We investigate the short-term temporal dynamics of superradiance in closely spaced quantum emitters. Building on Dickes 1954 framework, we analyze the sequential emergence of coherence, superradiance, and entanglement, revealing a distinct temporal hierarchy in their extremal values: relative coherence develops first, followed by the peak of correlated emission, then minimal entanglement, and subsequently minimal spin-spin correlation is reached. These findings suggest that enhanced relative coherence precedes correlated emission, and when spin correlations are negligible, entanglement and correlated emission become linked in time.

We study Anderson localization in two-dimensional, disordered, spin-orbit systems belonging to the symplectic symmetry class using momentum-space signatures such as the coherent backscattering antipeak and the coherent forward-scattering peak. Significantly, these momentum-space features are readily accessible in ultracold atom experiments through absorption imaging after time-of-flight expansion. Here, the critical exponent and mobility edge of the metal-insulator transition are successfully obtained through a finite-time analysis of the coherent backscattering width. An anomalous residual diffusion, unique to two dimensions, is identified at the transition point where the system changes from a metal to an insulator. A spin localization phenomenon is also observed in the deep localized regime.

We study Anderson localization in two-dimensional, disordered, spin-orbit systems belonging to the symplectic symmetry class. The critical exponent and mobility edge of the metal-insulator transition are obtained via finite-time analysis of the coherent backscattering width. (c) 2024 The Author(s)

A large class of optimisation problems can be mapped to the Ising model where all details are encoded in the coupling of spins. The task of the original mathematical optimisation is then equivalent to finding the ground state of the corresponding spin system which can be achieved via quantum annealing relying on the adiabatic theorem. Some of the inherent disadvantages of this procedure can be alleviated or resolved using a stochastic approach, and by coupling to the external environment. We show that careful engineering of the system-bath coupling at an individual spin level can further improve annealing.

Generation and detection of entanglement is at the forefront of most quantum information technologies. There is a plethora of techniques that reveal entanglement on the basis of only partial information about the underlying quantum state, including entanglement witnesses. Superradiance refers to the phenomenon of highly synchronized photon emission from an ensemble of quantum emitters that is caused by correlations among the individual particles and has been connected by Dicke himself to the presence of multipartite entangled states. We investigate this connection in a quantitative way and discuss whether or not signatures of superradiance from semiconductor nanolasers, manifesting themselves as a modification of the spontaneous-emission time, can be interpreted as a witness to detect entanglement in the underlying state of the emitters.

Bose-Einstein condensates in annular geometries have received significant attention due to their potential use as interferometers for inertial sensing and other applications. We systematically study the critical velocity of a barrier for vortex formation in such a geometry. More significantly, we are able to show that the details of the critical velocity can be captured by a simple analytic solution which can be considered the atomtronic analog of the usual nomographic equations for electronic circuit components. Experimentally useful nomograms can be plotted from the main result of this paper, from the analytic expression abbreviated as Delta, whose accuracy has been validated via full simulations. It is a function of the potential parameters only and it can be used to directly determine parameter regimes for a given application.

Ernest Rutherford was born close to the Wairoa River in Brightwater, 20 kilometres southwest of Nelson (Campbell 2021b). A memorial in the town featuring a statue of Rutherford as a schoolboy is well worth a visit, having received a 4.7 out of 5-star rating based on 48 Google reviews at the time of writing. So the next time you are in the region, we (the Editors) encourage you to make a pilgrimage and take a selfie with a budding world-class scientist (#Rutherfordandme). A plaque at the memorial bears the inscription:

In this paper we discuss the misconceptions detectable in Force Concept Inventory responses by analysing student selection of distractor items. We discuss the appearance of distinct, coherent, clusters of distractor items which appear in this data. Certain distractor items are structurally central in these groupings and sub-groups within these clusters may be interlinked by “connector” items. Our analysis suggests that these clusters represents a coherent, robust, non-Newtonian worldview. We further suggest that this worldview could be destabilised by correcting a small number of conceptual mistakes.

We investigate the thermal instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate stirred by a rotating barrier in a ring-shaped trap. One would expect the critical angular speed to decrease with increasing temperature due to depletion of the condensate. However, we show that the critical velocity remains approximately constant within a considerable range of temperatures, contrary to expectation, and the thermal cloud has a stabilizing effect.

