Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organizations can take different approaches to innovation: they can either follow a strategic process or a serendipitous perspective. Here Fink et al. develop a statistical model to analyse how components combine to obtain a product and thus explain the mechanism behind the two approaches.

    • T. M. A. Fink
    • , M. Reeves
    •  & R. S. Farr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mass drug administration depends on the distributors’ contact with community members. Using data of deworming treatment distribution from Ugandan villages, the authors show that community medicine distributors with tightly-knit friendship connections achieve the greatest reach and speed of coverage.

    • Goylette F. Chami
    • , Andreas A. Kontoleon
    •  & David W. Dunne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heterogeneous complex networks tend to be a more realistic representation of social networks than homogenous ones. Here Kleineberg investigates the role of network heterogeneity in the emergence of cooperation in social dilemmas and shows that it can sometimes hinder it.

    • Kaj-Kolja Kleineberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Is it possible to single out the thermal state from all the passive states even when not operating in the thermodynamic limit? Here, the authors show that an optimal amount of energy can be extracted from any athermal quantum state when using a machine that operates in a reversible cycle.

    • Carlo Sparaciari
    • , David Jennings
    •  & Jonathan Oppenheim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cities can be treated as dynamic complex systems being controlled by the interactions among people, whilst the detail remains largely unknown. Li et al. use spatial attraction together with matching growth to unify population, roads, and socioeconomic interactions crossing ten representative cities.

    • Ruiqi Li
    • , Lei Dong
    •  & H. Eugene Stanley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding and accurate prediction of human mobility is of increasing importance, but a universal framework is lacking. Here, the authors develop a unified model that accurately predicts both individual and population mobility and scaling behaviors on diverse spatial scales.

    • Xiao-Yong Yan
    • , Wen-Xu Wang
    •  & Ying-Cheng Lai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mapping complex networks to underlying geometric spaces can help understand the structure of networked systems. Here the authors propose a class of machine learning algorithms for efficient embedding of large real networks to the hyperbolic space, with potential impact on big network data analysis.

    • Alessandro Muscoloni
    • , Josephine Maria Thomas
    •  & Carlo Vittorio Cannistraci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiplex networks consist of a collection of interacting layers and occur in social and technological systems. Here Osat et al. investigate optimal percolation which relates to the process of optimally dismantling multiplex networks and show that simplified versions of this problem lead to error.

    • Saeed Osat
    • , Ali Faqeeh
    •  & Filippo Radicchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Replica symmetry breaking describes identical copies of a randomly interacting system exhibiting different dynamics. Here, Pierangeli et al. observe this critical phenomenon in the optical wave propagation inside a disordered nonlinear waveguide.

    • Davide Pierangeli
    • , Andrea Tavani
    •  & Eugenio DelRe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collective self-organized behavior can be observed in a variety of systems such as colloids and microswimmers. Here O’Keeffe et al. propose a model of oscillators which move in space and tend to synchronize with neighboring oscillators and outline five types of collective self-organized states.

    • Kevin P. O’Keeffe
    • , Hyunsuk Hong
    •  & Steven H. Strogatz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linear acoustic metamaterials based on resonances are generally tunable but limited by their narrow bands. Here, Fang et al. fabricate one- and two-dimensional nonlinear acoustic metamaterials with a broadband, low-frequency, response—greatly suppressing low frequency noise.

    • Xin Fang
    • , Jihong Wen
    •  & Dianlong Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex networks represent systems such as neural networks and air traffic as interconnected nodes that organize themselves into subsets. Here Bertolero et al. propose a subset which they call the diverse club, which offers an alternative to the commonly used rich club.

    • M. A. Bertolero
    • , B. T. T. Yeo
    •  & M. D’Esposito

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cancer is caused by accumulating genetic mutations. Here, the authors investigate the cooperative effect of these mutations in colorectal cancer patients and identify a giant cluster of mutation-propagating modules that undergoes percolation transition during tumorigenesis.

    • Dongkwan Shin
    • , Jonghoon Lee
    •  & Kwang-Hyun Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cascade propagation models represent a range of processes on networks, such as power-grid blackouts and epidemic outbreaks. Here the authors investigate temporal profiles of avalanches and show how nonsymmetric average avalanche shapes can occur at criticality.

    • James P. Gleeson
    •  & Rick Durrett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Artificial magnetic nanostructures enable the study of competing frustrated interactions with more control over the system parameters than is possible in magnetic materials. Farhan et al. present a two-dimensional lattice geometry where the frustration can be controlled by tuning the unit cell parameters.

    • Alan Farhan
    • , Charlotte F. Petersen
    •  & Sebastiaan van Dijken

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The description of temporal networks is usually simplified in terms of their dynamic community structures, whose identification however relies on a priori assumptions. Here the authors present a data-driven method that determines relevant timescales for the dynamics and uses it to identify communities.

