Volume 136, Issue 22

5 June 2026

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On the Cover

Magnon dispersions in FeF₂ along two reciprocal-space directions (top and bottom rows), measured by inelastic neutron scattering (left) and reproduced by spin-wave simulations (right). Selected for an Editors' Suggestion.

From the article:

Altermagnetic and Dipolar Splitting of Magnons in ${FeF}_{2}$
J. Sears, V. O. Garlea, D. Lederman, J. M. Tranquada, and I. A. Zaliznyak
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226701 (2026)

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Single-Enantiomer Spin Polarizers in Superconducting Junctions

Lorenz Meyer, Nicolas Néel, and Jörg Kröger

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226201 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

A new experiment shows that spin-polarized currents conducted by helical organic molecules are not just a measurement artifact, as some researchers suspected.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Acoustic Analogy of Quantum Baldin Sum Rule for Optimal Causal Scattering

Sichao Qu, Zixiong Yu, Erqian Dong, Min Yang, and Nicholas X. Fang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226902 (2026) - Published 5 June, 2026

Sound wave scattering can be increased in one frequency range only by reducing scattering in another range, according to experiments—a discovery relevant for acoustic engineering.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Entropic Charge Separation as a General Mechanism Arresting Nanoscale Condensate Coarsening

Feipeng Chen, Jiaxing Yuan, Yaojun Zhang, Hajime Tanaka, and Ho Cheung Shum

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 228202 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Size-dependent electrostatic barriers place an upper limit on droplet merging efficiency.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Observable Gravitational Wave Strain at Second Order

Guillem Domènech, Shi Pi (皮石), and Ao Wang (王奥)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221402 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

The ambiguity in associating gravitational waves with transverse-traceless components of the metric at second order in perturbation theory is resolved by computing the detector response to second order for the first time.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Crossed Surface Flat Bands in Three-Dimensional Superconducting Altermagnets

Yuri Fukaya, Bo Lu, Keiji Yada, Yukio Tanaka, and Jorge Cayao

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226001 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

Higher dimensional topological phases in three-dimensional superconducting altermagnets characterized by zero-energy surface crossed flat bands indicate the interplay between altermagnetic and superconducting symmetries.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Observation of Acoustic Magnetochiral Anisotropy in $α$ Quartz

Munkhtuguldur Altangerel, S. Badoux, C. Proust, D. Vignolles, and G. L. J. A. Rikken

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226303 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

Acoustic magnetochiral anisotropy is observed in a diamagnetic crystal of $α$ quartz.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Acoustic Bound Pair States in the Continuum Induced by Off-Site Two-Body Interactions

Zhenhang Pu, Chunbo Hua, Hailong He, Liping Ye, Jiuyang Lu, Weiyin Deng, Manzhu Ke, and Zhengyou Liu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226501 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

A novel many-body bound state in the continuum induced entirely by uniform off-site 2-body interactions is observed by mapping a quantum 1D Bose-Hubbard model onto a 2D macroscopic phononic crystal.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Altermagnetic and Dipolar Splitting of Magnons in ${FeF}_{2}$

J. Sears, V. O. Garlea, D. Lederman, J. M. Tranquada, and I. A. Zaliznyak

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226701 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Neutron scattering measurements show that altermagnetic splitting of chiral magnons in the classical antiferromagnet FeF $_{2}$ is small compared to the effects of long-range dipolar interactions.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Electron Recoil via Sample Momentum Transfer in Optical-Mode Excitation

Akira Yasuhara, Yamato Kirii, and Takumi Sannomiya

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226901 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Momentum-resolved EELS provides the first direct evidence that electrons impart measurable momentum to planar samples during mode excitation.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Emergent Isotropic-Nematic Transition in 3D Semiflexible Active Polymers

Twan Hooijschuur, Ehsan Irani, Antoine Deblais, and Sara Jabbari-Farouji

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 228101 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Large-scale Brownian dynamics simulations of 3D semiflexible polymers show that activity modifies the classic picture of the isotropic–nematic transition which highlights a nontrivial interplay between activity, flexibility, and crowding in these systems.

