Isotope facilities aim to complete the nuclear chart 90 years after the first production of radioactive isotopes, it’s time for the next phase of discoveries. Michael ThoennessenAlexandra Gade Comment 10 Dec 2024 Top of page ⤴ Thesis Chirp of the town Mark Buchanan Thesis 10 Dec 2024 Top of page ⤴ Q&A A holistic approach to sustainability in research Cristina Arimany-Nardi, Isabel Marques de Oliveira and Teresa Sanchis from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia tell Nature Physics about their strategy to promote environmentally friendly practices in research, administration and on the way to work. Karen Mudryk Q&A 10 Dec 2024 Top of page ⤴ News & Views No heat flow in charge-neutral graphene The ground state of electrons in charge-neutral graphene in a strong magnetic field has not been conclusively identified. Thermal transport measurements narrow down the possible candidates, with evidence that the ground state does not conduct heat. Haoxin Zhou News & Views 01 Nov 2024 Quantum matter in multifractal patterns A fractal material exhibits self-similarity at different length scales across the system size. Theorists now show that an interacting one-dimensional quasiperiodic material can host a multifractal charge-density-wave phase. Xiong-Jun Liu News & Views 11 Oct 2024 Diffusive light pipes Optical waveguides that route light are a core technology of modern photonics and the bedrock of the global communications network. A surprising diffusion mechanism for guiding light has now been identified, and it is strangely close to home. Michael J. Steel News & Views 01 Nov 2024 Universal dynamics exposed by interaction quenches Chandrasekhar Ramanathan News & Views 14 Nov 2024 Chirality and topology team up to produce orbital monopole Electrons in a chiral topological material exhibit a unique orbital angular momentum profile in momentum space that resembles magnetic monopoles. It gives an opportunity to utilize the orbital motion of electrons for information processing — so-called orbitronics. Hyun-Woo LeeTatiana G. Rappoport News & Views 09 Oct 2024 Superconducting circuits feel the pull of synthetic magnetism Superconducting qubits can be fabricated and controlled in large numbers, which makes them an appealing platform for quantum simulations of many-body physics. However, a scalable way of implementing electromagnetism has been lacking — until now. Alicia J. Kollár News & Views 31 Oct 2024 Islands identified Filamentary eruptions from the plasma edge in fusion devices pose a critical threat to their integrity. The identification of magnetic islands at the top of the edge explains how these eruptions are suppressed by resonant magnetic perturbations. Guosheng XuYouwen Sun News & Views 13 Nov 2024 Top of page ⤴ Review Articles Quantum critical metals and loss of quasiparticles The strange-metal state that develops close to a quantum critical point in strongly correlated electron systems is not well understood. This Review summarizes how the notion of Kondo destruction can describe much of the experimental phenomenology. Haoyu HuLei ChenQimiao Si Review Article 09 Dec 2024 Top of page ⤴ Articles Quantum-enhanced metrology with large Fock states Non-classical states with a large, definite number of photons can now be produced in a superconducting cavity and used for quantum-enhanced sensing. Xiaowei DengSai LiDapeng Yu Article Open Access 20 Aug 2024 A synthetic magnetic vector potential in a 2D superconducting qubit array Arrays of superconducting transmon qubits can be used to study the Bose–Hubbard model. Synthetic electromagnetic fields have now been added to this analogue quantum simulation platform. Ilan T. RosenSarah MuschinskeWilliam D. Oliver Article 30 Oct 2024 Strain tuning of vestigial three-state Potts nematicity in a correlated antiferromagnet Correlated materials can show nematicity, but the nematic state usually exhibits even-fold rotational symmetry. Now, a correlated antiferromagnet is shown to host a three-state Potts vestigial nematicity that can be controlled by external strain. Kyle HwangboElliott RosenbergXiaodong Xu Article 10 Oct 2024 Control of dynamic orbital response in ferromagnets via crystal symmetry Manipulation of the electron’s orbital contribution to transport experiments is important for potential orbitronics device applications. Now the long-range dynamic orbital response is shown to be controlled by the arrangement of atoms in ferromagnets. Tenghua GaoPhilipp RüßmannKazuya Ando Article 27 Sept 2024 Braiding reflectionless states in non-Hermitian magnonics Extending topological braids of complex energy bands to non-Hermitian systems of magnons—the quanta of spin waves—is a crucial step in the development of spin-based topological