Research articles

Confined biofilms can shape themselves and their boundary to modify their internal organisation. This mechanism could inform the development of active materials that control their own geometry.

Errors in a quantum computer that are correlated between different qubits pose a considerable challenge for correction schemes. Measurements of noise in silicon spin qubits show that electric field fluctuations can create strongly correlated errors.

There is evidence that K₃C₆₀ can host a photo-induced superconducting state. Now, resonant excitation at low frequencies allows this phenomenon at room temperature and low pumping fluence.

Physical realizations of qubits are often vulnerable to leakage errors, where the system ends up outside the basis used to store quantum information. A leakage removal protocol can suppress the impact of leakage on quantum error-correcting codes.

Many complex systems relax slowly towards equilibrium after a perturbation, without ever reaching it. Experiments with crumpled sheets now show that these relaxations involve intermittent avalanches of localized instabilities, whose slow-down leads to logarithmic aging.

The application of high-harmonic spectroscopy to liquid samples shows that the cut-off energy is a material characteristic. This approach may also give experimental access to electron mean free paths.

Observation of a faint Fermi surface inside the pseudogap of an electron-doped cuprate suggests that Cooper pairing is mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations.

Material characterization of liquids in extreme thermodynamic conditions is a challenging technical problem. Brillouin scattering metrology in an optical fibre design with a sealed liquid core now enables spatially resolved temperature and pressure measurements, using carbon disulfide as an example.

Na₃Ni₂BiO₆ with a honeycomb lattice is found to host a one-third magnetization plateau phase signifying frustrated interactions and indicates that Kitaev interactions can be realized in high-spin magnets.

The origin of nematicity in kagome superconductors has been hard to explain due to other entangled phases. Now, the role of orbital hybridization and coupling is revealed to induce electronic nematicity in the kagome superconductor RbTi₃Bi₅.

The Magnus effect refers to rotating objects developing a lift force when travelling through a fluid. It normally vanishes at microscopic length scales but now a very large Magnus effect is demonstrated for spinning colloids in viscoelastic fluids.

The interplay between flat and dispersive bands in moiré materials has not yet been examined in detail. Now, the phase diagram of a transition metal dichalcogenide bilayer shows correlated states arising from both types of band.

Wrinkling of cell nuclei is associated with disease. During development, the nucleus behaves like a sheet of paper and the wrinkling amplitude can be manipulated without changing its pattern.

Measurements of the electronic structure of a trilayer cuprate superconductor suggest that its high critical temperature is explained by the different doping levels of the layers. The combination of underdoped inner layer and overdoped outer layers supports superconductivity.

Hole and particle-like quasiparticles of a Mott insulator can pair into excitonic bound states. Now, time-resolved measurements of Sr₂IrO₄ show signs of an excitonic fluid forming from a photo-excited population of quasiparticles.

Phonons that carry a large magnetic moment may be helpful for creating spintronic devices. Now this phenomenon is observed in an antiferromagnet and is enhanced by the critical fluctuations associated with a phase transition.

Quantum computers may help to solve classically intractable problems, such as simulating non-equilibrium dissipative quantum systems. The critical dynamics of a dissipative quantum model has now been probed on a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Cells in a tissue layer arrange themselves in orientationally ordered structures. Now two types of liquid crystalline order have been shown to coexist, with nematic order dominating large length scales and hexatic order dominating small length scales.

Cooper pairs that form with finite centre-of-mass momentum are rare. Now there is evidence that this can happen below the Pauli limit in a bilayer material.

The boson peak refers to an excess in the phonon density of states seen in three-dimensional amorphous materials. Helium-atom scattering experiments have now revealed a boson peak in a two-dimensional material, too, at a frequency similar to that of the bulk material.