Visualisation of a chaotic photonic microcavity

January issue

This month we highlight the control of chaotic photonic cavities, analyse how physicality impacts networks, and look back at 20 years of 2D materials.

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  • Artistic rendition of analogies between macroscopic and biophysical phenomena

    Research in biological physics often requires collaboration across different fields. This Focus Issue celebrates the benefits and discusses the challenges of multidisciplinarity.

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    • Phonons do not carry spin or charge, but they can couple to an external magnetic field and cause a sizable transverse thermal gradient. Experiments suggest that phonon handedness is a widespread effect in magnetic insulators with impurities.

      • Valentina Martelli
      News & Views
    • Electronic transport measurements of the anomalous Hall effect can probe properties of a frustrated kagome spin ice that are hidden from conventional thermodynamic and magnetic probes.

      • Enke Liu
      News & Views
    • Experiments with unprecedented energy and momentum resolution reveal the nature of the pairing symmetry in KFe2As2 and pave the way for a unified theoretical description of unconventional superconductivity in iron-based materials.

      • Norman Mannella
      News & Views
    • Studies of a biological active nematic fluid reveal a spontaneous self-constraint that arises between self-motile topological defects and mesoscale coherent flow structures. The defects follow specific contours of the flow field, on which vorticity and strain rate balance, and hence, contrary to expectation, they break mirror symmetry.

      Research Briefing
    • Quasicrystals are ordered but not periodic, which makes them fascinating objects at the interface between order and disorder. Experiments with ultracold atoms zoom in on this interface by driving a quasicrystal and exploring its fractal properties.

      • Julian Léonard
      News & Views
  • Quantum technologies change our notion of measurement. Chenyu Wang elaborates on how quantum squeezing enhances the precision of gravitational-wave interferometers.

    • Chenyu Wang
    Measure for Measure
  • 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.

    Editorial
  • Quantum hypothesis testing—the task of distinguishing quantum states—enjoys surprisingly deep connections with the theory of entanglement. Recent findings have reopened the biggest questions in hypothesis testing and reversible entanglement manipulation.

    • Mario Berta
    • Fernando G. S. L. Brandão
    • Marco Tomamichel
    Comment
  • The hectare has a long association with the metric system, but its most recent status has created some ambiguity as to its future application. Richard Brown surveys the lay of the land.

    • Richard J. C. Brown
    Measure for Measure
A simulated speckle pattern created when white light passes through a thin, multiply scattering medium.

Complex optics

Disorder and mode interactions are often treated as sources of noise, but can shape the flow of light in interesting and useful ways.
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