LETTERS

Quantum Information, Science, and Technology

Testing Genuine Multipartite Nonlocality via an Inflated Network with Multicopy Entangled States

Qian-Xi Zhang, Ming-Xing Luo, Ya-Li Mao, Hu Chen, Yu-Hang Yao, Zhi-Lian Liu, Shao-Ming Fei, Xue Yang, and Zheng-Da Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 220201 (2026) - Published 5 June, 2026

Weak-Memory Dynamics in Discrete Time

Hugues Meyer and Kay Brandner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 220401 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Mixed-State Topological Order and the Errorfield Double Formulation of Decoherence-Induced Transitions

Yimu Bao, Ruihua Fan, Ashvin Vishwanath, and Ehud Altman

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 220402 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Realizing Unitary $k$ -Designs with a Single Quench

Yi-Neng Zhou, Robin Löwenberg, and Julian Sonner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 220403 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

Breakdown of Disorder-Suppressed Floquet Heating under Two-Frequency Driving

Cooper M. Selco, Christian Bengs, Chaitali Shah, and Ashok Ajoy

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 220801 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation

Quasinormal Modes Ratios as Agnostic Test of General Relativity

Nicola Franchini

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221401 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Observable Gravitational Wave Strain at Second Order

Guillem Domènech, Shi Pi (皮石), and Ao Wang (王奥)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221402 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Edge Modes on Stringy Horizons

Atish Dabholkar, Eleanor Harris, and Upamanyu Moitra

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221501 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Particles and Fields

Accurate Boundary Bootstrap for the Three-Dimensional $O (N)$ Normal Universality Class

Runzhe Hu and Wenliang Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221601 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Measurement of the Top-Quark Production Cross Section and Charge Asymmetry at LHCb

R. Aaij et al. (LHCb Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221801 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

One-Jettiness Distribution Contains Super-Super-Leading Logarithms

Andrea Banfi, Jeffrey R. Forshaw, and Jack Holguin

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221901 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Ultracold Neutron Energy Spectrum and Storage Properties from Magnetically Induced Spin Depolarization

N. J. Ayres et al. (nEDM Collaboration at PSI)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 221902 (2026) - Published 5 June, 2026

Nuclear Physics

$N = 8$ Shell Breaking in ${}^{12}{Be}$ from a Single-Particle Perspective

J. Chen et al. (ISOLDE Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 222501 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

Electron Affinity of the Carbon Dimer from Threshold Photodetachment Spectroscopy

Sruthi Purushu Melath, Michael Hauck, Christine Lochmann, Robert Wild, Timothy P. Softley, Katrin Dulitz, and Roland Wester

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223001 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Swimming against a Superfluid Flow: Self-Propulsion via Vortex-Antivortex Shedding in a Quantum Fluid of Light

Myrann Baker-Rasooli, Tangui Aladjidi, Tiago D. Ferreira, Alberto Bramati, Mathias Albert, Pierre-Élie Larré, and Quentin Glorieux

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223401 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Programmable Assembly of Ground State Fermionic Tweezer Arrays

Naman Jain, Jin Zhang, Marcus Culemann, and Philipp M. Preiss

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223402 (2026) - Published 5 June, 2026

Nanoscale Femtosecond Coherent Radiation and Spatiotemporally Shaped Free Electron Wave Function

Wu Wen, Jing Li, and Yunquan Liu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223801 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Mie Scattering Analog Circuit Emulator

Emanuele Corsaro, Marco Balato, Giovanni Miano, Carlo Petrarca, Andrea Alù, and Carlo Forestiere

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223802 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Unveiling Spin and Poynting Dual Textures of an Optical Skyrmionic Tube in Free Space

Sicong Wang, Zhikai Zhou, Yongjie Zhu, Jialin Sun, Jiahui Mao, Minghui Wang, Shichao Song, Zi-lan Deng, Yaoyu Cao, Fei Qin, Yunkun Wu, Xifeng Ren, and Xiangping Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 223803 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Physics of Fluids, Earth & Planetary Science, and Climate

Existent Condition of Partially Wet State in Capillary Tubes

Chen Zhao, Jiajia Zhou, and Masao Doi

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 224001 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Plasma and Solar Physics, Accelerators and Beams

Benchmark Calculations of Charge State Distributions and Radiative Properties of Gold Plasmas in ICF Hohlraums

