Articles in 2016

Confinement plays an important role in many-body physics from high energy to condensed matter. New results show that it strongly affects the non-equilibrium dynamics after a quantum quench with possible implications from ultracold atoms to QCD.

A link between crystalline symmetry and the allowed symmetries of spin–orbit torques provides a route for manipulating magnetic devices with perpendicular anisotropy.

Photoemission is not a simple process and it is not instantaneous. Delays of a few attoseconds have now been measured in helium and it seems that they are partly due to electronic correlations.

Intuition informs a widespread policy of epidemic response, replacing infected workers in classrooms or hospitals with healthy substitutes. But modelling now suggests that this mechanism may be a key factor in the accelerated spread of an epidemic.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.

Solar eruptions are triggered by magnetic stress building up in the corona due to the motion of the Sun's dense surface. New observations reveal that these eruptions can, in turn, induce the rotational motion of sunspots.

Nick van Remortel demystifies natural unit systems — and advises what to do when you see a mass expressed in GeV.

Experiments of the Aharonov–Bohm type typically involve particles that are charged and interact with a magnetic flux. Photons aren't the former and don't do the latter. Yet, an Aharonov–Bohm ring for photons has just been realized experimentally.

Cavity spectroscopy measurements elucidate the Fermi polaron nature of the optical excitations in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides.

The success with which the parasite Schistosoma mansoni infects humans is due largely to its efficient motility. Experiments, modelling and robotics suggest that it swims via an elastohydrodynamic mechanism, rather than using active muscle control.

Superconducting circuits, coupled to form a ring in which a photonic excitation can circulate between sites, are established as a versatile platform for studying the interplay of strong particle interactions and external fields.

The ability of phototactic microorganisms to move towards optimal light intensities is exploited to generate fluid flows on scales several orders larger than the swimmers themselves. These flows are shown to function as hydrodynamic tweezers.