Theoretical physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    In quantum information the majorization conjecture states that the minimum amount of disorder at the output of a quantum Guassian channel is produced by coherent input states, but its proof has remained elusive. Now, Mari et al.solve this longstanding problem and highlight some of its implications.

    • A. Mari
    • , V. Giovannetti
    •  & A. S. Holevo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    So far, the notion of the order parameter for impurity quantum phase transitions has been missing. Using a two-impurity Kondo model, Bayat et al.show that the Schmidt gap obtained from the entanglement spectrum may serve as a nonlocal order parameter for a quantum impurity system at criticality.

    • Abolfazl Bayat
    • , Henrik Johannesson
    •  & Pasquale Sodano

  • Article |

    As plasmonic structures shrink towards sub-nanometre scales, it becomes more important to develop theoretical tools to explain their optical properties. Towards this aim, the authors present a semiclassical approach to describe experimental results for the non-local optical response of nanostructures.

    • N. A. Mortensen
    • , S. Raza
    •  & S. I. Bozhevolnyi

  • Article |

    In theory, quantum key distribution is unconditionally secure but, in reality, practical devices are prone to attacks. Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution promises to overcome these limitations, as Curty et al. show here with their rigorous security proof for practical systems.

    • Marcos Curty
    • , Feihu Xu
    •  & Hoi-Kwong Lo

  • Article |

    The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect is a well-known demonstration of quantum interference phenomena between pairs of indistinguishable bosons, yet it has only been seen with massless photons. Here, the authors propose an approach to realize this effect for matter waves using two colliding Bose–Einstein condensates.

    • R. J. Lewis-Swan
    •  & K. V. Kheruntsyan

  • Article |

    Rapid optical modulation is vital to many optoelectronic applications, like communications or imaging technologies. Here, the authors study the optical modulation of atomically thin gold nanodisks and find they have similar absorption cross-sections to spherical particles of the same width.

    • A. Manjavacas
    •  & F.J. García de Abajo

  • Article |

    The emergence of macroscopic irreversibility from reversible microscopic processes is an area of intense research. Here the authors experimentally probe this phenomenon, showing that in periodically driven systems self-organization can protect macroscopic reversibility.

    • Raphaël Jeanneret
    •  & Denis Bartolo

  • Article |

    Efimov trimers are bound states of three bosons, which exist even if their attraction is too weak to form a pair state. Here, the authors explore the phase diagram of a unitary Bose gas and find a transition from a normal gas to a superfluid Efimov liquid, held together by the same effects as Efimov trimers.

    • Swann Piatecki
    •  & Werner Krauth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light carries momentum and therefore can be used to push small particles forward. Here, Wang and Chan demonstrate that under the right conditions a light beam can also exert sideway forces on chiral particles.

    • S. B. Wang
    •  & C. T. Chan

  • Article |

    The momentum and spin of a propagating photon are given by its wave vector and circular polarization, respectively. Bliokh et al.here show that evanescent electromagnetic waves possess a polarization-dependent momentum component and a polarization-independent spin component, which are both orthogonal to the wave vector.

    • Konstantin Y. Bliokh
    • , Aleksandr Y. Bekshaev
    •  & Franco Nori

  • Article |

    Spin excitations are implicated in the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates but the details are unclear. Calculations performed by Jia et al.resolve a seeming contradiction presented by recent X-ray measurements and suggest that the role played by high-energy spin excitations is nominal for pairing.

    • C. J. Jia
    • , E. A. Nowadnick
    •  & T. P. Devereaux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The peculiar supersolid phase of matter was predicted several decades ago, yet a physical system where it exists remains to be found. Cinti et al.investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of bosons interacting by soft-core potentials and find that defects in it can give rise to a supersolid phase.

    • F. Cinti
    • , T. Macrì
    •  & T. Pohl

  • Article |

    Practical quantum computers will require protocols to carry out computation on encrypted data, just like their classical counterparts. Here, the authors present such a protocol that allows an untrusted server to implement universal quantum gates on encrypted qubits without learning about the inputs.

    • K. A. G. Fisher
    • , A. Broadbent
    •  & K. J. Resch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the possible role of quantum effects in biological systems requires identification of their non-classical features. Here, the authors study prototype dimers in photosynthetic antennae and find that vibration-assisted processes benefit from non-classical fluctuations of their collective motions.

