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Statistical physics and thermodynamics provide a framework for relating the behaviour of microscopic particles to the macroscopic properties of a system. Thermodynamics casts these macroscopic, or observable, properties in terms of variables that are subject to constraints imposed by the four laws of thermodynamics, which can be explained by statistical physics.
During extreme storms, the failure of a small fraction of transmission lines can trigger a cascade of outages in a power grid. Going beyond static approaches, it is now demonstrated that resolving the spatio-temporal interactions between the storm and the power grid is key to identifying these critical lines.
Thurner and colleagues explore how economic shocks spread risk through the globalized economy. They find that rich countries expose poor countries stronger to systemic risk than vice-versa. The risk is highly concentrated, however higher risk levels are not compensated with a risk premium in GDP levels, nor higher GDP growth. The findings put the often-praised benefits for developing countries from globalized production in a new light, by relating them to risks involved in the production processes
Modelling the statistical and geometrical properties of particle trajectories in turbulent flows is key to many scientific and technological applications. Li and colleagues introduce a data-driven diffusion model that can generate high-Reynolds-number Lagrangian turbulence trajectories with statistical properties consistent with those of the training set and even generalize to rare, intense events unseen during training.
Can many-body systems be beneficial to designing quantum technologies? We address this question by examining quantum engines, where recent studies indicate potential benefits through the harnessing of many-body effects, such as divergences close to phase transitions. However, open questions remain regarding their real-world applications.
During extreme storms, the failure of a small fraction of transmission lines can trigger a cascade of outages in a power grid. Going beyond static approaches, it is now demonstrated that resolving the spatio-temporal interactions between the storm and the power grid is key to identifying these critical lines.
Stable regions in four-dimensional phase space have been observed by following the motion of accelerated proton beams subject to nonlinear forces. This provides insights into the physics of dynamical systems and may lead to improved accelerator designs.
Ageing is a non-linear, irreversible process that defines many properties of glassy materials. Now, it is shown that the so-called material-time formalism can describe ageing in terms of equilibrium-like properties.
Quasicrystals are ordered but not periodic, which makes them fascinating objects at the interface between order and disorder. Experiments with ultracold atoms zoom in on this interface by driving a quasicrystal and exploring its fractal properties.