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A demonstration that Cooper pairs mediate a non-local coherent coupling between carriers in two normal metal electrodes connected to a superconductor could lead to novel types of superconducting quantum interference devices for studying cross-correlations.
Stirring a two-dimensional quantum fluid at just the right frequency causes the particles to develop strong quantum correlations. This could reveal much about the nature of phase transitions.
Is superconductivity in the iron arsenides conventional? The large isotope effect on both the magnetic and superconducting transitions may indicate that magnetic fluctuations are involved in the superconducting pairing.
Spin–orbit coupling in some materials leads to the formation of surface states that are topologically protected from scattering. Theory and experiments have found an important new family of such materials.
A new approach to lasers that promises optical emission with a spectral linewidth of just 1 mHz could lead to even more accurate and stable atomic clocks.
The publication of a potentially testable quantum field theory that can accommodate gravity is causing excitement — but it comes at the expense of Lorentz invariance.
The formation of complex organs, tissue repair and metastasis all require a coordinated regulation of the shape and movement of groups of cells. The mechanical means of communication between cells is crucial to understanding collective cell motions — so how can cells transmit physical forces within cell sheets?
The common picture of how atoms and molecules are ionized in intense laser fields has had decades of success. However, the observation of an unexpected but apparently universal low-energy photoionization feature suggests this picture is incomplete.
Experiments in 13C nanotubes reveal surprisingly strong nuclear spin effects that, if properly harnessed, could provide a mechanism for manipulation and storage of quantum information.
Careful study of the moments leading up to pinch-off of air bubbles in water reveals rich and intricate dynamics controlling their evolution, and could spark re-examination of assumptions about the nature of the formation of singularities in many physical systems.
Although the bunching of photons emitted from an incoherent source is well known, the nanosecond response times of conventional photon-counting detectors have prevented it from being observed directly. Using the ultrafast two-photon absorption characteristics of a semiconductor detector, such effects can now be studied at femtosecond timescales.
The combination of quantum-state selection and shaped femtosecond laser pulses provides a tool for creating samples of isolated molecules with precisely defined and controlled spatial orientation.
Strong coupling between a mechanical oscillator and the spin of an electron could enable cooling of the oscillator to its quantum ground state and measurement of the zero-point fluctuations.
A counterexample to the 'additivity question', the most celebrated open problem in the mathematical theory of quantum information, casts doubt on the possibility of finding a simple expression for the information capacity of a quantum channel.
