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Volume 20 Issue 3, March 2024

Universal dynamics out of equilibrium

The dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems far from equilibrium is a field of study that pertains to many situations, including ultracold atoms, quantum spin magnets, and quark–gluon matter. Here, magnetization measurements in a spinor atomic gas show a way to classify universal dynamics based on symmetry and topology.

See Huh et al. and Prüfer

Image: Jae-yoon Choi, KAIST and Koushik Mukherjee, Lund University. Cover Design: Amie Fernandez.

Editorial

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Comment

  • Injustices and oppression are pervasive in society, including education. An intersectional, equity-oriented approach can help remove systemic obstacles and improve the experience of marginalized people in physics education through decolonial and critical race lenses.

    • Geraldine L. Cochran
    • Simone Hyater-Adams
    • Ramón S. Barthelemy
    Comment
  • Computing is central to the enterprise of physics but few undergraduate physics courses include it in their curricula. Here we discuss why and how to integrate computing into physics education.

    • Marcos D. Caballero
    • Tor Ole B. Odden
    Comment
  • Increasingly, physics graduates take jobs outside academia. Active teaching approaches lead to deeper conceptual understanding and a more varied skill set and are therefore more likely to prepare students for successful careers.

    • Jenaro Guisasola
    • Kristina Zuza
    Comment
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Thesis

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News & Views

  • Precise frequencies of nearly forbidden transitions have been ascertained in the simplest molecule, the molecular hydrogen ion. This work offers a new perspective on precision measurements and fundamental physical tests with molecular spectroscopy.

    • Xin Tong
    News & Views
  • Quantum simulators can provide new insights into the complicated dynamics of quantum many-body systems far from equilibrium. A recent experiment reveals that underlying symmetries dictate the nature of universal scaling dynamics.

    • Maximilian Prüfer
    News & Views
  • Quasicrystals are ordered but not periodic, which makes them fascinating objects at the interface between order and disorder. Experiments with ultracold atoms zoom in on this interface by driving a quasicrystal and exploring its fractal properties.

    • Julian Léonard
    News & Views
  • It has long been predicted that spin-1/2 antiferromagnets on the kagome lattice should feature a series of plateaus in the change of its magnetization under an applied magnetic field. A quantum plateau of this kind has now been observed experimentally.

    • Gia-Wei Chern
    News & Views
  • Electronic transport measurements of the anomalous Hall effect can probe properties of a frustrated kagome spin ice that are hidden from conventional thermodynamic and magnetic probes.

    • Enke Liu
    News & Views
  • Electric dipoles are common in insulators, but extremely rare in metals. This situation may be about to change, thanks to flexoelectricity.

    • Gustau Catalan
    News & Views
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Research Briefings

  • Studies of a biological active nematic fluid reveal a spontaneous self-constraint that arises between self-motile topological defects and mesoscale coherent flow structures. The defects follow specific contours of the flow field, on which vorticity and strain rate balance, and hence, contrary to expectation, they break mirror symmetry.

    Research Briefing
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Perspectives

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Review Articles

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Matters Arising

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Articles

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Measure for Measure

  • Measuring air temperature is far from a trivial task, as Andrea Merlone, Graziano Coppa and Chiara Musacchio explain.

    • Andrea Merlone
    • Graziano Coppa
    • Chiara Musacchio
    Measure for Measure
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