Trends

John Pendry, Physics 2, 95 (2009) – Published November 16, 2009

Optics Metamaterials

Scientists and novelists have been intrigued for centuries by the possibility of hiding an object so completely that neither trace of the object nor of its cloak is to be found. Recent theoretical developments show that cloaking is, in principle, possible for electromagnetic waves and to a limited extent for other types of wave, such as acoustic waves. An energetic program of experimental research has shown some of the schemes to be realizable in practice.

Thomas Schäfer, Physics 2, 88 (2009) – Published October 26, 2009

Atomic & Molecular Physics Particles & Fields Fluid Dynamics

Is there a fundamental lower bound on viscosity? To answer this question, we can look at the coldest and hottest fluids that laboratories are able to produce.

Guenter Ahlers, Physics 2, 74 (2009) – Published September 14, 2009

Fluid Dynamics

Convection in a fluid heated from below, known as Rayleigh-Bénard convection, is an important turbulent process that occurs in the sun, planetary atmospheres, industrial manufacturing, and many other places. Physicists and engineers have made much progress in understanding this phenomenon in simple laboratory geometries, but still have a way to go before they are able to extrapolate to the extreme conditions often encountered in nature.

Michael Wiescher, Physics 2, 69 (2009) – Published August 17, 2009

Astrophysics Nuclear Physics

Advances in experimental techniques that measure nuclear reactions that occur in stars are opening new opportunities for understanding the stellar and chemical evolution of our Universe.

David Awschalom, Nitin Samarth, Physics 2, 50 (2009) – Published June 15, 2009

Spintronics

The spin-orbit effect is at the heart of efforts to merge spintronics—where information is carried and stored by spin, rather than by charge—with semiconductor technology.

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.

Marshall Stoneham, Physics 2, 34 (2009) – Published April 27, 2009

Quantum Information Spintronics

Creating a practical solid-state quantum computer is seriously hard. Getting such a computer to operate at room temperature is even more challenging. Is such a quantum computer possible at all? If so, which schemes might have a chance of success?

Daniel Khomskii, Physics 2, 20 (2009) – Published March 9, 2009

Materials Science

The field of multiferroics has greatly expanded in the last few years, particularly with the discovery of so many different types of multiferroic materials. This review organizes these materials according to the microscopic origin of their properties and explores how we can expect to find similar multiferroic behavior in systems that we have been studying all along.

Erik Sjöqvist, Physics 1, 35 (2008) – Published November 17, 2008

Quantum Information

Large-scale quantum computers are hard to construct because quantum systems easily lose their coherence through interaction with the environment. Researchers have tried to avoid this problem by using geometric phase shifts in the design of quantum gates to perform information processing. Experiments and simulations have shown that these gates may be tolerant to certain types of faults, and may therefore be useful for robust quantum computation.

Michael R. Norman, Physics 1, 21 (2008) – Published September 15, 2008

Superconductivity

A new class of high-temperature superconductors has been discovered in layered iron arsenic compounds. Results in this rapidly moving field may shed light on the still unsolved problem of high-temperature cuprate superconductivity.

Steven L. Rolston, Physics 1, 2 (2008) – Published July 14, 2008

Plasma Physics

Plasmas are normally thought of as high temperature ionized gases or fluids, such as those in the sun’s corona or those found in controlled nuclear fusion experiments. Many interesting plasma phenomena can occur, however, in plasmas at low temperature. With the help of laser trapping and cooling, atoms can be photoionized to form neutral plasmas at extremely low temperatures. These plasmas may exist in the so-called strong coupling regime, where the energy of the Coulomb interactions between particles is larger than their thermal energy. In addition to providing a test bed for studying the strongly coupled plasmas such as those found in Jovian planets and white dwarfs, ultracold plasmas play a critical role in understanding the formation of antihydrogen.