A spin-mechanical quantum chip for exploring exotic interactions.

How to illuminate dark matter has become the foremost open question in fundamental science nowadays, which is of great significance in understanding the laws of nature. Exploring exotic interactions beyond the standard model is one of the essential approaches to searching for dark matter particles. Although it has been explored in a variety of lab-scale and tabletop-scale setups over the past years, no such interactions have been observed, and improving the sensitivity significantly becomes of paramount importance, but challenging. Here, we formulate the conception of a spin-mechanical quantum chip compatible with scalable on-chip detectors. Utilizing the prototype chip realized by the integration of a mechanical resonator and a diamond with single nitrogen vacancy at the microscale, the constraints of spin-velocity-dependent interactions have been improved by two orders of magnitude, where there is no evidence for new bosons in the force range below 100 nm, i.e., in the rest-mass window of 2-10 electronvolts. Based on the proof-of-principle experiment, this promising chip can be scaled up to meet the requirements of searching for exotic interactions at preeminent sensitivity. Low-cost and high-yield chip-scale setups will accelerate the process of dark matter exploration, providing a path toward on-chip fundamental physics experiments.

Experimental Realization of Nonreciprocal Adiabatic Transfer of Phonons in a Dynamically Modulated Nanomechanical Topological Insulator.

High quality nanomechanical oscillators are promising platforms for quantum entanglement and quantum technology with phonons. Realizing coherent transfer of phonons between distant oscillators is a key challenge in phononic quantum information processing. Here, we report on the realization of robust unidirectional adiabatic pumping of phonons in a parametrically coupled nanomechanical system engineered as a one-dimensional phononic topological insulator. By exploiting three nearly degenerate local modes-two edge states and an interface state between them-and the dynamic modulation of their mutual couplings, we achieve nonreciprocal adiabatic transfer of phononic excitations from one edge to the other with near unit fidelity. We further demonstrate the robustness of such adiabatic transfer of phonons in the presence of various noises in the control signals. Our experiment paves the way toward nonreciprocal phonon dynamics via adiabatic pumping and is valuable for phononic quantum information processing.

[Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and the impact on cell stress resistance].

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are proteins or protein regions that fail to get folded into definite three-dimensional structures but participate in various biological processes and perform specific functions. Defying the traditional protein "sequence-structure-function" paradigm, they enrich the protein "structure-function" diversity. Ubiquitous in organisms, they show extreme hydrophilicity, charged amino acids, and highly repetitive amino acid sequences, with simple arrangement. As a result, they feature highly variable binding affinities and high coordination, which facilitate their functions. IDPs play an important role in cell stress response, which can improve the tolerance to a variety of stresses, such as freezing, high salt, heat shock, and desiccation. In this study, we briefed the characteristics, classifications, and identification of IDPs, summarized the molecular mechanism in improving cell stress resistance, and described the potential applications.