Letters in 2023

Cells in a tissue layer arrange themselves in orientationally ordered structures. Now two types of liquid crystalline order have been shown to coexist, with nematic order dominating large length scales and hexatic order dominating small length scales.

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.