Quantum physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fourier analysis has become a standard tool in contemporary science. Here, Weimann et al. report classical and quantum optical realizations of the discrete fractional Fourier transform, a generalization of the Fourier transform, with potential applications in integrated quantum computation.

    • Steffen Weimann
    • , Armando Perez-Leija
    •  & Alexander Szameit

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Grain boundaries affect the physical properties of metals but their influence on covalent solids is less well established. Here, the authors use scanning transmission electron microscopy and quantum mechanics to understand deformation mechanisms in perfect and twinned boron suboxide crystals.

    • Qi An
    • , K. Madhav Reddy
    •  & William A. Goddard III

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The measurement of non-linear mechanical degrees-of-freedom provides a pathway to explore quantum behaviour at macroscopic scales. Here, Brawley et al.report the observation of displacement-squared thermal motion of a micro-mechanical resonator by exploiting the intrinsic non-linearity of the radiation-pressure interaction.

    • G. A. Brawley
    • , M. R. Vanner
    •  & W. P. Bowen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organizing and manipulating dynamic processes is important to understand and influence many natural phenomena. Here, the authors present a method to design entrainment signals that create stable phase patterns in heterogeneous nonlinear oscillators, and verify it in electrochemical reactions.

    • Anatoly Zlotnik
    • , Raphael Nagao
    •  & Jr-Shin Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superconducting circuits offer great promise for quantum computing, but implementations require careful shielding from control electronics. Here, the authors take inspirations from semiconductor spin-based qubits to design Josephson junctions quantum circuits whose qubits do not require microwave control.

    • Yun-Pil Shim
    •  & Charles Tahan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excessive excitation induced by overheating may deteriorate the resistance-free operation of superconductor-based devices. Here, Taupin et al. propose an effective control of excess quasiparticles and their spatial distribution in a mesoscopic superconducting disc by applying a small magnetic field.

    • M. Taupin
    • , I. M. Khaymovich
    •  & J. P. Pekola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid urbanization burdens urban road infrastructures, but understanding the interplay of road infrastructure and travel patterns is a complex challenge. Here, authors use mobile phone traces during morning peak hours to evaluate the effect of a congestion relief approach under a centralized routing scheme.

    • Serdar Çolak
    • , Antonio Lima
    •  & Marta C. González

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defects in solids may introduce additional charges that influence the overall charge transport behaviour. Here, Zhao et al. use swift electron beams to compensate charge defects, which effectively tune Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 from p-type to n-type while preserving their topological properties.

    • Lukas Zhao
    • , Marcin Konczykowski
    •  & Lia Krusin-Elbaum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social dilemmas force players to balance between personal and collective gain. Here, inspired by the negotiations for greenhouse-gas emission limitations, the authors experimentally studied a representative-based collective-risk scenario, reporting the emergence of extortionate zero-determinant (ZD) strategies.

    • Manfred Milinski
    • , Christian Hilbe
    •  & Jochem Marotzke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Systems composed of many interacting dynamic networks exhibit complicated collective dynamics. Here, the authors study failure, damage spread and recovery in two interacting networks, constructing the phase diagram and revealing the role of triple points for optimal damage repair.

    • Antonio Majdandzic
    • , Lidia A. Braunstein
    •  & Shlomo Havlin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relaxation of closed macroscopic systems towards thermal equilibrium is an ubiquitous experimental fact, but very difficult to characterize theoretically. Here, the author establishes a quantitative description of such relaxation under arbitrary typical conditions, capturing well experimental data.

    • Peter Reimann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The optical trapping of ultracold atoms allows for the simulation and controlled exploration of phenomena normally found in condensed matter systems. Here, the authors demonstrate spin–orbit coupling between lattice band pseudospins in a Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms.

    • M. A. Khamehchi
    • , Chunlei Qu
    •  & P. Engels

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tungsten ditelluride is a semi-metallic two-dimensional material that has exhibited large magnetoresistance. Here, the authors use angle- and spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate the band structure of this transition metal dichalcogenide and identify layer-dependent electronic behaviour.

    • Pranab Kumar Das
    • , D. Di Sante
    •  & R. J. Cava

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anomalous conducting behavior of solids may reflect the presence of novel quantum states. Here, Zhang et al. report an increased conductivity in TaAs with a magnetic field applied along the direction of the current, which reveals an inherent property of the Weyl Fermion.

    • Cheng-Long Zhang
    • , Su-Yang Xu
    •  & Shuang Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The precise control and manipulation of the states of a multi-level quantum system are fundamental for quantum information processing. Here, the authors demonstrate the robust adiabatic manipulation of the quantum states of a superconducting circuit via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage.

