Nature Physics

Nature Physics, Published online: 10 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01254-8

The interplay of superconductivity and nematicity of electrons remains unclear in a wide range of materials. Now, more evidence emerges that nematic fluctuations can be pinned into a static phase by disorder, which hinders the superconductivity.

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01274-4

Sources in the skies

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01272-6

Shear coincidence

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01273-5

Prosperous gold

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01276-2

The two-fluid model of superfluids predicts a second, quantum mechanical form of sound. Ultracold atom experiments have now measured second sound in the unusual two-dimensional superfluid described by the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition.

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01264-6

The big world of tiny things for little people

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01262-8

Attempted reconnection

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01258-4

A single equation can describe how fluids flow across a wide range of length scales, from ocean currents to swimming algae. The difference merely lies in the Reynolds number, says Julia Yeomans.

Nature Physics, Published online: 09 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01281-5

Introducing non-local effects to metamaterials increases the complexity of their dispersion relation, which allows carefully designed elastic structures to mimic the peculiar roton behaviour of correlated quantum superfluids.

Nature Physics, Published online: 03 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01283-3

Author Correction: Strong correlations and orbital texture in single-layer 1T-TaSe2

Nature Physics, Published online: 03 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01284-2

Publisher Correction: Inside quantum black boxes

Nature Physics, Published online: 03 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01259-3

High-order harmonics of laser pulses yield spectral components with shorter wavelength and duration and tighter focus than the original pulse. Precise spatiotemporal characterization of this radiation from a relativistic plasma mirror is relevant for ultrafast science.

Nature Physics, Published online: 03 June 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01253-9

Relativistic mirrors are a promising tool to reach laser intensities up to the Schwinger limit. Such a mirror is created in ultra-intense laser–solid interactions, and its temporal and spatial effects on the reflected laser beam are characterized.

Nature Physics, Published online: 31 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01256-6

Undergraduate labs are more effective and more positive for students if they encourage investigation and decision-making, not verification of textbook concepts.

Nature Physics, Published online: 31 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01263-7

Recent measurements of observables related to proton and neutron spin properties at low energies are in disagreement with the available theoretical predictions, and continue to challenge nuclear experimentalists and theorists alike.

Nature Physics, Published online: 31 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01245-9

Measurements of observables sensitive to the neutron’s spin precession are extended to a regime that probes distances of the size of the nucleon. They are found to disagree with predictions from chiral effective field theory.

Nature Physics, Published online: 27 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01230-2

Most large quantum systems are ergodic, meaning that over time they forget their initial conditions and thermalize. This article reviews our understanding of seemingly ergodic systems that in fact have some long-lived, non-thermal states.

Nature Physics, Published online: 27 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01247-7

Microswimmers tend to accumulate in regions where their speed is significantly reduced, but experimental and numerical evidence now points towards a viscophobic turning mechanism that biases certain microalgae away from high-viscosity areas.

Nature Physics, Published online: 24 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01246-8

On the face of it, characterizing quantum dynamics in the exponentially large Hilbert space of a many-body system might require prohibitively many experiments. In fact, the locality of physical interactions means that it can be done efficiently.

Nature Physics, Published online: 24 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01232-0

Learning the Hamiltonian of a complex many-body system is hard, but now there is proof that it can be done in a way where the number of required measurements scales as a polynomial of the number of particles.