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Biomolecules in the cell nucleus form condensates at a rate slower than that predicted by the theory of droplet growth. Experiments on living cells attribute this anomalous coarsening behaviour to subdiffusive dynamics in the crowded nucleus.
In an analogue black hole in an atomic Bose–Einstein condensate, spontaneous Hawking radiation is confirmed to be stationary and the time evolution of Hawking radiation is reported.
Molluscs assemble layers of material in the shells around them with a high level of control. Here the authors observe the structural evolution of layer formation and propose a mechanism reminiscent of topological defect dynamics in liquid crystals.
In principle skyrmions are topologically protected, but the crystal lattice interferes with this protection so that they should be unstable to switching of their winding number. Here this process is understood via scanning tunnelling microscopy.
Strong electron–electron interactions create a charge-density wave that modifies the topological state of the Weyl semimetal (TaSe4)2I. This implies the possibility of experimentally simulating axion electrodynamics in a solid-state material.
Finding expectation values is a key step in variational quantum algorithms that are hoped to provide a near-term quantum advantage. Bravyi et al. show that a classical approximation is possible when the quantum circuits are limited to constant depth.
Certain bacteria cells respond to the stress of long-term exposure to antibiotics by changing their shape. Single-cell experiments and modelling cast this as a mechanical feedback strategy that makes bacteria more adaptive to surviving antibiotics.
A supersolid is a phase of matter featuring both crystalline order as a solid and global phase coherence as a superfluid. Now an experiment shows how this global phase coherence can be established across the system in a non-equilibrium process.
A spectroscopic study shows that vibrational pumping can be used to coherently control optical d–d transitions of electronic origin in the transition metal oxide system CuGeO3.
Repeatedly measuring an array of qubits can create topologically distinct phases depending on which measurements are applied. Lavasani et al. show that critical behaviour can arise from the competition between different choices of measurements.