Featured
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Universality class of a spinor Bose–Einstein condensate far from equilibrium
The dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems far from equilibrium is the object of intense research. Magnetization measurements in a spinor atomic gas now offer a way to classify universal dynamics based on symmetry and topology.
- SeungJung Huh
- , Koushik Mukherjee
- & Jae-yoon Choi
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| Open AccessInverse design of high-dimensional quantum optical circuits in a complex medium
Light passing through complex media is subject to scattering processes that mix together different photonic modes. This complexity can be harnessed to implement quantum operations.
- Suraj Goel
- , Saroch Leedumrongwatthanakun
- & Mehul Malik
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| Open AccessSpontaneous self-constraint in active nematic flows
Active flows in biological systems swirl. A coupling between active flows, elongated deformations and defect dynamics helps preserve self-organised structures against disordered swirling.
- Louise C. Head
- , Claire Doré
- & Tyler N. Shendruk
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| Open AccessNon-Hermitian topology in a multi-terminal quantum Hall device
Non-Hermitian systems can be described in terms of gain and loss with a coupled environment—a hard feature to tune in quantum devices. Now an experiment shows non-Hermitian topology in a quantum Hall ring without relying on gain and loss.
- Kyrylo Ochkan
- , Raghav Chaturvedi
- & Ion Cosma Fulga
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| Open AccessEmergent seesaw oscillations during cellular directional decision-making
Cell motion along linear confinements is deterministic. Now a model predicts deterministic oscillations in cellular polarization at a Y junction in a set-up with adhesive patterns.
- Jonathan E. Ron
- , Michele Crestani
- & Nir S. Gov
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| Open AccessSecond-scale rotational coherence and dipolar interactions in a gas of ultracold polar molecules
Coherence between rotational states of polar molecules has previously been limited by light shifts in optical traps. A magic-wavelength trap is able to maximize the coherence time and enables the observation of tunable dipolar interactions.
- Philip D. Gregory
- , Luke M. Fernley
- & Simon L. Cornish
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| Open AccessAnomalous localization in a kicked quasicrystal
Phases of matter can host different transport behaviours, ranging from diffusion to localization. Anomalous transport has now been observed in an interacting Bose gas in a one-dimensional lattice subject to a pulsed incommensurate potential.
- Toshihiko Shimasaki
- , Max Prichard
- & David M. Weld
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| Open AccessFlexoelectric polarizing and control of a ferromagnetic metal
Electric polarization is well defined for insulators but not for metals. Electric-like polarization is now realized via inhomogeneous lattice strain in metallic SrRuO3, generating a pseudo-electric field. This field affects the material’s electronic bands.
- Wei Peng
- , Se Young Park
- & Daesu Lee
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| Open AccessLong-lived valley states in bilayer graphene quantum dots
Using the valley degree of freedom in analogy to spin to encode qubits could be advantageous as many of the known decoherence mechanisms do not apply. Now long relaxation times are demonstrated for valley qubits in bilayer graphene quantum dots.
- Rebekka Garreis
- , Chuyao Tong
- & Wei Wister Huang
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Heavy-tailed neuronal connectivity arises from Hebbian self-organization
The strengths of connections in networks of neurons are heavy-tailed, with some neurons connected much more strongly than most. Now a simple network model can explain how this heavy-tailed connectivity emerges across four different species.
- Christopher W. Lynn
- , Caroline M. Holmes
- & Stephanie E. Palmer
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Diversity of information pathways drives sparsity in real-world networks
Topological features such as modularity and small-worldness are common in real-world networks. The emergence of such features may be driven by a trade-off between information exchange and response diversity that resembles thermodynamic efficiency.
- Arsham Ghavasieh
- & Manlio De Domenico
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Editorial |
Twenty years of 2D materials
Two-dimensional crystals have revolutionized fundamental research across a staggering range of disciplines. We take stock of the progress gained after twenty years of work.
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News & Views |
A new way to use old codes
Scalable quantum computers require quantum error-correcting codes that can robustly store information. Exploiting the structure of well-known classical codes may help create more efficient approaches to quantum error correction.
- Anirudh Krishna
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Measure for Measure |
Squeeze it tight
Quantum technologies change our notion of measurement. Chenyu Wang elaborates on how quantum squeezing enhances the precision of gravitational-wave interferometers.
- Chenyu Wang
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| Open AccessProgrammable Heisenberg interactions between Floquet qubits
External driving of qubits can exploit their nonlinearity to generate different forms of interqubit interactions, broadening the capabilities of the platform.
- Long B. Nguyen
- , Yosep Kim
- & Irfan Siddiqi
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Ferroelectric and spontaneous quantum Hall states in intrinsic rhombohedral trilayer graphene
Bilayer graphene is known to host states where interactions dominate the electronic behaviour. Now, transport measurements show that this is also true for trilayer graphene and give evidence for ferroelectric states and states with high Chern number.
- Felix Winterer
- , Fabian R. Geisenhof
- & R. Thomas Weitz
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| Open AccessTime-Efficient Constant-Space-Overhead Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation
Large quantum computers will require error correcting codes, but most proposals have prohibitive requirements for overheads in the number of qubits, processing time or both. A way to combine smaller codes now gives a much more efficient protocol.
