We propose a multi-field fiber inflation scenario in type IIB perturbative large volume compactifications, showing that the multi-field dynamics suppresses trans-Planckian displacements of the canonical inflaton. Considering a concrete K3-fibred Calabi-Yau (CY) threefold with $h^{1,1}({\rm CY})=3$ and having certain underlying symmetries, we show that the presence of multi-fibre moduli creates an assisted inflation scenario where multiple moduli collectively help in producing the cosmological observables consistent with the experimental observations. We further argue that individual field range excursions $(\Delta\phi_n)$ corresponding to each of the inflaton fields can be estimated as $\Delta\phi_n = \Delta\phi/\sqrt{n}$, where $\Delta\phi$ denotes to the effective single-field inflaton range needed to generate the desired cosmological observables, and $n$ is the number of moduli assisting the multi-fibre inflation. We also present various numerical benchmark models consistently producing cosmological observables in the lights of the recent ACT experiments.

The early stage of high multiplicity pp, pA and AA collider is represented by a nearly quarkless, hot, deconfined pure gluon plasma. According to pure Yang-Mills Lattice Gauge Theory, this hot pure glue matter undergoes, at a high temperature, $T_c = 270$ MeV, a first order phase transition into a confined Hagedorn-GlueBall fluid. These new scenario should be characterized by a suppression of high $p_T$ photons and dileptons, baryon suppression and enhanced strange meson production. We propose to observe this newly predicted class of events at LHC and RHIC.

One of the many interesting features of quantum nonlocality is that the states of a multipartite quantum system cannot always be distinguished as well by local measurements as they can when all quantum measurements are allowed. In this work, we characterize the distinguishability of sets of multipartite quantum states when restricted to separable measurements -- those which contain the class of local measurements but nevertheless are free of entanglement between the component systems. We consider two quantities: The separable fidelity -- a truly quantum quantity -- which measures how well we can "clone" the input state, and the classical probability of success, which simply gives the optimal probability of identifying the state correctly. We obtain lower and upper bounds on the separable fidelity and give several examples in the bipartite and multipartite settings where these bounds are optimal. Moreover the optimal values in these cases can be attained by local measurements. We further show that for distinguishing orthogonal states under separable measurements, a strategy that maximizes the probability of success is also optimal for separable fidelity. We point out that the equality of fidelity and success probability does not depend on an using optimal strategy, only on the orthogonality of the states. To illustrate this, we present an example where two sets (one consisting of orthogonal states, and the other non-orthogonal states) are shown to have the same separable fidelity even though the success probabilities are different.

The Polyakov$-$Nambu$-$Jona-Lasinio model has been quite successful in describing various qualitative features of observables for strongly interacting matter, that are measurable in heavy-ion collision experiments. The question still remains on the quantitative uncertainties in the model results. Such an estimation is possible only by contrasting these results with those obtained from first principles using the lattice QCD framework. Recently a variety of lattice QCD data were reported in the realistic continuum limit. Here we make a first attempt at reparametrizing the model so as to reproduce these lattice data. We find excellent quantitative agreement for the equation of state. Certain discrepancies in the charge and strangeness susceptibilities as well as baryon-charge correlation still remain. We discuss their causes and outline possible directions to remove them.

Quantum teleportation with an arbitrary two-qubit state can be appropriately characterized in terms of maximal fidelity and fidelity deviation. The former quantifies optimality of the process and is defined as the maximal average fidelity achievable within the standard protocol and local unitary strategies, whereas the latter, defined as the standard deviation of fidelity over all input states, is a measure of fidelity fluctuations. The maximal fidelity for a two-qubit state is known and is given by a simple formula that can be exactly computed, but no such formula is known for the fidelity deviation. In this paper, we derive an exact computable formula for the fidelity deviation in optimal quantum teleportation with an arbitrary state of two qubits. From this formula, we obtain the dispersion-free condition, also known as the universality condition: the condition that all input states are teleported equally well and provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a state to be both useful (maximal fidelity larger than the classical bound) and universal (zero fidelity deviation). We also show that for any given maximal fidelity, larger than the classical bound, there always exist dispersion-free or universal states and argue that such states are the most desirable ones within the set of useful states. We illustrate these results with well-known families of two-qubit states: pure entangled states, Bell-diagonal states, and subsets of $X$ states.

