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        <title>Frontiers in Physics | New and Recent Articles</title>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics</link>
        <description>RSS Feed for Frontiers in Physics | New and Recent Articles</description>
        <language>en-us</language>
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        <pubDate>2026-11-14T17:28:00.582+00:00</pubDate>
        <ttl>60</ttl>
        <item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1984729</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1984729</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Dynamics of HIV among sex workers and injecting drug users]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Nita H. Shah</author><author>Jalpa N. Vaghela</author>
        <description><![CDATA[HIV infection is a serious public-health challenge globally, and sex workers and injecting drug users (IDUs) are among the populations at greatest risk of transmission. In this paper, we formulate and analyze a deterministic mathematical model with five compartments, the Susceptible-HIV-infectious-AIDS (SHA) model, which simultaneously incorporates sexual and injection-related modes of transmission, behavioral change, public health education, and migration between the sex worker and injecting drug user subpopulations. The basic reproduction number R0 is derived in closed form using the next-generation matrix approach. The existence of a disease-free equilibrium (DFE) and an endemic equilibrium (EE) are established. Local and global stability results in terms of R0 are proved using the Routh-Hurwitz criterion and the Castillo-Chavez global-stability technique. A normalized forward sensitivity analysis points out the parameters that most strongly influence R0, and fourth-order Runge–Kutta numerical simulations show the transient dynamics of the two sub-populations as they progress toward the endemic state. For the considered parameter set, R0=1.1866>1, the DFE is unstable, and the disease persists, with recruitment rates and effective contact rates being the strongest amplifiers of R0, and natural mortality, disease-induced mortality, behavioral modification, and public-health education being the strongest suppressors. Such findings provide specific, ordered intervention targets condom promotion, needle-exchange/behaviour-change programs and public-health education for lowering HIV transmission among these interconnected critical populations.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1932572</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1932572</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Study on the performance of grouting materials prepared using TEA and straw ash based on response surface method]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Zijun Wu</author><author>Jun Chu</author><author>Mingkun Zhao</author><author>Congqi Luan</author><author>Bo Pang</author><author>Wei Wang</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Abstract:This study presents a systematic optimization of grouting material formulations using triethanolamine (TEA) and straw ash via the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The research successfully developed highly significant quadratic regression models for predicting key performance indicators, including fluidity and 28-day compressive strength, with R2 values exceeding 0.95. Analysis revealed that the main effects, interaction effects, and quadratic terms of TEA dosage, straw ash content, and W/C ratio all significantly influenced the material’s properties. Multi-objective optimization identified an optimal formulation: 0.65% TEA, 5% straw ash, and a W/C ratio of 0.33. Validation tests confirmed that this formulation achieved a fluidity of 189.4 mm and a compressive strength of 34.6 MPa, with an error of less than 5%. The findings demonstrate the efficacy of RSM in designing high-performance, sustainable grouting materials, offering a viable pathway for the valorization of agricultural waste.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1888140</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1888140</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Efficient pattern search in large-scale time series]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>José Manuel Hostalet Wandosell</author><author>Rodrigo Castro</author><author>Jesús Vega</author><author>Sebastián Dormido-Canto</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In experimental physics, diagnostic systems produce signals that reflect reproducible physical behavior. Under similar operating conditions, recurring physical processes manifest as structurally similar signal shapes, establishing a direct correspondence between physical behavior and the temporal structure of measured signals. These recurring structures, referred to as structural patterns, constitute the natural entry point for large-scale data analysis, as they encode the essential characteristics of the underlying physical phenomena. In long-pulse nuclear fusion experiments, thousands of diagnostics continuously generate high-resolution time series data during the production of discharges. Identifying all occurrences of a given structural pattern (corresponding to a specific physical event) in large datasets is a critical but challenging task. Traditional workflows based on manual visual inspection or discharge-oriented queries do not scale to modern data volumes and limit the statistical exploitation of reproducible behavior. This work presents a scalable framework for shape-based similarity search in large-scale time-series distributed collections. The proposed method combines Haar wavelet-based dimensionality reduction, sliding-window vectorization, amplitude-invariant normalization, cosine similarity, and FAISS (Facebook AI Similarity Search) exact indexing to enable efficient retrieval of structurally similar patterns. The framework was validated on a dataset of synthetic signals containing approximately 1.8 million samples each. Experimental results show that the proposed approach preserves retrieval accuracy while reducing query time to 34 ms on a dataset of approximately 2.62 million indexed subsequences (10 signals). Scalability experiments over the complete dataset (690 signals, approximately 181 million indexed subsequences) demonstrate near-linear growth in query time, confirming the suitability of the proposed approach for large-scale fusion diagnostic data analysis.