Condensed matter physics and materials science form a dynamic partnership, exploring how the collective behavior of atoms gives rise to the unique properties of solids and liquids. This field bridges the gap between fundamental quantum mechanics and the practical engineering of everything from flexible electronics to superconductors, turning abstract theories into tangible innovations that shape our daily lives.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category directly from arXiv to make these complex discoveries accessible to everyone. Our team generates both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries for each paper, ensuring that researchers, students, and curious minds alike can grasp the latest breakthroughs without getting lost in dense jargon.

Below are the latest papers in condensed matter and materials science, organized by their most recent publication dates.

🔬 mesoscale physics

Rashba engineering at van der Waals interfaces

This paper demonstrates that the interface between epitaxially grown transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers can be engineered to control the intensity and sign of Rashba spin splitting, thereby enabling highly efficient and tunable THz spintronic emitters through enhanced spin-to-charge conversion.

Rahul Sharma, Soumya Mukherjee, Fatima Ibrahim, Gaétan Verdierre, Libor Vojáček, Martin Mičica, Sylvain Massabeau, Olive (…)2026-05-12
🔬 materials science

SLayerGen: a Crystal Generative Model for all Space and Layer Groups

This paper introduces SLayerGen, a novel generative model that unifies the creation of both bulk crystals and diperiodic materials (such as 2D monolayers) by enforcing invariance to all space and layer groups through a hybrid architecture of autoregressive lattice sampling and equivariant diffusion, while also providing new datasets and metrics to advance the discovery of these previously underrepresented material systems.

Rees Chang, Andrew Novick, Ryan P Adams, Elif Ertekin2026-05-12
🔬 mesoscale physics

Emergent Quantum-Geometric Equivalence of Injection and Shift Currents

This paper reveals that injection and shift currents, traditionally viewed as distinct nonlinear optical responses, become equivalent in systems with linear electronic dispersion (such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals) because both are governed by the same interband quantum-geometric dipole, establishing a unified framework for interpreting these phenomena.

Mohammad Yahyavi, Tay-Rong Chang, Md Shafayat Hossain, Arun Bansil, Naoto Nagaosa, Guoqing Chang2026-05-12
🔬 materials science

Thermodynamic Approach for Deciphering Magneto-Structural Phase Transitions: Proof of Concept in Heusler Alloys

This paper introduces a novel thermodynamic framework that analyzes the interplay between structural transitions and spin-exchange parameters to successfully decipher complex magneto-structural phase transitions and extract characteristic temperatures in Ni-Mn-Cu-Ga Heusler alloys using standard magnetization data.

Eleonora Rusconi, Lorenzo Gallo, Victor A. L'vov, Anna Kosogor, Simone Fabbrici, Giovanna Trevisi, Francesco Cugini, Mas (…)2026-05-12
🔬 materials science

CrystalREPA: Transferring Physical Priors from Universal MLIPs to Crystal Generative Models

CrystalREPA is a plug-and-play framework that enhances the stability, validity, and fidelity of generated crystals by aligning generative model representations with frozen universal machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) through a contrastive objective, revealing that an MLIP's effectiveness for transfer depends more on its representation distinguishability than its standard accuracy benchmarks.

Chengqian Zhang, Yucheng Jin, Duo Zhang, Tiejun Li, Han Wang2026-05-12
🔢 mathematics

Impact of the non-canonical approach to the exact solution of the ideal one-dimensional electron gas confined with an anisotropic quantum wire of oscillator-shaped profile

This paper presents an exact analytical solution for an ideal one-dimensional electron gas confined in an anisotropic oscillator-shaped quantum wire with position-dependent effective mass, deriving wavefunctions and energy spectra via both canonical and non-canonical approaches using Laguerre and Gegenbauer polynomials.

E. I. Jafarov, S. M. Nagiyev, J. Van der Jeugt2026-05-12
🔬 materials science

Systematic Fine-Tuning of MACE Interatomic Potentials for Catalysis

This paper systematically evaluates nine MACE-based machine-learned interatomic potentials, demonstrating that while from-scratch models require specific high-energy training configurations to reduce errors, fine-tuning large foundation models offers superior transferability and accuracy across diverse catalytic reactions and out-of-distribution scenarios.

Nima Karimitari, Jacob Clary, Derek Vigil-Fowler, Ravishankar Sundararaman, Gábor Csányi, Christopher Sutton2026-05-12