly up to the onset of the conformal window at 9 ≲ N f ∗ ≲ 12. A reanalysis of already published O ( a )-improved N f = 3 Wilson data on N τ ∈ [4 , 12] is also consistent with tricritical scaling, and the associated change from first to second-order on the way to the continuum chiral limit. We discuss a modified Columbia plot and a phase diagram for many-flavour QCD that reflect these possible features.

A bstract We determine the QCD equation of state at nonzero temperature in the presence of an isospin asymmetry between the light quark chemical potentials on the lattice. Our simulations employ N f = 2 + 1 flavors of dynamical staggered quarks at physical masses, using three different lattice spacings. The main results, obtained at the individual lattice spacings, are based on a two-dimensional spline interpolation of the isospin density, from which all relevant quantities can be obtained analytically. In particular, we present results for the pressure, the interaction measure, the energy and entropy densities, as well as the speed of sound. Remarkably, the latter is found to exceed its ideal gas limit deep in the pion condensed phase, the first account of the violation of this limit in first principles QCD. Finally, we also compute the phase diagram in the temperature — isospin density plane for the first time. Even though the results are not continuum extrapolated and thus not final, the data for all observables will be useful for the benchmarking of effective theories and low-energy models of QCD and are provided in ancillary files for simple reuse.

Clarifying the factors that control the contact angle of a liquid on a solid substrate is a long-standing scientific problem pertinent across physics, chemistry, and materials science. Progress has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive and unified understanding of the physics of wetting and drying phase transitions. Using various theoretical and simulational techniques applied to realistic fluid models, we elucidate how the character of these transitions depends sensitively on both the range of fluid–fluid and substrate–fluid interactions and the temperature. Our calculations uncover previously unrecognized classes of surface phase diagram which differ from that established for simple lattice models and often assumed to be universal. The differences relate both to the topology of the phase diagram and to the nature of the transitions, with a remarkable feature being a difference between drying and wetting transitions which persists even in the approach to the bulk critical point. Most experimental and simulational studies of liquids at a substrate belong to one of these previously unrecognized classes. We predict that while there appears to be nothing particularly special about water with regard to its wetting and drying behavior, superhydrophobic behavior should be more readily observable in experiments conducted at high temperatures than at room temperature.

Membraneless compartments, also known as condensates, provide chemically distinct environments and thus spatially organize the cell. A well-studied example of condensates is P granules in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans that play an important role in the development of the germline. P granules are RNA-rich protein condensates that share the key properties of liquid droplets such as a spherical shape, the ability to fuse, and fast diffusion of their molecular components. An outstanding question is to what extent phase separation at thermodynamic equilibrium is appropriate to describe the formation of condensates in an active cellular environment. To address this question, we investigate the response of P granule condensates in living cells to temperature changes. We observe that P granules dissolve upon increasing the temperature and recondense upon lowering the temperature in a reversible manner. Strikingly, this temperature response can be captured by in vivo phase diagrams that are well described by a Flory–Huggins model at thermodynamic equilibrium. This finding is surprising due to active processes in a living cell. To address the impact of such active processes on intracellular phase separation, we discuss temperature heterogeneities. We show that, for typical estimates of the density of active processes, temperature represents a well-defined variable and that mesoscopic volume elements are at local thermodynamic equilibrium. Our findings provide strong evidence that P granule assembly and disassembly are governed by phase separation based on local thermal equilibria where the nonequilibrium nature of the cytoplasm is manifested on larger scales.

We solve the magnetostriction strains for B20 helimagnets in the skyrmion crystal phase. By taking MnSi as an example, we reproduce its temperature-magnetic field (T-B) phase diagrams within a thermodynamic potential incorporating magnetoelastic interactions. The calculation shows that the normal strain 33 undergoes a sudden jump through a conical-skyrmion phase transition at any temperature. The corresponding experimental measurements for MnSi agree quantitatively well with the calculation.

A bstract QCD matter in strong magnetic field exhibits a rich phase structure. In the presence of an external magnetic field, the chiral Lagrangian for two flavors is accompanied by the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) term containing an anomalous coupling of the neutral pion π 0 to the magnetic field via the chiral anomaly. Due to this term, the ground state is inhomogeneous in the form of either chiral soliton lattice (CSL), an array of solitons in the direction of magnetic field, or domain-wall Skyrmion (DWSk) phase in which Skyrmions supported by π 3 [SU(2)] ≃ ℤ appear inside the solitons as topological lumps supported by π 2 ( S 2 ) ≃ ℤ in the effective worldvolume theory of the soliton. In this paper, we determine the phase boundary between the CSL and DWSk phases beyond the single-soliton approximation, within the leading order of chiral perturbation theory. To this end, we explore a domain-wall Skyrmion chain in multiple soliton configurations. First, we construct the effective theory of the CSL by the moduli approximation, and obtain the ℂ P 1 model or O(3) model, gauged by a background electromagnetic gauge field, with two kinds of topological terms coming from the WZW term: one is the topological lump charge in 2+1 dimensional worldvolume and the other is a topological term counting the soliton number. Topological lumps in the 2+1 dimensional worldvolume theory are superconducting rings and their sizes are constrained by the flux quantization condition. The negative energy condition of the lumps yields the phase boundary between the CSL and DWSk phases. We find that a large region inside the CSL is occupied by the DWSk phase, and that the CSL remains metastable in the DWSk phase in the vicinity of the phase boundary.

