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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.
A state that breaks time-reversal symmetry is observed in the normal phase above the superconducting critical temperature in a multiband superconductor. This could be explained by correlations between the Cooper pairs formed in different bands.
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.
Atoms in a semiconductor can have non-zero nuclear spins, creating a large ensemble with many quantum degrees of freedom. An electron spin coupled to the nuclei of a semiconductor quantum dot can witness the creation of entanglement within the ensemble.
Measurements of the phase diagram of water reveal first-order phase transitions to face- and body-centred cubic superionic ice phases. The former is suggested to be present in the interior of ice giant planets.
Quantum networks require a connection between quantum memories and optical links, which often operate in different frequency ranges. An optomechanical device exploiting the strain dependence of a colour-centre spin provides such a spin–optics interface at room temperature.
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.
Entangled photon states can be used to make quantum information more robust. A photonic experimental implementation with eight qubits shows that error-protection schemes can increase the success rate of running a quantum algorithm.
Moiré potentials substantially alter the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene at a magic twist angle. A propagating plasmon mode, which can be observed with optical nano-imaging, is associated with transitions between the moiré minibands.
Superionic water is believed to exist in the interior of ice giant planets. By combining machine learning and free-energy methods, the phase behaviours of water at the extreme pressures and temperatures prevalent in such planets are predicted.
Accurate mass measurements of the indium isotopes adjacent to the doubly magic 100Sn provide critical benchmarks for ab initio theory, which withstands the challenge.
Non-Abelian topology allows topological charges in multi-gap systems to be converted by braiding of different band nodes. Such multi-gap effects are experimentally observed in an acoustic semimetal.
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.
The hyperfine states of ultracold polar molecules are a strong candidate for storing quantum information. Identifying and eliminating all detectable causes of decoherence has extended the qubit coherence time beyond 5.6 s in RbCs molecules.
Realizing the potential of dipolar molecular gases to explore quantum physics needs elastic, tunable interactions and low temperatures. This is now possible due to advances in control that suppress molecular losses and enable efficient cooling.
Some quantum spin liquids are expected to have an effective Fermi surface of fractionalized spinon excitations. The two-dimensional spin liquid candidate 1T-TaSe2 has charge density modulations that may be caused by an unstable spinon Fermi surface.
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.
Proton acceleration by a super-critical collisionless shock is observed in laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations suggest shock surfing as the underlying acceleration mechanism.