Yongjun Li, Cheng Gao, Yong Hou, Fengtao Jin, Jiaolong Zeng, and Jianmin Yuan

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 225101 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Condensed Matter and Materials

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Crossed Surface Flat Bands in Three-Dimensional Superconducting Altermagnets

Yuri Fukaya, Bo Lu, Keiji Yada, Yukio Tanaka, and Jorge Cayao

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226001 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Single-Enantiomer Spin Polarizers in Superconducting Junctions

Lorenz Meyer, Nicolas Néel, and Jörg Kröger

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226201 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

A new experiment shows that spin-polarized currents conducted by helical organic molecules are not just a measurement artifact, as some researchers suspected.

One-Dimensional Brownian Motion on Unpatterned Two-Dimensional Crystal Surfaces

Ruisheng Zhao, Wanlin Guo, and Hu Qiu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226202 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Evidence of Chiral Fermion Edge Modes through Geometric Engineering of Thermal Hall Effect in $α − {RuCl}_{3}$

Heda Zhang, Gábor B. Halász, Sujoy Ghosh, Stephen Jesse, Thomas Z. Ward, David A. Tennant, Michael A. McGuire, and Jiaqiang Yan

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226301 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

Nonlinear Magnetoelectric Edelstein Effect

Jinxiong Jia, Longjun Xiang, Zhenhua Qiao, and Jian Wang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226302 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Observation of Acoustic Magnetochiral Anisotropy in $α$ Quartz

Munkhtuguldur Altangerel, S. Badoux, C. Proust, D. Vignolles, and G. L. J. A. Rikken

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226303 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

Acoustic magnetochiral anisotropy is observed in a diamagnetic crystal of $α$ quartz.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Acoustic Bound Pair States in the Continuum Induced by Off-Site Two-Body Interactions

Zhenhang Pu, Chunbo Hua, Hailong He, Liping Ye, Jiuyang Lu, Weiyin Deng, Manzhu Ke, and Zhengyou Liu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226501 (2026) - Published 4 June, 2026

A novel many-body bound state in the continuum induced entirely by uniform off-site 2-body interactions is observed by mapping a quantum 1D Bose-Hubbard model onto a 2D macroscopic phononic crystal.

Topological Sliding Moiré Phononic Crystals

Zhonghao Fu, Yinfei Zhang, Qing Wang, Hailong He, Weiyin Deng, Jiuyang Lu, Liping Ye, Manzhu Ke, and Zhengyou Liu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226601 (2026) - Published 1 June, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Altermagnetic and Dipolar Splitting of Magnons in ${FeF}_{2}$

J. Sears, V. O. Garlea, D. Lederman, J. M. Tranquada, and I. A. Zaliznyak

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226701 (2026) - Published 2 June, 2026

Neutron scattering measurements show that altermagnetic splitting of chiral magnons in the classical antiferromagnet FeF $_{2}$ is small compared to the effects of long-range dipolar interactions.

Nonlinear Optomagnetic Signature of $d$ -Wave Altermagnets

Lijun Yang and Long Liang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226702 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Interlayer Self-Doping Multiferroics

Shulin Zhong, Dacheng Tian, Shengyuan A. Yang, Lan Chen, Su-Huai Wei, and Yunhao Lu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226703 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Multipolar Orbital Relaxation of the $t_{2 g}$ States

Aurélien Manchon, Chi Sun, Xiaobai Ning, Tetsuya Sato, Takeo Kato, and Tatiana G. Rappoport

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226801 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Electron Recoil via Sample Momentum Transfer in Optical-Mode Excitation

Akira Yasuhara, Yamato Kirii, and Takumi Sannomiya

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226901 (2026) - Published 3 June, 2026

Momentum-resolved EELS provides the first direct evidence that electrons impart measurable momentum to planar samples during mode excitation.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Acoustic Analogy of Quantum Baldin Sum Rule for Optimal Causal Scattering

Sichao Qu, Zixiong Yu, Erqian Dong, Min Yang, and Nicholas X. Fang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 226902 (2026) - Published 5 June, 2026

Sound wave scattering can be increased in one frequency range only by reducing scattering in another range, according to experiments—a discovery relevant for acoustic engineering.