@article{21406, abstract = {This preliminary study investigates the trace-element composition of ostracod shells (Ostracoda: Crustacea) as biogenic calcium carbonates in their role as environmental sentinels of pollution. Using high-resolution in-situ analysis, we compared two contrasting coastal systems: the highly urbanized seascape of metropolitan megacity Hong Kong (HKSAR) and the agriculturally dominated waters of rural retreat Jeju Island, Republic of Korea (ROK). The goal was to assess whether anthropogenic stress gradients affect trace element-to‑calcium ratios (E/Ca) in the carapaces of shallow-marine Neonesidea Maddocks, 1969 species. Hereby, the focus is laid on potential differences in the effects of extreme urbanization and extreme agriculturalization. We analyzed 12 trace elements commonly incorporated into ostracod shells using Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Only Mn/Ca, Mg/Ca, and Ni/Ca ratios showed strong correlations with specific seawater physicochemical parameters. Notably, Mn/Ca differed significantly between the two sites, seemingly driven mainly by variations in nitrite nitrogen levels. This suggests that Mn incorporation is sensitive to pollution source, urban versus agricultural, though species-specific uptake effects cannot be excluded. No significant differences in elemental uptake were found between adult and A-1 juvenile stages of Neonesidea mutsuensis Ishizaki, 1961 or Neonesidea elegans (Brady, 1969), supporting the use of both age groups in environmental reconstructions and increasing potential sample yields. While remaining empirical and exploratory, our tentative findings suggest that ostracod geochemistry holds promise for marine pollution monitoring and cautiously supports the application of ostracod Mn/Ca ratios to reconstruct anthropogenic, particularly nitrogen-related, impacts in nearshore environments using sediment core records.}, author = {Jöst, Anna B. and Rodriguez Moreno, Maximiliano J and Kim, Taihun and Baker, David M. and Yasuhara, Moriaki and Not, Christelle A. and Karanovic, Ivana}, issn = {1879-3363}, journal = {Marine Pollution Bulletin}, number = {6}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Ostracod shell chemistry as proxy for coastal marine conditions of a highly urbanized megacity (Hong Kong SAR) and an agro-centric oceanic province (Jeju Island, Republic of Korea) – a preliminary comparative analysis}}, doi = {10.1016/j.marpolbul.2026.119493}, volume = {227}, year = {2026}, } @article{21407, abstract = {This note proves that only a linear number of holes in a Cech complex of n points in R^d can persist over an interval of constant length. Specifically, for any fixed dimension p < d and fixed ε > 0, the number of p-dimensional holes in the ˇ Cech complex at radius 1 that persist to radius 1+ε is bounded above by a constant times n,where n is the number of points. The proof uses a packing argument supported by relating theCˇ ech complexes with corresponding snap complexes over the cells in a partition of space. The argument is self-contained and elementary, relying on geometric and combinatorial constructions rather than on the existing theory of sparse approximations or interleavings. The bound also applies to Alpha complexes and Vietoris–Rips complexes. While our result can be inferred from prior work on sparse filtrations, to our knowledge, no explicit statement or direct proof of this bound appears in the literature.}, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Kahle, Matthew and Kanazawa, Shu}, issn = {2367-1734}, journal = {Journal of Applied and Computational Topology}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Maximum persistent Betti numbers of Čech complexes}}, doi = {10.1007/s41468-026-00233-3}, volume = {10}, year = {2026}, } @article{21408, abstract = {Rational design strategies for self-assembly require a detailed understanding of both the equilibrium state and the assembly kinetics. While the former is starting to be well understood, the latter remains a major theoretical challenge, especially in programmable systems and the so-called semi-addressable regime, where binding is often nondeterministic and the formation of off-target structures negatively influences the assembly. Here, we show that it is possible to simultaneously sculpt the assembly outcome and the assembly kinetics through the underexplored design space of binding energies and particle concentrations. By formulating the assembly process as a complex reaction network, we calculate and optimize the tradeoff between assembly speed