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Stacking and twisting two-dimensional materials has led to the observation of a variety of electronic phenomena. Now, magnetic behaviour that is distinct from anything seen in individual layers is induced by a moiré pattern in double bilayer chromium triiodide.
Experiments on cell monolayers on corrugated hydrogels reveal the effects of local curvature on the shape of cells and nuclei. A vertex model lends support to the idea that the modulation of tissue thickness may enable curvature sensing.
Form factors encode the structure of nucleons. Measurements from electron–positron annihilation at BESIII reveal an oscillating behaviour of the neutron electromagnetic form factor, and clarify a long-standing photon–nucleon interaction puzzle.
Twisted bilayer graphene hosts flat electronic bands, but their relationship to the observed correlated phases is still debated. Here, it is shown that electron–electron interactions can help to flatten the bands and generate the correlated phases.
Interactions between atoms in a Bose–Einstein condensate cause quantum fluctuations and the creation of additional correlations between pairs of atoms. These effects have now been directly observed, confirming long-standing theoretical predictions.
As tissues grow, a small fraction of cells can give rise to a large fraction of the tissue. A model borrowed from forest fires suggests that this can occur spontaneously in development as a collective property of the cell interaction network.
The evolution of many-body magnetic spin systems is influenced by many factors, including inhomogeneity and the presence of interfaces. These effects have now been measured in a far-from-equilibrium binary mixture of ultracold gases.
Through chemical design, the spins in molecular nanomagnets may be used as electrically tunable qubits. Electrical control of molecular distortion enables manipulation of the quantum spin state while suppressing decoherence from magnetic fields.
A study of growing apples shows that the singular cusp at the stalk has a universal form that arises due to the differential growth of a soft solid. Although the cusps are usually symmetric, they can lose stability to form lobes that depend on the geometry of the fruit.
The development of glands involves cylindrical branches transforming into spherical alveoli. Now there is evidence to suggest that this process can be understood as a budding instability driven by a decrease in tension anisotropy in the tissue.
In addition to the broken time-reversal symmetry that typifies Chern insulators, twisted bilayer graphene hosts a set of topological states with broken translational symmetry.
Accurate mass measurements of the indium isotopes adjacent to the doubly magic 100Sn provide critical benchmarks for ab initio theory, which withstands the challenge.
When interactions between electrons in a material are strong, they can start to behave hydrodynamically. Spatially resolved imaging of current flow in a three-dimensional material suggests that electron–electron interactions are mediated by phonons.
Schrödinger cat states are observed in intense laser–atom interactions. These are a superposition of the initial state of the laser and the coherent state that results from the interaction between the light and atoms.
A levitated nanosphere that is strongly coupled to an optical cavity mode forms an optomechanical system with three degrees of freedom, which supports hybrid light–mechanical states of a vectorial nature.
The Hubbard model describes many fascinating phenomena, but relating it to complicated quantum materials is difficult. Now, atomic-resolution measurements can estimate the interaction parameters that appear in the model for real materials.
It has been difficult to establish which ground state forms in kagome lattice antiferromagnets. Nuclear resonance measurements have overcome the issue of disorder to observe spin singlets consistent with a proposed quantum spin liquid phase.
Ultrashort light pulses generate nanometre-scale wavepackets of magnons that propagate coherently and at high speed in an antiferromagnet. This pushes antiferromagnetic magnonics forward as a future platform for information processing.
In vitro experiments and theory reveal that a protein associated with DNA transcription mediates condensation of a protein–DNA phase via a first-order transition. The forces uncovered in the study may contribute to chromatin remodelling in the cell.
Antiferromagnetic systems are a source of several interesting many-body phases. Now a Heisenberg antiferromagnet has been made from ultracold bosons, providing a highly tunable starting point for experimental investigations that simulate such models.