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An enhanced production of particles containing strange quarks has been discovered in proton–proton collisions at the LHC by the ALICE Collaboration. The enhancement depends on the strangeness content of the hadrons and grows with the number of charged particles produced, behaviour that may be connected to the formation of a primordial state of matter. Letter p535; News & Views p531 IMAGE: DAVID DOBRIGKEIT CHINELLATO, UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS (UNICAMP), BRAZIL COVER DESIGN: BETHANY VUKOMANOVIC
Some Springer Nature journals, including Nature Physics, are mandating Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCIDs) for the corresponding authors of accepted papers. We provide some context to this initiative.
INSPIRE, the central information resource of the high-energy physics community, pioneered the open dissemination of scientific literature. It has been evolving to keep up with the new technologies and it is not slowing down.
While axions remain elusive, the CERN Axion Solar Telescope has now reached the interesting region where physics beyond the standard model could be glimpsed.
An enhanced production of particles with strange quarks has been observed in high-multiplicity proton–proton collisions — an important clue to understand how strange quarks form, and perhaps a hint of the quark–gluon plasma.
Topological concepts have been demonstrated in microwave photonic systems but laser-written waveguides show the way to topological physics for light at optical frequencies.
Improved-accuracy measurements of the ground-state hyperfine splitting in highly charged bismuth ions reveal a surprising discrepancy with the predictions of quantum electrodynamics.
Quark–gluon plasma is an exotic state of matter that can emerge in heavy nuclei high-energy collisions. The ALICE collaboration reports the first observation of strangeness enhancement in proton–proton collisions, a possible signature of this state.
Using two entangled optical beams and post-selection, a single photon can have the same effect as eight photons in terms of the induced phase shift. This example illustrates the power of the so-called weak-value amplification.
The Berry curvature is essential to the study of the topological properties of a system, be it solid-state, atomic or photonic. In 1D photonic lattices there is a new clever way of measuring the Berry curvature.
With the help of a quantum simulator and Bayesian inference it is possible to determine the unknown Hamiltonian of a quantum system. An experiment demonstrates this using a photonic quantum simulator and a solid-state system.
When the entropy of a system scales as a function of its surface area, rather than its volume, it is said to obey an entropy area law. Now, an area law is shown to exist numerically in the entanglement entropy of superfluid helium.
The spatial separation of charge and spin densities in one-dimensional electron systems is the hallmark of Tomonaga–Luttinger physics. Waveform measurements now provide direct evidence for spin–charge separation.
Signatures of spin–momentum-locked gap states in nanowire quantum point contacts that have all-electrical origin could provide the conditions for the quasiparticle excitations required for topological quantum computing.
A method for narrowing the NMR linewidth of specific molecules to the sub-millihertz range—two orders of magnitude below the natural linewidth—could open up new avenues for molecular characterization.
Larmor coupling is a collisionless momentum exchange mechanism believed to occur in various astrophysical and space-plasma environments. The phenomenon is now observed in a laboratory experiment.
Electrical rectification is usually achieved by layering p-type and n-type materials, but experiments now demonstrate rectification in a bulk polar semiconductor that has inversion-symmetry breaking and strong Rashba spin–orbit coupling.
Axions are hypothetical light particles that could explain the dark matter. They could be produced in the interior of the Sun and the CERN Axion Solar Telescope sets the best limit on how strongly axions can interact with light.
Controlling electric currents on the atomic scale requires being able to handle the ultrafast timescales involved. Now, experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of terahertz scanning tunnelling microscopy as a method for doing just that.
A torque magnetometry study of the pyrochlore iridate Eu2Ir2O7 reveals an unusual symmetry-breaking effect that persists above the Néel temperature of this antiferromagnet.
Understanding the recombination dynamics in quantum dots is crucial for their use in optoelectronic devices. A photocurrent spectroscopy study shows how two distinct relaxation mechanisms are at play over different timescales.
Three-dimensional laser-written waveguide arrays are used to demonstrate type-II Weyl points, along with Fermi arc-like surface states, for light at optical wavelengths.