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.
Whether the magnetic response of the copper oxide high-temperature superconductors is governed by itinerant quasiparticles or localized electrons is a hotly debated question. Evidence for the latter suggests an intricate connection to the parent Mott insulator.
Incorporating structural features into random-graph calculations should bring theoretical models describing the properties and behaviour of complex networks closer to real-world systems.
The nature of the 'hidden order' in URu2Si2 has resisted characterization for the past twenty-five years. Recent photoemission results report the observation of a narrow heavy-fermion band that sharpens below the mysterious transition and provides new clues about its origins.
An optical analysis reveals that the electronic correlations in the 'parent' compounds of the iron pnictide superconductors are sufficiently strong to significantly impede the mobility of the electrons.
Rain hits the ground in drops of different sizes, but the mechanism that produces this distribution is unclear. Could it be that all we need to know is contained in the death of a single drop?
The conventional photovoltaic effect has now been given a spin twist, enabling spin control in a non-magnetic structure. This concept could yield new methods of detecting and tailoring spin-dependent phenomena in semiconductors.
In his short career, Ettore Majorana made several profound contributions. One of them, his concept of 'Majorana fermions' — particles that are their own antiparticle — is finding ever wider relevance in modern physics.
That ratchet-shaped structures patterned on a surface can direct the otherwise random motion of living cells across it is perhaps unsurprising. But that the direction of this motion depends on the type of cell is remarkable and potentially useful.
Quantum mechanics predicts an infinite series of loosely bound states of three bosons, and the size of these trimers should scale with a factor of 22.7. This general result seems to be confirmed now in an experiment with an ultracold gas of potassium atoms.
Compact interferometers that exploit the wave character of atoms have the potential to outpace their optical counterparts in a number of sensing applications. A technique that harnesses the internal structure of atoms should bring such applications a step closer.
There is growing evidence that solid helium-4 possesses superfluid properties, but the nature of this paradoxical phenomenon remains mysterious. The finding that helium-4 in its 'supersolid' form is stiffer than the normal solid adds to the enigma.
The case for the existence of intermediate-mass black holes, hundreds to thousands of times more massive than our Sun, has received a major boost — with implications for gravitational waves and clustered star formation.
In YbRh2Si2, the transitions to a heavy Fermi-liquid state and to a magnetic phase occur at a single quantum critical point. But under chemical pressure, these transitions separate, and a new phase of matter appears in between.
Strong coupling of light and matter is the most important, yet challenging goal in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics. This regime has now been reached by collectively exciting large crystals of trapped ions.
Massive spectroscopic and imaging surveys of individual stars in the Milky Way are opening windows on the formation of the first elements and the nature of the assembly of the Galaxy.
Femtosecond laser pulses can demagnetize ferromagnetic metallic thin films on an ultrafast timescale. Studying how magnetic films react during optical excitation provides a better understanding of this so-called femtomagnetism.
Optomechanics is a promising route towards the observation of quantum effects in relatively large structures. Three papers, each discussing a different implementation, now combine optical sideband and cryogenic cooling to refrigerate mechanical resonators to fewer than 60 phonons.
