Physics Articles

Editorial: Things of beauty

The celebration of 50 years of the Aharonov?Bohm effect, and 25 years of Berry's phase, is a celebration of the elegance of physics.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp147-147

Editorial: Treasured archive

Funding of the arXiv preprint server must now be shared by more of its users.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp147-147

News and Views: Ultrafast science: Towards a one-femtosecond film

Can the hole left by ionization in an N2 molecule be imaged with both ngstrm-scale spatial and subfemtosecond temporal resolution?

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp159-160

News and Views: Quantum mechanics: Intellectually delicious

It is 50 years since the discovery of the Aharonov?Bohm effect, and 25 years since that of the Berry phase. A celebration of this double anniversary at the University of Bristol made evident that these discoveries still offer much food for thought.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp160-161

News and Views: Neural control: Chaos control sets the pace

Even simple creatures, such as cockroaches, are capable of complex responses to changes in their environment. But robots usually require complicated dedicated control circuits to perform just a single action. Chaos control theory could allow simpler control strategies to realize more complex behaviour.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp161-162

News and Views: X-ray optics: Diamond brilliance

Most materials either absorb or transmit X-rays. This is useful for imaging but makes it notoriously difficult to build mirrors for reflective X-ray optics. A demonstration of the high X-ray reflectivity of diamond could provide a timely solution to make the most of the next generation of free-electron lasers.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp163-164

News and Views: Nonlinear dynamics: Spontaneous synchrony breaking

Research on synchronization of coupled oscillators has helped explain how uniform behaviour emerges in populations of non-uniform systems. But explaining how uniform populations engage in 'chimera states' ? states of sustainable non-uniform synchronization ? may prove to be just as fascinating.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp164-165

News and Views: Optical physics: Broken symmetry makes light work

The fundamental symmetries of parity and time are now being exploited to enable the spatial guiding and selection of propagating radiation, and could ultimately underpin a new generation of sophisticated, integrated photonic devices.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp166-167

News and Views: Plasma physics: Turbulence at a pinch

Plasmas, like most fluids, usually become more homogeneous when subjected to turbulence. But in the Earth's magnetosphere, and in an unusual device whose confining field is generated by a levitated half-tonne superconducting magnet, precisely the opposite sometimes happens.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp167-168

Letter: Ferroelectricity in a one-dimensional organic quantum magnet

Measurements of the magnetic-field-dependent polarization of a one-dimensional organic quantum magnetic suggest its ferroelectric behaviour is mediated by a spin?Peierls instability. Such behaviour could provide a promising new approach to the design of spin-driven ferroelectrics.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp169-172

Letter: Correlation-induced single-flux-quantum penetration in quantum rings

Conventionally, the states of a two-dimensional quantum ring in a high magnetic field have a well-defined spatial structure. But Coulomb repulsion between individual orbits causes oscillations in the size of this structure each time a magnetic flux-quantum enters or leaves the system. This effect has now been measured experimentally in semiconducting quantum rings.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp173-177

Letter: Normal-state spin dynamics and temperature-dependent spin-resonance energyinoptimally doped BaFe1.85Co0.15As2

A neutron scattering study reveals that the magnetic fluctuations in an iron arsenide superconductor behave according to the conventional theories of metals, unlike the cuprate superconductors. Moreover, the magnetic spin-excitation energies are sufficient to mediate the Cooper pairs that form the superconducting state.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp178-181

Letter: Evolution of spin excitations into the superconducting state in FeTe1?xSex

A neutron scattering study shows that the spin excitations in both pnictide- and copper oxide-based superconductors have the same four-fold symmetry. If these excitations do indeed mediate the superconductivity, the two families of materials may be more similar than previously thought.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp182-186

Letter: Strength and directionality of surface Ruderman?Kittel?Kasuya?Yosida interactionmapped on the atomic scale

The Ruderman?Kittel?Kasuya?Yosida interaction indirectly couples the moments of magnetic atoms through conduction electrons. Using a spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscope, the direction and strength of this interaction between pairs and triplets of isolated atoms on a surface has been imaged directly.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp187-191

Letter: Observation of parity?time symmetry in optics

A photonic system that shows behaviour similar to that of a violation of parity?time symmetry provides a convenient test bed to explore this and related phenomena. It could also lead to a new class of optical materials with exotic properties that exploit non-reciprocal light flow.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp192-195

Letter: High-reflectivity high-resolution X-ray crystal optics with diamonds

Hard-X-ray mirrors usually rely on total external reflection at grazing incidence, owing to the high-penetration and low X-ray reflectivity of most materials. A demonstration of the almost perfect reflectance of hard X-ray from diamond at near-normal incidence could allow the development an entirely new class of X-ray optics.

Nature Physics, vol. 6 #3, pp196-199



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