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1965157</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1965157</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Wobbling motion in the many-nucleon system]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-13T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Perspective</category>
        <author>Masayuki Matsuzaki</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The purpose of this Perspective is not to present new progress but rather to shed light on another approach to studying nuclear wobbling motion from the viewpoint of many-body theory under an external field. Special attention is paid to the moments of inertia, which are microscopically calculated as the response of the full A-body system to rapid rotations described by the cranked RPA formalism. They depend on the rotation frequency, and it is shown that the approach of two moments of inertia leads to the instability of rotating triaxial mean fields.]]></description>
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        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1996593</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1996593</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Analysis of fractional-order evolutionary behaviors between governments and logistics enterprises with interval parameters]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Mengting Han</author><author>Zixin Liu</author><author>Nengfa Wang</author><author>Xiaopeng Li</author><author>Changjin Xu</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Against the backdrop of global climate change and sustainable development, green logistics represents the core direction of logistics industry transformation. To handle the uncertainty of benefits and losses in the green transition, this paper introduces interval two-dimensional linear differential equations, and constructs integer-order (IO) and fractional-order (FO) evolutionary game models with interval parameters. It explores the government’s regulatory paths for the green transition of logistics enterprises under uncertain benefits and reward-punishment mechanisms. Based on stability theory, we analyze the government-enterprise evolutionary patterns and compare the two models under the static reward-penalty mechanism (SRPM). The results indicate that under SRPM, the two models exhibit consistent stability of boundary equilibrium points but differ in the stability of internal equilibrium points. For dynamic schemes, the interior equilibrium of the integer-order model is locally asymptotically stable (LAS) if subsidies are lower than fines. Under specific conditions, the upper and lower bounds of interval parameters affect the evolutionary stability of equilibrium points. This study provides theoretical support for the regulation of green transition in logistics.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1876146</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1876146</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Tail risk spillover asymmetry across global financial markets: a quantile connectedness approach]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Hongyi Yu</author><author>Bin Li</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Cross-market tail risk spillovers threaten global financial stability, yet most studies examine risk contagion within individual asset classes or a limited set of markets. This study investigates tail risk spillover effects across five major financial market categories—equities, bonds, commodities, foreign exchange (FX), and money markets (short-term interbank interest rates)—in 12 economies from 2 January 2008 to 31 December 2024. Principal Component Analysis is first applied to reduce high-dimensional market data into representative factors, which are then modeled using Quantile Vector Autoregression to estimate spillover intensity at different conditional quantiles (τ=0.05,0.50,0.95). The results reveal a clear asymmetry: under normal conditions (τ=0.50), cross-market spillovers remain weak (total connectedness index around 16%), whereas under extreme downside conditions (τ=0.05), spillover intensity rises sharply (total connectedness index exceeding 87%). Bootstrap inference shows that the money market’s net absorber position under extreme downside conditions and the commodity market’s net transmitter position under extreme upside conditions are the only market-level net positions statistically distinguishable from zero, whereas the difference between the two tail connectedness levels is not. In contrast, during extreme upside conditions (τ=0.95), the commodity market emerges as the dominant net transmitter of risk to other markets. These findings demonstrate that tail risk contagion across global financial markets is both state-dependent and asymmetric, with implications for the design of differentiated cross-market risk monitoring frameworks.