Letters

When electrons in a crystal interact with the surrounding lattice, they can form quasiparticles known as polarons. A computational approach to studying polarons in two-dimensional materials explains why they are rarely observed in these systems.

Quantum systems produce correlations that cannot be mimicked by classical resources, which can be used to certify quantum states without trusting the underlying devices. A network can perform this procedure for pure states with any number of systems.

Plasmonics allows precise engineering of light–matter interactions and is the driver behind many optical devices. The local observation of a plasmonic quantum wave packet is a step towards bringing these functionalities to the quantum regime.

The charge density wave state in kagome superconductors is not fully understood. Now, evidence suggests that the rotational symmetry of the lattice is broken before coherence of unidirectional quasiparticles is established at a lower temperature.

A scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscope is used to image ferroelectric domains in piezoelectric and improper ferroelectric samples with high sensitivity. The technique relies on the nitrogen-vacancy’s Stark shift produced by the samples’ electric field.

Icephobic surfaces are helpful for increasing safety and sustainability in engineering applications. A study of the behaviour of supercooled droplets freezing on superhydrophobic surfaces now provides insights into ice-repellency mechanisms.

Certain fish shoals ward off bird attacks by touching the water surface in a manner resembling waves observed in stadiums. This behaviour exhibits characteristics that suggest the fish might operate close to criticality.

The presence of small thermal regions in a many-body localized system could lead to its delocalization. An experiment with cold atoms now monitors the delocalization induced by the coupling of a many-body localized region with a thermal bath.

Lunar tides affect Earth’s oceans and its geomagnetic field. Multisatellite observations demonstrate that they also impact the plasmasphere.

Quantized charge pumping is a hallmark of topological phases. Now, this effect is observed in the quantum anomalous Hall regime.

Careful thermal transport measurements identify the topological nature of transverse thermal conductance in the fractional quantum Hall regime.

The interaction of strong laser fields with tungsten disulfide leads to light-dressed Floquet replica of excitonic states, which manifest as new features in the transient absorption spectrum.

Photonic waveguides with appropriately engineered interactions allow the experimental realization of non-Abelian quantum holonomies of the symmetry group U(3), which is known from the strong nuclear force.

The Luttinger liquid is a theoretical concept used to describe interacting fermions in a 1D system. Now it is shown that the model also describes electron physics in η-Mo₄O₁₁, a quasi-2D material in which 1D chains cross each other.

A continuum active solid system is realized in a bacterial biofilm. Self-sustained elastic waves are observed, and two modes of collective motion with a sharp transition between them are identified.

Interspecies comparisons between atomic optical clocks are important for several technological applications. A recently proposed spectroscopy technique extends the interrogation times of clocks, leading to highly stable comparison between species.

During development, tissues with complex topology emerge from collections of cells with simple geometry. This process in neuroepithelial organoids is governed by two topologically distinct modes of epithelial fusion.

Single-molecule magnetic tweezers enable probing the folding dynamics of a single talin protein for long periods of time. This allows the observation of previously inaccessible rare and kinetically trapped conformations.

The notion of chirality in dynamical systems with broken spatial symmetry but preserved time inversion symmetry has led to the concept of truly chiral phonons. These have now been observed in bulk HgS using circularly polarized Raman spectroscopy.

The IceCube Collaboration reports a search for quantum gravity effects imprinted in flavour conversions of astrophysical neutrinos. No evidence for anomalous conversions between neutrino flavours is observed.