and quality and show that parameter optimization can speed up assembly by many orders of magnitude without lowering the yield of the target structure. Although the exact speedup varies from design to design, we find the largest speedups for nondeterministic systems where unoptimized assembly is the slowest, sometimes even making them assemble faster than optimized, fully addressable designs. Therefore, these results not only solve a key challenge in semi-addressable self-assembly but further emphasize the utility of semi-addressability, where designs have the potential to be faster as well as cheaper (fewer particle species) and better (higher yield). More broadly, our results highlight the importance of parameter optimization in programmable self-assembly and provide practical tools for simultaneous optimization of kinetics and yield in a wide range of systems.}, author = {Hübl, Maximilian and Goodrich, Carl Peter}, issn = {1089-7690}, journal = {Journal of Chemical Physics}, number = {8}, publisher = {AIP Publishing}, title = {{Simultaneous optimization of assembly time and yield in programmable self-assembly}}, doi = {10.1063/5.0304731}, volume = {164}, year = {2026}, } @article{21409, abstract = {Meiotic drivers are selfish genetic elements that gain transmission advantages by distorting equal, Mendelian segregation. For decades, biologists have considered meiotic drivers as interesting, albeit esoteric, case studies. It is now clear, however, that meiotic drive is more common and phylogenetically widespread than previously supposed. Indeed, intensive study of a few well-known cases has begun to reveal the evolutionary genomic consequences of meiotic drive. We argue here that many features of genome evolution, content, and organization that are seemingly inexplicable by organismal adaptation or nearly neutral processes are instead best accounted for by recurrent histories of meiotic drive. We review how meiotic drive can affect the evolution of sequences, gene copy numbers, genes with functions in meiosis and gametogenesis, signatures of “selection,” chromosome rearrangements, and karyotype evolution. We also explore the interactions of meiotic drive elements with other classes of selfish genetic elements, including satellite DNAs, transposable elements, and with the endogenous host genes involved in drive suppression. Finally, we argue that some aspects of drive-mediated genome evolution are now sufficiently well established that we might reverse the direction of discovery—rather than ask how drive affects genome evolution, we can use genome data to discover new putative drive elements.}, author = {Presgraves, Daven C. and Dawe, R. Kelly and Dyer, Kelly A. and Fishman, Lila and Bhide, Soumitra A. and Bradshaw, Sasha L. and Brady, Meghan J. and Burga, Alejandro and Courret, Cécile and Fagen, Brandon L. and Machado Ferretti, Ana Beatriz Stein and Kelemen, Réka K and Kitano, Jun and Liu, Yiran and Martí, Emiliano and Erlenbach, Theresa and Reinhardt, Josephine A. and Ross, Laura and Runge, Jan Niklas and Swanepoel, Callie M. and Vicoso, Beatriz and Vogan, Aaron A. and Lindholm, Anna K. and Larracuente, Amanda M. and Unckless, Robert L.}, issn = {1537-1719}, journal = {Molecular Biology and Evolution}, number = {2}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, title = {{The evolutionary genomics of meiotic drive}}, doi = {10.1093/molbev/msag020}, volume = {43}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{21410, abstract = {Given a finite set of red and blue points in R^d, the MST-ratio is defined as the total length of the Euclidean minimum spanning trees of the red points and the blue points, divided by the length of the Euclidean minimum spanning tree of their union. The MST-ratio has recently gained attention due to its direct interpretation in topological models for studying point sets with applications in spatial biology. The maximum MST-ratio of a point set is the maximum MST-ratio over all proper colorings of its points by red and blue. We prove that finding the maximum MST-ratio of a given point set is NP-hard when the dimension is part of the input. Moreover, we present a quadratic-time 3-approximation algorithm for this problem. As part of the proof, we show that in any metric space, the maximum MST-ratio is smaller than 3. Furthermore, we study the average MST-ratio over all colorings of a set of n points. We show that this average is always at least n-2/n-1, and for n random points uniformly distributed in a d-dimensional unit cube, the average tends to (math formular) in expectation as n approaches infinity.