    • K. S. Kumar
    • , A. Vepsäläinen
    •  & G. S. Paraoanu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Resonant absorption of light in atoms can lead to autoionization, whose probability exhibits a Fano intensity profile. Here, the authors use attosecond pulses and weak infrared radiation to study the phase variation of the photoionization amplitude across an autoionization resonance in argon.

    • M. Kotur
    • , D. Guénot
    •  & A. L’Huillier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A power grid is constrained by both its nonlinear physics and network structure, and violations of these constraints may lead to voltage collapse blackouts, which have been studied mostly numerically. Here the authors derive a closed-form condition to provide an analytic test for voltage collapse.

    • John W. Simpson-Porco
    • , Florian Dörfler
    •  & Francesco Bullo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanostructured superconductors allow dissipationless electrical transport to be exploited in technologically relevant devices. Here, the authors follow how detrimental fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter evolve in Al atomic contacts as their width is controlled by electromigration.

    • Xavier D. A. Baumans
    • , Dorin Cerbu
    •  & Joris Van de Vondel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In magnetic materials, geometry-defined competing interactions between spins combined with quantum fluctuations can present the possibility of quantum liquid states which do not order even as 0K is approached. Here, the authors present an analogue built from electric dipoles on a triangular lattice.

    • Shi-Peng Shen
    • , Jia-Chuan Wu
    •  & Young Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Computational speedup in photonic quantum devices depends on multi-particle interference, which must be certified through known benchmark algorithms. Here, to this end, the authors develop a scalable approach for the implementation of the fast Fourier transform algorithm in 3D photonic integrated interferometers.

    • Andrea Crespi
    • , Roberto Osellame
    •  & Fabio Sciarrino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active matter can be described as either wet or dry, depending on whether hydrodynamics or frictional damping dominates the interactions. Here, the authors show that an increase in friction can stabilise the chaotic flow observed in wet active systems to give an ordered lattice of topological defects.

    • Amin Doostmohammadi
    • , Michael F. Adamer
    •  & Julia M. Yeomans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many transport networks exhibit a core–periphery structure, where few nodes are highly interconnected and the rest form a tree-shaped structure. Here, the authors demonstrate how to generate such a structure through a pruning process based on removal of underutilized links and redistribution of loads.

    • T. Verma
    • , F. Russmann
    •  & H.J. Herrmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Persistent homology allows identification of topological features in data sets, allowing the efficient extraction of useful information. Here, the authors propose a quantum machine learning algorithm that provides an exponential speed up over known algorithms for topological data analysis.

    • Seth Lloyd
    • , Silvano Garnerone
    •  & Paolo Zanardi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The crystal formation waiting time of a homogeneous supercooled liquid exhibits a pronounced minimum depending on temperature, and this minimum is a measure of glass forming ability. Here, the authors propose an expression for this minimum for all metallic glasses that depends only on two fitting parameters.

    • W. L. Johnson
    • , J. H. Na
    •  & M. D. Demetriou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum state tomography is the process of retrieving the values that define a quantum system, but realizing it experimentally can be burdensome. Here, the authors provide an alternative approach via the expectation values of a set of non-Hermitian matrices, and characterize a 100,000-dimensional state.

    • Eliot Bolduc
    • , Genevieve Gariepy
    •  & Jonathan Leach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In addition to hyperfine splitting effects, isotope shifts of atomic electronic energy levels allow the investigation nuclear properties. Here, the authors study the isotope dependence of the Zeeman effect in litihium-like calcium isotopes in a Penning-trap setup and find good agreement with QED calculations.

    • Florian Köhler
    • , Klaus Blaum
    •  & Günter Werth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Overload failures propagate through hidden functional dependencies across networked systems. Here, the authors study the spatio-temporal propagation behaviour of cascading overload failures, and find that they spread radially from their origin with an approximately constant velocity.

    • Jichang Zhao
    • , Daqing Li
    •  & Shlomo Havlin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identifying influential nodes in networks is important for the understanding of their structure and function, but there are several so far unrelated measures to assess this. Here, the authors unfold relations among knows criteria and construct a family of indices that interpolate between degree and coreness.

    • Linyuan Lü
    • , Tao Zhou
    •  & H. Eugene Stanley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Paramagnetic heterometallic rings have long been considered as possible qubits within a quantum information processing system. Here, the authors employ supramolecular chemistry to fabricate multiple rings around multi-armed threads, as an important step towards generating useful qubit arrays.

