Articles in 2015

Two observational studies published in Nature Physics provided early evidence for the mechanisms of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions and in a turbulent medium.

Electric fields can controllably break the inversion symmetry of bilayer graphene, which can be harnessed to generate pure valley currents.

Deep-sea sediments reveal the production sites of the heaviest chemical elements in the Universe to be neutron star mergers — rare events that eject large amounts of mass — and not core-collapse supernovae.

Bose–Einstein condensation in atomic gases was first observed in 1995. As we look back at the past 20 years of this thriving field, it's clear that there is much to celebrate.

Fermi resolved.

South Korea's march from fast follower to first mover in science and technology.

Ultracold-atom experiments enable more flexibility in the study of quantum transport phenomena that are otherwise difficult to probe in solid-state systems. A survey of recent advances highlights the challenges and opportunities of this approach.

Stars could produce our heavy elements through a rapid neutron-capture process during a supernova or merger of binary stars, but which is it? A study of ²⁴⁴Pu reveals that a rare event with a high yield is more likely, favouring mergers.

A neutron scattering study of the quantum magnet BiCu₂PO₆ demonstrates a phenomenon known as energy-level repulsion, which occurs between a long-lived quasiparticle state and a many-particle continuum.

Kohn’s theorem states that the electron cyclotron resonance is unaffected by many-body interactions in a static magnetic field. Yet, intense terahertz pulses do introduce Coulomb effects between electrons—holding promise for quantum control of electrons.

Cassini’s encounter with Saturn’s magnetotail — the long magnetosphere region stretching into space — has revealed that plasma exits the magnetosphere through long-duration magnetic reconnection, which ejects ten times more mass than estimated.

A combination of strong spin–orbit coupling and electronic correlations in pyrochlore iridates produces a quantum insulator–metal transition that can be induced by applying a magnetic field along specific crystalline axes.

A study of robots jumping on granular media reveals that performance depends on an added-mass effect born of grains solidifying on impact. Techniques that are optimized for launching off hard surfaces are shown to be compromised by the effect.

Single-molecule techniques have long given us insight into the motion and interactions of individual molecules. But simulations now show that the dynamics inside single proteins is not as simple as we thought — and that proteins are forever changing.

Quantum liquids at equilibrium follow Fermi liquid theory, but less is known about non-equilibrium conditions. Carbon nanotubes, which exhibit universal scaling behaviour, provide a testbed for many-body physics beyond equilibrium.