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As we celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, CERN’s Director-General at that time reminisces about the years leading up to this milestone.
The first step of biofilm formation is a transition from a single layer of bacteria to multiple layers. Now, there is evidence that this transition is determined by the phenotypic noise associated with cell geometry and growth rate.
Continuously changing the coupling between a magnetic impurity and a superconductor allows the observation of the reversal of supercurrent flow at the atomic scale.
Thermal fluctuations associated with higher temperatures normally destroy long-range order, but in some circumstances they can stabilize new ordered phases. This ‘order by disorder’ phenomenon has now been observed in the magnetic phases of neodymium.
Topological states characterized by Chern numbers are usually considered to be the global properties of a material. Now a spatial patchwork of different Chern insulator states is imaged in twisted bilayer graphene.
Experiments at the Joint European Torus tokamak show improved thermal ion confinement in the presence of highly energetic ions and Alfvénic instabilities in the plasma.
Quantum confinement effects offer a more comprehensive understanding of the fundamental processes that drive extreme optical nonlinearities in nano-engineered solids, opening a route to unlocking the potential of high-order harmonic generation.
Both inter- and intraband transitions contribute to high-harmonic generation in solids, but their exact roles are not fully understood. Experiments with quantum dots show that enhanced intraband transitions lead to increased carrier injection and thus enhanced harmonic generation.
Magnetic skyrmions—a type of localized spin texture—have been theoretically predicted to annihilate with counterparts known as antiskyrmions. By means of electron microscopy, such annihilation has now been observed in a cubic chiral magnet.
Combinatorial optimization is one of the areas for which quantum computing promises to overcome classical devices. An experiment with arrays of Rydberg atoms now shows how to solve combinatorial graph problems with auxiliary atomic wires.
The hydrodynamic description of many-body quantum systems is a key part of our understanding of out-of-equilibrium physics. Exotic, highly constrained quantum particles called fractons require a treatment that goes beyond hydrodynamics.
The hunt for new particles helps to complete our understanding of hadronic matter. The LHCb Collaboration now reports the surprising observation of a doubly charmed tetraquark.
The LHCb Collaboration reports the observation of an exotic, narrow, tetraquark state that contains two charm quarks, an up antiquark and a down antiquark.
Fractons are particles that can only move in tandem, which substantially affects their thermalization. Below four spatial dimensions, an unconventional dynamical universality class can emerge as thermal fluctuations destroy hydrodynamic behaviour.
