Browse Physics

Published June 15, 2009

Biological Physics

The shapes of “binding proteins” contribute to the ease with which they can diffuse along DNA until they reach a specific sequence.

Published June 15, 2009

Magnetism Quantum Mechanics Strongly Correlated Materials

The finding of a new duality theory could contribute to solving problems in quantum magnetism.

F. Javier García de Abajo, Physics 2, 47 (2009) – Published June 8, 2009

Optics Metamaterials

Materials with unusual optical properties may allow the construction of sensors surrounded by a cloaking shell that makes the detectors undetectable.

Frédéric Chevy, Physics 2, 48 (2009) – Published June 8, 2009

Atomic & Molecular Physics

The fermionic analog of a solid-state polaron (an electron surrounded by a cloud of phonons) has been created by dropping a spin-down atom into a Fermi sea of spin-up ultracold atoms.

Published June 8, 2009

Optics

Is the intracavity field of a laser necessarily a coherent state?

Published June 8, 2009

Quantum Information

A system familiar in condensed matter—particles on a hexagonal lattice—could be a useful initial state for a one-way quantum computer.

Published June 8, 2009

Materials Science

CuO in thin-film form could be a prototype material for exploring magnetism that is similar to what is found in high-temperature superconductors.

Jürgen Appel, Physics 2, 45 (2009) – Published June 1, 2009

Atomic & Molecular Physics Optics

Dispersive probing of an atomic transition decreases the “dead time” of optical atomic clocks, potentially enabling more stable time reference standards.

Miles V. Klein, Physics 2, 46 (2009) – Published June 1, 2009

Superconductivity

Calculations of the Raman response for iron pnictide superconductors reveal a collective mode that may be crucial to unravel the pairing symmetry.

Published June 1, 2009

Materials Science Superconductivity

Following diamond and silicon, germanium is the third elemental semiconductor to host superconductivity at ambient pressure.

Published June 1, 2009

Nuclear Physics

Phase separation could be an experimentally observable signature of the predicted critical point in dense quark matter.

Felix Ritort, Physics 2, 43 (2009) – Published May 26, 2009

Statistical Mechanics Interdisciplinary Physics

Small nonequilibrium systems behave quite unexpectedly when in contact with a thermal reservoir. However, all of them—from molecular machines to molecular magnets—are described by a single fluctuation theorem.

Aaron Pierce, Physics 2, 44 (2009) – Published May 26, 2009

Particles & Fields Astrophysics

New connections have been made between experimental astrophysical signatures and theories that unify the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces, called grand unified theories.

Published May 26, 2009

Materials Science

The ability to hole-dope Bi₂Se₃ is an important step toward exploring the thermoelectric properties of this material.

Published May 26, 2009

Graphene

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy establishes the dominant mechanism of electron scattering when graphene is placed on a substrate.

Published May 26, 2009

Astrophysics Cosmology Particles & Fields

Detectors buried beneath the Antarctic ice place stringent limits on the presence of dark matter particles, called neutralinos, in the sun.

Published May 22, 2009

Nanophysics

A molecular network on a copper surface serves as a template for growing nanowires of uniform size from a range of metals.

Andrew M. C. Dawes, Physics 2, 41 (2009) – Published May 18, 2009

Atomic & Molecular Physics Quantum Information Optics

Loading cold atoms into a hollow-core optical fiber enables all-optical switching with just several hundred photons.

Jan van Ruitenbeek, Physics 2, 42 (2009) – Published May 18, 2009

Nanophysics Graphene

With a high-energy electron beam, it is possible to carve out atomically thin strands of carbon. Whether these carbon structures are conducting remains an open question.

Florian Marquardt, Steve M. Girvin, Physics 2, 40 (2009) – Published May 18, 2009

Quantum Information Optics Quantum Mechanics

Coherent optical systems combined with micromechanical devices may enable development of ultrasensitive force sensors and quantum information processing technology, as well as permit observation of quantum behavior in large-scale structures.

Published May 18, 2009

Metamaterials

A compact lens made from an acoustic metamaterial can focus ultrasonic waves to half a wavelength.

Dave Bacon, Physics 2, 38 (2009) – Published May 11, 2009

Quantum Information

Entanglement may not be the source of a quantum computer’s power. But if not, what is?

Ulrich Schollwöck, Physics 2, 39 (2009) – Published May 11, 2009

Quantum Information Quantum Mechanics

A new algorithm allows for the extremely efficient calculation of thermally averaged quantities in one dimension, in conjunction with the density matrix renormalization group method. The key is the judicious selection of a few representative states.

Published May 11, 2009

Mesoscopics

Giant jumps in the current-voltage characteristics of disordered films could be the first evidence that electron transport in insulators can occur in the absence of phonons.

Published May 11, 2009

Nuclear Physics

An algebraic version of Bohr’s collective model is shown to be an effective tool for the analysis of rotational and vibrational spectra in nuclei.