Quantum magnetism is one of the most active areas of research in condensed matter physics. There is significant research interest specially in low-dimensional quantum spin systems. Such systems have a large number of experimental realizations and exhibit a variety of phenomena the origin of which can be attributed to quantum effects and low dimensions. In this review, an overview of some aspects of quantum magnetism in low dimensions is given. The emphasis is on key concepts, theorems and rigorous results as well as models of spin chains, ladders and frustated magnetic systems.

We present temperature ($T$) and baryonic chemical potential ($\mu_B$) dependence of higher order fluctuations and correlation between conserved charges in Excluded Volume Hadron Resonance Gas (EVHRG) model. Products of moments, such as ratio of variance to mean ($\sigma^2/M)$, product of skewness and standard deviation ($S\sigma$), product of kurtosis and variance ($\kappa\sigma^2$), for net-proton, net-kaon and net-charge have been evaluated on the phenomenologically determined freeze-out curve. Further, products of moments for net-proton and net-charge have been compared with the experimental data measured by STAR experiment. The dependence of the model result on the hadronic radius parameter has also been discussed.

Star-forming (SF) regions embedded inside giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are potential contributors to Galactic gamma rays. The gamma-ray source 3FHL J1907.0+0713 is detected with a significance of roughly 13$\sigma$ in the 0.2 $-$ 300 GeV energy range after the removal of gamma-ray pulsation periods of PSR J1906+0722 from the Fermi-LAT data set of about 10 years. The energy spectrum of 3FHL J1907.0+0713 is best-fitted to a power law model with a spectral index of 2.26 $\pm$ 0.05. The CO($J$ = 1$-$0) data taken by NANTEN2 revealed that 3FHL J1907.0+0713 is overlapping with a GMC having a peak velocity of about 38 km s$^{-1}$. The best-fitting location of 3FHL J1907.0+0713 is measured to be approximately 0.13 degrees away from the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) 3C 397 and it overlaps with a star that is associated with a bow-shock nebula. We show that there is no physical connection between 3FHL J1907.0+0713, 3C 397, as well as any positional coincidence with the pulsar. The spectrum of 3FHL J1907.0+0713 is fitting to both hadronic and leptonic gamma-ray emission models and the total luminosity at a distance of 2.6 kpc is calculated to be 1.1 $\times$ 10$^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We also discuss possible SF origins of gamma rays from 3FHL J1907.0+0713, where SNRs, massive protostar outflows, stellar winds from runaway stars, colliding wind binaries, and young stellar clusters are considered as candidate sources.

In type IIB superstring compactifications, incorporating log-loop corrections and higher-derivative ${(\alpha^\prime)}^3$-corrections can stabilize the overall volume of the compact internal space at exponentially large values. This mechanism forms the basis of the perturbative Large Volume Scenario (LVS). In this report, we briefly review two inflationary models realized within the perturbative LVS framework. The first one is the volume modulus inflation (also known as inflection point inflation) and the second one is popularly known as fibre inflation. Using an explict Calabi-Yau orientifold, some concrete global embeddings of both models are also discussed.

We consider the Cavalcanti-Foster-Fuwa-Wiseman inequality~\cite{achsh} which is a necessary and sufficient steerability condition for two-qubit states with two measurement settings on each side. We derive the criterion which an arbitrary two-qubit state must satisfy in order to violate this inequality, and obtain its maximum attainable violation in quantum mechanics. The derived condition on the state parameters enables us to establish a tight monogamy relation for two-qubit steering.

