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Physics is the search for and application of rules that can help us understand and predict the world around us. Central to physics are ideas such as energy, mass, particles and waves. Physics attempts to both answer philosophical questions about the nature of the universe and provide solutions to technological problems.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
A single monolayer semiconductor integrated into a plasmonic tunnel junction exhibits electroluminescence with photon energies that exceed the excitation electron potential. This phenomenon is shown to be indirectly triggered by inelastically tunnelling electrons.
Ultrafast light pulses, if they are sufficiently intense, can induce phase transitions on ultrafast timescales. It is now shown that when a system is first excited by a weak preparatory pulse, this generates local changes in structure that transiently lower the energy barrier to the phase transition, enabling high-speed and energy-efficient transitions.
Understanding the physics of charge density waves in emerging superconductors may reveal insights into unconventional superconductivity mechanisms. Here, the authors study the temperature and magnetic-field dependence of charge-density-wave suppression in the unconventional superconductor UTe2.
Reconstructing the structure of a complex networked system and predicting its time evolution to understand its functions are usually two subjects that are treated separately. The authors propose a theoretical framework based on information theory, that uncovers the relation between reconstructability and predictability in networked systems.
There are now several van der Waals magnets that have been shown to host skyrmions, however, these are typically hampered by a low Curie temperature, restricting the temperature at which the skyrmions can exist. Here, Zhang, Jiang, Jiang and coauthors find a skyrmion lattice in the van der Waals magnet Fe3 − xGaTe2 above room temperature and demonstrate the critical role of symmetry breaking in crystal lattice in the origin of these skyrmions.
The authors propose a hydrogen bond modification method to achieve introduction of polarization and enhancement of phase transition temperature in molecular ferroelectrics, exploring the piezoelectric prototype devices of the molecular ferroelectric.
The presence of flat bands near the Fermi energy may lead to an increase in electron correlations and result in unconventional states. Here, non-Fermi liquid behavior and anomalous superconductivity, with a nonmonotonic two-dome-like doping dependence, are observed in Sc2Ir4-xSix and attributed to spin-orbit-coupling driven flat bands.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
A single monolayer semiconductor integrated into a plasmonic tunnel junction exhibits electroluminescence with photon energies that exceed the excitation electron potential. This phenomenon is shown to be indirectly triggered by inelastically tunnelling electrons.