Anderson localization in a two-dimensional ultracold Bose-gas has been demonstrated experimentally. Atoms were released within a dumbbell-shaped optical trap, where the channel of variable aspect ratio provided the only path for particles to travel between source and drain reservoirs. This channel can be populated with columnar (repulsive) optical potential spikes of square cross section with arbitrary pattern. These spikes constitute impurities, the scattering centres for the otherwise free propagation of the particles. This geometry does not allow for classical potential trapping which can be hard to exclude in other experimental setups. Here we add further theoretical evidence for Anderson localization in this system by comparing the transport processes within a regular and a random pattern of impurities. It is demonstrated that the transport within randomly distributed impurities is suppressed and the corresponding localization length becomes shorter than the channel length. However, if an equal density of impurities are distributed in a regular manner, the transport is only modestly disturbed. This observation corroborates the conclusions of the experimental observation: the localization is indeed attributed to the disorder. Beyond analysing the density distribution and the localization length, we also calculate a quantum `impedance' exhibiting qualitatively different behaviour for regular and random impurity patterns.

The size distribution of frazil ice is currently unconstrained in ice shelf cavity modeling. Here we observe the time-dependent behavior of the number and size of frazil ice particles in an Ice Shelf Water plume. A novel acoustic scattering inversion was used to infer frazil ice crystal diameters, assuming a log-normal distribution. Observation sites were on land-fast sea ice approximately 13 and 33 km from the front of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The water column from the ice-water interface to 30 m below mean sea level was monitored over 3 weeks in November of 2016 and 2017. At 15 m below sea level the mean frazil crystal diameter was similar to 1 mm. Fractional ice volume, derived from frazil crystal size and number density, correlates with in situ supercooling (up to 50 mK at 15 m below sea level). The data presented here provide valuable input for model initiation and evaluation.

We provide algorithms for inferring GPS (Global Positioning System) location and for quantifying the uncertainty of this estimate in real time. The algorithms are tested on GPS data from locations in the Southern Hemisphere at four significantly different latitudes. In order to rank the algorithms, we use the so-called log-score rule. The best algorithm uses an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) noise model and is built on an enhanced Kalman Filter (KF). The noise model is capable of capturing the observed autocorrelated process noise in the altitude, latitude and longitude recordings. This model outperforms a KF that assumes a Gaussian noise model, which under-reports the position uncertainties. We also found that the dilution-of-precision parameters, automatically reported by the GPS receiver at no additional cost, do not help significantly in the uncertainty quantification of the GPS positioning. A non-learning method using the actual position measurements and employing a constant uncertainty does not even converge to the correct position. Inference with the enhanced noise model is suitable for embedded computing and capable of achieving real-time position inference, can quantify uncertainty and be extended to incorporate complementary sensor recordings, e.g., from an accelerometer or from a magnetometer, in order to improve accuracy. The algorithm corresponding to the augmented-state unscented KF method suggests a computational cost of O(dx2dt), where dx is the dimension of the augmented state-vector and dt is an adjustable, design-dependent parameter corresponding to the length of “past values” one wishes to keep for re-evaluation of the model from time to time. The provided algorithm assumes dt=1. Hence, the algorithm is likely to be suitable for sensor fusion applications.

We recorded the time series of location data from stationary, single-frequency (L1) GPS positioning systems at a variety of geographic locations. The empirical autocorrelation function of these data shows significant temporal correlations. The Gaussian white noise model, widely used in sensor-fusion algorithms, does not account for the observed autocorrelations and has an artificially large variance. Noise-model analysis-using Akaike's Information Criterion-favours alternative models, such as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck or an autoregressive process. We suggest that incorporating a suitable enhanced noise model into applications (e.g., Kalman Filters) that rely on GPS position estimates will improve performance. This provides an alternative to explicitly modelling possible sources of correlation (e.g., multipath, shadowing, or other second-order physical phenomena).

Frazil ice plays an important role in the growth of sea ice in the polar oceans. However, measurement of the size distribution of frazil crystals, and their number density, is still a challenging task. Most quantitative observations use acoustic back-scattering complemented with the equivalent sphere assumption. We provide a more realistic theoretical model of small frazil ice crystals by considering the scattering from an oblate spheroid, using properties appropriate for ice in the ocean. We show an alternative method to analyse measurement data, evaluating the numerical implementation against a dataset collected in October 2012 in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Our approach is consistent with previous laboratory studies and studies of frazil ice in rivers.

New Zealand (NZ) opted for complete suppression of the spread of COVID-19. We summarise how the rules, introduced by the NZ government, affected the operation and staffing of the biggest regional museum and science centre, the Otago Museum.