    • Antonio Fernandez
    • , Jesus Ferrando-Soria
    •  & Richard E.P. Winpenny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum tunnelling may be advantageous for quantum annealing, but multiqubit tunnelling has not yet been observed or characterized theoretically. Here, the authors demonstrate that 8-qubit tunnelling plays a role in a D-Wave Two device through a nonperturbative theory and experimental data.

    • Sergio Boixo
    • , Vadim N. Smelyanskiy
    •  & Hartmut Neven

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluctuations of atomic positions are related to several materials properties. Here the authors measure the photon number statistics via a non-equilibrium optical experiment and provide a quantum description of the interaction between photonic and phononic fields to reveal lattice dynamics fluctuations in quartz.

    • Martina Esposito
    • , Kelvin Titimbo
    •  & Daniele Fausti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmons can enhance hot-carrier generation for efficient photochemical reactions, but the interplay between plasmons and single-particle excitations are difficult to capture in models. Here, the authors use real-time time-dependent density functional theory to study these interactions in silver nanocrystals.

    • Jie Ma
    • , Zhi Wang
    •  & Lin-Wang Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum key distribution (QKD) holds promise for unconditionally secure communication, but due to fibre losses distances are so far restricted to intracity. Here, the authors present an all optical QKD protocol that can connect distant cities without the need of quantum repeaters or quantum error correction.

    • Koji Azuma
    • , Kiyoshi Tamaki
    •  & William J. Munro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The percolation transition has been regarded as model-independent, namely determined by the geometry of a system but otherwise identical for bond or site percolation models. Here, the authors show the violation of this assumption both analytically and numerically for networks with null percolation thresholds.

    • Filippo Radicchi
    •  & Claudio Castellano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constraint satisfaction problems are typically solved using conventional von Neumann computing architectures, which are however ill-suited to solving them. Here, the authors present a prototype for an event-based architecture that yield state of the art performance on random SAT problems.

    • Hesham Mostafa
    • , Lorenz K. Müller
    •  & Giacomo Indiveri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    5d transition metal iridates provide a platform to study the combined effects of strong spin orbit coupling and strong electronic correlations. Here, the authors find a quadratic band touching in the band structure of Pr2Ir2O7, suggesting it may be tuned to form various strongly correlated topological phases.

    • Takeshi Kondo
    • , M. Nakayama
    •  & S. Shin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cavity QED systems which can be used for quantum information processing can absorb or emit signals with specific frequencies and temporal envelops. Here, the authors show that the temporal and spectral content of microwave signals can be manipulated with a flexible aluminium drumhead embedded in a circuit.

    • R. W. Andrews
    • , A. P. Reed
    •  & K. W. Lehnert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Qubit-cavity entanglement can be used for quantum information processing and for investigating the quantum-to-classical transition with high control. Here, the authors characterize the entanglement between an artificial atom and a cat state and its susceptibility to decoherence through Bell test witnesses.

    • Brian Vlastakis
    • , Andrei Petrenko
    •  & R. J. Schoelkopf

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous-variables EPR states present a resource for applications to quantum information processing and metrology, but these states have been created until now only with photon pairs. Here, the authors report the creation of an EPR-correlated two-mode squeezed states in an ultracold atomic ensemble.

    • J. Peise
    • , I. Kruse
    •  & C. Klempt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long associated lifetimes required to exploit valley polarization in electronic devices, along with charge and spin, have yet to be observed. Here, the authors demonstrate the photoexcitation of long-lived valley-polarized holes in WSe2.

    • Wei-Ting Hsu
    • , Yen-Lun Chen
    •  & Wen-Hao Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The critical temperature of superconductors is proportional to the particle coupling energy, but this is different to conventional superfluids where this coupling is small. Here, the authors establish a relation between superconductivity and superfluidity and the topological properties of their band structures.

    • Sebastiano Peotta
    •  & Päivi Törmä

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some optical forces can direct particles, but only in the direction of light propagation. Here, the authors show theoretically that when the spin of the incident circularly polarized light is converted into lateral electromagnetic momentum, it leads to a lateral optical force associated with a recoil mechanical force.

    • Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño
    • , Nader Engheta
    •  & Anatoly V. Zayats

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic quantum technologies rely on the creation and manipulation of continuous variables states whose experimental preparation needs to be verified- a noteworthy impractical task. Here, the authors present a protocol that allows to certify continuous variables states with limited experimental overhead.

    • Leandro Aolita
    • , Christian Gogolin
    •  & Jens Eisert

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