Clay weekly context brief for the Physics category (ISO week 2026-W40). Clay tracks publications from the Physics 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. Thermal behaviour of settling heavy inertial particles in turbulent natural convection Source: physics.flu-dyn (Fluid Dynamics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29926 We investigate the dynamical and thermal behaviour of settling heavy inertial particles in bulk turbulent thermal convection. 2. The Uncertainty Principle, Uncertainty Relations, and Underlying Trajectories: Feynman, Nelson, Bohm, and Persistent Kac-Dirac Dynamics Source: quant-ph (Quantum Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29248 A distinction should be made between quantum uncertainty relations and the broader uncertainty principle. 3. Scaling of Capability and Efficiency at Inference Time in Large Reasoning Models Source: physics.soc-ph (Physics and Society) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27166 Capability and efficiency are two key dimensions of reasoning in large language models (LLMs). 4. Anisotropy and energy distribution of leptons and photons in radiative relativistic Alfv\'{e}nic turbulence Source: physics.plasm-ph (Plasma Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27995 The anisotropic evolution of relativistic particles in magnetically dominated Alfv\'{e}nic turbulence is a fundamental process governing nonthermal emissions in high-energy astrophysical environments. 5. Square-Root Higher-Order Exceptional Points with Symmetry-Induced Multiple Spectral Responses Source: physics.optics (Optics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24017 We generalize square-root procedure to non-Hermitian systems with finite lattices, providing a spectral operation scheme applicable to arbitrary tight-binding models. 6. Characterization and Mitigation of Boundary Sampling Artifacts in Electron Phase Space Generation for Clinical FLASH-RT Deployment Source: physics.med-ph (Medical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02605 Applicator-specific phase space (PHSP) files recorded at the aperture exit reduce Monte Carlo dose calculation time by 30-50% for electron FLASH radiotherapy. 7. $\delta$-flatness and its natural extension Source: physics.hist-ph (History and Philosophy of Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29823 What, if anything, makes Minkowski spacetime a privileged local reference geometry in General Relativity? 8. Structure-Driven Inversion: A New Paradigm for Solving Inverse Problems Source: physics.geo-ph (Geophysics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16536 Inverse problems are predominantly solved within the optimization-driven paradigm, which formulates the problem as objective-function minimization and approaches the solution by iterative search. 9. Angular-Channel Capacity and Nonlocal Wavefront Engineering for Phased-Array--Lens Systems Source: physics.class-ph (Classical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30060 Wide-angle beam steering with high directivity is fundamentally limited by diffraction, restricting the scan performance of phased-array systems. 10. Selective Biexciton Generation Under Energy-Time Entangled Quantum Light in Quantum Dots Source: physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.26466 Quantum light provides new opportunities for controlling multiphoton absorption beyond classical limits. 11. Extreme-ultraviolet spectroscopy using quantum logic: a feasibility study for the 1S-2S transition in singly-ionized helium Source: physics.atom-ph (Atomic Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23516 Extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) spectroscopy represents an important new direction in precision physics, with potential applications ranging from the metrology of fundamental constants to tests of physics beyond the Standard Model. 12. Investigation of Widefield NV-Center Magnetic Imaging for Non-Destructive Materials Testing Source: physics.app-ph (Applied Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27097 Due to progressing miniaturization, material fatigue is expected to gain importance on microscopic scales. 13. Capturing Unseen Spatial Heat Extremes Through Dependence-Aware Generative Modeling Source: physics.ao-ph (Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09211 Observed records of climate extremes provide an incomplete view of plausible hazards, missing "unseen" events beyond historical experience. 14. Three Dimensional Theory of the Ion Channel Laser Source: physics.acc-ph (Accelerator Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20995 The ion channel laser (ICL) is a plasma-based alternative to the free electron laser (FEL) that uses the electric field of a uniform-density ion channel rather than the magnetic field of an undulator to induce transverse oscillations of electrons in an ultrarelativistic bunch and thereby produce coherent radiation via a collective electromagnetic instability. 15. PISCES: Physics-Informed Solar-wind Convolutional autoEncoder for Space-weather Anomaly Detection and Early Warning Source: physics.space-ph (Space Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28022 Space weather early warning depends on detecting solar wind transients in in-situ measurements at the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), before they reach Earth. 16. Evaluation of uncertainties in the estimates of correlated variables as the elemental-isotopic-abundances: properties of Source: physics.gen-ph (General Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.00297 Isotopic-abundances of any multi-(N)-isotopic-element (E) are interdependent and therefore needed to be measured indirectly from their rather accurately-measurable (N-1) abundance-ratios. 17. Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of physics teaching assistants using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey Source: physics.ed-ph (Physics Education) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28423 This study examines the extent to which physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are aware of introductory physics student thinking and the types of challenges introductory students commonly have with energy and momentum concepts, which is important for implementing active learning methodologies and supporting diverse learners in physics courses. 