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In the 1980s, the discovery of electron states that fractionalize in the presence of a time-reversal symmetry breaking magnetic field opened up new directions in condensed matter physics. In 2023, evidence has accumulated that a version of these states in which the time-reversal symmetry breaking is spontaneous appears in moiré materials.
In 2023, pulsar timing arrays announced what could become the first ever discovery of a stochastic gravitational wave background: the random superposition of gravitational waves permeating the cosmos — a vestige of cosmic processes in the Universe.
In 2023, a number of experiments on trilayer 2D structures uncovered new exciton states that have an electrically-tunable dipole moment and show a quantum many-body phase diagram.
Despite recent breakthroughs in quantum error correction experiments with trapped ions, superconducting circuits and reconfigurable atom arrays, there are still several technological challenges to overcome.
In 2023, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory discovered high-energy neutrinos from the Milky Way, an important clue towards understanding the origin of high-energy cosmic rays.
Ignition of a millimetre-sized pellet containing a mix of deuterium–tritium, published in 2022, puts to rest questions about the capability of lasers to ignite thermonuclear fuel.
In 2021, the most precise measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment and a new high-precision lattice quantum chromodynamics calculation have in turn kindled, then dimmed, hopes for seeing signs of new physics. State-of-the-art calculations, made possible by a series of recent advances, will be key to understanding these conflicting results.
Peoples’ movements are linked with the spread of epidemics — but not always in simple ways. In the past two years, new datasets and analyses have shed fresh light on how to relate mobility and contagion.
Whereas high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates has been studied for 30 years, during the past year it has been reported in nickelates. This raises new questions for physicists and chemists about the mechanism of superconductivity.
Strong experimental evidence for the existence of the simplest type of anyons (particles that are neither bosons nor fermions) has emerged this year. The next step is to uncover more exotic types of anyons, such as Majorana fermions.
The Hubble constant can be estimated from measurements of both the early and late Universe, but the two estimates disagree. In 2019 a number of independent measurements using different methods made this discrepancy harder to ignore.
In 2019, new optical phenomena have been revealed in stacks of atomically thin semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides. These effects can be understood in terms of well-known, but also new, exotic, types of exciton.
Black holes — from which no light escapes — have now been ‘seen’ by electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observatories. Datasets from these observations, released in the past year, give important hints about the environment, origin and growth of black holes.
