Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy最新文献

Hydrogenated metal borides have attracted much attention due to their potential high-temperature superconductivity. Here, we propose a new strategy for hydrogen intercalation tuning the stability and superconductivity of the boron honeycomb sublattice, and predict an unprecedented layered compound Na₂B₂H, which hosts excellent superconductivity. Strikingly, the superconducting transition temperature (T_c) of Na₂B₂H reaches 42 K at ambient pressure. The T_c value can be further increase to 63 K under 5% biaxial tensile strain. The excellent superconductivity originates from the strong electron-phonon coupling between the σ-bonding bands near the Fermi level and the B-B stretching optical E′ modes. The interstitial electron localization and crystal orbitals of the H-intercalated Na ion layer well match the boron honeycomb lattice and act as a chemical template to stabilize the B layer. Furthermore, the introduction of hydrogen tuned the Fermi level, and the coupling vibration of Na and H ions effectively enhanced the dynamic stability of the structure. Na₂B₂H represents a new family of layered high-temperature superconductors, and the strategy of stabilizing the honeycomb boron sublattice via chemical template hosts great potential for application to more layered compounds.

Charge density wave (CDW) in kagome materials with the geometric frustration is able to carry unconventional characteristics. Recently, a CDW has been observed below the antiferromagnetic order in kagome FeGe, in which magnetism and CDW are intertwined to form an emergent quantum ground state. However, the CDW is only short-ranged and the structural modulation originating from it has yet to be determined experimentally. Here we realize a long-range CDW order by post-annealing process, and resolve the structure model through single crystal X-ray diffraction. Occupational disorder of Ge resulting from short-range CDW correlations above T_CDW is identified from structure refinements. The partial dimerization of Ge along the c axis is unveiled to be the dominant distortion for the CDW. Occupational disorder of Ge is also proved to exist in the CDW phase due to the random selection of partially dimerized Ge sites. Our work provides useful insights for understanding the unconventional nature of the CDW in FeGe.

The ability to characterize three-dimensional (3D) magnetization distributions in nanoscale magnetic materials and devices is essential to fully understand their static and dynamic magnetic properties. Phase contrast techniques in the transmission electron microscope (TEM), such as electron holography and electron ptychography, can be used to record two-dimensional (2D) projections of the in-plane magnetic induction of 3D nanoscale objects. Although the 3D magnetic induction can in principle be reconstructed from one or more tilt series of such 2D projections, conventional tomographic reconstruction algorithms do not recover the 3D magnetization within a sample directly. Here, we use simulations to describe the basis of an improved model-based algorithm for the tomographic reconstruction of a 3D magnetization distribution from one or more tilt series of electron optical phase images recorded in the TEM. The algorithm allows a wide range of physical constraints, including a priori information about the sample geometry and magnetic parameters, to be specified. It also makes use of minimization of the micromagnetic energy in the loss function. We demonstrate the reconstruction of the 3D magnetization of a localized magnetic soliton — a hopfion ring — and discuss the influence of noise, choice of magnetic constants, maximum tilt angle and number of tilt axes on the result. The algorithm can in principle be adapted for other magnetic contrast imaging techniques in the TEM, as well as for other magnetic characterization techniques, such as those based on X-rays or neutrons.

We combined data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey (ALFALFA) to establish the HI mass vs. stellar mass and halo mass scaling relations using an abundance matching method that is free of the Malmquist bias. To enable abundance matching, a cross-match between the SDSS DR7 galaxy group sample and the ALFALFA HI sources provides a catalog of 16520 HI-galaxy pairs within 14270 galaxy groups (halos). By applying the observational completeness reductions for both optical and HI observations, we used the remaining 8180 ALFALFA matched sources to construct the model constraints. Taking into account the dependence of HI mass on both the galaxy and group properties, we establish two sets of scaling relations: one with a combination of stellar mass, (g-r) color and halo mass, and the other with stellar mass, specific star-formation rate (sSFR), and halo mass. We demonstrate that our models can reproduce the HI mass component as both stellar mass and halo mass. Additional tests showed that the conditional HI mass distributions as a function of the cosmic web type and the satellite fractions were well recovered.