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1953693</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1953693</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Data analysis strategy for the ITER tokamak systems monitor]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Daniel Iglesias</author><author>Victor Moncada</author><author>Joris Paret</author><author>Lana Abadie</author><author>Victor Costa</author><author>Laura Hernández Cubo</author><author>Luis Maqueda</author><author>Isabel Nunes</author><author>Joao Nunes</author><author>Daniel Sabio</author><author>Sergey Sadakov</author><author>Enrico Occhiuto</author><author>Nathaniel Saura</author><author>Fabio Villone</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The ITER Tokamak Systems Monitor (TSM) is a comprehensive diagnostic and monitoring framework designed to ensure the operational health and performance of the ITER tokamak. This paper presents the data analysis strategy for TSM, detailing the multi-disciplinary models, data types, human-machine interface (HMI) specifications, software architecture, and ongoing development efforts. The approach integrates soft real-time and offline algorithm output representation, machine learning-based anomaly detection, and a modular early-warning database solution to support both operations and analysis.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1928063</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1928063</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Estimates of ground-state energies for the quantum SK and 2D-EA models, using deGennes–Suzuki–Kubo mean-field annealing dynamics]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Soumyaditya Das</author><author>Soumyajyoti Biswas</author><author>Bikas K. Chakrabarti</author>
        <description><![CDATA[We perform large-scale quantum annealing of the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick (SK) spin glass up to a system size N=40,000 to estimate its ground-state energy using the deGennes–Suzuki–Kubo mean-field quantum Ising dynamics, extending the earlier results (reported in Eur. Phys. J. B 98, 226 (2025)). Here, we numerically solve the deGennes–Suzuki–Kubo annealing dynamics to obtain the spin configurations and subsequently the ground-state energy for a given system size at the end of the annealing, starting from a quantum paramagnetic state. The method shows high efficiency, with an overall algorithmic cost of O(N3) in estimating the energy of the ground state. We later extend this quantum annealing study to estimate the ground-state energies (starting again from the quantum paramagnetic phase, annealing down to any desired low value of the transverse field) for the Edwards–Anderson (EA) spin glass model on a square lattice.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.2014703</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.2014703</link>
        <title><![CDATA[China–US rivalry in industrial technology standards: an evolutionary game analysis under trade imbalance]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-12T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Xiaoying Yang</author><author>Zhigang Lin</author><author>Ning Liu</author>
        <description><![CDATA[China–US rivalry has shifted from tariffs and merchandise to the rules governing industrial technology, where standards set the terms of compatibility and allocate network externalities. Existing accounts catalogue the two sides' strategies but hold them fixed, leaving co-evolution and equilibrium selection unexplained. We model the contest as an asymmetric evolutionary game between two boundedly rational national players: an incumbent choosing open accommodation or containment through exclusion, and a latecomer choosing followership in the prevailing regime or indigenous catch-up under an alternative standard. The state variables—the share of firms, policy factions, and standards bodies behind each course—follow replicator dynamics. Stability analysis, regime classification, and simulation trace how rule-setting rents, network externalities, containment and switching costs, and the initial mix determine the outcome. Two stable equilibria result—fragmentation and compatibility—with basins set jointly by payoffs and initial conditions, alongside regimes of openness with followership or indigenous catch-up; the thresholds are bifurcations of a two-dimensional system, not phase transitions. Basin maps and Monte Carlo sampling find conditional coexistence modal and the directions robust; a counterfactual decomposition shows isolated changes cannot escape the fragmentation basin, while their combination makes compatibility the unique attractor. The outcome is neither dictated by technical efficiency nor winner-take-all, but a conditional coexistence that remains open to reshaping.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1981259</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1981259</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Molecular insights into cold plasma-derived reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and their role in food protein oxidation]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-11T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Review</category>