- Hayata Yamasaki
- & Masato Koashi
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News & Views |
Parallel quantum control meets optical atomic clocks
Optical atomic clocks are extremely accurate sensors despite the poor use of their resources. A parallel quantum control approach might help to optimize the resources of optical atomic clocks, which could lead to an exponential improvement in their performance.
- Simone Colombo
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Probing many-body correlations using quantum-cascade correlation spectroscopy
Quantum-correlated photons typically characterize strongly nonlinear quantum emitters. A two-photon correlation spectroscopy method now provides a powerful probe of weakly nonlinear many-body quantum systems.
- Lorenzo Scarpelli
- , Cyril Elouard
- & Thomas Volz
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Emergence of highly coherent two-level systems in a noisy and dense quantum network
Quantum coherence is hard to maintain in solid-state systems, as interactions usually lead to fast dephasing. Exploiting disorder effects and interactions, highly coherent two-level systems have now been realized in a rare-earth insulator compound.
- A. Beckert
- , M. Grimm
- & G. Aeppli
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| Open AccessMulti-ensemble metrology by programming local rotations with atom movements
Addressing optical transitions at the level of a single site is crucial to unlock the potential of quantum computers and atomic clocks. A scheme based on atom rearrangement now demonstrates such control with demonstrable metrological benefits.
- Adam L. Shaw
- , Ran Finkelstein
- & Manuel Endres
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News & Views |
Precisely simple
Precise frequencies of nearly forbidden transitions have been ascertained in the simplest molecule, the molecular hydrogen ion. This work offers a new perspective on precision measurements and fundamental physical tests with molecular spectroscopy.
- Xin Tong
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One-ninth magnetization plateau stabilized by spin entanglement in a kagome antiferromagnet
Magnets with frustrated interactions are predicted to form quantum entangled states that feature measurable plateaus in their magnetization. Evidence for one of these plateau phases has now been found in a kagome lattice antiferromagnet.
- Sungmin Jeon
- , Dirk Wulferding
- & Kwang-Yong Choi
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Laser spectroscopy of a rovibrational transition in the molecular hydrogen ion \({\mathbf{H}}_{\mathbf{2}}^{\mathbf{+}}\)
Vibrational laser spectroscopy of the molecular hydrogen ion \({\rm{H}}_{2}^{+}\) offers new prospects for fundamental physics studies.
- M. R. Schenkel
- , S. Alighanbari
- & S. Schiller
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Research Briefing |
Tales from the edge in the Weyl superconductor MoTe2
In its superconducting state, MoTe2 displays oscillations arising from an edge supercurrent, and when it is near niobium, there is an incompatibility between electron pairs diffusing from niobium and the pairs intrinsic to MoTe2. Insight into this competition between pairs is obtained by monitoring the noise spectrum of the MoTe2 supercurrent oscillations.
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Direct comparison of two spin-squeezed optical clock ensembles at the 10−17 level
Noise is a fundamental obstacle to the stability of atomic optical clocks. An experiment now realizes the design of a spin-squeezed clock that improves interrogation times and enables direct comparisons of performance between different clocks.
- John M. Robinson
- , Maya Miklos
- & Jun Ye
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Edge supercurrent reveals competition between condensates in a Weyl superconductor
How superconducting states with different order parameter symmetries can interact with each other is not well understood. Now, the edge mode of a Weyl superconductor serves as a probe for competing condensates.
- Stephan Kim
- , Shiming Lei
- & N. P. Ong
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News & Views |
Intrinsic simplicity of complex systems
Predicting the large-scale behaviour of complex systems is challenging because of their underlying nonlinear dynamics. Theoretical evidence now verifies that many complex systems can be simplified and still provide an insightful description of the phenomena of interest.
- Jianxi Gao
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Quantum-inspired classical algorithms for molecular vibronic spectra
It has been suggested that Gaussian boson sampling may provide a quantum computational advantage for calculating the vibronic spectra of molecules. Now, an equally efficient classical algorithm has been identified.
- Changhun Oh
- , Youngrong Lim
- & Liang Jiang
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Room-temperature long-range ferromagnetic order in a confined molecular monolayer
Realizing robust ferromagnetic order in two dimensions is challenging as an underlying crystalline framework is normally required. Now room-temperature ferromagnetism is demonstrated in a two-dimensional honeycomb self-assembly of confined molecules.
- Yuhua Liu
- , Haifeng Lv
- & Yi Xie
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The low-rank hypothesis of complex systems
Although using low-rank matrices is the go-to approach to model the dynamics of complex systems, its validity remains formally unconfirmed. An analysis of random networks and real-world data now sheds light on this low-rank hypothesis and its implications.
- Vincent Thibeault
- , Antoine Allard
- & Patrick Desrosiers
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Discrete degeneracies distinguished by the anomalous Hall effect in a metallic kagome ice compound
Transport measurements of the metallic kagome spin ice HoAgGe show that it has an emergent discrete symmetry that is not apparent from measurements of its magnetization.