    • Tiago P. Peixoto
    •  & Martin Rosvall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elastic turbulence, a random-in-time flow, can drive efficient mixing in microfluidics. Using a 3D particle tracking method, the authors show that the smoothness assumption breaks at scales far smaller than believed and the ballistic pair dispersion holds over much longer distances than expected.

    • Eldad Afik
    •  & Victor Steinberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The anisotropic Heisenberg model is integrable, possessing a macroscopic number of conserved quantities that constrain the many-body dynamics. Here the authors show numerically that, despite its integrability, it can exhibit diffusive and, at the isotropic point, super-diffusive behaviour.

    • Marko Ljubotina
    • , Marko Žnidarič
    •  & Tomaž Prosen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optomechanical experiments often assume linear coupling between optical fluctuations and mechanical displacements. Here, Leijssenet al. experimentally demonstrate the nonlinear interaction from thermally induced fluctuations in a sliced nanobeam cavity with high cooperativity.

    • Rick Leijssen
    • , Giada R. La Gala
    •  & Ewold Verhagen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The universality class for plastic yield in amorphous materials remains controversial. Here authors present a tensorial mesoscale model that captures both complex shear patterns and avalanche scaling behaviour, which differs from mean-field models and suggests a distinct type of critical phenomenon.

    • Zoe Budrikis
    • , David Fernandez Castellanos
    •  & Stefano Zapperi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft solids have important applications in industry but their material properties can be compromised by aging. Here Bouzidet al. present a large-scale study of a model gel to investigate the aging of soft matter which can help unravel the microscopic dynamics in a range of soft solids.

    • Mehdi Bouzid
    • , Jader Colombo
    •  & Emanuela Del Gado

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstruction of time-resolved interactions in networks is more challenging than for the time-independent case, as causal relations limit accessibility to empirical data. Here the authors propose a method based on first-arrival observations of a diffusion process to infer stochastic temporal networks.

    • Xun Li
    •  & Xiang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrable models have an infinite number of conserved quantities but most realizations suffer from integrability breaking perturbations. Here the authors show that weakly driving such a system by periodic perturbations leads to large nonlinear responses governed by the approximate conservation laws.

    • Florian Lange
    • , Zala Lenarčič
    •  & Achim Rosch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parity-time (PT) symmetry has been mainly studied in optical and weakly interacting open quantum systems without many-body correlations. Here the authors show that in a strongly correlated many-body system the interplay between correlations and PT symmetry leads to the emergence of new critical phenomena.

    • Yuto Ashida
    • , Shunsuke Furukawa
    •  & Masahito Ueda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Random fibre lasers constitute a class of lasers where the optical feedback is provided by multiple scattering in a disordered system. Here, Gonzálezet al. theoretically and experimentally study the statistical turbulence behaviour in relation to the lasing transition in such lasers.

    • Iván R. Roa González
    • , Bismarck C. Lima
    •  & Raman Kashyap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photon-cutting materials provide a way around efficiency limits for energy conversion by absorbing high-energy photons and ‘cutting’ them into multiple low-energy excitations. Here, the authors show that photon-cutting material can be identified and characterised by studying their bunched emission statistics.

    • Mathijs de Jong
    • , Andries Meijerink
    •  & Freddy T. Rabouw

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is believed that patterns of social ties are related to individuals’ financial status. Here the authors substantiate this concept by quantitatively demonstrating that a measure of an individual’s location and influence within their social network can be used to infer their economic wellness.

    • Shaojun Luo
    • , Flaviano Morone
    •  & Hernán A. Makse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The study of Maxwell's demon provides a link between information thermodynamics and modern electronics. Using integrated nanometer-scale transistors in a single electron box configuration, Chidaet al., demonstrate the extraction of electrical power by Maxwell’s demon.

    • Kensaku Chida
    • , Samarth Desai
    •  & Akira Fujiwara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Superlubricity has been predicted and observed at an atomistic level, yet its dynamics is not well understood due to the lack ofin situ characterization of contact surfaces. Kiethe et al. use a trapped two-dimensional ion crystal as a model for the study of nanofriction in self-organized structures.

    • J. Kiethe
    • , R. Nigmatullin
    •  & T. E. Mehlstäubler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emergence and growth of crystalline domains in granular media remains under-explored. Here, the authors analyse tomographic snapshots from partially recrystallized packings of spheres using persistent homology and find agreement with proposed transitions based on continuous deformation of octahedral and tetrahedral voids.

    • M. Saadatfar
    • , H. Takeuchi
    •  & Y. Hiraoka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solutions of computations can be encoded in the ground state of many-body spin models. Here the authors show that solutions to generic reversible classical computations can be encoded in the ground state of a vertex model, which can be reached without finite temperature phase transitions.