18. Quantifying the Dynamics of Innovation Abandonment Across Scientific, Technological, Commercial, and Pharmacological Domains Source: physics.data-an (Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06992 Despite the vast literature on the diffusion of innovations that impacts a broad range of disciplines, our understanding of the abandonment of innovations remains limited yet is essential for a deeper understanding of the innovation lifecycle. 19. GPU-Accelerated Analytic Simulation of Sparse Ionization Signals in Pixelated Time Projection Detector Source: physics.ins-det (Instrumentation and Detectors) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12052 This paper presents a GPU-accelerated simulation package, TRED, for next-generation neutrino detectors with pixelated charge readout, leveraging community-driven software ecosystems to ensure adaptability and extensibility. 20. Wake interactions drive synchronized vortex merging in a hovering quadcopter Source: physics.pop-ph (Popular Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19507 The most energetic coherent structure of a hovering full-scale quadcopter is associated with a self-organizing process in which the individual rotor vortices synchronize their frequencies while undergoing merging events, yielding a globally correlated structure. 21. The Hidden Second Law of Thermodynamics behind the Boltzmann-Grad Limit Source: physics.flu-dyn (Fluid Dynamics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.25056 We show that the Boltzmann-Grad (BG) limit, $N\varepsilon^{d-1}=\alpha=\text{const}$, is not a neutral scaling condition but already encodes the Second Law of Thermodynamics, resolving Loschmidt's paradox. 22. Representation-Dependent Recoverability in Quantum Compilation Source: quant-ph (Quantum Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29210 Fault-tolerant compilation can disperse high-level structure: schedules split an accumulated phase across rounds, gate synthesis replaces an angle by a Clifford+$T$ word, and randomized compiling spreads rotations over sign-randomized fragments. 23. The queer Hero versus the Fool bias of the queer trait: An archetypometric analysis of the collective portrayal of queerness in fictional stories Source: physics.soc-ph (Physics and Society) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.08859 Visibility in media is pivotal for identity development and for broadening societal views of gender and sexuality. 24. Reduced kinetic modelling of shattered pellet injection in ASDEX Upgrade Source: physics.plasm-ph (Plasma Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.17995 Plasma-terminating disruptions represent a critical outstanding issue for reactor-relevant tokamaks. 25. Programmable Intrinsic Circularly Polarized Emission Source: physics.optics (Optics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21575 Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is central to chiral photonics, yet programming circularly polarized emission at the nanoscale remains challenging. 26. Fingertip Micro-Motion as a Source of Respiratory Information During Sleep Using Triaxial Accelerometers Source: physics.med-ph (Medical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.22907 Objective: Triaxial accelerometers (TAAs) are widely used in home care medicine. 27. Piezoelectricity: A Brief History of its Discovery and Physical Principles Using the Example of Low Quartz Source: physics.hist-ph (History and Philosophy of Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29810 Piezoelectricity is a key phenomenon in solid-state physics and has significant technological relevance. 28. Bayesian full waveform inversion with learned prior using deep convolutional autoencoder Source: physics.geo-ph (Geophysics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02737 Full waveform inversion (FWI) can be expressed in a Bayesian framework, where the associated uncertainties are captured by the posterior probability distribution (PPD). 29. Compensated Free and Bound Sources and Nonradiating Conditions in Classical Electrodynamics Source: physics.class-ph (Classical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29506 Classical macroscopic electrodynamics allows free and bound sources to cancel as distributions while the auxiliary equations retain nonzero free-source terms. 30. pANO-F12: An atomic natural orbital-inspired route to more compact basis sets for F12 explicitly correlated methods Source: physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22543 Explicitly correlated methods such as MP2-F12 and CCSD(F12*) exhibit much faster basis set convergence (asymptotically $\propto L^{-7}$, with L the highest angular momentum) than orbital-only approaches. 31. Momentum-space signatures of radial orbital nodes in XUV photoionization Source: physics.atom-ph (Atomic Physics) Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13400 Photoelectron momentum distributions (PMDs) are widely used to probe light matter interactions, yet their angular features are generally assumed to be governed primarily by angular momentum selection rules. Sources in this brief: physics.acc-ph (Accelerator Physics); physics.ao-ph (Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics); physics.app-ph (Applied Physics); physics.atom-ph (Atomic Physics); physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics); physics.class-ph (Classical Physics); physics.data-an (Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability); physics.ed-ph (Physics Education); physics.flu-dyn (Fluid Dynamics); physics.gen-ph (General Physics); physics.geo-ph (Geophysics); physics.hist-ph (History and Philosophy of Physics); physics.ins-det (Instrumentation and Detectors); physics.med-ph (Medical Physics); physics.optics (Optics); physics.plasm-ph (Plasma Physics); physics.pop-ph (Popular Physics); physics.soc-ph (Physics and Society); physics.space-ph (Space Physics); quant-ph (Quantum Physics). Selected 31 of 380 available items for this weekly brief.