Clay weekly context brief for the Condensed Matter category (ISO week 2026-W35).

Clay tracks publications from the Condensed Matter feed list. Below are recent items from this category, each with its source and a short description of what the publication covers when one is available in the source feed.

Recent publications:
1. Thermodynamically Consistent Coarse-graining: from Interacting Particles to Fields via Second Quantization
   Source: cond-mat.stat-mech (Statistical Mechanics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11430
   We systematically derive an exact coarse-grained description for interacting particles with thermodynamically consistent stochastic dynamics, applicable across different observation scales, the mesoscopic and macroscopic scales.
2. Imaging the vacuum fluctuations of a quantum field
   Source: cond-mat.quant-gas (Quantum Gases)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20311
   Heisenberg uncertainties lead to inevitable fluctuations in the measurement outcomes for quantum-mechanical observables.
3. Bridging atomic and mesoscopic length scales with Replica Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Visualizing the atomic lattice of UTe$_2$ and the atomic scale
   Source: cond-mat.other (Other Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19678
   Scanning Tunneling Microscopy is a cornerstone technique for visualizing the electronic density of states with atomic resolution (typically below 0.1 nm).
4. Cooperative effects of membrane confinement and gelation on PEG crystallization pathway
   Source: cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19724
   Lipid-coated microscale hydrogels provide confined, hydrated environments in which polymer phase behavior can differ markedly from that in bulk.
5. Topological Flat Minibands and Fractional Chern Insulators in Rashba Systems with Tunable Superlattice Potentials
   Source: cond-mat.mes-hall (Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22173
   Fractional Chern insulators are interaction-driven topological states that realize the lattice analogue of the fractional quantum Hall effect without external magnetic fields.
6. Mean-field analysis of a neural network with stochastic STDP
   Source: cond-mat.dis-nn (Disordered Systems and Neural Networks)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02545
   Analysing biological spiking neural network models with synaptic plasticity has proven to be challenging both theoretically and numerically.
7. A Central Disulfide Junction Drives Transient Network Formation in Elastin-Like Polypeptides, Enabling Low-Concentration Hydrogels
   Source: cond-mat.soft (Soft Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19810
   The self-assembly of associative triblock copolymers composed of a central hydrophilic elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) block and short fatty acid end groups (C16) was investigated in aqueous solution.
8. Antiferroquadrupolar Order in Altermagnetic CoF$_2$
   Source: cond-mat.str-el (Strongly Correlated Electrons)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14889
   Altermagnets host non-relativistic spin-split electronic states whose microscopic origin is theoretically linked to a hidden charge order, yet experimental studies of this charge order are limited.
9. Rapid supercurrent decay in Mn$_5$Si$_3$ Josephson junctions
   Source: cond-mat.supr-con (Superconductivity)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14842
   Theoretical work predicts that Josephson junctions containing metallic altermagnetic barriers should display $0$-$\pi$ transitions of the critical current as a function of both barrier thickness and temperature, with the decay and oscillation period of the supercurrent depending on the orientation of the crystal axes relative to the transport direction.
10. Flip rate prediction in the double pendulum
   Source: cond-mat.stat-mech (Statistical Mechanics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20276
   The intermediate-energy double pendulum is a prototypical chaotic system.
11. Anyon condensates of dipoles in triangular ladders
   Source: cond-mat.quant-gas (Quantum Gases)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20173
   Hard-core dipoles in triangular ladders are an excellent platform for the study of the interplay between frustration and long-range interactions, well described by a modified version of the celebrated $J_1$--$J_2$ model.
12. Wavelength-Resolved Control of Photovoltaic Screening and Defect-Mediated Doping in Photo-Ferroelectric/Graphene Devices
   Source: cond-mat.other (Other Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.17647
   Ferroelectrics enable large charge doping of two-dimensional overlayers, but the coexistence of switching and nonswitching charge dynamics complicate electro-optical analysis.
13. Physics-guided machine learning for sim-to-real calibration of NV diamond magnetometers
   Source: cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19582
   Ensemble nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond enable robust vector magnetometry in unshielded environments, yet deployment remains bottlenecked by complex calibration and a reliance on external data references.
14. Spin-torque microwave detectors of positive rectangular pulse signals
   Source: cond-mat.mes-hall (Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20323
   We analyze the performance of a spin-torque microwave detector (STMD) driven by positive rectangular current pulses $I(t)$ of various amplitudes $I_0$, durations $\tau$, and repetition periods $T$ and reveal two distinct regimes of STMD operation.
15. Solvable model of noisy coupled oscillators with fully random interactions
   Source: cond-mat.dis-nn (Disordered Systems and Neural Networks)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04404
   We introduce a solvable spherical model of coupled oscillators with fully random interactions and distributed natural frequencies.
16. Unmasking the internal structure of casein micelles through enzymatic hydrolysis: A SAXS study
