Magnetic field as a tuning knob for edge mode interaction in integer quantum Hall interferometers
preprint, arXiv:2611.03284
Abstract:
The quantum Hall interferometer has been shown to be a powerful tool for probing both the nature of the chiral modes present at the edges of these systems and the interactions between them. Strong inter-edge mode interactions can lead the system into a regime where the period of the interferometer signal corresponds to an insertion of a half-quantum flux h/2e, rather than the standard flux quantum h/e. Using a highly tunable bilayer graphene device, we are able to measure the prevalence of both the h/e-period and the doubled-frequency regimes as a function of magnetic field, providing insight into the microscopic nature of the doubling mechanism. Furthermore, we are able to push our device to a regime where double-frequency oscillations coexist with a superimposed period-h/e pattern associated with the inner chiral modes farther from the edge. We argue that this regime has a natural interpretation in a picture of the frequency doubling being caused by strong capacitive couplings between the edge modes.
Enzymes can activate and mobilize dense biomolecular condensates across scales
Nature Communications 17:1 (2026) 11073
Abstract:
Biomolecular condensates have so far been studied in terms of their structural, compositional, and functional properties. However, condensate enzymatic activity - a key aspect of cellular metabolism - remains unexplored due to the complexity of the system. In this study, using a combination of experimental, computational and theoretical techniques, we have discovered that the non-equilibrium activity which originates from catalytic reactions couples with the environment through various feedback mechanisms across five orders of magnitude of length scales. We observe that condensed enzymes catalyze more rapidly in the presence of crowding proteins and show that the increased enzymatic activity within these droplets stems from the emergence of lower-energy protein conformations induced by the highly crowded environment. Despite the crowding in the environment of the droplet, which might suggest an effective increase in its overall viscosity, we find that it becomes more agile, as evidenced by the observation of enhanced diffusion and macroscopic flow, due to the enzymatic activity. These findings shed light on the dynamic interplay between enzymatic activity, composition and crowding in condensates, and their roles on the mobility and accessibility of various functional units in these environments, expanding our understanding of liquid-liquid phase separation in metabolically active conditions.Developmental bias explains the evolutionary trend towards simple leaf shapes
(2026)
Fractional Chern insulators and competing states in a twisted MoTe
2
lattice model
Physical Review Letters American Physical Society (APS) (2026)
Competing routes to spontaneous flow in confined active nematics
(2026)