        <author>Ritesh Mishra</author><author>Abhijit Mishra</author><author>Gurpreet Singh</author><author>Anurag Malik</author><author> Manjeet</author><author>Poornima Singh</author><author>Sanjay Kumar</author><author>Rahul Singh</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In recent years, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has gained considerable attention as an emerging non-thermal food processing method, but its interaction with food proteins remains poorly understood. Plasma-generated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), such as hydroxyl radicals (•OH), superoxide (O2•-), singlet oxygen (1O2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), ozone (O3), nitric oxide (NO•), nitrogen dioxide (NO2•), and peroxynitrite (ONOO−), can induce residue-specific oxidative modifications in food proteins. These modifications primarily target amino acids and may impact protein conformation, intermolecular interactions, aggregation behavior, digestibility, and techno-functional properties, all of which can affect food quality and nutritional value. Nevertheless, prevalent experimental methods offer limited insight into the transient interactions between RONS and proteins, as well as the specific reaction mechanisms involved. This review highlights advanced computational techniques such as molecular dynamics simulations, reactive molecular dynamics, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics, and machine learning-assisted modeling as emerging instruments for elucidating protein-RONS interactions at spatial and temporal scales that are challenging to examine through traditional experimental approaches. By integrating insights from plasma-generated RONS chemistry, protein oxidation mechanisms, and predictive computational modeling, this review aims to foster a deeper understanding of plasma-assisted food processing, enhancing control over protein quality and functionality.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1995572</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1995572</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Mixed generalized quasi-Einstein spacetimes in f(R)-gravity]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-11T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Mohd Vasiulla</author><author>Amira A. Ishan</author><author>Shalini Tomar</author><author>Mohabbat Ali</author><author>Meraj Ali Khan</author>
        <description><![CDATA[In this study, we investigate mixed generalized quasi-Einstein (MGQE) spacetimes of constant scalar curvature within the framework of f(R)-gravity. It is proved that a Ricci semi-symmetric perfect-fluid MGQE spacetime satisfies either p=−ϱ or has its energy density and pressure fixed by f(R) and f′(R), while a Ricci-recurrent MGQE spacetime is necessarily of pure-radiation type. MGQE generalized Robertson–Walker spacetimes are also examined, and their fiber is shown to be quasi-Einstein. Furthermore, the mixed term is identified with the heat flux, and the corresponding energy conditions are derived. It is also shown that vacuum solutions are Einstein manifolds satisfying R0f′(R0)=2f(R0). Finally, explicit examples are constructed and verified to be exact solutions of the f(R) field equations.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1943310</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1943310</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Comparative analysis of a novel Lobatto IIIA data-driven intelligent Morlet-based wavelet neural network optimization for dissipative flow in a two-phase non-Newtonian nanofluid model with thermal radiation and Joule heating effects]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Ayman A. Dawod</author><author>Umair Khan</author><author>Rania Saadeh</author><author>Hamza Rauf</author><author>Aurang Zaib</author><author>J. K. Madhukesh</author><author>Fayza Abdel Aziz Elseabee</author><author>Yakup Yildirim</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The inspection of the zero-mass flux condition by incorporating radiative nanofluid flow has received significant attention due to its realistic scenario. In fact, this condition restricts the idealistic accumulation or vanishing of nanoparticles towards the surface, making the physical model a more realistic representation of applications such as electronic cooling or heat exchangers. In this study, the two-phase nanofluid flow of the Bingham-Papanastasiou model across a movable cylinder with zero mass flux condition, chemical reaction, viscous dissipation, Joule heating, and radiation effects is examined. The leading partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations through the similarity factors, and then we use bvp4c to find the single-branch solutions. To reduce the computational cost of repeated bvp4c evaluations in parametric studies, we develop wavelet neural network (WNN) surrogate models employing the Morlet wavelet as the activation function and compare two training strategies: the second-order Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and the first-order Adam optimizer. The numerical solutions confirm that the zero-mass flux constraint yields physically consistent nanoparticle transport, while thermal radiation significantly modifies the wall heat transfer rate. The surrogate-model results show that the Morlet-WNN trained with the Levenberg-Marquardt optimizer achieves high agreement with small but nonzero errors with bvp4c outputs (R2=1 with extremely small errors). The LM model showed close agreement with bvp4c outputs, with small but nonzero errors, whereas Adam produced larger errors and lower R2 values. Overall, the proposed Morlet-WNN-LM surrogate provides a reliable and surrogate-based alternative to repeated bvp4c simulations, enabling rapid thermo-fluidic evaluation for design and optimization.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1994371</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1994371</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Multi-band localized surface plasmon enhanced terahertz biosensor chip with electrostatic and acousto-optic active tuning]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Xiaoguang Xu</author><author>Qiang Zhang</author><author>Haibo Zhou</author><author>Dong Zhang</author><author>Yi Zhou</author><author>Xu Li</author>
