Volume 136, Issue 3

23 January 2026

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On the Cover

An image of Paul Langevin emerges from noise (clockwise from bottom right) as the result of denoising in a simulation of a trained thermodynamic computer. Selected for an Editors' Suggestion.

From the article:

Generative Thermodynamic Computing
Stephen Whitelam
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037101 (2026)

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Control of Molecular Rotation in Helium Nanodroplets with an Optical Centrifuge

Ian MacPhail-Bartley, Alexander A. Milner, Frank Stienkemeier, and Valery Milner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033002 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

A technique for spinning up molecules in a gas has now been adapted to work with superfluid helium as the host medium.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Frequency Stability of $2.5 \times 10^{- 17}$ from a Si Cavity with AlGaAs Crystalline Mirrors

Dahyeon Lee, Zoey Z. Hu, Ben Lewis, Alexander Aeppli, Kyungtae Kim, Zhibin Yao, Thomas Legero, Daniele Nicolodi, Fritz Riehle, Uwe Sterr, and Jun Ye

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033801 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

A crystalline mirror coating significantly reduces fluctuations in the resonant frequency of an optical cavity.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Experimental Observation of Hidden Multistability in Nonlinear Systems

Kun Zhang, Qicheng Zhang, Shuaishuai Tong, Wenquan Wu, Xiling Feng, and Chunyin Qiu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037201 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Experiments with programmable electroacoustic cavities reveal that a multistable system can be steered into states that are unreachable with conventional control methods.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Combinatorial Design of Floppy Modes and Frustrated Loops in Metamaterials

Wenfeng Liu, Tomer A. Sigalov, Corentin Coulais, and Yair Shokef

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038202 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

A mechanical network of flexible links can be designed to solve a problem in matrix algebra.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Localized ${AdS}_{3} \times S^{3} \times T^{4}$ Black Holes

Óscar J. C. Dias and Jorge E. Santos

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031501 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

The dual (3D) black holes that were missing in the study of gravity duals of 2D field theories have been found.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Purely Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger–like Entanglement is Forbidden in Holography

Vijay Balasubramanian, Monica Jinwoo Kang, Charlie Cummings, Chitraang Murdia, and Simon F. Ross

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031602 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Time-symmetric holographic states may never have purely GHZ-like entanglement.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Evidence for the Collective Nature of Radial Flow in $Pb + Pb$ Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032301 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Two different LHC measurements of a novel observable $v_{0} (p_{T})$ for the radial flow of quark-gluon plasma again confirms the collective hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Long-Range Transverse-Momentum Correlations and Radial Flow in Pb-Pb Collisions at the LHC

S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032302 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Two different LHC measurements of a novel observable $v_{0} (p_{T})$ for the radial flow of quark-gluon plasma again confirms the collective hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Phase-Variation Ramsey Spectroscopy of the $2^{3} S_{1} \to 2^{3} P_{2}$ Interval in Positronium

D. M. Newson and D. B. Cassidy

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033001 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

The structure of positronium was measured by using the Ramsey separated oscillatory fields method.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Generative Thermodynamic Computing

Stephen Whitelam

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037101 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

A thermodynamic framework for creating an analog version of a neural network diffusion model exhibits eleven orders of magnitude better efficiency than its digital counterpart.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Nonlinear Coupling Induced Anomalous State Transfer and Complete Multistate Excitation via Adiabatic Control

Zhao-Xian Chen, Yi Ru, Guang-Chen He, Ming-Hui Lu, Yan-Feng Chen, Yan-Qing Lu, and Ze-Guo Chen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037202 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Nonlinear coupling reshapes attractor landscapes to produce anomalous state transitions and full multistate excitation under adiabatic control.

LETTERS

Quantum Information, Science, and Technology

Krylov Complexity of Purification

Rathindra Nath Das and Takato Mori

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 030201 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Non-Haar Random Circuits form Unitary Designs as Fast as Haar Random Circuits

Toshihiro Yada, Ryotaro Suzuki, Yosuke Mitsuhashi, and Nobuyuki Yoshioka

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 030401 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Efficient Preparation of Dicke States

Jeffery Yu, Sean R. Muleady, Yu-Xin Wang (王语馨), Nathan Schine, Alexey V. Gorshkov, and Andrew M. Childs

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 030601 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Accessible Quantum Gates on Classical Stabilizer Codes

Victor Barizien, Hugo Jacinto, and Nicolas Sangouard

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 030602 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Gravitation

Cosmological Magnetic Fields from Ultralight Dark Matter

Robert Brandenberger, Jürg Fröhlich, and Hao Jiao

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031001 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Localized ${AdS}_{3} \times S^{3} \times T^{4}$ Black Holes

Óscar J. C. Dias and Jorge E. Santos

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031501 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

The dual (3D) black holes that were missing in the study of gravity duals of 2D field theories have been found.

