Articles in 2018

Epithelial cells are shown to scale via a shape distribution that is common to a number of different systems, suggesting that cell shape and shape variability are constrained through a relationship that is purely geometrical.

Optomechanical coupling to macroscopic phonon modes of a bulk acoustic-wave resonator is demonstrated, providing access to high acoustics quality factors for phononic modes at high frequencies that are robust to decoherence.

Finding the relevant degrees of freedom of a system is a key step in any renormalization group procedure. But this can be difficult, particularly in strongly interacting systems. A machine-learning algorithm proves adept at identifying them for us.

A quantity that connects quantum information and gravity in the light of gauge/gravity correspondence is pointed out, leading to interesting properties of the entanglement of purification predicted in the holographic theories.

A metamaterial-based acoustic sink has been designed to serve the purpose of absorbing the diverging waves and demonstrating three-dimensional sub-diffraction spherical sound wave focusing.

Complex networks are not obviously renormalizable, as different length scales coexist. Embedding networks in a geometrical space allows the definition of a renormalization group that can be used to construct smaller-scale replicas of large networks.

The Gilbert damping constant, a fundamental parameter to describe magnetization dynamics, is an isotropic scalar for most magnetic materials. Now, at a metal/semiconductor interface, the emergence of anisotropic magnetic damping has been observed.

Wrinkling in human brain organoids suggests that brain development may be mechanically driven, a notion supported only by model gels so far. Evidence in this simple living system highlights roles for cytoskeletal contraction and nuclear expansion.

Photoexcitation circular dichroism generates an ultrafast response in chiral molecules, with a much higher sensitivity than standard circular dichroism.

Canonical pattern formation relies on a system being close to an instability and stabilized by nonlinearities — but real systems seldom conform to these conditions. A new theory solves the problem by recasting it in terms of moving local equilibria.

Turbulence is seldom confined by boundaries that are perfectly smooth, but wall roughness is usually ignored. A study of flows between rotating cylinders suggests that roughness enhances turbulent transport and alters its scaling behaviour.

A large-scale density matrix renormalization group study of the dipolar Heisenberg model reveals evidence for quantum spin liquid ground states on both triangular and kagome lattices.

Many-body effects in an interacting spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas are studied with the help of clock spectroscopy. The results provide a simple view of how strong collective dynamics arise from local interactions in the presence of spin–orbit coupling.

Although predicted to occur in planetary interiors, superionic water ice has proved elusive to identify experimentally. Laser-driven shock-compression experiments on water ice VII now verify its existence.

A method for resolving the spin texture of the surface state of a topological insulator using a transport measurement is developed. Understanding the spin texture will help engineer spintronic devices.

Helical modes are induced in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas without strong spin–orbit coupling. This platform provides a versatile playground for investigating compounded quantum Hall edge states.