Superconductivity in flat bands is a central feature of quantum geometric effects, supported by mean-field theory and numerics. Here, the authors exhibit a large family of flat band Hubbard models whose ground states, Bogoliubov-de-Gennes particles, and Cooper pairs are exactly solvable with analytically calculable dispersions.

Propagation instabilities limit the direct laser acceleration of electrons in plasma and reduce its potential as a radiation source. Here, the authors numerically demonstrate that superluminal flying-focus laser pulses suppress filamentation, resulting in higher-energy electrons and more collimated x-ray emission.

The authors realize higher-orbital Floquet topological insulators by implementing periodically driven s-p orbital couplings in a photonic square lattice with synthetic π magnetic flux. They observe unidirectional topological edge-state transport and show that removing the flux induced by the s-p couplings can make the system topologically trivial.

Korkiamäki et al. measure the thermal conductance of nano- and microscale pillared phononic crystals at sub-Kelvin temperatures. They demonstrate up to an order of magnitude reduction, attributed to the coherent modification of the phononic band structure.

Bacterial transport into micron-scale pores is crucial for microbial competition and community assembly, yet steric and hydrodynamic constraints limit passive entry. Here, the authors reveal that flagellated bacteria utilize a two-step facilitated-entry mechanism, significantly enhancing motile cell influx into confined spaces and conferring a competitive advantage over non-motile bacteria.

The search for non-trivial boundary states is central to the study of higher-order band topology. Transport studies in superconducting Josephson junctions fabricated from PdTe₂ reveal the presence of asymmetric edge states, establishing PdTe₂ as a quantum material with both higher order topology and superconductivity.

M₁₂X₁₂A₁₀ nanowires, self-assembled from M₆X₆A₆ clusters (M = Mn, Re; X = S, Se; A = Cl, Br), feature an intrinsic screw dislocation that breaks inversion symmetry. First-principles calculations reveal pronounced Rashba splitting in Re-based and strong Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions in Mn-based systems, enabling spintronic applications.

Low-dimensional electron gases can give rise to unusual light-matter interactions, but naturally occurring examples are rare. Here, the authors show that Raman spectroscopy reveals a unique fingerprint of the strongly anisotropic electron gas in the hyperbolic material MoOCl₂ through its interaction with lattice vibrations.

Asymmetric Fano line shapes are common in distributed resonators, but a unified model for precise parameter extraction is lacking. Here, the authors present a universal scattering model based on background channel interference, accurately fitting asymmetric spectra and enabling reliable quality-factor extraction across different resonator types.

Waves in systems with gain and loss usually pile up at a sample’s edges, and this skin effect normally changes drastically with boundary conditions. This study shows that a spatially varying imaginary potential pins localization to interior domain walls and unifies skin effects into electric and magnetic types with a sharp transition between them.

Bright, ultrashort, wavelength-tuneable X-ray pulses are fundamental for resonant imaging and spectroscopy, but are typically limited to large-scale facilities. The authors present a tabletop technique for generating bright, tuneable high-order harmonics in the extreme-ultraviolet to soft-X-ray range, enabling precise spectral control for advanced imaging and spectroscopy, with potential implications for fundamental physics and precision timekeeping.

Chiral magnets can host periodic spin textures called soliton lattices, but their formation in materials with anisotropic chirality has remained unclear. Here, the authors show that Mn_1.4PtSn supports a π-soliton ground state that condenses into a 2π soliton lattice under an out-of-plane field, revealing a generic route to chiral spin textures.

Topological-insulator-superconductor interfaces may host topological superconductivity, but the active layer is buried and difficult to probe. Here, the authors show that the thickness-dependent optical response can reveal potential signatures of two-dimensional topological superconductivity at the interface and link this response to quantum geometry.