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An experimental approach enables the observation of the microscopic details of the relaxation of a highly equilibrated glass back to the liquid phase in real time. This points to a scenario where devitrification proceeds via localized seeds separated by macroscopic length scales.
Chains of coupled superconducting islands known as Josephson junction arrays were predicted to be insulating at high impedance, but superconducting behaviour has been observed. A study of the arrays’ transport suggests thermal effects are responsible.
Time-varying photonics offers ways to manipulate light–matter interactions as never thought before. An experiment with photonic time interfaces reveals how they can enable broadband coherent control of waves.
A milestone for the coherence time of a macroscopic mechanical oscillator may be a crucial advance for enabling the development of quantum technologies based on optomechanical architectures and for fundamental tests of quantum mechanics.
Drops sitting on an array of parallel fibres spontaneously move along the fibres when subject to an airflow perpendicular to the array. The drops show long-range aerodynamic interactions with their downstream and upstream neighbours, and these can catalyse drop coalescence and removal of drops from the fibres — relevant for applications such as fog harvesting and filtration.
A new binding mechanism between trapped laser-cooled ions and atoms has been observed. This advancement offers a novel control knob over chemical reactions and inelastic processes on the single particle limit.
The near-zero thermal expansion of Invar alloy Fe65Ni35 is technologically important but still unexplained. Measurements show that this phenomenon can be explained by the cancellation of magnetic and phonon contributions to the alloy’s entropy.
Generating high harmonics or attosecond pulses of light is normally thought of as a classical process, but a theoretical study has now shown how the process could be driven by quantum light.
Measuring the transmission matrix of disordered structures has so far been limited to the domain of linear systems. Now it has been measured for nonlinear disorder, with exciting implications for information capacity.
Regenerative animals accurately regrow lost appendages. Now, research suggests that mechanical waves propagating from the amputation edge have a key role in this process.
Amorphous gel structures are present in our everyday lives in the form of food, cosmetics, and biological systems. Experiments now show that their formation cannot be explained within the framework of equilibrium physics.
Exploring the combined effects of many-body interactions and topology is experimentally challenging. Now, researchers have shown that strong interparticle interactions force ultracold atoms to shift as a whole or one by one, or break quantization in a topological pump.
The collective dynamics observed between Bose-condensed atoms and molecules indicate the occurence of macroscopic quantum phenomena. Experimental investigations found that the atomic and molecular populations oscillate at a frequency that scales with the sample size, providing evidence for bosonic enhancement. These findings could make many-body quantum dynamics accessible in ultracold molecule research.
The two-component bacterial MinDE protein system is the simplest biological pattern-forming system ever reported. Now, it establishes a mechanochemical feedback loop fuelling the persistent motion of liposomes.
