Phase transitions and critical phenomena articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The strange metal state, characterized by a linear-in-temperature resistivity, is often seen in the normal state of high-temperature superconductors. Here, the authors report the breakdown of both the strange metal and superconducting states at a pressure-induced quantum critical point in an iron-pnictide superconductor.

    • Shu Cai
    • , Jinyu Zhao
    •  & Liling Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A long-standing puzzle in the quantum critical behavior of cuprate superconductors has been the observed sub-linear power-law dependence of optical conductivity. Here, the authors present measurements of the optical spectra and resistivity of La2−xSrxCuO4, and develop a theoretical framework that yields a unified description of the optical spectra, resistivity and specific heat.

    • Bastien Michon
    • , Christophe Berthod
    •  & Antoine Georges

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The microscopic mechanism of the electric-field-driven insulator-metal transition in strongly correlated systems has been debated. Here the authors present a general theory based on a quantum avalanche mediated by the formation of in-gap ladder states from multiple-phonon emission.

    • Jong E. Han
    • , Camille Aron
    •  & Jonathan P. Bird

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measurement-induced phase transitions are notoriously difficult to observe. Here, the authors propose a neural-network-based method to map measurement outcomes to the state of reference qubits, allowing observation of the transition and extracting its critical exponents.

    • Hossein Dehghani
    • , Ali Lavasani
    •  & Michael J. Gullans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The microscopic mechanism of the metal-insulator transition in 2D disordered semiconductors is not fully understood. Shin et al. propose a universal mechanism due to curvature-induced band gap fluctuations in a structurally disordered system, based on gate-tunable scanning tunneling microscopy on monolayer MoS2.

    • Bong Gyu Shin
    • , Ji-Hoon Park
    •  & Soon Jung Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    No experimental observations have been reported to clarify how a melting transition proceeds inside a crystal. Here the authors demonstrate that melting is initiated at two-dimensional faults inside BaCeO3 crystals below the melting temperature in a layer-by-layer manner.

    • Hye-Sung Kim
    • , Ji-Sang An
    •  & Sung-Yoon Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A Mott transition is a metal-insulator transition driven by electronic correlations, and the Mott insulating state is typically associated with unconventional electronic phases. Here the authors report a pressure-induced transition from a Mott insulator to a ferromagnetic Weyl metal in an iron oxychalcogenide.

    • Ye Yang
    • , Fanghang Yu
    •  & Xianhui Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional charge density waves in layered semiconductors may exhibit chirality. Here, the authors utilize thermal annealing to reversibly switch the in-plane chirality of charge density waves in 1T-TaS2 and demonstrate a vertical chirality-locking effect between the van der Waals-stacked layers.

    • Yan Zhao
    • , Zhengwei Nie
    •  & Jin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supercritical fluids have local density inhomogeneities caused by molecular clusters. Authors show that the molecular interactions of supercritical fluids, associated with localized clusters, obey complex network dynamics that can be represented by a hidden-variable network model.

    • Filip Simeski
    •  & Matthias Ihme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    2D layered materials attract interest due to their potential for application in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. Here authors report an order-disorder-type phase transition driven by temperature in bulk lead iodides, and interlayer sliding is identified to play a key role in the mechanism of this phase transition.

    • Seyeong Cha
    • , Giyeok Lee
    •  & Keun Su Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Mott insulator κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 has been a strong candidate for a gapless quantum spin liquid, but recent experiments suggested a spin-gapped phase below 6 K. Pustogow et al. study the entropy of this phase by driving the system through the metal-insulator transition with a strain engineering approach.

    • A. Pustogow
    • , Y. Kawasugi
    •  & N. Tajima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cuprate superconductors are known for their intertwined interactions and coexistence of competing orders. Here, the authors observe a Fano resonance in the nonlinear THz response of La2-xSrxCuO4, which may arise from a coupling between superconducting and charge-density-wave amplitude fluctuations.

    • Hao Chu
    • , Sergey Kovalev
    •  & Stefan Kaiser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies of magnetic Bose–Einstein condensates have been limited to magnetic materials with small spin numbers. Here the authors study the magnetic phase diagram of a S = 3/2 quantum antiferromagnet and show a double dome structure that is attributed to different types of condensates.

    • Yoshito Watanabe
    • , Atsushi Miyake
    •  & Taka-hisa Arima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Triadic interactions are higher-order interactions relevant to many real complex systems. The authors develop a percolation theory for networks with triadic interactions and identify basic mechanisms for observing dynamical changes of the giant component such as the ones occurring in neuronal and climate networks.