    • Edward J. O’Reilly
    •  & Alexandra Olaya-Castro

  • Article |

    Ginzburg–Landau theory provides a powerful framework for describing the behaviour of conventional superconductors without detailed microscopic information about them. Bao et al.construct a similar framework for describing spin superconductivity, a recently proposed analogue of conventional superconductivity.

    • Zhi-qiang Bao
    • , X.C. Xie
    •  & Qing-feng Sun

  • Article |

    The quantum no-cloning theorem forbids the creation of perfect copies of an unknown quantum state. Even so, Chiribella et al.show the existence of physical processes that replicate quantum information at high rates and vanishing error, and are constrained only by the precision limits of quantum metrology.

    • Giulio Chiribella
    • , Yuxiang Yang
    •  & Andrew Chi-Chih Yao

  • Article |

    The realization of the fractional quantum Hall effect with ultracold atoms in optical lattices is much sought after. Here, the authors propose a new way of obtaining fractional quantum Hall states in lattice systems by transforming a nonlocal abstract model into an implementable scheme.

    • Anne E. B. Nielsen
    • , Germán Sierra
    •  & J. Ignacio Cirac

  • Article |

    Classical physics says it should be impossible to generate a string of truly random numbers using any process that isn't completely random. However, Gallego et al. show that using quantum non-locality it should be possible to amplify the indeterminism of an imperfectly random source to do exactly this.

    • Rodrigo Gallego
    • , Lluis Masanes
    •  & Antonio Acín

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum mechanics dictates that the interference pattern cast by particles after passing through a double slit depends on how much information it is possible to know about which slit they went through. Banaszek et al. show how this behaviour extends to a system’s internal degrees of freedom.

    • Konrad Banaszek
    • , Paweł Horodecki
    •  & Czesław Radzewicz

  • Article |

    Arrays of interacting atoms held in optical lattices provide a potentially powerful platform for simulating and studying complex physical phenomena. Tagliacozzo et al. propose a means to explore computationally challenging non-Abelian lattice gauge theories in a lattice of Rydberg atoms.

    • L. Tagliacozzo
    • , A. Celi
    •  & M. Lewenstein

  • Article |

    Plutonium has unusual physical properties due to strong electronic correlation, but its α-phase has not been studied much in this respect. Using sophisticated numerical methods, Zhu et al. show that in this phase different atomic sites have different degrees of electronic correlation.

    • Jian-Xin Zhu
    • , R. C. Albers
    •  & J. M. Wills

  • Article |

    Neural interactions taking place in the brain seemingly occur at criticality, but little is known about how this state is achieved. Moretti and Muñoz identify the signatures of so-called Griffiths phases stemming from the hierarchical topology of brain networks, which could point to an explanation.

    • Paolo Moretti
    •  & Miguel A. Muñoz

  • Article |

    The correlations exhibited by multipartite quantum systems composed of more than two entangled subsystems are more difficult to describe than those of bipartite quantum systems. Fritzet al.propose a principle of 'local orthogonality' as a key element to describing multipartite quantum correlations.

    • T. Fritz
    • , A.B. Sainz
    •  & A. Acín

  • Article |

    The quantum transport properties of disordered systems like light-harvesting complexes or atomic clouds strongly depend on the system's geometry. Combining complex network analysis with quantum dynamics, the authors identify structural motifs that exhibit particularly robust quantum transport.

    • Stefano Mostarda
    • , Federico Levi
    •  & Francesco Rao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many interesting chemical problems like photosynthesis and photovoltaics involve non-adiabatic dynamical phenomena, which are difficult to predict theoretically. Here, the authors develop a new numerical method capable of recovering quantum interferences that are neglected by conventional methods.

    • Vyacheslav N. Gorshkov
    • , Sergei Tretiak
    •  & Dmitry Mozyrsky

  • Article |

    Estimating the entanglement in a system is vital for quantum information processing, particularly in many-body systems. To this end, Cramer et al.experimentally quantify multi-partite entanglement in an optical lattice across the superfluid-Mott insulator phase transition and at different temperatures.

    • M. Cramer
    • , A. Bernard
    •  & M.B. Plenio

  • Article |

    A Bayesian game is one in which each player has incomplete information about all other players in the game. Nicolas Brunner and Noah Linden establish a direct connection between Bayesian games and the abstract theory of Bell nonlocality, which has a prominent role in quantum physics.

    • Nicolas Brunner
    •  & Noah Linden

  • Article |

    A violation of Bell’s inequality would prove that a classical deterministic view of the universe is incorrect; however, despite long-standing efforts, irrefutable experimental proof of such a violation has yet to be produced. Teo et al. propose a realistic scenario that may finally overcome this challenge.