        <description><![CDATA[IntroductionTerahertz (THz) biosensing can read biomolecular vibrations without labels, yet two practical problems limit its sensitivity: sub-wavelength biological samples interact only weakly with the radiation, and 1/f noise dominates slow readouts.MethodsWe propose a multi-band localized surface plasmon (LSP)-enhanced THz biosensor chip in which a gold metasurface of nine spectrally isolated cross-resonator sub-arrays sustains LSP resonances at 0.1–0.9 THz, concentrating the field in deep-sub-wavelength hot spots at the resonator arm ends and gaps. An in-plane electrostatic bias tunes any resonance by up to 7.5%, and a 60 MHz surface acoustic wave (SAW) modulates the transmitted signal so that lock-in readout can reject roughly 15 dB of low-frequency noise. Coupled-mode theory was used to compute the transmission, near-field enhancement, tuning, and detection-limit improvement; the same array supports two readout modes, broadband THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and direct THz-induced micro-current detection.ResultsThe calculations give a field enhancement of 17–33×, per-band redshifts of 1.6–2.8% that vary by band and can be read as a nine-point spectral pattern against calibration spectra, and a 39.6–45.4 dB improvement in detection limit over bare THz-TDS, corresponding to a 95–186× reduction in the minimum detectable amplitude.DiscussionThe intended analytes are proteins, sugars, antibiotics, and bacteria, measured as dried surface films or thin (≤5 µm) aqueous layers. The layout uses standard microfabrication and no cryogenics, providing a practical route toward high-sensitivity, multi-band label-free THz biodetection.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1957613</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1957613</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Hofstadter-Herman visualization as a diagnostic tool for systematic effects in electromagnetic form factor extractions]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Tyler Williams</author><author>Jennifer Rittenhouse West</author><author>D. W. Higinbotham</author><author>Fatiha Benmokhtar</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The internal charge and magnetization distributions of the proton are characterized by the electromagnetic form factors GE and GM. They are extracted from elastic electron-proton cross sections measured at fixed momentum transfer over a range of beam energies and scattering angles via Rosenbluth separation. Conventionally, form factor values are obtained by plotting reduced cross sections against the virtual photon polarization parameter ϵ and then extracting the slope and intercept of the best-fit lines. An alternative visualization method, proposed by Hofstadter and Herman in 1960, plots form factors directly instead. The values of GE2 and GM2 are immediately visible from the intersection region of the curves and their uncertainty bands. In this work, we apply Hofstadter-Herman visualization to classic 1994 SLAC elastic scattering data. The 1994 data include a ∼4% downward normalization adjustment applied to the 1.6 GeV/c spectrometer measurements. Overlaying modern global fit extractions on Hofstadter-Herman plots, we show that intersection regions obtained without including this adjustment sit closer to the global fit values. Such tensions are not readily visible in conventional plots. Our results motivate adopting this visualization method as a routine diagnostic cross-check at the Electron–Ion Collider and elsewhere to flag normalization shifts and related adjustments before they enter global fits.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.2012169</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.2012169</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Benchmarking density functional and basis set combinations for anionic gold clusters Aun– (n = 1–20): a combined theoretical and photoelectron spectroscopic study]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Bowen An</author><author>Qiuying Du</author><author>Yongjun Cao</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Reliable theoretical description of anionic gold clusters remains challenging because the energetic ordering of low-lying isomers is highly sensitive to the exchange-correlation functional, basis set, and relativistic treatment. In this study, we systematically benchmarked functional-basis set combinations for Aun− (n = 1–20) by comparing optimized low-lying structures and simulated photoelectron spectra (PES) with available experimental data. An initial screening of 14 functionals (B3LYP, B3PW91, CAM-B3LYP, O3LYP, X3LYP, HSE06, M06, M06-L, M06-2X, PBE0, PBE, TPSSh, TPSS, and revTPSS) with six basis sets (LANL2DZ, SDD, dhf–TZVPP, dhf–QZVPP, def2–QZVPP, and aug–cc–pVTZ–PP) identified Au5−, Au10−, and Au12− as key test cases. Both revTPSS/SDD and revTPSS/LANL2DZ reproduced the literature-supported ground-state assignments for the three benchmark clusters, with comparable agreement between calculated and experimental vertical detachment energies (VDEs). This scheme was then applied to Aun− (n = 1–20) to determine ground-state structures and electronic properties. The simulated PES and calculated VDEs reproduce the main experimental size-dependent features, including the overall spectral evolution, the even–odd alternation of VDEs, the two-dimensional (2D)-to-three-dimensional (3D) crossover at Au12−, and the exceptional stability of Au20−. These results support revTPSS/SDD as a practical computational approach for the structural assignments and detachment properties of the bare gold-cluster anions examined here.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1924583</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1924583</link>