    • Hanlin Sun
    • , Filippo Radicchi
    •  & Ginestra Bianconi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The atomic pathway in the photoinduced ultrafast structural phase transition of VO2 has been a controversial problem for a long time. Here the authors, using MeV ultrafast electron diffraction, show that the melting of V-V dimers and the transformation of crystal symmetry are two processes with different timescales.

    • Chenhang Xu
    • , Cheng Jin
    •  & Dong Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of the charge density wave in kagome metals is under intense debate. Here, by using a combination of diffuse scattering and inelastic x-ray scattering, the authors show that the charge density wave transition in (Cs,Rb)V3Sb5 is of the order-disorder type.

    • D. Subires
    • , A. Korshunov
    •  & S. Blanco-Canosa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defect lines shaped as conic sections are common in smectic liquid crystals, where they manifest equidistance of molecular layers curled in space. Here authors present hyperbolas and parabolas as domain walls in ferroelectric nematics, which are shaped so to avoid being electrically charged.

    • Priyanka Kumari
    • , Bijaya Basnet
    •  & Oleg D. Lavrentovich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Planckian metal is a special case of a strange metal, in which the linear-in-temperature scattering rate reaches a universal limit. Here the authors study this state in a heavy-fermion superconductor in magnetic field and propose a microscopic mechanical based on quantum criticality of the Kondo hybridization.

    • Yung-Yeh Chang
    • , Hechang Lei
    •  & Chung-Hou Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Obtaining experimental evidence of a liquid-liquid phase transition in supercooled water is challenging due to the rapid crystallization. Here the authors drive low-density amorphous ice to the conditions of liquid-liquid coexistence using ultrafast laser heating and observe the liquid-liquid phase transition with femtosecond x-ray laser pulses.

    • Katrin Amann-Winkel
    • , Kyung Hwan Kim
    •  & Anders Nilsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Under laser illumination it is possible to drive a ferromagnet to lose its magnetization. While this process can be rapid, remagnetization following this is slower, due to the universal critical slowing down near the phase transition. Here, Remy et al show how such a slowing down can be overcome, changing the direction of magnetization in 400 femtoseconds.

    • Quentin Remy
    • , Julius Hohlfeld
    •  & Michel Hehn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of biomolecular condensates have not been fully elucidated. Here the authors show that the LLPS propensity, dynamics, and encapsulation efficiency of designed peptide condensates can be tuned by subtle changes to the peptide composition.

    • Avigail Baruch Leshem
    • , Sian Sloan-Dennison
    •  & Ayala Lampel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The A–B transition in superfluid 3He is a pure experimental model system to study first-order phase transitions in the early Universe. Tian et al. observe the path dependence of the supercooling of the A phase in a wide parameter range and provide explanations for the heterogeneous nucleation of the B phase.

    • Y. Tian
    • , D. Lotnyk
    •  & J. M. Parpia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Time-delayed interactions involving perception, decision, and reaction, are omnipresent in the living world. Here, the delayed self-propulsion of a microswimmer toward a target gives rise to chiral orbital motion via a symmetry-breaking bifurcation. Additional swimmers synchronize and stabilize it.

    • Xiangzun Wang
    • , Pin-Chuan Chen
    •  & Frank Cichos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The exciton Mott transition refers to a transition from an insulating state of gas-like excitons to strongly correlated electron-hole plasma phases in photoexcited semiconductors. Here the authors experimentally study such a transition in black phosphorus and reveal its quantum critical properties.

    • Binjie Zheng
    • , Junzhuan Wang
    •  & Xiaomu Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some quantum spin models provide a condensed-matter realization of confinement, and previous work has shown that confinement affects the way they thermalize. Here the authors demonstrate for a many-body model with confinement that thermalization dynamics occurs in multiple stages, starting with a prethermal state.

    • Stefan Birnkammer
    • , Alvise Bastianello
    •  & Michael Knap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Renormalisation group methods serve for finding analytic solutions, critical points and computing phase diagrams of many-body systems. Here the authors demonstrate that renormalisation group schemes can be constructed for undecidable many-body systems, giving rise to the types of renormalisation group flow which are strictly more unpredictable than chaotic flows.

    • James D. Watson
    • , Emilio Onorati
    •  & Toby S. Cubitt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lattice anchoring, in its varied forms, has proven effective at regulating the energetics of metastable phases of polymorphic crystals. Here, the authors utilize top-down photolithography to embed a tessellating 3D interfacial network into otherwise-unstable CsPbI3 perovskite thin films and devices, stabilizing the perovskite phase.