}, author = {Jabal Ameli, Afrouz and Motiei, Faezeh and Saghafian, Morteza}, booktitle = {20th International Conference and Workshops on Algorithms and Computation}, isbn = {9789819571260}, issn = {1611-3349}, location = {Perugia, Italy}, pages = {386--401}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{On the MST-ratio: Theoretical bounds and complexity of finding the maximum}}, doi = {10.1007/978-981-95-7127-7_26}, volume = {16444}, year = {2026}, } @inproceedings{21411, abstract = {To achieve fast recovery from link failures, most modern communication networks feature fully decentralized fast re-routing mechanisms. These re-routing mechanisms rely on pre-installed static re-routing rules at the nodes (the routers), which depend only on local failure information, namely on the failed links incident to the node. Ideally, a network is perfectly resilient: the re-routing rules ensure that packets are always successfully routed to their destinations as long as the source and the destination are still physically connected in the underlying network after the failures. Unfortunately, there are examples where achieving perfect resilience is not possible. Surprisingly, only very little is known about the algorithmic aspect of when and how perfect resilience can be achieved. We investigate the computational complexity of analyzing such local fast re-routing mechanisms. Our main result is a negative one: we show that even checking whether a given set of static re-routing rules ensures perfect resilience is coNP-complete. Additionally, we investigate other fundamental variations of the problem. In particular, we show that our coNP-completeness proof also applies to scenarios where the re-routing rules have specific patterns (known as skipping in the literature). On the positive side, for scenarios where nodes do not have information about the link from which a packet arrived (the so-called in-port), we present a linear-time algorithm to realize perfect resilience whenever possible (which we show can also be determined in linear time). }, author = {Bentert, Matthias and Ceylan, Esra and Hübner, Valentin and Schmid, Stefan and Srba, Jiří}, booktitle = {29th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems}, isbn = {9783959774093}, issn = {1868-8969}, location = {Iaşi, Romania}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik}, title = {{Fast re-routing in networks: On the complexity of perfect resilience}}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2025.31}, volume = {361}, year = {2026}, } @misc{21422, author = {Sunko, Veronika}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Data underpinning "Magneto-optical Kerr effect in an A-type antiferromagnet"}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21422}, year = {2026}, } @phdthesis{21423, author = {Dunajova, Zuzana}, isbn = {978-3-99078-076-3}, issn = {2663-337X}, pages = {110}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423}, year = {2026}, } @article{21436, abstract = {The cobalt-intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide CoxTaS2 hosts a rich landscape of magnetic phases that depend sensitively on x. While the stoichiometric compound with x = 1/3 exhibits a single magnetic transition, samples with x≤0.325 display two transitions with an anomalous Hall effect (AHE) emerging in the lower temperature phase. Here, we resolve the spin structure in each phase by employing a suite of magneto-optical probes that include the discovery of anomalous magneto-birefringence: a spontaneous time-reversal sensitive rotation of the principal optic axes. A symmetry-based analysis identifies the AHE-active phase as an anisotropic (2+1)Q state, in which magnetic modulation at one wavevector (Q) differs in symmetry from that at the remaining two. The (2+1)Q state naturally exhibits scalar spin chirality as a mechanism for the AHE and expands the classification of multi-Q magnetic phases.