We perform the first lattice QCD study on the radiative decay of the scalar glueball to the vector meson ϕ in the quenched approximation. The calculations are carried out on three gauge ensembles with different lattice spacings, which enable us to do the continuum extrapolation. We first revisit the radiative J/ψ decay into the scalar glueball G and obtain the partial decay width Γ(J/ψ → γG) = 0.578(86) keV and the branching fraction Br(J/ψ → γG) = 6.2(9) × 10⁻³, which are in agreement with the previous lattice results. We then extend the similar calculation to the process G → γϕ and get the partial decay width Γ(G → γϕ) = 0.074(47) keV, which implies that the combined branching fraction of J/ψ → γG → γγϕ is as small as (cal{O}(10^{-9})) such that this process is hardly detected by the BESIII experiment even with the large J/ψ sample of (cal{O}(10^{10})). With the vector meson dominance model, the two-photon decay width of the scalar glueball is estimated to be Γ(G → γγ) = 0.53(46) eV, which results in a large stickiness (S(G)sim {cal{O}}(10^{4})) of the scalar glueball by assuming the stickiness of f₂(1270) to be one.

Several pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations have recently reported the evidence for a stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB), which can unveil the formation of primordial seeds of inhomogeneities in the early universe. With the SGWB parameters inferred from PTAs data, we can make a prediction of the seeds for early galaxy formation from the domain walls in the axion-like particles (ALPs) field distribution. This also naturally provides a solution to the observation of high redshifts by the James Webb Space Telescope. The predicted photon coupling of the ALP is within the reach of future experimental searches.

The Gamma-ray Transient Monitor (GTM) is an all-sky monitor onboard the Distant Retrograde Orbit-A (DRO-A) satellite with the scientific objective of detecting gamma-ray transients ranging from 20 keV to 1 MeV. The GTM was equipped with five Gamma-ray Transient Probe (GTP) detector modules utilizing a NaI(Tl) scintillator coupled with a SiPM array. To reduce the SiPM noise, GTP uses a dedicated dual-channel coincident readout design. In this work, we first studied the impact of different coincidence times on the detection efficiency and ultimately selected a 0.5 µs time coincidence window for offline data processing. To test the performance of the GTPs and validate the Monte-Carlo-simulated energy response, we conducted comprehensive ground calibration tests using the Hard X-ray Calibration Facility (HXCF) and radioactive sources, including the energy response, detection efficiency, spatial response, bias-voltage response, and temperature dependence. We extensively present the ground calibration results and validate the design and mass model of the GTP detector, thus providing the foundation for in-flight observations and scientific data analysis.

The China Space Station Telescope (CSST, also known as Xuntian) is a serviceable two-meter-aperture wide-field telescope operating in the same orbit as the China Space Station. The CSST plans to survey a sky area of 17,500 deg² of the medium-to-high Galactic latitude to a depth of 25–26 AB mag in at least 6 photometric bands over 255–1,000 nm. Within such a large sky area, slitless spectra will also be taken over the same wavelength range as the imaging survey. Even though the CSST survey is not dedicated to time-domain studies, it would still detect a large number of transients, such as supernovae (SNe). In this paper, we simulate photometric SN observations based on a strawman survey plan using the Sncosmo package. During its 10-year survey, the CSST is expected to observe about 5 million SNe of various types. With quality cuts, we obtain a “gold” sample that comprises roughly 7,400 SNe Ia, 2,200 SNe Ibc, and 6,500 SNe II candidates with correctly classified percentages reaching 91%, 63%, and 93% (formally defined as classification precision), respectively. The same survey can also trigger alerts for the detection of about 15,500 SNe Ia (precision 61%) and 2,100 SNe II (precision 49%) candidates at least two days before the light maxima. Moreover, the near-ultraviolet observations of the CSST will be able to catch hundreds of shock-cooling events serendipitously every year. These results demonstrate that the CSST can make a potentially significant contribution to SN studies.