Physical Review X

15 years of groundbreaking physics. 🎉 We're celebrating our anniversary with a special cover honoring the incredible research published over the years — from soft matter and condensed matter to astrophysics and beyond. Browse the latest issue: go.aps.org/4f7ukV9

By incorporating Floquet amplitude modulations, researchers detail how an analog Floquet solver can escape local minima — increasing how accurately parametric oscillator-based Ising machines can solve optimization problems. Read the study: go.aps.org/4f9mgo6

Yiping Wang, Gillian Minarik, Xiaoyang Zhu, and colleagues at @Columbia, @UW, @UT_Dallas, @NIMS_PR, and @FlatironInst conducted the study.

Experiments with twisted bilayer MoTe-2 reveal a promising candidate for a fractional topological insulator with time-reversal-symmetry — a step toward the realization of an exotic and long-predicted quantum phase. Check out the findings: go.aps.org/453gs9E

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of bilayer nickelate thin films reveals that the out-of-plane nickel orbital band shifts with strain and doping but is not required at the Fermi level for superconductivity to emerge. Read the paper: go.aps.org/3TiNtvS

Jonathan Oppenheim (@postquantum) at @ucl and Zachary Weller-Davies at @Perimeter authored the paper.

A new series of covariant path integrals for quantum-classic field interactions enables complete positivity and space-time symmetries, achieving a fundamental theory that could reconcile general relativity with quantum mechanics. Check it out: go.aps.org/4fBp0dQ

Two independent research teams have devised a new way to sustain a continuous, uninterrupted entangled link between distant qubits. Their goal: creating a large modular quantum system that is greater than the sum of its parts. go.aps.org/4wHWz3U

What makes a fabric knitted? 🧶 Physicists identified a topological framework based on knot theory that can distinguish knits and crochets from other textiles. Knits have defects, or local areas of yarn disentanglements, that propagate. Read more: go.aps.org/4vyZIlF

Using engineered dissipation, this study achieves the autonomous generation and stabilization of quantum entanglement between two separate superconducting-qubit devices. Check it out: go.aps.org/4vvibPV

This study demonstrates a new process to entangle two distant qubits by coupling them to a quantum-correlated photonic reservoir. The process uses a minimal setup and is fully automated. Check it out: go.aps.org/452cZIm

This study was conducted by Penghua Ying at Xi'an Jiaotong University and Michael Urbakh and Oded Hod at Tel Aviv University.

Using advanced atomistic simulation tools, researchers show that external electric fields can be used to control sliding resistance in layered materials — providing a way to control friction in some systems. 🔗 go.aps.org/4vZfcAk

To mark Physical Review X’s 15th anniversary, the journal’s lead editor Denis Bartolo and chief editor Brent Grocholski celebrate its achievements so far and reaffirm their commitment to provide a home for inspiring and substantial research. Read more: go.aps.org/3RtSqkZ

A Perspective explores #quantum advantage across different fields, establishes key properties for defining an ideal quantum advantage, and envisions what new capabilities might arise in a future rich with quantum technologies. Read the article: go.aps.org/4voRtsi

The experiments were carried out by Maximilian Nägele and Florian Marquardt at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

An agentic #AI physicist named SciExplorer can explore systems without finetuning or task-specific instructions and displays impressive performance on a broad set of models ranging from wave evolution to quantum many-body physics. Check out the study: go.aps.org/4flLGPf

The study was conducted by Margarita Davydova at @Burke_Institute; Benjamin Brown at @IBMResearch; and their colleagues at @MITMechE, @FU_Berlin, @ucl, and @Sydney_Uni.

A new study presents a method to perform scalable, fault-tolerant non-Clifford gates in 2D, taking a step toward more efficient circuits and scalable, less resource-intensive universal quantum computation. Learn more: go.aps.org/4f3QsQ7

The work was done by Nicolas Bain, Eric Dufresne, and their colleagues at @UnivLyon1, @ETH, @Cornell, @Yale, and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

Using nanotracers to measure displacement fields near a deformed silicon gel interface, scientists observed a depth-dependent elastic modulus and sub-micron-scale jump in radial displacement, revealing the inherently multiscale nature of polymers. 🔗 go.aps.org/4axhrlM