Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Ferromagnetism and superconductivity are eternal enemies, so a current of superconducting pairs of electrons travelling within a ferromagnet raises several questions.
Observations of half-integer transitions of the quantized magnetic flux passing through a superconducting niobium/iron-pnictide loop provides strong evidence for the occurrence of unconventional 'sign-reversal s-wave pairing symmetry' in the iron-based superconductors.
Laser-driven particle accelerators can accelerate electrons to energies in excess of 1 GeV over a distance of just a few centimetres. An innovative technique that drastically reduces the computational demands of simulating laser–plasma interactions should help increase this to tens of gigaelectronvolts.
'Random lasing' in disordered materials was first shown over 20 years ago, but the mechanism by which it occurs is much debated. High-resolution imaging correlated to the excitation of random lasing from natural resonant cavities in conjugated polymers suggests there are many overlapping regimes and generation mechanisms involved.
Achieving full control over all internal and external degrees of freedom of a molecule has been a long-standing goal in molecular physics. Newly developed methods to prepare translationally, vibrationally and rotationally cold molecular ions have brought this target one step closer.
Long γ-ray bursts are associated with core-collapse supernovae. The connection reveals a rich and diverse continuum of explosions, in which the energy is partitioned between relativistic and non-relativistic flows.
The fundamental symmetries of parity and time are now being exploited to enable the spatial guiding and selection of propagating radiation, and could ultimately underpin a new generation of sophisticated, integrated photonic devices.
Plasmas, like most fluids, usually become more homogeneous when subjected to turbulence. But in the Earth's magnetosphere, and in an unusual device whose confining field is generated by a levitated half-tonne superconducting magnet, precisely the opposite sometimes happens.
Even simple creatures, such as cockroaches, are capable of complex responses to changes in their environment. But robots usually require complicated dedicated control circuits to perform just a single action. Chaos control theory could allow simpler control strategies to realize more complex behaviour.
Research on synchronization of coupled oscillators has helped explain how uniform behaviour emerges in populations of non-uniform systems. But explaining how uniform populations engage in 'chimera states' — states of sustainable non-uniform synchronization — may prove to be just as fascinating.
It is 50 years since the discovery of the Aharonov–Bohm effect, and 25 years since that of the Berry phase. A celebration of this double anniversary at the University of Bristol made evident that these discoveries still offer much food for thought.
Most materials either absorb or transmit X-rays. This is useful for imaging but makes it notoriously difficult to build mirrors for reflective X-ray optics. A demonstration of the high X-ray reflectivity of diamond could provide a timely solution to make the most of the next generation of free-electron lasers.
During the 50 years since its discovery, the Aharonov–Bohm effect has had a significant impact on the development of physics. Its arguably deepest implication, however, has been virtually ignored.
Lasing and strong coupling can coexist in a single quantum dot coupled to a photonic-crystal-nanocavity mode. This provides important clues towards the realization of a single-quantum-dot nanolaser.