    • Julian A. Steele
    • , Tom Braeckevelt
    •  & Maarten B. J. Roeffaers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent experiments have revealed a metal-insulator transition in a moire bilayer at band filling away from the strongly-correlated regime, which has rarely been addressed. Here the authors develop a theory that provides a complete understanding of experimental features in terms of a disorder-driven transition.

    • Yuting Tan
    • , Pak Ki Henry Tsang
    •  & Vladimir Dobrosavljević

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tanner’s law describes the spreading dynamics of droplets made of Newtonian viscous fluids. Here, the authors demonstrate that this law remains valid for phase-separated binary liquids close to their critical point, and thus for all the associated universality class.

    • Raphael Saiseau
    • , Christian Pedersen
    •  & Jean-Pierre Delville

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum simulators allow for experimental studies of many-body systems in complex geometries, which has rarely been addressed by theory. Here the authors study many-body Hamiltonians on generic random graphs and show that many-body effects emerge only in a small class of exceptional, highly structured graphs.

    • Joseph Tindall
    • , Amy Searle
    •  & Dieter Jaksch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems undergoing repeated measurements exhibit phase transitions in their entanglement properties. Here the authors use a superconducting quantum simulator to demonstrate an entanglement phase transition that can be mapped to a vitrification transition in the spin glass theory.

    • Jeremy Côté
    •  & Stefanos Kourtis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ultra-quantum limit refers to the high magnetic-field regime where electrons are confined to the lowest Landau level and is most easily reached in topological semimetals due to their low carrier density. Here, the authors study this regime in the Dirac semimetal ZrTe5 and find evidence for a Lifshitz transition at moderate field, leading to the emergence of a 1D-Weyl band structure at high field.

    • S. Galeski
    • , H. F. Legg
    •  & J. Gooth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some active matter systems as they evolve, can be characterized by spatially varying density, with some regions that are dense and immobile, and other regions with lower density that accommodate most mobile particles. The authors show that this phenomenon can also be observed as an effect of the social interactions between fire ants.

    • Caleb Anderson
    •  & Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van der Waals materials are characterized by two dimensional layers weakly held together by interlayer van der Waals forces. Here, the authors study how shear motions between these layers influence the magnetic properties of the van der Waals antiferromagnets FePS3, MnPS3, and NiPS3. ‘

    • Faran Zhou
    • , Kyle Hwangbo
    •  & Haidan Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature of unconventional charge density wave in kagome metals is currently under intense debate. Here the authors report the coexistence of the 2 × 2 × 1 charge density wave in the kagome sublattice and the Sb 5p-electron assisted 2 × 2 × 2 charge density waves in CsV3Sb5.

    • Haoxiang Li
    • , G. Fabbris
    •  & H. Miao

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    What is an optimal parameter landscape and geometric layout for a quantum processor so that its qubits are sufficiently protected for idling and simultaneously responsive enough for fast entangling gates? Quantum engineers pondering the dilemma might want to take a look on tools developed for many-body localization.

    • Matti Silveri
    •  & Tuure Orell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation of topology of the electronic structure is highly desirable for practical applications of topological materials. Here the authors demonstrate tuning and annihilation of Weyl nodes in momentum space by means of the Zeeman effect in a strongly correlated topological semimetal Ce3Bi4Pd3.

    • Sami Dzsaber
    • , Diego A. Zocco
    •  & Silke Paschen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the how silicon deforms under pressure is important for several fields, including planetary science and materials design. Laser-driven shock compression experiments now confirm that shear stress generated during compression is released via a high-pressure phase transition.

    • Silvia Pandolfi
    • , S. Brennan Brown
    •  & A. E. Gleason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase transition points can be used to reduce the ionic migration activation energy. Here, the authors find a lowered activation energy associated with oxygen transport at a compositional phase transition point in Ca-doped bismuth ferrite films.

    • Ji Soo Lim
    • , Ho-Hyun Nahm
    •  & Chan-Ho Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many experimentally known high-pressure ice phase are structurally very similar. Here authors elucidate the phase behaviour of the high-pressure insulating ices and reveal solid-solid transition mechanisms not known in other systems.

    • Aleks Reinhardt
    • , Mandy Bethkenhagen
    •  & Bingqing Cheng

Browse broader subjects

Browse Phase transitions and critical phenomena across other nature.com journals