News & Views in 2023

Long-theorized, non-dispersive de Broglie wave packets have been optically synthesized using classically entangled ring-shaped space-time wave packets in a medium exhibiting anomalous dispersion.

In proton–proton collisions, the CMS Collaboration measures the simultaneous production of three particles, each consisting of a charm quark and a charm antiquark, which yields insights into how the proton’s constituents interact.

Measurements of charge pumping in a quantum anomalous Hall device demonstrate that quantized Hall conductance does not require an edge to transport current, paving the way for the realization of other exotic electronic behaviour.

Particles in space can be accelerated to high energy, the distribution of which follows a power law. This has now been reproduced in laboratory experiments mimicking astrophysical scenarios, which helps to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Liquid crystal defect structures with topology similar to a Möbius strip can rotate, translate and transform into one another under an applied electric field.

Renormalization is a technique based on a repeated coarse-graining procedure used to study scale invariance and criticality in statistical physics. Now, an expansion of the renormalization toolbox allows to explore scale invariance in real-world networks.

The magnetic flux in a superconducting loop can only change by discrete jumps called phase slips. The energy dissipated by an individual phase slip has now been detected thanks to advances in precision temperature measurements.

Ultrafast laser fields are able to widely tune the physical properties of semiconductors by generating virtual states. Using strong fields at energies below the optical bandgap, control of excitons in two-dimensional semiconductors has now been demonstrated.

The emission of light from qubits in a superconducting circuit can be controlled in order to choose the direction of the photons’ propagation, which could be used to route information in quantum networks.