}, author = {Kruppe, Jonathon and Rodriguez, Josue and Xu, Catherine and Analytis, James and Orenstein, Joseph and Sunko, Veronika}, issn = {2397-4648}, journal = {npj Quantum Materials}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Anisotropic multi-Q order in CoxTaS2}}, doi = {10.1038/s41535-026-00856-w}, year = {2026}, } @unpublished{21438, abstract = {Antiferromagnets (AFMs) hold promise for applications in digital logic. However, switching AFM domains is challenging, as magnetic fields do not couple to the bulk antiferromagnetic order parameter. Here we show that magnetic-field-driven switching of AFM domains can in many cases be enabled by a generic reduction of magnetic exchange at surfaces. We use statistical mechanics and Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that an inequivalence in magnetic exchange between top and bottom surface moments, combined with the enhanced magnetic susceptibility of surface spins, can enable deterministic selection of antiferromagnetic domains depending on the magnetic-field ramping direction. We further show that this mechanism provides a natural interpretation for experimental observations of hysteresis in magneto-optical response of the van der Waals AFM $\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}$. Our findings highlight the critical role of surface spins in responses of antiferromagnets to magnetic fields. Furthermore, our results suggest that antiferromagnetic domain selection via purely magnetic means may be a more common and experimentally accessible phenomenon than previously assumed.}, author = {Weber, Sophie F. and Sunko, Veronika}, booktitle = {arXiv}, title = {{Deterministic domain selection of antiferromagnets via magnetic fields}}, doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2601.06646}, year = {2026}, } @misc{21439, abstract = {These files contain supplementary movies accompanying the PhD thesis “Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments” by Zuzana Dunajova (2026). The videos provide additional visual material supporting the experiments and results described in the thesis.}, author = {Dunajova, Zuzana}, publisher = {Institute of Science and Technology Austria}, title = {{Supplementary movies to PhD thesis “Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments”}}, doi = {10.15479/AT-ISTA-21439}, year = {2026}, } @article{21449, abstract = {Three-dimensional (3D) crystals offer a route to scaling up trapped-ion systems for quantum sensing and quantum simulation applications; however, engineering coherent spin-motion couplings and effective spin-spin interactions in large crystals poses technical challenges associated with decoherence and prolonged timescales to generate appreciable entanglement. Here, we explore the possibility of speeding up these interactions in 3D crystals via parametric amplification. For this purpose, we derive a general Hamiltonian for the parametric amplification of spin-motion coupling that is broadly applicable to normal modes with motion transverse to or along the spatial extent of the crystal. Unlike in lower-dimensional crystals, we find that the ability to faithfully (uniformly) amplify the spin-spin interactions in 3D crystals depends on the physical implementation of the spin-motion coupling. We consider the light-shift gate, and the so-called phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive Mølmer-Sørensen (MS) gates, and we find that only the phase-sensitive MS gate can be faithfully amplified in general 3D crystals. We discuss a situation where nonuniform amplification can be advantageous. We also reconsider the effect of counter-rotating terms on parametric amplification and find that they are not as detrimental as previous studies suggest.}, author = {Hawaldar, Samarth and Nikhil, N. and Rey, Ana Maria and Bollinger, John J. and Shankar, Athreya}, issn = {2331-7019}, journal = {Physical Review Applied}, number = {3}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Parametric amplification of spin-motion coupling in three-dimensional trapped-ion crystals}}, doi = {10.1103/h1m9-h3yw}, volume = {25}, year = {2026}, } @article{21450, abstract = {Stellar wind mass loss of massive stars is often assumed to depend on their metallicity Z. Therefore, evolutionary models predict that massive stars in lower-Z environments are able to retain more of their hydrogen-rich layers and evolve into brighter cool supergiants (cool SGs; Teff < 7 kK). Surprisingly, in galaxies in the metallicity range 0.2 ≲ Z/Z⊙ ≲ 1.5, previous studies have not found a metallicity dependence on the upper luminosity limit Lmax of cool SGs. Here, we add four galaxies to the sample studied for this purpose with data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Observations of the extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxy I Zw 18 from JWST allow us to extend the studied metallicity range down to Z/Z⊙ ≈ 1/40. For cool SGs in all studied galaxies, including I Zw 18, we find a constant value of Lmax ≈ 105.6 L⊙, similar to literature results for 0.2 ≲ Z/Z⊙ ≲ 1.5. In I Zw 18 and the other studied galaxies, the presence of Wolf-Rayet stars has been previously inferred. Although we cannot rule