Given a symmetric social network, we are interested in testing whether it has only one community or multiple communities. The desired tests should (a) accommodate severe degree heterogeneity, (b) accommodate mixed memberships, (c) have a tractable null distribution and (d) adapt automatically to different levels of sparsity, and achieve the optimal phase diagram. How to find such a test is a challenging problem. We propose the Signed Polygon as a class of new tests. Fixing m ≥ 3, for each m-gon in the network, define a score using the centered adjacency matrix. The sum of such scores is then the mth order Signed Polygon statistic. The Signed Triangle (SgnT) and the Signed Quadrilateral (SgnQ) are special examples of the Signed Polygon. We show that both the SgnT and SgnQ tests satisfy (a)–(d), and especially, they work well for both very sparse and less sparse networks. Our proposed tests compare favorably with existing tests. For example, the EZ and GC tests behave unsatisfactorily in the less sparse case and do not achieve the optimal phase diagram. Also, many existing tests do not allow for severe heterogeneity or mixed memberships, and they behave unsatisfactorily in our settings. The analysis of the SgnT and SgnQ tests is delicate and extremely tedious, and the main reason is that we need a unified proof that covers a wide range of sparsity levels and a wide range of degree heterogeneity. For lower bound theory, we use a phase transition framework, which includes the standard minimax argument, but is more informative. The proof uses classical theorems on matrix scaling.

The explosive process of 5G communication evokes the urgent demand of miniaturized and integrated dielectric ceramics filter. It is a pressing need to advance the development of dielectric ceramics utilization of emerging technology to design new materials and understand the polarization mechanism. This review provides the summary of the study of microwave dielectric ceramics (MWDCs) sintered higher than 1000 from 2010 up to now, °C with the purpose of taking a broad and historical view of these ceramics and illustrating research directions. To date, researchers endeavor to explain the structure-property relationship of ceramics with multitude of approaches and design a new formula or strategy to obtain excellent microwave dielectric properties. There are variety of factors that impact the permittivity, dielectric loss, and temperature stability of dielectric materials, covering intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Many of these factors are often intertwined, which can complicate new dielectric material discovery and the mechanism investigation. Because of the various ceramics systems, pseudo phase diagram was used to classify the dielectric materials based on the composition. In this review, the ceramics were firstly divided into ternary systems, and then brief description of the experimental probes and complementary theoretical methods that have been used to discern the intrinsic polarization mechanisms and the origin of intrinsic loss was mentioned. Finally, some perspectives on the future outlook for high-temperature MWDCs were offered based on the synthesis method, characterization techniques, and significant theory developments.

A bstract In earlier work, we introduced a dynamical Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton model which mimics essential features of QCD (thermodynamics) below and above deconfinement. Although there are some subtle differences in the confining regime of our model as compared to the standard results, we do have a temperature dependent dual metric below T c as well, allowing for a richer and more realistic holographic modeling of the QCD phase structure. We now discuss how these features leave their imprints on the associated entanglement entropy when a strip region is introduced in the various phases. We uncover an even so rich structure in the entanglement entropy, consistent with the thermodynamical transitions, while again uncloaking some subtleties. Thanks to the temperature dependent confining geometry, we can present an original quantitative prediction for the phase diagram in terms of temperature and strip length, reporting a critical end point at the deconfinement temperature. We also generalize to the case with chemical potential.

A bstract We investigate the QCD phase diagram for nonzero background magnetic fields using first-principles lattice simulations. At the physical point (in terms of quark masses), the thermodynamics of this system is controlled by two opposing effects: magnetic catalysis (enhancement of the quark condensate) at low temperature and inverse magnetic catalysis (reduction of the condensate) in the transition region. While the former is known to be robust and independent of the details of the interactions, inverse catalysis arises as a result of a delicate competition, effective only for light quarks. By performing simulations at different quark masses, we determine the pion mass above which inverse catalysis does not take place in the transition region anymore. Even for pions heavier than this limiting value — where the quark condensate undergoes magnetic catalysis — our results are consistent with the notion that the transition temperature is reduced by the magnetic field. These findings will be useful to guide low-energy models and effective theories of QCD.