Particles and Fields

Probabilistic Construction of Noncompactified Imaginary Liouville Field Theory

Romain Usciati, Colin Guillarmou, Remi Rhodes, and Raoul Santachiara

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031601 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Purely Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger–like Entanglement is Forbidden in Holography

Vijay Balasubramanian, Monica Jinwoo Kang, Charlie Cummings, Chitraang Murdia, and Simon F. Ross

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031602 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Time-symmetric holographic states may never have purely GHZ-like entanglement.

Machine-Learned Renormalization-Group-Improved Gauge Actions and Classically Perfect Gradient Flows

Kieran Holland, Andreas Ipp, David I. Müller, and Urs Wenger

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031901 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

First Exclusive Reconstruction of the $B^{* +}$ , $B^{* 0}$ , and $B_{s}^{* 0}$ Mesons and Precise Measurement of Their Masses

A. Hayrapetyan et al. (CMS Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 031902 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Nuclear Physics

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Evidence for the Collective Nature of Radial Flow in $Pb + Pb$ Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032301 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Two different LHC measurements of a novel observable $v_{0} (p_{T})$ for the radial flow of quark-gluon plasma again confirms the collective hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Long-Range Transverse-Momentum Correlations and Radial Flow in Pb-Pb Collisions at the LHC

S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032302 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Two different LHC measurements of a novel observable $v_{0} (p_{T})$ for the radial flow of quark-gluon plasma again confirms the collective hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma.

Nuclear Responses with Neural-Network Quantum States

Elad Parnes, Nir Barnea, Giuseppe Carleo, Alessandro Lovato, Noemi Rocco, and Xilin Zhang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 032501 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Phase-Variation Ramsey Spectroscopy of the $2^{3} S_{1} \to 2^{3} P_{2}$ Interval in Positronium

D. M. Newson and D. B. Cassidy

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033001 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

The structure of positronium was measured by using the Ramsey separated oscillatory fields method.

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Control of Molecular Rotation in Helium Nanodroplets with an Optical Centrifuge

Ian MacPhail-Bartley, Alexander A. Milner, Frank Stienkemeier, and Valery Milner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033002 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

A technique for spinning up molecules in a gas has now been adapted to work with superfluid helium as the host medium.

Fractal Spectrum in Twisted Bilayer Optical Lattice

Xu-Tao Wan, Chao Gao, and Zhe-Yu Shi

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033401 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Quantum Many-Body Dynamics for Fermionic $t − J$ Model Simulated with Atom Arrays

Ye-Bing Zhang, Xin-Chi Zhou, Bao-Zong Wang, and Xiong-Jun Liu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033402 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Two-Polariton Blockade via Ultrastrong Light-Matter Coupling

Ting-Ting Ma, Jian Tang, Yun-Lan Zuo, Ran Huang, Adam Miranowicz, Franco Nori, and Hui Jing

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033601 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Frequency Stability of $2.5 \times 10^{- 17}$ from a Si Cavity with AlGaAs Crystalline Mirrors

Dahyeon Lee, Zoey Z. Hu, Ben Lewis, Alexander Aeppli, Kyungtae Kim, Zhibin Yao, Thomas Legero, Daniele Nicolodi, Fritz Riehle, Uwe Sterr, and Jun Ye

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033801 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

A crystalline mirror coating significantly reduces fluctuations in the resonant frequency of an optical cavity.

Guided Vortex Bullets

Carlos F. Sánchez, Ángel Paredes, Humberto Michinel, Boris A. Malomed, and José R. Salgueiro

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 033802 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Condensed Matter and Materials

Single-Fluid Model for Rotating Annular Supersolids and Its Experimental Implications

N. Preti, N. Antolini, C. Drevon, P. Lombardi, A. Fioretti, C. Gabbanini, G. Ferioli, G. Modugno, and G. Biagioni

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036001 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Gate-Tunable Spin Switching Effect and Bilinear Magnetoelectric Resistance in the Topological Semimetal

An-Qi Wang, Tong-Yang Zhao, Chuan Li, Xu-Dong Yang, Rui Zhu, Jing-Wei Dong, Alexander Brinkman, Chun-Guang Chu, and Zhi-Min Liao

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036201 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Acoustoelectric Probing of Fractal Energy Spectra in Graphene/hBN Moiré Superlattices

Wenqing Song, Yicheng Mou, Qing Lan, Guorui Zhao, Zejing Guo, Jiaqi Liu, Tuoyu Zhao, Cheng Zhang, and Wu Shi

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036301 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Explicit Wave Function of the Interacting Non-Hermitian Spin- $1 / 2$ 1D System

Yue Wang, Xiangyu Zhang, Zhesen Yang, and Congjun Wu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036501 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Impurity Screening by Defects in $(1 + 1) d$ Quantum Critical Systems