out that some of them become intermediate-temperature objects, this paints a picture in which evolved stars with L > 105.6 L⊙ burn helium as hot, helium-rich stars down to extremely low metallicity. We argue that metallicity-independent late-phase mass loss would be the most likely mechanism responsible for this. Regardless of the exact stripping mechanism (winds or, for example, binary interaction), for the Early Universe our results imply a limitation on black hole masses and a contribution of stars born with M ≳ 30 M⊙ to its surprisingly strong nitrogen enrichment. We propose a scenario in which single stars at low metallicity emit sufficiently hard ionizing radiation to produce He II and C IV lines. In this scenario, late-phase metallicity-independent mass loss produces hot, helium-rich stars. Due to the well-understood metallicity dependence on the radiation-driven winds of hot stars, a window of opportunity would open below 0.2 Z⊙, where self-stripped helium-rich stars can exist without dense Wolf-Rayet winds that absorb hard ionizing radiation.}, author = {Schootemeijer, Abel and Götberg, Ylva Louise Linsdotter and Langer, Norbert and Bortolini, Giacomo and Hirschauer, Alec S. and Patrick, Lee}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{A constant upper luminosity limit of cool supergiant stars down to the extremely low metallicity of I Zw 18}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202557675}, volume = {707}, year = {2026}, } @article{21451, abstract = {The population of the little red dots (LRDs) may represent a key phase of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth. A cocoon of dense excited gas is emerging as a key component to explain the most striking properties of LRDs, such as strong Balmer breaks and Balmer absorption, as well as the weak IR emission. To dissect the structure of LRDs, we analyzed new deep JWST/NIRSpec PRISM and G395H spectra of FRESCO-GN-9771, one of the most luminous known LRDs at z = 5.5. These spectra reveal a strong Balmer break, broad Balmer lines, and very narrow [O III] emission. We revealed a forest of optical [Fe II] lines, which we argue are emerging from a dense (nH = 109 − 10 cm−3) warm layer with electron temperature Te ≈ 7000 K. The broad wings of Hα and Hβ have an exponential profile due to electron scattering in this same layer. The high Hα : Hβ : Hγ flux ratio of ≈10.4 : 1 : 0.14 is an indicator of collisional excitation and resonant scattering dominating the Balmer line emission. A narrow Hγ component, unseen in the other two Balmer lines due to outshining by the broad components, could trace the ISM of a normal host galaxy with a star formation rate of ∼5 M⊙ yr−1. The warm layer is mostly opaque to Balmer transitions, producing a characteristic P Cygni profile in the line centers suggesting outflowing motions. This same layer is responsible for shaping the Balmer break. The broadband spectrum can be reasonably matched by a simple photoionized slab model that dominates the λ > 1500 Å continuum and a low-mass (∼108 M⊙) galaxy that could explain the narrow [O III], with only a subdominant contribution to the UV continuum. Our findings indicate that Balmer lines are not directly tracing the gas kinematics near the SMBH and that the BH mass scale is likely much lower than virial indicators suggest.}, author = {Torralba Torregrosa, Alberto and Matthee, Jorryt J and Pezzulli, Gabriele and Naidu, Rohan P. and Ishikawa, Yuzo and Brammer, Gabriel B. and Chang, Seok Jun and Chisholm, John and De Graaff, Anna and D’Eugenio, Francesco and Di Cesare, Claudia and Eilers, Anna Christina and Greene, Jenny E. and Gronke, Max and Iani, Edoardo and Kokorev, Vasily and Kotiwale, Gauri and Kramarenko, Ivan and Ma, Yilun and Mascia, Sara and Navarrete, Benjamín and Nelson, Erica and Oesch, Pascal and Simcoe, Robert A. and Wuyts, Stijn}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{The warm outer layer of a little red dot as the source of [Fe ii] and collisional Balmer lines with scattering wings}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202557537}, volume = {707}, year = {2026}, } @article{21452, abstract = {Galaxies exhibit a tight correlation between their star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass over a wide redshift range known as the star-forming main sequence (SFMS). With JWST, the SFMS can now be investigated at high redshifts down to masses of ∼106 M⊙, using sensitive star formation rate tracers such as the Hα emission, which allow us to probe the variability in the star formation histories. We present