        <title><![CDATA[The unfinished picture of low-energy antineutron interactions: open issues and hints for future research possibilities]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-10T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Review</category>
        <author>A. Filippi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Low-energy antineutron interactions provide a unique laboratory for investigating the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime. Owing to the absence of Coulomb interactions and the well-defined isospin (I=1) of the n̄p system, antineutrons serve as particularly clean probes for investigating antinucleon annihilation dynamics. Most of the available measurements were performed more than two decades ago at CERN Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR), yet leaving several fundamental questions unresolved. This review revisits the principal results obtained with low-energy antineutron beams and highlights the key open issues that emerged from these studies. These include discrepancies in antineutron–nucleus annihilation cross sections, the anomalous low-energy behavior of the n̄p elastic channel, the poorly understood isospin dependence of antinucleon annihilation, and inconsistencies among charge-exchange measurements. Open questions related to strangeness production, meson spectroscopy investigations, baryonium searches, and neutron–antineutron oscillation studies are also addressed. Finally, this review outlines how future low-energy antineutron beams, potentially accessible through upgrades of CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD) complex, could deliver the precision measurements required to resolve these long-standing puzzles and significantly advance our understanding of low-energy antinucleon physics.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1957400</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1957400</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Reciprocal tetration: a boundary-capacity hypothesis for the cosmological constant]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Hypothesis and Theory</category>
        <author>Angus McCoss</author>
        <description><![CDATA[The cosmological constant problem combines two distinct questions: how is a very small positive curvature scale selected, and how is that scale protected against vacuum-energy shifts and radiative corrections? This Hypothesis and Theory article addresses value selection through a boundary-capacity hypothesis. For a four-dimensional de Sitter horizon, define ΛP≡ΛlP2 as the cosmological constant expressed in Planck units, and NdS≡AH/12πlP2 as the normalized horizon-area variable. Their reciprocal relation is then a geometric identity, not a selection mechanism. The physical hypothesis is the separate identification of the recursively completed boundary capacity with NdS. The primitive seed is the cubic χ∂=4−4πα0−21α20+2α30. Three right-associated promotions construct the first, second, and terminal capacities sequentially. The exact algebraic inputs are the 21-dimensional reciprocal constitutive space and the Lorentzian double-duality character −2 on its 20-dimensional principal sector. Their scalarization, unit weighting, retention of one axion boundary contact, and the three-tier recurrence remain model-defining hypotheses. The Tamm–Rubilar constitutive-wave tensor supports cubic dependence under an affine principal response and exact axion exclusion from local geometrical-optics propagation, but does not determine the proposed scalar weights 20 and −2. Using the 2022 CODATA Thomson-limit coupling, the frozen hypothesis gives ΛP,⋆≃2.84604×10−122, compatible with the constant-Λ value inferred in base-Λ CDM. This is a postdiction. The minimal model is not renormalization-group invariant at an arbitrary scale and is not protected against a constant vacuum-energy displacement. Its present cosmological expansion history is therefore the same as base-Λ CDM once Λ is fixed; its distinction is parameter fixing, not a different redshift dependence. Prospective tests are the Thomson-limit scale prescription, the primitive boundary-response coefficients, the closure depth, and a finite-boundary matching theory that derives the capacity–area identification.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1947382</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1947382</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Thermal surrogate modelling for the monitoring of actively cooled first wall components in ITER]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Nathaniel Saura</author><author>Joao Nunes</author><author>Joris Paret</author><author>Daniel Iglesias</author>