Quantum nonlocality is usually associated with entangled states by their violations of Bell-type inequalities. However, even unentangled systems, whose parts may have been prepared separately, can show nonlocal properties. In particular, a set of product states is said to exhibit "quantum nonlocality without entanglement" if the states are locally indistinguishable, i.e. it is not possible to optimally distinguish the states by any sequence of local operations and classical communication. Here, we present a stronger manifestation of this kind of nonlocality in multiparty systems through the notion of local irreducibility. A set of multiparty orthogonal quantum states is defined to be locally irreducible if it is not possible to locally eliminate one or more states from the set while preserving orthogonality of the postmeasurement states. Such a set, by definition, is locally indistinguishable, but we show that the converse doesn't always hold. We provide the first examples of orthogonal product bases on $\mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes\mathbb{C}^{d}\otimes\mathbb{C}^{d}$ for $d=3,4$ that are locally irreducible in all bipartitions, where the construction for $d=3$ achieves the minimum dimension necessary for such product states to exist. The existence of such product bases implies that local implementation of a multiparty separable measurement may require entangled resources across all bipartitions.

Signal propagation in biochemical networks is characterized by the inherent randomness in gene expression and fluctuations of the environmental components, commonly known as intrinsic and extrinsic noise, respectively. We present a theoretical framework for noise propagation in a generic two-step cascade (S$\rightarrow$X$\rightarrow$Y) regarding intrinsic and extrinsic noise. We identify different channels of noise transmission that regulate the individual and the overall noise properties of each component. Our analysis shows that the intrinsic noise of S alleviates the general noise and information transmission capacity along the cascade. On the other hand, the intrinsic noise of X and Y acts as a bottleneck of information transmission. We also show a hierarchical relationship among the intrinsic noise levels of S, X, and Y, with S exhibiting the highest level of intrinsic noise, followed by X and then Y. This hierarchy is preserved within the two-step cascade, facilitating the highest information transmission from S to Y via X.

The one-loop self-energy of the $D$ and $D^*$ mesons in a hot hadronic medium is evaluated using the real time formalism of thermal field theory. The interaction of the heavy open-charm mesons with the thermalized constituents $(\pi,K,\eta)$ of the hadronic matter is treated in the covariant formalism of heavy meson chiral perturbation theory. The imaginary parts are extracted from the discontinuities of the self-energy function across the unitary and the Landau cuts. The non-zero contribution from the latter to the spectral density of $D$ and $D^*$ mesons opens a number of subthreshold decay channels of the $J/\psi$ leading to a significant increase in the dissociation width in hadronic matter.

The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan (BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades, most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.

In this paper, we consider two stochastic models of gene expression in prokaryotic cells. In the first model, sixteen biochemical reactions involved in transcription, translation and transcriptional regulation in the presence of inducer molecules are considered. The time evolution of the number of biomolecules of a particular type is determined using the stochastic simulation method based on the Gillespie Algorithm. The results obtained show that if the number of inducer molecules, N(I), is greater than or equal to the number of regulatory molecules, N(R), the average protein level is high in the steady state (state 2). The magnitude of the level is the same as long as N{I) greater than or equal to N(R). When N(I) is very very less than N(R), the average protein level is low, practically zero (state 1). As N(I) increases, the protein level continues to remain low. When N(I)becomes close to N(R), protein levels in the steady state are intermediate between high and low.In the presence of autocatalysis, a cell mostly exists in either state 1 or state 2 giving rise to a bimodal distribution in the protein levels in an ensemble of cells. This corresponds to the "all or none'' phenomenon observed in experiments. In the second model, the inducer molecules are not considered explicitly. An exhaustive simulation over the parameter space of the model shows that there are three major patterns of gene expression, Type A, Type B and Type C. The effect of varying the cellular parameters on the patterns, in particular, the transition from one type of pattern to another, is studied. Type A and Type B patterns have been observed in experiments. Simple mathematical models of transcriptional regulation predict Type C pattern of gene expression in certain parameter regimes.

