Browse Physics

‘Explosive’ chaos may occur in a system experiencing a sudden change–like an electric circuit moments after it’s switched on–according to theoretical work.

Building simplified genetic networks in a test tube could help us better understand biological systems.

In networks like blood vessels and leaf veins, feedback between the formation of branches and the signals that propagate through them leads to new types of growth patterns.

Though often ignored, the normal component of a superfluid reveals much about turbulence in a two-fluid system.

The patterns in two spinning tanks of fluid representing different parts of the Earth’s atmosphere can synchronize with only a small amount of thermal coupling, suggesting that heat flow can transmit weather cycles over long distances.

The ability to predict structurally localized patches in a fluid provides a step toward describing the evolution from laminar to turbulent flow.

A single $30$-femtosecond pulse has been used to observe x-ray diffraction of a magnetic material, potentially opening the way to ultrafast probing of spin dynamics with nanometer spatial resolution.

Thermal magnetic fluctuations, usually thought of as a barrier to magnetic information storage and processing, can be harnessed to make green, low-energy magnetic applications a possibility.

The idea behind adaptive behavioral epidemiology is that groups and individuals respond to the knowledge of a disease threat by changing their habits to avoid interactions with those who are contagious. Network-based models take this adaptive behavior into account by allowing the network to “rewire” its connections.

Three papers explain aspects of the size and structure of natural supply networks such as blood vessels and leaf veins.

Supersonic jets of air can be produced when a solid object falls into water.

Electric current flowing through simple wire arrangements can induce chaotic magnetic fields, according to computations, so magnetic chaos is probably common in everyday electronics.

Graphene is not just your everyday relativistic quantum playground; it may have ghostly chaotic features as well.

Can physicists still learn anything about molecular motion from the classical pendulum?

The fastest known random number generator based on a physical process comes from intensity fluctuations in the light from a chaotic laser.

Neutron scattering measurements indicate that intrinsic localized modes are found in thermal equilibrium in NaI, a simple ionic crystal.

A new system for analyzing sleep data could help future patients by providing a more complete picture of their sleep process.

Molecular dynamics simulations unveil an example of dynamical symmetry breaking at the nanoscale.

Researchers built a digital circuit that relies on noise to perform correctly, offering a possible solution to the problem of electronic background noise in the smallest computer circuits.

The thin stream kicked up by dropping an object in water results from a kind of squirting action by the fluid, according to experiments and simulations.