Articles in 2016

A near-field optical microscopy study provides nanoscale insight into an insulator-to-metal transition and the interplay with a neighbouring structural phase transition in a prototypical correlated electron material.

A high-resolution age map of the Milky Way picks out structures that validate the most widely accepted cosmological theory, lambda cold dark matter. The chronographic data are also used to probe the chemodynamical formation history of our Galaxy.

Processes in (space) plasmas occur on different levels — fluid, ion and electron. Now, from satellite data and simulations, an energy-transfer mechanism between the fluid and ion scales is reported: fluid velocity shear is converted into ion heating.

Hawking radiation is observed emanating from an analogue black hole, with measurements of the entanglement between the pairs of particles inside and outside the hole offering tantalizing insights into the field of black hole thermodynamics.

Animals moving in groups are expected to differ from their many-body counterparts in equilibrium. A method based on maximum entropy shows that the interactions in starling flocks rearrange slowly enough to permit an equilibrium description locally.

Parity–time symmetry in optics is studied in a warm atomic vapour, where its counterpart, anti-parity–time symmetry, as well as refractionless propagation, can also be observed.

Cell motility is typically described as a random walk due to the presence of noise. But a dynamical model suggests that dendritic cells move deterministically, alternating between fast and slow motility, and exhibiting periodic polarity reversals.

Studies of supercurrent phenomena, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, are usually restricted to cryogenic temperatures, but evidence suggests that a magnon supercurrent can be excited in a Bose–Einstein magnon condensate at room temperature.

Ice is a frustrated system: many ground states are possible due to the structure of a water molecule and the geometry of the ice lattice. Now, this frustration is shown to lead to high-T_c ferroelectric proton ordering in a heteroepitaxial ice film.

A detailed and systematic study of Ca₁₀Cr₇O₂₈ reveals all the hallmarks of spin-liquid behaviour, in spite of the compound’s unusually complex structure.

A method for analysing STM data enables the recovery of information about quasiparticle scattering in the form of holographic maps. The approach is verified for superconducting cuprates, but may find applications in heavy-fermion materials research.

Certain proteins are capable of self-replicating, including those associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Simulations now pinpoint the adsorption of monomeric proteins onto protein fibril surfaces as the mechanism responsible for self-replication.

Using a water bath subject to a sudden vertical jolt — representing a change in the effective gravity — researchers demonstrate the concept of a ‘time mirror’, where time-reversed waves return to their point source following a downward jolt.

Multiplex networks are shown to harbour significant correlations between layers. A framework describing the correlations enables multilayer community and link detection, and reveals that they improve navigation — but only when they’re strong.

Relativistic Dirac fermions can be locally confirmed in nanoscale graphene quantum dots using electrostatic gating, and directly imaged using scanning tunnelling microscopy before escaping via Klein tunnelling.

Chameleons rely on strong adhesion to manoeuvre prey with their tongues at high speeds across distances up to twice their body length. A large contact area and high mucus viscosity are shown to engender an efficient capture mechanism.

The appearance of a third radiation belt in the Earth’s Van Allen belts is difficult to explain using existing models for two belts. However, a model based on ultra-low-frequency waves agrees quantitatively with measurements of the third belt.

A detailed theoretical and numerical study demonstrates a connection between the electronic structure of topological semimetals and Riemann surfaces.

A series of ⁷⁷Se nuclear magnetic resonance measurements on the electron-doped topological insulator Cu_0.3Bi₂Se₃ reveal a spontaneous breaking of the rotational spin symmetry below its superconducting transition temperature.

Scanning tunnelling microscopy shows how the interaction between electrons in graphene and atomic vacancies in a copper substrate produces Kekulé ordering — an electronic phase that breaks chiral symmetry.