Clay weekly context brief for the Physics category (ISO week 2026-W42).

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. A Physics-Constrained Implicit Profile Network for Continuous Reconstruction of Tropical Cyclone Near-Surface Wind Profiles
   Source: physics.ao-ph (Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11405
   Near the ocean surface, tropical cyclone winds change rapidly with height, but direct measurements are limited because aircraft dropsondes provide only sparse and irregular observations.
2. Propagation-Invariant Transmission Eigenmodes in Weakly Scattering Media
   Source: physics.app-ph (Applied Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10732
   Propagation-invariant beams (PIBs) with annular angular spectra preserve their transverse intensity structure over extended propagation distances.
3. Response of the near-threshold resonances of the $\bm{dt\mu}$ molecular ion to an effective atomic $2s$--$2p$ splitting
   Source: physics.atom-ph (Atomic Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11499
   For the nonrelativistic three-body Coulomb Hamiltonian, near-threshold resonances of the deuterium--tritium muonic molecular ion ($dt\mu$) are supported by the long-range dipole coupling between degenerate atomic $2s$ and $2p$ states.
4. Three-dimensional imaging of isolated membrane-protein complexes in vacuo with an X-ray laser
   Source: physics.bio-ph (Biological Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11729
   The prospect of imaging single biomolecules, viruses and cells with intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses has driven the development of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs).
5. Ab Initio Investigation of Excited States and Absorption Spectra of Small Mercury Clusters (Hg$_{2-5}$)
   Source: physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10900
   We report a systematic \textit{ab initio} investigation of the excited states and absorption spectra of small mercury clusters (Hg$_{\mathrm{2-5}}$).
6. On-Chip Shaping of Surface Acoustic Waves via Continuous Diffractive Modulation
   Source: physics.class-ph (Classical Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11267
   Precise shaping of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on anisotropic piezoelectric substrates is complicated by elastic anisotropy and electromechanical coupling.
7. Inflationary Dynamics and CMB Constraints in $f(T,L_m)$ gravity
   Source: physics.gen-ph (General Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10565
   We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified teleparallel framework with a non-minimal coupling between torsion and the matter sector.
8. Escaping Geological Generative Prior Distributions in Bayesian Travel Time Tomography
   Source: physics.geo-ph (Geophysics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11962
   Solutions to geophysical inverse problems are generally non-unique, and greatly benefit from additional geological prior information.
9. Determinism and Indeterminism as Model Artefacts: Toward a Model-Invariant Ontology of Physics
   Source: physics.hist-ph (History and Philosophy of Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22540
   This paper argues that the traditional opposition between determinism and indeterminism in physics is representational rather than ontological.
10. Autocorrelation-based beam shape optimization in scanning electron microscopy
   Source: physics.ins-det (Instrumentation and Detectors)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11414
   Many automatically focusing algorithms for scanning electron microscopes exist.
11. Deep preferential evolution guided by pairwise comparisons enables motion correction in photoacoustic tomography
   Source: physics.med-ph (Medical Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.12273
   Motion artifacts in three-dimensional photoacoustic tomography (PAT), caused by extended mechanical scanning of sparse arrays, degrade image quality.
12. Reaching high fusion gain with grams of spin-polarized fuel
   Source: physics.plasm-ph (Plasma Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11080
   Building on recent ignition-access work of Delgado-Aparicio, Ono, and Menard, we show that even a single-use, gram-scale quantity of spin-polarized fuel (SPF) is useful for increasing fusion power and gain in magnetic confinement fusion machines such as tokamaks and stellarators.
13. On linearity or non-linearity in machine learning for quantum chaotic dynamics
   Source: quant-ph (Quantum Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10697
   Accurately simulating chaotic quantum many-body dynamics remains a major computational challenge for classical methods, due to the rapid buildup and spatial spreading of entanglement during the evolution.
14. Start-to-end simulations of non-relativistic electron acceleration along reflective grating structure by front-tilted laser pulse
   Source: physics.acc-ph (Accelerator Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10193
   A comprehensive (start-to-end) simulation was performed regarding the formation of a front-tilted laser pulse and the subsequent acceleration of non-relativistic electrons moving along a reflective grating structure.
