Research articles

Superconductivity that is mediated by fluctuations of a nematic electronic order has not been experimentally demonstrated. Now an analysis of the symmetry of the superconducting gap in doped FeSe provides evidence of this phenomenon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Different facets of an orthorhombic substrate can stabilize different ordering patterns in a perovskite oxide, even in the absence of differences in strain and polarity mismatches.

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.

Current methods for directly cooling atomic gases to quantum degeneracy involve time-consuming steps. A method based on electromagnetically induced transparency now achieves quantum degeneracy with a notable reduction in preparation time.

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.

Islands of inversions are regions of the nuclear chart where deformed configurations are energetically favoured over spherical ones. Now experiments show that ⁶²Cr assumes different shapes with excitation energy, which is a signature of such islands.

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.

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.

Causality places fundamental limits on the hydrodynamic behaviour of relativistic systems that are independent of the underlying model.

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.

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.

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.

A particle rotating in a fluid generates vorticity around itself. Now the dynamics of a collective of such spinners suspended in a liquid is shown to display flocking and three-dimensional active chirality.

Qubits formed from Andreev bound states in a Josephson junction could have performance advantages over existing superconducting qubits. Here proof-of-principle experiments demonstrate long-range coupling between Andreev-level qubits.

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.