devices. This has now been experimentally demonstrated. Zejin RaoChanghao MengZhenghua An Article 01 Nov 2024 Controllable orbital angular momentum monopoles in chiral topological semimetals Chiral topological materials have been predicted to host orbital angular momentum monopoles, which can be useful for orbitronics applications. Now such monopoles have been imaged in chiral materials. Yun YenJonas A. KriegerNiels B. M. Schröter Article Open Access 30 Sept 2024 Origin of the chiral charge density wave in transition-metal dichalcogenide The mechanism of chiral symmetry breaking in condensed matter systems is not well understood. Now charge-lattice symmetry frustration has been shown to be a key factor governing chirality in a charge density wave of 1T-TiSe2. Kwangrae KimHyun-Woo J. KimB. J. Kim Article 14 Oct 2024 Vanishing bulk heat flow in the ν = 0 quantum Hall ferromagnet in monolayer graphene Charge-neutral graphene in the quantum Hall regime is known to be an insulator. Now thermal transport measurements show that it also does not conduct heat. This sheds light on the nature of the ground state in this regime. R. DelagrangeM. GargF. D. Parmentier Article 29 Oct 2024 Incommensurability enabled quasi-fractal order in 1D narrow-band moiré systems An incommensurate moiré pattern in a one-dimensional system is numerically shown to produce a quasi-fractal charge density wave ground state that originates from a parent multifractal critical phase. Miguel GonçalvesBruno AmorimPedro Ribeiro Article 11 Oct 2024 Absence of heat flow in ν = 0 quantum Hall ferromagnet in bilayer graphene The ground state of charge-neutral bilayer graphene in a strong magnetic field is not fully determined. Now thermal transport measurements show an absence of heat flow through that state, suggesting that its collective excitations could be gapped. Ravi KumarSaurabh Kumar SrivastavAnindya Das Article 29 Oct 2024 The space of transport coefficients allowed by causality Causality places fundamental limits on the hydrodynamic behaviour of relativistic systems that are independent of the underlying model. Michal P. HellerAlexandre SerantesBenjamin Withers Article Open Access 14 Oct 2024 Energy transport in diffusive waveguides Waveguides—often based on total internal reflection—underpin many photonic technologies, including fibre networks for broadband communications. Now a different type of waveguide based on physical diffusion in a scattering medium is demonstrated. Kevin J. MitchellVytautas GradauskasDaniele Faccio Article Open Access 01 Nov 2024 High-harmonic generation by a bright squeezed vacuum High-harmonic generation has so far been driven only by classical light. Now, its driving by a bright squeezed vacuum—a quantum state of light—has been observed and shown to be more efficient than using classical light. Andrei RasputnyiZhaopin ChenFrancesco Tani Article Open Access 02 Oct 2024 Emergent universal quench dynamics in randomly interacting spin models Universal properties have previously been observed mostly in the equilibrium physics of many-body systems in the low-energy and low-temperature regime. Now universality is observed at high temperature in the spin dynamics of a solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance system. Yuchen LiTian-Gang ZhouJiangfeng Du Article 14 Oct 2024 Quantum tunnelling with tunable spin geometric phases in van der Waals antiferromagnets It is difficult to control the geometric phase of particles as they undergo quantum tunnelling. Now tuning of the geometric phase of electron spin is demonstrated in tunnelling in a multilayer van der Waals antiferromagnet. Man ChengQifeng HuYi Zheng Article 22 Oct 2024 Observation of magnetic islands in tokamak plasmas during the suppression of edge-localized modes The suppression of edge-localized modes in tokamak plasmas is crucial to prevent them from damaging the walls of the chamber. Now experiments confirm the role that magnetic islands play in suppressing these detrimental modes. Matthias WillensdorferVerena MitterauerS. Zoletnik Article Open Access 28 Oct 2024 Emergent actin flows explain distinct modes of gliding motility Unicellular parasites, such as Toxoplasma gondii, can use different forms of gliding motions when infecting a host. These motility modes arise from the self-organizing properties of filamentous actin flow at the surface of these parasitic cells. Christina L. HueschenLi-av Segev-ZarkoAlexander R. Dunn Article Open Access 08 Oct 2024 Top of page ⤴ Measure for Measure A spoonful of sugar When it comes to baking recipes, the quantities of ingredients are one of the pillars of success. Karen Mudryk explores the intricacies of measurements in the kitchen. Karen Mudryk Measure for Measure 10 Dec 2024