Anderson localisation —the inhibition of wave propagation in disordered media— is a surprising interference phenomenon which is particularly intriguing in two-dimensional (2D) systems. While an ideal, non-interacting 2D system of infinite size is always localised, the localisation length-scale may be too large to be unambiguously observed in an experiment. In this sense, 2D is a marginal dimension between one-dimension, where all states are strongly localised, and three-dimensions, where a well-defined phase transition between localisation and delocalisation exists as the energy is increased. Here, we report the results of an experiment measuring the 2D transport of ultracold atoms between two reservoirs, which are connected by a channel containing pointlike disorder. The design overcomes many of the technical challenges that have hampered observation of localisation in previous works. We experimentally observe exponential localisation in a 2D ultracold atom system.

The gravitational field of a massive, filamentary ring is considered. We provide an analytic expression for the gravitational potential and demonstrate that the exact gravitational potential and its gradient, thus the gravitational force-field, is not central. Hence it is a good candidate to discuss the difference between the concepts of center of mass and center of gravity. We focus on other consequences of reduced symmetry, e.g., only the $z$-component of the angular momentum is conserved. However, the remnant high symmetry of this system also ensures that there are special classes of motions which are restricted to invariant subspaces, thus, depending on the initial condition, the dynamics of a point particle is integrable. We also show that periodic orbits in the equatorial plane external to the ring are possible, but only if the angular momentum is above a threshold value. In this case the orbits are stable.

Quantum entanglement is usually considered a fragile quantity and decoherence through coupling to an external environment, such as a thermal reservoir, can quickly destroy the entanglement resource. This doesn't have to be the case and the environment can be engineered to assist in the formation of entanglement. We investigate a system of qubits and higher dimensional spins interacting only through their mutual coupling to a reservoir. We explore the entanglement of multipartite and multidimensional system as mediated by the bath and show that at low temperatures and intermediate coupling strengths multipartite entanglement may form between qubits and between higher spins, i.e., qudits. We characterise the multipartite entanglement using an entanglement witness based upon the structure factor and demonstrate its validity versus the directly calculated entanglement of formation, suggesting possible experiments for its measure.

The Force Concept Inventory was designed to poll the Newtonian conception of force. While there are many in-depth studies analyzing response data that look at the structure of the correct answers, we believe that the incorrect answers also carry revealing information about the students’ worldview. The inventory was originally designed so that the “distractors” in each question reflected commonly held misconceptions, and thus the rate at which students guess the correct answer is very low. Students select incorrect answers that correspond to the misconception that they hold and there are very few responses which appear obviously wrong to students. A side effect of this approach is that the incorrect responses reflect the non-Newtonian worldviews held by students. These non-Newtonian worldviews are coherent and robust, and this, at least in part, helps to explain why these misconceptions are so resistant to instruction. In this study we focus once more on the misconception data in Force Concept Inventory responses, particularly on the linkages between these misconceptions. We hypothesize that there are distinct groupings of distractor items formed by the strength of the association between these items. The two largest groupings are associated with the “impetus” world view in which the motion of an object is determined by the quantity of impetus which that object contains. We find that certain central items hold particularly important places in these groupings and also that individual groupings may be connected to each other by “connector” items. We finally suggest that, on the basis of this study, that these non-Newtonian worldviews might best be dismantled by addressing these key central and connector items.

The Force Concept Inventory is one of the most popular and most analyzed multiple-choice concept tests used to investigate students' understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The correct answers poll a set of underlying Newtonian concepts and the coherence of these underlying concepts has been found in the data. However, this inventory was constructed after several years of research into the common preconceptions held by students and using these preconceptions as distractors in the questions. Their sole purpose is to deflect non-Newtonian candidates away from the correct answer. Alternatively, one can argue that the responses could also be treated as polling these preconceptions. In this paper we shift the emphasis of the analysis away from the correlation structure of the correct answers and look at the latent traits underlying the incorrect responses. Our analysis models the data employing exploratory factor analysis, which uses regularities in the data to suggest the existence of underlying structures in the cognitive processing of the students. This analysis allows us to determine whether the data support the claim that there are alternate non-Newtonian worldviews on which students' incorrect responses are based. The existence of such worldviews, and their coherence, could explain the resilience of non-Newtonian preconceptions and would have significant implications to the design of instruction methods. We find that there are indeed coherent alternate conceptions of the world which can be categorized using the results of the research that led to the construction of the Force Concept Inventory.