   Source: cond-mat.soft (Soft Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19969
   Casein micelles, one of the most studied natural association colloids, are supramolecular assemblies of caseins and colloidal calcium phosphate that constitute the fundamental building blocks of dairy matrices.
17. Low temperature magnetic structure and lattice response in SmCuAs$_2$
   Source: cond-mat.str-el (Strongly Correlated Electrons)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14920
   We investigated the structural and magnetic properties of single-crystalline SmCuAs$_2$ using high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction and X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS) at the Sm $L_2$ and $L_3$ edges.
18. Anharmonicity and Nonadiabaticity in Hydride Superconductors
   Source: cond-mat.supr-con (Superconductivity)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14949
   We study superconductivity in representative hydrides using anharmonic phonons, electron-phonon vertex corrections, and full-bandwidth Eliashberg theory.
19. Universal meson spectra near $(1+1)$-dimensional Ising criticality
   Source: cond-mat.stat-mech (Statistical Mechanics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20221
   Near $(1+1)$-dimensional [$(1+1)$D] Ising criticality, a magnetic perturbation induces confinement and produces a cascade of bound-state excitations known as mesons.
20. Structural complexity of an SU(3) Fermi Hubbard model
   Source: cond-mat.quant-gas (Quantum Gases)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20131
   Two-dimensional quantum gas microscopy provides an unparalleled tool to study quantum many-body systems using ultracold atoms.
21. Imaginary time evolution of a quantum system through analytic continuation from real-time quantum simulation
   Source: cond-mat.other (Other Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19943
   Though quantum computing naturally offers an advantage for simulations of real-time quantum systems, implementing Imaginary-Time Evolution (ITE) is comparatively more difficult.
22. Tunable inter-bilayer magnetic correlations and candidate multipolar physics in the van der Waals oxyhalides DyOCl, DyOBr, and DyOI
   Source: cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19421
   Rare-earth van der Waals magnets provide a route to combining strong spin-orbit coupling, large magnetic moments, and reduced dimensionality in bulk crystals.
23. Effects of the surface on double surface Fermi arcs in a realistic tight-binding model of Na$_3$Bi (100)
   Source: cond-mat.mes-hall (Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20115
   Na$_3$Bi is a topological Dirac semimetal (TDSM) that can support double surface Fermi arcs (DSFAs), which are important for its material classification and their potential use in spintronic devices.
24. Tunable Hyperuniformity and Hidden Information in Random Cellular Structures
   Source: cond-mat.dis-nn (Disordered Systems and Neural Networks)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.08976
   Hyperuniform systems possess the isotropic microstructure of liquids while suppressing large-scale density fluctuations with crystal-like precision, endowing them with exotic optical and transport properties.
25. Role of topology in scaling laws for studying mechanics in open-porous solids: Moving beyond classical Gibson-Ashby scaling
   Source: cond-mat.soft (Soft Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20003
   The elastic modulus of porous materials is commonly described using power-law scaling relations with relative density, where the scaling exponent is often interpreted in terms of the underlying deformation mechanism.
26. Accessing Gapped Chiral Phase with Auxiliary-Assisted PEPS
   Source: cond-mat.str-el (Strongly Correlated Electrons)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15732
   It has been controversial whether infinite projected entangled pair state (PEPS) can faithfully describe chiral gapped phases in two dimensions or not.
27. Josephson network as a~model for high-temperature superconductor and beyond: Macroscopic quantum coherence probed by microwave absorption
   Source: cond-mat.supr-con (Superconductivity)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15441
   Since the seminal experiment by Stankowski et al.
28. Rigorous existence and location of quantum phase transitions in lattice Hamiltonian systems
   Source: cond-mat.stat-mech (Statistical Mechanics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20209
   We extend the analysis of the class of quantum phase transitions (QPTs) that can be interpreted as condensations in state space, first introduced in [M.
29. Competing triangular and stripe supersolid orders in a dipolar quantum gas
   Source: cond-mat.quant-gas (Quantum Gases)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20327
   Supersolids are exotic quantum states in which long-range phase coherence coexists, and may interplay, with emergent spatial orders.
30. Stability and squeezing of the three-photon degenerate parametric down-conversion
   Source: cond-mat.other (Other Condensed Matter)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19494
   Nonlinear multiphoton conversion processes are theoretically and experimentally challenging systems in quantum optics and related areas.
31. Layered matter that maintains spacing but loses stacking order
   Source: cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19365
   In layered materials, spacing and stacking-order extent are usually locked.

Sources in this brief: cond-mat.dis-nn (Disordered Systems and Neural Networks); cond-mat.mes-hall (Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics); cond-mat.mtrl-sci (Materials Science); cond-mat.other (Other Condensed Matter); cond-mat.quant-gas (Quantum Gases); cond-mat.soft (Soft Condensed Matter); cond-mat.stat-mech (Statistical Mechanics); cond-mat.str-el (Strongly Correlated Electrons); cond-mat.supr-con (Superconductivity).
Selected 31 of 367 available items for this weekly brief.