    • C. Chamon
    • , E. R. Mucciolo
    •  & Z.-C. Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nano-mechanical resonators improve with high-Q factor and light mass, but this leads to the onset of nonlinear behaviour. Here the authors demonstrate precise control of the non-linear and bistable dynamics of a levitated nanoparticle in vacuum, using it as model system to study stochastic bistable phenomena.

    • F. Ricci
    • , R. A. Rica
    •  & R. Quidant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emulsions are mixtures of liquids which have applications to pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food components. Here Tcholakovaet al. have developed a low-energy emulsification method which requires a low amount of surfactant, works for temperature-sensitive compounds and has potential for scale-up.

    • Slavka Tcholakova
    • , Zhulieta Valkova
    •  & Stoyan K. Smoukov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unravelling the fundamental mechanisms of emergence of complex behaviour is key to understanding living systems. Here, the authors provide a simple experimental platform to investigate and control a rich set of complex phenomena, akin to those seen in living organisms, from a nonliving system of colloidal nanoparticles.

    • Serim Ilday
    • , Ghaith Makey
    •  & F. Ömer Ilday

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active fluids consist of self-driven particles that can drive spontaneous flow without the intervention of external forces. Here Woodhouseet al. show how to design logic circuits using this phenomenon in active fluid networks, which could be further exploited for autonomous microfluidic computing.

    • Francis G. Woodhouse
    •  & Jörn Dunkel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The energy required to control a dynamical complex network can be prohibitively large when there are only a few control inputs. Here the authors demonstrate that if only a subset of the network is targeted the energy requirements decrease exponentially.

    • Isaac Klickstein
    • , Afroza Shirin
    •  & Francesco Sorrentino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collective phenomena in many-body systems include synchronization in classical and entanglement in quantum systems. Here the authors study isolated many-body quantum systems and demonstrate that synchronization emerges intrinsically, accompanied by the onset of quantum coherence and persistent entanglement.

    • Dirk Witthaut
    • , Sandro Wimberger
    •  & Marc Timme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ground states of amorphous solids are predicted to exhibit a complex energy landscape, which cannot be explained by the theories developed for crystals. Jin and Yoshino propose a simple rheological protocol to probe these states, with a demonstration by extensive molecular dynamics simulations.

    • Yuliang Jin
    •  & Hajime Yoshino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In optomechanics, optical nonlinearities are usually regarded as detrimental and efforts are made to minimize their effects. Here, the authors study the complex dynamics, including chaos, arising from the coupling of such optical nonlinearities with the mechanical modes of a silicon nanobeam cavity.

    • Daniel Navarro-Urrios
    • , Néstor E. Capuj
    •  & Clivia M. Sotomayor-Torres

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft particulate flows such as granular media are prone to fluctuations like jamming and avalanches. Here Rahbari et al. consider the statistics of rare fluctuations to identify an effective temperature which, unlike previous ones, is valid for packing fractions both near and far from the jamming point.

    • S.H.E. Rahbari
    • , A.A. Saberi
    •  & J. Vollmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The third law of thermodynamics, first formulated in 1912, states that any process cannot reach absolute zero temperature in finite time. Here, the authors derive the third law in the quantum regime as a bound on the resources necessary to cool a system to any temperature.

    • Lluís Masanes
    •  & Jonathan Oppenheim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The onset of yielding can be difficult to define unambiguously for amorphous materials. Here the authors undertake computer simulations of model glasses of varying system sizes and show that, under oscillatory shear, they exhibit a sharp transition independent of preparation history.

    • Premkumar Leishangthem
    • , Anshul D. S. Parmar
    •  & Srikanth Sastry

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observed sea-ice loss near ice sheets has, in many cases, been accompanied by accelerated iceberg calving. Here, using a new model, the authors show that iceberg calving from glaciers can be suppressed by a mélange of sea ice and icebergs, with an increased likelihood of calving as sea ice thins.

    • Alexander A. Robel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Droplet formation processes are ubiquitous in nature and accompanied by a free-energy barrier. Here, the authors present a numerical approach for a shape-free determination of free-energy barriers and demonstrate on this level an analogy between particle condensation and polymer aggregation.

    • Johannes Zierenberg
    • , Philipp Schierz
    •  & Wolfhard Janke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spread of instabilities in financial systems, similarly to ecosystems, is influenced by topological features of the underlying network structures. Here the authors show, independently of specific financial models, that market integration and diversification can drive the system towards instability.

    • Marco Bardoscia
    • , Stefano Battiston
    •  & Guido Caldarelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Proximity to criticality can be advantageous under changing conditions, but it also entails reduced robustness. Here, the authors analyse fight sizes in a macaque society and find not only that it sits near criticality, but also that the distance from the critical point is tunable through adjustment of individual behaviour and social conflict management.

    • Bryan C. Daniels
    • , David C. Krakauer
    •  & Jessica C. Flack

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