inferences of the SFMS based on 316 Hα-selected galaxies at z ∼ 4 − 5 with log(M★/M⊙) = 6.4 − 10.6. These galaxies were identified behind the Abell 2744 lensing cluster with NIRCam grism spectroscopy from the survey All the Little Things (ALT). At face value, our data suggest a shallow slope in the SFMS (SFR ∝ M★α, with α = 0.45). After we corrected this for the Hα-flux limited nature of our survey using a Bayesian framework, the slope steepened to α = 0.59+0.10−0.09, whereas current data on their own are inconclusive on the mass dependence of the scatter. These slopes differ significantly from the slope of ∼1 that is expected from the observed evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function and from simulations. When we fixed the slope to α = 1, we found evidence for a decreasing intrinsic scatter with stellar mass (from ∼0.5 dex at M★ = 108 M⊙ to 0.4 dex at M★ = 1010 M⊙). This difference might be explained by a (combination of) luminosity-dependent SFR(Hα) calibration, a population of (mini)-quenched low-mass galaxies, or underestimated dust attenuation in high-mass galaxies. Future deep observations with different facilities can quantify these processes, which will enable us to achieve better insights into the variability of the star formation histories.}, author = {Di Cesare, Claudia and Matthee, Jorryt J and Naidu, Rohan P. and Torralba, Alberto and Kotiwale, Gauri and Kramarenko, Ivan and Blaizot, Jeremy and Rosdahl, Joakim and Leja, Joel and Iani, Edoardo and Adamo, Angela and Covelo-Paz, Alba and Furtak, Lukas J. and Heintz, Kasper E. and Mascia, Sara and Navarrete, Benjamín and Oesch, Pascal A. and Romano, Michael and Shivaei, Irene and Tacchella, Sandro}, issn = {1432-0746}, journal = {Astronomy & Astrophysics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, title = {{The slope and scatter of the star-forming main sequence at z ∼ 5: Reconciling observations with simulations}}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202557790}, volume = {707}, year = {2026}, } @article{21453, abstract = {1. Collective behaviours are a fascinating study area due to the emergent properties that can only arise in groups of interacting individuals. However, their quantitative study is often impaired by technical difficulties, creating either low-quality and sparse data or impractical data amounts, particularly when capturing large groups over long periods of time. Common challenges arise from recording group members with as little obscuring of each other as possible, as well as in generating manageable data amounts with as high as possible information content. 2. We here provide a multicomponent system that allows to record, analyse and simulate the long-term spatiotemporal activity patterns of insect collectives, especially ant colonies. Our Ant Observing System, ALTAA, comprises a flat-nest design to prevent occlusion of individuals, a recording system running on a low-power single-board-computer, and a set of computer programmes performing quantitative analyses to guide the formation and validation of rules underlying the observed collective patterns. Our system is scalable in that it allows parallel, continuous observation of a high number of colonies using low memory space, with colony maintenance requirements (e.g. feeding, nest humidity) being achieved at lowest possible disturbance by the experimenter. 3. We showcase the potential of the system in a study using the black garden ant, Lasius niger, where we analyse the spatiotemporal effects of different group sizes (1, 6, 10 ants), brood (larvae) presence or absence, as well as of different nest geometries, over a period of 1 week. We show that the ants' motion activity has a weak periodicity in the range of 20 to 120 min promoted by larval presence, and that ants are spatially attracted to their larvae, the water source and the walls. We also find that the presence of nestmates lowers an individual ant's motion activity. Observed data are compared to simulations of the temporal activity of the ants. 4. ALTAA provides a powerful toolkit to quantify and interpret spatial and temporal collective activity patterns in (social) insects over extended periods.