Volume 15 Issue 1, January 2019

This month marks the launch of Nature Reviews Physics, the newest addition to the Nature Reviews stables.

Using data from the IceCube telescope, a study presents the first attempt at obtaining geophysical information about Earth’s internal structure from the flux of neutrinos that pass through it.

An active counterpart to passive wetting is an encouraging sign for tissue physics and, more generally, the interface between biology and physics.

Generating pure spin currents is a necessary part of many spintronic devices. Now there is a new mechanism for doing this, utilizing nuclear spin waves.

This Review surveys recent efforts at understanding and characterizing generation of high harmonics from solid-state materials.

The spin–orbit coupling of light leads to systematic wavelength-scale errors in the measurement of the position of emitters of elliptically polarized light.

Spin current is generated by pumping from nuclear spin waves. The nuclear magnetic resonance is used to transfer angular momentum from the nuclei of an antiferromagnet to a propagating spin current that is subsequently collected in a distant electrode.

Three different ultrafast probes investigate a non-adiabatic phase transition and find substantial evidence of topological defects inhibiting the reformation of the equilibrium phase.

An increase in electrical resistance caused by the fundamental process of electrons scattering off of each other (umklapp scattering) is observed in graphene superlattice devices. This will limit the electrical properties of such devices.

Geophysical properties of the Earth’s interior have been inferred by looking at the absorption of neutrinos as they pass through our planet.

Multiple different types of topological states are observed in iron-based high-temperature superconductors. This suggests that these may be a good place to try and engineer high-temperature topological superconductivity.

An anomalous upturn of the critical field at low temperature observed in disordered superconductors has long puzzled researchers. A joint experimental and theoretical study suggests that the origin of the anomaly lies in the physics of vortex glasses.

Despite of the charge disorder, the three-dimensional antiferromagnet NaCaNi₂F₇ is an almost ideal realization of the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a pyrochlore lattice, showing key features of quantum spin liquid.

Neutron and X-ray scattering experiments show that the partly disordered material CsNiCrF₆ supports multiple Coulomb phases with structural and magnetic properties dictated by underlying local gauge symmetry.

A strong Hall effect is observed in a material with spin textures and strong electron correlations. This hints that correlation effects can amplify real-space topological spin transport.

Neutron and X-ray scattering studies combined with first-principles calculations suggest that the large, liquid-like ionic mobility in the canonical superionic crystal CuCrSe₂ is due to anharmonic phonon dynamics.

An analogy with wetting has proven apt for describing how groups of cells spread on a substrate. But cells are active: they polarize, generate forces and adhere to their surroundings. Experiments now find agreement with an active update to the theory.

In spite of its wide technological use, the response of silicon to rapid compression remains poorly understood. By means of an X-ray diffraction method based on a free-electron laser, the process for laser-driven dynamic shock compression is now elucidated in this system.

Predicting the collapse of a dynamical system by monitoring the structure of its network of interaction takes the form of stability conditions formulated in terms of a topological invariant of the network, the k-core.

Artificial intelligence is set to rival the human mind, just as the engine did the horse. José Hernández-Orallo looks at how we compare cognitive performance.