- K. Zhao
- , Y. Tokiwa
- & P. Gegenwart
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News & Views |
Pathway to cool hot molecules
A promising pathway towards the laser cooling of a molecule containing a radioactive atom has been identified. The unique structure of such a molecule means that it can act as a magnifying lens to probe fundamental physics.
- Steven Hoekstra
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Research Briefing |
Interacting loop models explain the flows of active fluids in hydraulic networks
Predicting the complex flows that emerge in active fluid networks remains a challenge. A combination of experiments and theory was used to determine the hydraulic laws of active fluids. Analogies with frustrated magnetism and loop models explain the emergent flow patterns that result when active fluids explore pipe networks.
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Precision spectroscopy and laser-cooling scheme of a radium-containing molecule
Measurements of the rovibronic structure of radium monofluoride molecules allow the identification of a laser cooling scheme. This will enable precise tests of fundamental physics, such as searches for parity or time-reversal symmetry violation.
- S. M. Udrescu
- , S. G. Wilkins
- & C. Zülch
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| Open AccessActive hydraulics laws from frustration principles
Experiments with active colloidal fluids in large-scale hydraulic networks reveal a connection between emergent flows and dynamical spin-ice patterns.
- Camille Jorge
- , Amélie Chardac
- & Denis Bartolo
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| Open AccessFriction forces determine cytoplasmic reorganization and shape changes of ascidian oocytes upon fertilization
Friction forces at the interface between tissues play a key role in tissue morphogenesis. Now friction at the cellular scale is shown to influence cell shape and cell rearrangements.
- Silvia Caballero-Mancebo
- , Rushikesh Shinde
- & Carl-Philipp Heisenberg
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News & Views |
Cells play tug-of-war to start moving collectively
Orderly or coherent multicellular flows are fundamental in biology, but their triggers are not understood. In epithelial tissues, the tug-of-war between cells is now shown to lead to intrinsic asymmetric distributions in cell polarities that drive such flows.
- Guillermo A. Gomez
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Bipolarity of large anomalous Nernst effect in Weyl magnet-based alloy films
The key to enhance the output of a thermoelectric device is to be able to regulate the thermoelectric voltage generation. Topological magnet Co3Sn2S2-based devices show the way to achieve that goal.
- Shun Noguchi
- , Kohei Fujiwara
- & Atsushi Tsukazaki
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Spontaneous rotations in epithelia as an interplay between cell polarity and boundaries
Coherent motion of cells plays an important role in morphogenesis. Experiments with cellular rings, supported by numerical simulations, suggest that cell polarity and acto-myosin cables are important factors in the onset of coherence.
- S. Lo Vecchio
- , O. Pertz
- & D. Riveline
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Protecting expressive circuits with a quantum error detection code
An error detecting code running on a trapped-ion quantum computer protects expressive circuits of eight logical qubits with a high-fidelity and partially fault-tolerant implementation of a universal gate set.
- Chris N. Self
- , Marcello Benedetti
- & David Amaro
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Realization of the Haldane Chern insulator in a moiré lattice
The Haldane model is a paradigmatic example of topological behaviour but has not previously been implemented in condensed-matter experiments. Now a moiré bilayer is shown to realize this model with the accompanying quantized transport response.
- Wenjin Zhao
- , Kaifei Kang
- & Kin Fai Mak
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Unconventional superconducting quantum criticality in monolayer WTe2
Thermoelectric measurements show an unusual form of critical behaviour at the superconducting quantum phase transition in monolayer WTe2.
- Tiancheng Song
- , Yanyu Jia
- & Sanfeng Wu
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News & Views |
Spot the defects
The ability to extract information from diffuse background signals in ultrafast electron diffraction experiments now enables a direct view of the formation of topological defects during a light-induced phase transition.
- Isabella Gierz
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Research Briefing |
Optical trapping and tailoring of exciton-polariton condensates into macroscopic complexes
Subwavelength photonic gratings can host long-lived, negative-effective-mass photonic modes that couple strongly to electron transitions in constituent active materials. The resulting bosonic hybrid light–matter modes, or exciton-polaritons, can be optically configured to accumulate into various macroscopic artificial complexes and lattices of coherent quantum fluids.
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Reconfigurable quantum fluid molecules of bound states in the continuum
Bound states in the continuum are topological states with useful symmetry protection properties. An experiment now shows how to use them to form macroscopically coherent complexes of polariton condensates.
- Antonio Gianfrate
- , Helgi Sigurðsson
- & Daniele Sanvitto
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Evidence for an odd-parity nematic phase above the charge-density-wave transition in a kagome metal
Metallic kagome compounds are known to host several different electronic phases. Now, evidence for a form of nematic order that breaks time-reversal symmetry and is odd under a parity transformation is found in CsV3Sb5.
- T. Asaba
- , A. Onishi
- & Y. Matsuda
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Ultrafast formation of topological defects in a two-dimensional charge density wave
Topological defects play a crucial role in the behaviour of strongly correlated materials out of equilibrium. Now, ultrafast electron diffraction measurements on 1T-TiSe2 shed light on the defect formation process at sub-picosecond timescales.
- Yun Cheng
- , Alfred Zong
- & Dao Xiang