    • C. Teo
    • , M. Araújo
    •  & M. França Santos

  • Article |

    Nonlinearity is a hallmark of complex networks, but has generally been regarded as an obstacle to controlling their behaviour. Here Cornelius et al.show how nonlinear dynamics can be harnessed to control a network and drive it to desired states.

    • Sean P. Cornelius
    • , William L. Kath
    •  & Adilson E. Motter

  • Article |

    Thermodynamics and information theory are closely related but the fundamental limitations of this relation are difficult to determine. Combining concepts from one-shot information theory, probability theory and statistical mechanics, the author quantifies extractable work in a non-equilibrium system.

    • Johan Åberg

  • Article |

    The usual laws of thermodynamics that are valid for macroscopic systems do not necessarily apply to the nanoscale, where quantum effects become important. Here, the authors develop a theoretical framework based on quantum information theory to properly treat thermodynamics at the nanoscale.

    • Michał Horodecki
    •  & Jonathan Oppenheim

  • Article |

    Future quantum computers need quantum memories that store arbitrary states for long periods, without incurring significant access latencies. Using high-order dynamical decoupling sequences, this work shows a practical scheme to suppress physical errors and guarantee high-fidelity storage for long times.

    • Kaveh Khodjasteh
    • , Jarrah Sastrawan
    •  & Lorenza Viola

  • Article |

    The control of a complex network can be achieved by different combinations of relatively few driver nodes. Tao Jia and colleagues show that this can lead to two distinct control modes—centralized or distributed—that determine the number of nodes that can act as driver node.

    • Tao Jia
    • , Yang-Yu Liu
    •  & Albert-László Barabási

  • Article |

    The spin Seebeck effect, which refers to a spin current induced by a temperature gradient, is experimentally well established but a comprehensive theoretical framework is still missing. Here the authors succeed in explaining the non-locality and in predicting a non-magnon origin of the effect.

    • Konstantin S. Tikhonov
    • , Jairo Sinova
    •  & Alexander M. Finkel’stein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When physicists study the characteristics of quantum conductors they usually take great pains to limit the resistance of other elements in the system. But Jezouin et al. show that when a single quantum channel is measured in series with a resistor, it exhibits analogous characteristics to a Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid.

    • S. Jezouin
    • , M. Albert
    •  & F. Pierre

  • Article |

    Quantum oscillations in the underdoped cuprate superconductors suggest the existence of a continuous Fermi surface, but specific heat measurements in strong magnetic fields suggest singular behaviour characteristic of point nodes. Banerjee et al. show how a vortex-liquid state could resolve this dichotomy.

    • Sumilan Banerjee
    • , Shizhong Zhang
    •  & Mohit Randeria

  • Article |

    Domain walls in multiferroic materials exhibit novel properties that are not present in the bulk. This work reports first-principle calculations that relate the structure of the domain-wall to its electronic properties in multiferroic hexagonal manganites.

    • Yu Kumagai
    •  & Nicola A. Spaldin

  • Article |

    Silicene is a silicon-based analogue of graphene, but with subtle and potentially useful differences. Wei-Feng Tsai and colleagues show that these differences could be exploited to build electrically-gated silicene devices that generate and control spin-polarized currents with near perfect efficiency.

    • Wei-Feng Tsai
    • , Cheng-Yi Huang
    •  & A. Bansil

  • Article |

    Non-Abelian anyons are exotic quasiparticles envisioned to be promising candidates for solid-state quantum computation. Clarkeet al. propose a device fabricated from fractional quantum Hall states and superconductors that supports a new type of non-Abelian defect that binds parafermionic zero modes.

    • David J. Clarke
    • , Jason Alicea
    •  & Kirill Shtengel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Causal order is a concept that is engrained in the standard understanding of time, both in classical and quantum mechanics. Oreshkovet al.generalize the standard formalism of quantum theory to a framework with no pre-existing causal order, and find a new class of correlations that have no analogue in the classical world.

    • Ognyan Oreshkov
    • , Fabio Costa
    •  & Časlav Brukner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blind quantum computation is a protocol that permits an algorithm, its input and output to be kept secret from the owner of the computational resource doing the calculation. Morimae and Fujii propose a strategy for topologically protected fault-tolerant blind quantum computation that is robust to environmental noise.

    • Tomoyuki Morimae
    •  & Keisuke Fujii

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