15. Visualizing two qubits
   Source: physics.ed-ph (Physics Education)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08897
   I propose a simple visualization for pure two-qubit states, constructed from three components: two Bloch balls for the marginal qubits (the mixed states obtained by ignoring the other qubit, respectively) and an entanglement component consisting of a rotoreflection and a contraction.
16. Electromagnetically Transmissive and Thermally Opaque Engineered Microwave Interconnect
   Source: physics.optics (Optics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09359
   In a standard two-conductor microwave transmission line, both the signal trace and the wide ground plane act as parasitic heat leakage paths along the propagation direction.
17. Six objects reported at 480 mph in a declassified military infrared video show brightness flicker at bird wingbeat rates
   Source: physics.pop-ph (Popular Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08692
   In September 2026 the U.S.
18. Adjusting for Social Groups in Spatial Point Process Models for Waiting Pedestrian Configurations
   Source: physics.soc-ph (Physics and Society)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09883
   The spatial distribution of waiting pedestrians has two primary drivers: environmental preference and interaction with other pedestrians.
19. HGPTrans: Hierarchical Graph-Pooling Transolver for Automotive Aerodynamic Drag Coefficient Prediction
   Source: physics.flu-dyn (Fluid Dynamics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31765
   Accurate and rapid prediction of the aerodynamic drag coefficient ($C_D$) is essential for vehicle design, particularly during early-stage design, where many candidate geometries must be evaluated.
20. Statistical Dark Matter: Synergy is everywhere but is hard to capture
   Source: physics.data-an (Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03764
   The information-theoretic construct of synergy refers to the statistical structure that is contained in three or more variables, but not in any subset of them.
21. Quantum data loading from the learned shared structure of real signals
   Source: physics.comp-ph (Computational Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06076
   Preparing quantum states from classical data can cost more than the computation they serve; most loaders tailor a circuit to each input.
22. legoESM: a modular, differentiable, multiscale, AI-ready Earth system model built with AI agents
   Source: physics.ao-ph (Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11883
   Earth system models (ESMs) have grown tremendously in realism, yet key uncertainties persist in the climate response to greenhouse-gas forcing, particularly due to cloud radiative feedbacks.
23. Inverse Design of Integrated Photonic Components for Visible-Light Applications
   Source: physics.app-ph (Applied Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11453
   Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) operating in the visible spectral range are crucial for quantum technologies, optical sensing, and nonlinear optics applications.
24. Local polarization control of optical tweezer arrays
   Source: physics.atom-ph (Atomic Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.12406
   Optical tweezer arrays trapping ultracold atoms and molecules are a versatile quantum science platform with broad impact in quantum simulation, quantum computation, and quantum metrology.
25. Signature of mechanically induced cell extrusions in cell size distribution
   Source: physics.bio-ph (Biological Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21702
   How a growing tissue organizes its own homeostatic state is a central question in the physics of living matter.
26. Visualizing Three-Dimensional Quantum Fluctuations of Ground-State C$_3$H$_4$ via Deep Sub-Angstrom Coulomb Explosion Imaging
   Source: physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10981
   Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) is a powerful tool for determining static geometries of isolated gas-phase molecules.
27. Classical Dirac particle: Mass and Spin invariance and radiation reaction
   Source: physics.class-ph (Classical Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10505
   According to the atomic principle an elementary particle has no excited states and under any interaction, if it is not annihilated, its internal structure cannot be modified.
28. Neutrino Spin--Flavor Dynamics and Quantum Rabi Model: Spectral Correspondence and QRM Benchmarks
   Source: physics.gen-ph (General Physics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10568
   We formulate a two-state neutrino spin--flavor system coupled through a transition magnetic moment to a single quantized electromagnetic mode and establish its operator-level correspondence with the quantum Rabi model (QRM).
29. Effects of microstructural heterogeneity on the macroscopic spectrum of elastically accommodated grain-boundary sliding
   Source: physics.geo-ph (Geophysics)
   Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12090
   Elastically accommodated grain-boundary sliding (EAGBS) is a plausible source of upper-mantle seismic attenuation and dispersion, yet classical theory predicts a localized Debye-like peak that is absent or only weakly expressed in dry olivine experiments.

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.bio-ph (Biological Physics); physics.chem-ph (Chemical Physics); physics.class-ph (Classical Physics); physics.comp-ph (Computational 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); quant-ph (Quantum Physics).
Selected 29 of 317 available items for this weekly brief.