Ying-Hai Wu, Yueshui Zhang, Hong-Hao Tu, and Meng Cheng

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036502 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Spin-Chain Multichannel Kondo Model via Image Impurity Boundary Condition

Jordan Gaines, Guangjie Li, and Jukka I. Väyrynen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036503 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Orbital Ordering in the Charge Density Wave Phases of ${BaNi}_{2} ({As}_{1 − x} P_{x})_{2}$

Tom Lacmann, Robert Eder, Igor Vinograd, Michael Merz, Mehdi Frachet, Philippa Helen McGuinness, Kurt Kummer, Enrico Schierle, Amir-Abbas Haghighirad, Sofia-Michaela Souliou, and Matthieu Le Tacon

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036504 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Enhanced Anomalous Nernst Effect in the Ferromagnetic Kondo Lattice ${CeCo}_{2} {As}_{2}$

Shuyue Guan, Weian Guo, Pengyu Zheng, Xinxuan Lin, Yuqing Huang, Jiawei Li, Xiao-Bin Qiang, Longfei Li, Weiwei Xie, Hai-Zhou Lu, Zhiping Yin, and Shuang Jia

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036505 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

${FeTa X}_{2}$ : A Ferrimagnetic Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator

Yadong Jiang, Huan Wang, and Jing Wang (王靖)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036601 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Quantized Transport of $ν = 2 / 3$ Fractional Quantum Hall Edge with Disordered Superconducting Proximity

Pok Man Tam, Hao Chen, and Biao Lian

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036602 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Experimental Evidence of Néel-Order-Driven Magneto-optical Kerr Effect in an Altermagnetic Insulator

Haolin Pan, Rui-Chun Xiao, Jiahao Han, Hongxing Zhu, Junxue Li, Qian Niu, Yang Gao, and Dazhi Hou

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036701 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Universal Phase Transitions of Matter in Optically Driven Cavities

Tsan Huang and Zhiyuan Sun

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036901 (2026) - Published 22 January, 2026

Quasiresonant Regime of Surface Plasmon for Broad Angular Responsivity of Plasmonic Diffraction

Koya Okazaki, Nobukazu Teranishi, and Atsushi Ono

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 036902 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

Statistical Physics; Classical, Nonlinear, and Complex Systems

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Generative Thermodynamic Computing

Stephen Whitelam

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037101 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

A thermodynamic framework for creating an analog version of a neural network diffusion model exhibits eleven orders of magnitude better efficiency than its digital counterpart.

Exploring the Landscape of Nonequilibrium Memories with Neural Cellular Automata

Ehsan Pajouheshgar, Aditya Bhardwaj, Nathaniel Selub, and Ethan Lake

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037102 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Experimental Observation of Hidden Multistability in Nonlinear Systems

Kun Zhang, Qicheng Zhang, Shuaishuai Tong, Wenquan Wu, Xiling Feng, and Chunyin Qiu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037201 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Experiments with programmable electroacoustic cavities reveal that a multistable system can be steered into states that are unreachable with conventional control methods.

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Nonlinear Coupling Induced Anomalous State Transfer and Complete Multistate Excitation via Adiabatic Control

Zhao-Xian Chen, Yi Ru, Guang-Chen He, Ming-Hui Lu, Yan-Feng Chen, Yan-Qing Lu, and Ze-Guo Chen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 037202 (2026) - Published 20 January, 2026

Nonlinear coupling reshapes attractor landscapes to produce anomalous state transitions and full multistate excitation under adiabatic control.

Polymers, Chemical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological Physics

Mesoscopic Rough Electrical Double Layers

Weiqiang Tang, Jinwen Liu, Katharina Doblhoff-Dier, and Jun Huang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038001 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Decoupling Structure and Elasticity in Colloidal Gels Under Isotropic Compression

M. Milani, E. Cavalletti, V. Ruzzi, A. Martinelli, P. Dieudonné-George, C. Ligoure, T. Phou, L. Cipelletti, and L. Ramos

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038201 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

FEATURED IN PHYSICS

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Combinatorial Design of Floppy Modes and Frustrated Loops in Metamaterials

Wenfeng Liu, Tomer A. Sigalov, Corentin Coulais, and Yair Shokef

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038202 (2026) - Published 23 January, 2026

A mechanical network of flexible links can be designed to solve a problem in matrix algebra.

Transfer of Active Motion from Medium to Probe via the Induced Friction and Noise

Ji-Hui Pei (裴继辉) and Christian Maes

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038301 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026

Enzyme as Maxwell’s Demon: Steady-State Deviation from Chemical Equilibrium by Enhanced Enzyme Diffusion

Shunsuke Ichii, Tetsuhiro S. Hatakeyama, and Kunihiko Kaneko

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 038401 (2026) - Published 21 January, 2026