Research articles

The Mott metal-to-insulator transition plays a key role in theoretical studies of high-temperature superconductors. A mathematical analysis of the theory of metals identifies a renormalization-group fixed point describing Mott physics.

Cuprates that are doped beyond the point that optimizes the critical temperature were thought to be understood. Now, a careful real-space investigation shows unconventional behaviour in the superconducting state caused by pair-breaking scattering.

The charge transport mechanism in MXenes—an emerging class of layered materials—is not yet fully understood. A combination of terahertz spectroscopy and transport measurements shows that the formation of large polarons play a crucial role.

A spin glass is a disordered system with randomized competing magnetic interactions. Now, a metamaterial artificial spin glass based on nanomagnets is reported, with rudimentary features of a neural network.

Whether and when a material deforms elastically or plastically depends on its microstructure. Experiments on two-dimensional colloidal systems show that in disordered materials, packing density, stress and a microstructure-related entropy govern deformations.

The dynamic relaxation spectrum of a supercooled liquid is asymmetric near the glass transition. Overcoming the difficulty of accessing low temperatures and long timescales, simulations now attribute this feature to dynamic facilitation.

Detailed microfluidics experiments and numerical simulations are used to analyse the role played by dew in the origin of life, and demonstrate that it can drive the first stages of Darwinian evolution for DNA and RNA.

The Large Hadron Collider beauty collaboration reports a test of lepton flavour universality in decays of bottom mesons into strange mesons and a charged lepton pair, finding evidence of a violation of this principle postulated in the standard model.

Dark states of quantum systems do not absorb or emit light, removing a major source of decoherence. Four superconducting qubits in a waveguide can be combined to make a coherently controlled dark-state qubit with a long lifetime.

A laser–plasma accelerator provides proton beams for the precise irradiation of human tumours in a mouse model. This work advances translational research with ultrahigh proton dose rates at laser-driven sources.

A heterostructure supports the equilibrium bound states of an electron and hole—excitons—that strongly interact with each other. This provides a platform for the quantum simulation of bosonic lattice models.

Transport measurements suggest that the Fermi surface of a cuprate superconductor changes its form when the pseudogap is present. This can help to explain the low carrier density in the pseudogap regime.

Nonlinear phononics is a method for creating transient structural changes in solids, but its effect is limited to the region of optical excitation. Now, coupling to a propagating polariton allows nonlinear phononics to drive a nonlocal response.

A combination of numerical simulations and fluid dynamics experiments provides insights into the generation of a forest of solar plasma jets on the Sun.

Soft clamping reduces the dissipation of nanomechanical resonators, but this method has been limited to amorphous materials. When applied in crystalline silicon, it enables resonators with quality factors beyond ten billion.

How electrons in moiré graphene populate valleys and carry spin has consequences for understanding its superconductivity. Now, evidence suggests that twisted trilayer graphene has a spin-polarized, valley-unpolarized configuration.

Rheological measurements combined with a fully calibrated model show that growth-induced pressure increases macromolecular crowding, inhibiting protein expression and cell growth.

Visualizing the structural dynamics of isolated molecules would help to understand chemical reactions, but this is difficult for complex structures. Intense femtosecond X-ray pulses allow the full imaging of exploding photoionized molecules, in this case, with eleven atoms.

Observation of a high-pressure insulating state in cuprate superconductors provides a fresh challenge for understanding the mechanism of superconductivity in these materials.

Earlier measurements of quantized heat transport in the spin liquid candidate α-RuCl₃ agreed with the predictions of Majorana edge modes. Support for this interpretation now comes from the observations of quantization across a large parameter range.