Brain Computer/Machine Interfaces (BCI/BMIs) have substantial potential for enhancing the lives of disabled individuals by restoring functionalities of missing body parts or allowing paralyzed individuals to regain speech and other motor capabilities. Due to severe health hazards arising from skull incisions required for wired BCI/BMIs, scientists are focusing on developing VLSI wireless BCI implants using biomaterials. However, significant challenges, like power efficiency and implant size, persist in creating reliable and efficient wireless BCI implants. With advanced spike sorting techniques, VLSI wireless BCI implants can function within the power and size constraints while maintaining neural spike classification accuracy. This study explores advanced spike sorting techniques to overcome these hurdles and enable VLSI wireless BCI/BMI implants to transmit data efficiently and achieve high accuracy.

Evidencing the quantum nature of gravity through the entanglement of two masses has recently been proposed. Proposals using qubits to witness this entanglement can afford to bring two masses close enough so that the complete 1/r interaction is at play (as opposed to its second-order Taylor expansion), and micron-sized masses separated by 10-100 microns (with or without electromagnetic screening) suffice to provide a 0.01-1 Hz rate of growth of entanglement. Yet the only viable method proposed for obtaining qubit witnesses so far has been to employ spins embedded in the masses, whose correlations are used to witness the entanglement developed between masses during interferometry. This comes with the dual challenge of incorporating spin coherence-preserving methodologies into the protocol, as well as a demanding precision of control fields for the accurate completion of spin-aided (Stern-Gerlach) interferometry. Here we show that if superpositions of distinct spatially localized states of each mass can be created, whatever the means, simple position correlation measurements alone can yield a spatial qubit witness of entanglement between the masses. We find that a significant squeezing at a specific stage of the protocol is the principal new requirement (in addition to the need to maintain spatial quantum coherence) for its viability

Dietrich Braess while working on traffic modelling, noticed that traffic flow in a network can be worsened by adding extra edges to an existing network. This seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon is known as the Braess paradox. We consider a quantum network, where edges represent shared entangled states between spatially separated parties(nodes). The goal is to entangle two previously uncorrelated nodes using entanglement swappings. The amount of entanglement between the distant nodes is quantified by the average concurrence of the states established, as a result of the entanglement swappings. We then introduce an additional edge of maximally entangled Bell states in the network. We show that the introduction of the additional maximally entangled states to this network leads to lower concurrence between the two previously un-correlated nodes. Thus we demonstrate the occurrence of a phenomenon in a quantum network that is analogous to the Braess' paradox in traffic networks.

We present a stochastic framework to decipher fluctuations propagation in classes of coherent feed-forward loops. The systematic contribution of the direct (one-step) and indirect (two-step) pathways is considered to quantify fluctuations of the output node. We also consider both additive and multiplicative integration mechanisms of the two parallel pathways (one-step and two-step). Analytical expression of the output node's coefficient of variation shows contributions of intrinsic, one-step, two-step, and cross-interaction in closed form. We observe a diverse range of degeneracy and non-degeneracy in each of the decomposed fluctuations term and their contribution to the overall output fluctuations of each coherent feed-forward loop motif. Analysis of output fluctuations reveals a maximal level of fluctuations of the coherent feed-forward loop motif of type 1.

Information about an unknown quantum state can be encoded in weak values of projectors belonging to a complete eigenbasis. We present a protocol that enables one party -- Bob -- to remotely determine the weak values corresponding to weak measurements performed by another spatially separated party -- Alice. The particular set of weak values contains complete information of the quantum state encoded on Alice's register, which enacts the role of preselected system state in the aforementioned weak measurement. Consequently, Bob can determine the quantum state from these weak values, which can also be termed as remote state determination or remote state tomography. A combination of non-product bipartite resource state shared between the two parties and classical communication between them is necessary to bring this statistical scheme to fruition. Significantly, the information transfer of a pure quantum state of any known dimensions can be effected even with resource states of low dimensionality and purity with a single measurement setting at Bob's end. Keywords: Remote state determination; Quantum communication; Non-classical correlations; Weak Values; Quantum resource states; Quantum teleportation; Quantum key distribution (QKD).