Articles in 2022

The transition from a glassy to a liquid phase is normally assumed to take place cooperatively across the whole material. But now, experiments show that, under certain conditions, isolated regions of liquid can form in the glassy matrix first.

Embryo patterning relies on morphogen gradients. Now, a morphogen gradient also encodes an unjamming transition, enabling collective cellular flows that re-shape embryos while preserving patterning.

The CMS Collaboration finds evidence for the contribution from off-shell Higgs bosons to the production of events with two Z bosons. This provides a measurement of the Higgs boson’s width.

Experiments with small flocks of sheep show intermittent collective motion events driven by random leaders that guide the group. A model reveals information pooling capabilities, suggesting a mechanism for swarm intelligence.

The spatiotemporal profile of the electric field around a high-energy electron beam was visualized using an ultrafast technique based on electro-optic sampling. By investigating the formation of the Coulomb field it was possible to experimentally confirm the validity of the predictions of special relativity regarding electromagnetic fields.

Collective and self-organized behaviour of sheep consists of intermittent episodes in which the animals follow a temporal leader—a role that is switched between various members of the group.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

The Lorentz transformation of electromagnetic potentials is confirmed in experiments with a highly energetic electron beam. This provides another test of the predictions of special relativity.

Ensembles of weakly interacting atoms have enabled some of the most precise measurements ever made. Now researchers have shown that making these atoms work together in a strongly interacting regime can boost sensitivity by orders of magnitude.

An ultracold spinor Bose gas was used to achieve advanced experimental control and detection of an easy-plane ferromagnet, allowing observation of the system as it approaches equilibrium. The measurements revealed twofold superfluidity in the spin and density degrees of freedom with very different critical speeds.

Measurements of a transversely polarized target were used to probe the spin structure of the proton in the low-energy region where the interactions between the quarks cannot be ignored. These results provide a benchmark for testing our understanding of the strong force.

Many quantum applications require the careful preparation of quantum harmonic oscillators. The combination of a high-power microwave drive and weak nonlinearity enables fast control of such systems, with implications for quantum computing and metrology.

A noise-resilient protocol implemented in a cavity resonator coupled to a qubit demonstrates that large nonlinear couplings are not a necessary requirement for the fast universal control and state preparation of engineered quantum systems.

Interacting quantum systems near criticality have been proposed as potential probes for quantum metrology. An experiment with Rydberg atoms now proves the enhanced sensitivity of critical many-body systems to small variations in external parameters.

Making monolayer superconductors creates interesting effects, but often decreases the transition temperature compared to 3D materials. Instead, intercalating molecules into a layered superconductor tailors the superconductivity with fewer trade-offs.

A quantum simulation experiment reveals the thermalization of a ferromagnetic system realized with a one-dimensional spinor Bose gas, providing quantitative insights into the condensation dynamics of large magnetic systems.

Measurements of the proton’s generalized spin polarizabilities provide discriminating power between effective descriptions of the strong interaction at low energy.

Many-body quantum systems that escape thermalization are promising candidates for quantum information applications. A weak-ergodicity-breaking mechanism—quantum scarring—has now been observed with superconducting qubits in unconstrained models.

The superconducting critical temperature of monolayer materials is often lower than their bulk counterparts. Now, intercalation is shown to induce two-dimensional superconducting properties while maintaining the bulk critical temperature.