Review Articles

Owing to the growing volumes of data from high-energy physics experiments, modern deep learning methods are playing an increasingly important role in all aspects of data taking and analysis. This Review provides an overview of key developments, with a focus on the search for physics beyond the standard model.

The polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may shed light on the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and on the origin of all structures in the Universe. Discovering a signature of such new physics in the CMB will require new observational and calibration strategies for future CMB experiments.

Living cells use geometric, biochemical and mechanical guiding cues to control intracellular protein patterns that regulate many vital functions. This Review discusses mechanisms of pattern guidance unveiled in living cells and how to study them from a physics perspective.

Active matter encompasses various non-equilibrium systems in which individual constituents convert energy into non-conservative forces or motion at the microscale. This Review provides an elementary introduction to the role of topology in active matter through experimentally relevant examples.

Minimizing the energy of the Ising model is a prototypical combinatorial optimization problem, ubiquitous in our increasingly automated world. This Review surveys Ising machines — special-purpose hardware solvers for this problem — and examines the various operating principles and compares their performance.

Polaritonics is the physics of strongly coupled light–matter states that studies condensates and superfluids of bosonic quasiparticles in solid-state systems. Coherent flows of exciton–polaritons can be used for classical and quantum information processing, offering advantages of full optical control and read-out.

Multi-messenger observations of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation directly probe the synthesis of heavy elements in the Universe. This Review summarizes recent results and charts future challenges and opportunities for identifying the astrophysical origin of roughly half of the elements heavier than iron.

New approaches to integrate high-dimensional recordings of brain activity with single-neuron resolution with simultaneous recordings of natural animal behaviour enable the study of brain-wide activity in small animals including worms, flies and fish during behaviours and decision-making. This Review surveys experimental and theoretical approaches that have opened this area of systems neuroscience.

Mastering thermal conductivities of materials under pressure is extremely important for managing thermal processes, understanding the thermal transport mechanisms and for potential technological applications. This Review surveys the progresses in technique developments, research results and scientific implications in this field.

Graphene oxide (GO) has attracted intensive research interest, owing to remarkable physicochemical properties. Nevertheless, its high chemical reactivity and low stability may lead to uncontrolled GO derivatives. The chemistry of GO can be controlled by selective derivatization of the oxygenated groups and C=C bonds and by appropriate characterization.

The observation of gravitational waves emitted in the merger of neutron stars and the observations of X-rays emitted by hotspots on their surfaces are beginning to reveal nuclear physics insights about these compact objects.

Much of the rich phenomenology of active matter can be traced back to violations of time-reversal symmetry and departure from Boltzmann statistics. This Review disentangles these nonequilibrium signatures for interacting and dilute systems, in the presence of obstacles and external potentials.

Quantum photonics offers an integrated and scalable approach to quantum information processing and communication. This article summarizes the state of the art and provides an outlook on future challenges and opportunities for quantum photonics based on 2D materials.

Spintronic properties of layered materials combining magnetism and strong spin–orbit coupling can be tailored by proper optimization of chemical interactions and structural material symmetries. This Review draws a route to achieving best performing material design for reaching the upper limit of spin–orbit torque efficiency in switching magnetization.

Metamaterials enable precise tailoring of light–matter interactions. This Review discusses recent developments in the use of metamaterials for imaging.

Light–matter interaction in 2D and topological materials provides a fascinating control knob for inducing emergent, non-equilibrium properties and achieving new functionalities in the ultrafast timescale. This Review discusses recent experimental progress on the light-induced phenomena and provides perspectives on the opportunities of proposed light-induced phenomena, as well as open experimental challenges.

Optical superoscillations are rapid spatial variations of the intensity and phase of light. This Review describes technologies for generating superoscillatory hotspots and discuss advances in imaging and metrology with superoscillatory light that, in combination with artificial intelligence, offer deeply subwavelength optical resolution.

Massive black holes dwell in many galaxies, and various physical processes have been invoked to explain their presence. This Review discusses their formation channels, how they have grown over time from smaller seeds and how we can constrain their origins.

Radiotherapy with accelerated heavy ions is a potential breakthrough in cancer therapy. This Review discusses the challenges in physics and radiobiology to make this therapy affordable and to fully exploit the clinical benefits.

The advent of commercial quantum devices has ushered in the era of near-term quantum computing. Variational quantum algorithms are promising candidates to make use of these devices for achieving a practical quantum advantage over classical computers.