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Confinement plays an important role in many-body physics from high energy to condensed matter. New results show that it strongly affects the non-equilibrium dynamics after a quantum quench with possible implications from ultracold atoms to QCD.
A link between crystalline symmetry and the allowed symmetries of spin–orbit torques provides a route for manipulating magnetic devices with perpendicular anisotropy.
Photoemission is not a simple process and it is not instantaneous. Delays of a few attoseconds have now been measured in helium and it seems that they are partly due to electronic correlations.
The success with which the parasite Schistosoma mansoni infects humans is due largely to its efficient motility. Experiments, modelling and robotics suggest that it swims via an elastohydrodynamic mechanism, rather than using active muscle control.
Superconducting circuits, coupled to form a ring in which a photonic excitation can circulate between sites, are established as a versatile platform for studying the interplay of strong particle interactions and external fields.
The ability of phototactic microorganisms to move towards optimal light intensities is exploited to generate fluid flows on scales several orders larger than the swimmers themselves. These flows are shown to function as hydrodynamic tweezers.
The central densities of protons and neutrons in stable atomic nuclei are saturated. More exotic nuclei — with imbalanced proton and neutron numbers — may have depleted central densities. Experiments now suggest such depletion for the 34Si nucleus.
The emergence of optically silent phonons show that strong interlayer electron–phonon coupling can arise in van der Waals heterostructures, with the vibrational modes in one layer coupling to the electronic states in a neighbouring layer.
Light can be used to directly excite phonon modes in condensed matter. Simultaneously exciting several modes in an antiferromagnetic rare-earth orthoferrite drives behaviour that mimics the application of a magnetic field.
Critical phenomena are well understood in a wide range of physical systems. The dynamics of snap-through instabilities, a widespread phenomenon in their own right, are now shown to display critical scaling properties.
Atom–molecule interactions are orientation-dependent. Now the anisotropy of He–H2 interactions has been probed by measuring how the associated quantum scattering resonances respond to tuning of the H2 rotational state.
Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.
Experiments show how molecular structure affects the interaction and dynamics of the triplet exciton pairs produced when an excited singlet exciton decays via singlet fission — a process that could be harnessed for optoelectronic applications.
A circuit that pairs a flux qubit with an LC oscillator via Josephson junctions pushes the coupling between light to matter to uncharted territory, with the potential for new applications in quantum technologies.
A superconducting artificial atom coupled to a 1D waveguide tests the limits of light–matter interaction in an unexplored coupling regime, which may enable new perspectives for quantum technologies.
In a nematic liquid crystal, electron orbitals align themselves along one axis, as rods. Thermodynamic observations of such rod-like alignments in CuxBi2Se3 provide evidence for a nematic superconductor.
Drawing microscopic information out of the diffusive dynamics of complex processes often requires an assumption of ergodicity. Precision experiments on a single atom in a periodic potential suggest that this may be too simplistic in many cases.
Our understanding of collective animal behaviour generally assumes that flocks and herds move through homogeneous environments. Colloidal experiments suggest that flocking can be distorted or even suppressed by the introduction of disorder.