}, author = {Oh, Jinook and Cremer, Sylvia}, issn = {2041-210X}, journal = {Methods in Ecology and Evolution}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies}}, doi = {10.1111/2041-210x.70277}, year = {2026}, } @article{21454, abstract = {This study examines the distribution, growth, and GLOF hazard of glacial lakes across major Himalayan river basins. Basin-wise GLOF susceptibility was assessed using glacial lake abundance, spatial distribution, and rates of lake area expansion. The Kosi, Yarlung Zangbo, Manas, and Upper Indus basins were identified as the most susceptible and classified as critical. The highest rates of lake size increase were observed in the Kosi Basin, followed by Yarlung Zangbo, Manas, Karnali, Upper Indus, and Tista, indicating their potential as future GLOF-prone regions. Moreover, a Himalayan-scale GLOF hazard map was generated integrating population, hydropower infrastructure, potential flood volume, roads, settlements, and railways revealing high hazard levels in the Chenab, Jhelum, Teesta, and Beas basins in India; the Koshi, Tama-Koshi, and Dudh-Koshi basins in Nepal; and the Kuri Chu sub-basin of the Manas Basin in Bhutan. These findings highlight priority regions where detailed field investigations and hydrodynamic modelling are essential before further infrastructure development.}, author = {Mohanty, Litan and Gantayat, Prateek}, issn = {1947-5713}, journal = {Geomatics Natural Hazards and Risk}, number = {1}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, title = {{Comprehensive assessment of Himalayan glacial lakes concerning their distribution, dynamics, and hazard potential}}, doi = {10.1080/19475705.2026.2639085}, volume = {17}, year = {2026}, } @article{21469, abstract = {Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy is a powerful probe of low-energy excitations in complex materials. Extending it into the nonlinear regime broadens its scope and can provide valuable insight into interactions among these modes. However, interpreting nonlinear spectra is challenging because resonant features in this case do not always reflect intrinsic material dynamics. Here, we study nonlinear THz-induced Kerr effect in a generic material LaAlO3. After detailed analysis of temporal oscillations of the Kerr signal, we identify an 𝐸𝑔 Raman mode at 1.1 THz excited through a two-photon process, while two additional peaks (0.86 and 0.36 THz) arise from phase matching of the near-infrared probe beam with co- and counterpropagating THz pump fields, mediated by off-resonant electronic hyperpolarizability. These results demonstrate the crucial role of kinematic effects in shaping THz-induced Kerr response and establish a framework for interpreting nonlinear spectroscopies in complex materials.}, author = {Shen, Chao and Frenzel, Maximilian and Maehrlein, Sebastian F. and Alpichshev, Zhanybek}, issn = {1079-7114}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {10}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Disentangling electronic and ionic nonlinear polarization effects in bulk THz Kerr response}}, doi = {10.1103/1c5k-9z82}, volume = {136}, year = {2026}, } @article{21470, abstract = {Despite its pivotal role in optical manipulation, high capacity communications, and quantum information, a general measure of orbital angular momentum (OAM) in structured light remains elusive. In optical fields, where multiple vortices coexist, the local nature of vortex OAM and the absence of a common rotation axis make the total OAM of the field difficult to quantify. Here, we introduce the R index—a metric that captures the intrinsic OAM content of any structured optical field, from pure Laguerre–Gaussian modes to arbitrary multi vortex superpositions. Not only does this metric quantify the total OAM, it also assesses field purity, providing insight into the fidelity and robustness of the OAM generation. By unifying OAM characterization into a single figure of merit, the R index enables direct comparison across diverse beam profiles and facilitates the identification of optimal configurations for both foundational studies and applied technologies.}, author = {Bahl, Monika and Koutentakis, Georgios and Maslov, Mikhail and Jungnickel, Tom and Gaßen, Timo and Lemeshko, Mikhail and Heckl, Oliver H.}, issn = {2515-7647}, journal = {Journal of Physics: Photonics}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, title = {{The R-index: A universal metric for evaluating OAM content and mode purity in optical fields}}, doi = {10.1088/2515-7647/ae3506}, volume = {8}, year = {2026}, } @article{21471, author = {Backlund, Sofia Maria and Stankowski, Sean and Soler Schaller, Rosina Matilde}, issn = {1537-2197}, journal = {American Journal of Botany}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Seeds as space-time travelers: How does evolution balance the joint benefits and trade-offs of dormancy and dispersal?}}, doi = {10.1002/ajb2.70175}, volume = {113}, year = {2026}, }