        <description><![CDATA[During ITER operation, Diagnostic First Walls (DFWs) will be exposed to intense radiative and nuclear heat loads, making active cooling mandatory. This work presents the adaptation of a mesoscale Porous-Media Approach (PMA) to the thermal modelling of actively cooled DFWs, aiming to support their quasi-real-time thermal monitoring. In this approach, the DFW is represented as an equivalent homogeneous medium, while the effects of the cooling network are incorporated through closure terms in the volume-averaged enthalpy transport equation. These terms are derived from coolant properties and cooling layout geometry. The resulting surrogate model is integrated into an end-to-end framework within the ITER Tokamak System Monitor (TSM). The PMA formulation is implemented in the FEM-meshfree MkniX solver to compute the slice-wise steady-state temperature solutions and a signed distance function-based 2D-to-3D linear interpolation strategy reconstructs the full 3D temperature field while capturing smooth geometrical transitions between adjacent reference planes. The method is demonstrated on plasma-facing components with complex cooling networks and evaluated quantitatively on one Equatorial Port Plug 12 DFW, where the surrogate model reproduces plasma-facing surface hot spots, far from apertures, within maximum relative errors of about 7% compared to CFX results. The 2D steady-state solutions converge in O(10 s) while the 3D interpolation takes less than a second. This seminal study supports the potential use of the MkniX-PMA approach for quasi-real-time temperature monitoring of ITER actively cooled first wall components.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1801632</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1801632</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Damped time-fractional KdV-type waves: a residual-minimization approach with Chebyshev–Lobatto corrections]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Alvaro H. Salas</author><author>Weaam Alhejaili</author><author>Samir A. El-Tantawy</author>
        <description><![CDATA[Fractional non-linear wave equations provide refined models for dispersive media with simultaneous damping and hereditary memory, including a wide class of plasma and fluid systems. Motivated by the need for physically interpretable approximations in such settings, this work analyzes a damped time-fractional Korteweg-de Vries (KdV)-type equation in the Caputo sense. The model couples non-linear steepening, dispersion, and collisional damping with a non-local temporal memory kernel, making exact solutions rare and fully discrete schemes difficult to interpret analytically. To address this gap, we develop a residual-minimization framework that starts from a transformed solitary wave solution of the associated unforced integer-order damped KdV equation and uses it as a theorem-based analytical seed. The seed already incorporates collisional damping, but it does not satisfy the fractional evolution. Therefore, we introduce a low-dimensional cubic Chebyshev–Lobatto (CL) correction with three free parameters, constructed explicitly in terms of the interpolation basis and its mapping to the final ansatz coefficients. These parameters are determined by minimizing a strong space–time residual functional of the original fractional model on a finite domain. The resulting approximation remains localized, maintains a direct connection to the classical KdV profile, and, at the same time, adapts to the memory-induced modulation of amplitude and shape. The quality of the optimized profile is quantified through global and instantaneous residual indicators, endpoint residual diagnostics, and an independent Caputo-L1/Fourier pseudospectral benchmark equipped with a grid-refinement protocol. The computations show how the fractional order and damping coefficient jointly control attenuation, apparent stationarity, and splitting of the non-linear structures. They illustrate the practical range of the proposed residual-based methodology for damped fractional dispersive waves on finite time intervals.]]></description>
      </item><item>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1977979</guid>
        <link>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2026.1977979</link>
        <title><![CDATA[Testing detailed balance in daily cryptocurrency markets: irreversibility in range–volume dynamics, and none detectable in candlestick shape]]></title>
        <pubdate>2026-11-06T00:00:00Z</pubdate>
        <category>Original Research</category>
        <author>Insu Choi</author>
        <description><![CDATA[A non-equilibrium steady state is marked by broken detailed balance: probability circulates in state space, and the dynamics acquires an arrow of time. We test for this signature in daily cryptocurrency markets using only open–high–low–close–volume bars for 22 USDT-quoted pairs from one venue. Reversibility is assessed on transition counts rather than through the plug-in entropy production rate, whose finite-size bias consumes most of its power, and two corrections prove necessary. The count statistic’s degrees of freedom are the cyclomatic number of the realized support graph, not the number of state pairs, because Kirchhoff’s current law constrains the pair asymmetries; the pair count delivers a nominal 5% test at 0.2%. Block-permutation surrogates are invalid for this statistic, since a block of length L leaves a fraction (L−1)/L of transitions in their original order. No violation of first-order detailed balance is detected for the candlestick shape in any of 44 tests, which bounds any violation rather than evidencing a reversible mechanism, and follows largely from the near-absence of first-order dependence. Range–volume dynamics differ: with the state space selected on memory using five design assets that are then set aside, the bar range and traded volume jointly reject detailed balance in 12 of 17 held-out assets, with excess asymmetry positive in all 17 and median informational entropy production of 1.9×10−2 nats per bar, significant in 13. The finding survives an alternative partition, a parametric reversible null, and a control isolating the backward-looking normalization; persistence alone does not reproduce it.]]></description>
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