Nature Physics

This month we celebrate Nature Physics' twentieth birthday, consider the flexoelectricity of water ice, and feature a Perspective on chiral phonons. Have a look at go.nature.com/NPoct25

The formation of exciton crystals is challenging because excitons possess short lifetimes and exhibit weaker interactions than electrons. Now, an exciton Wigner crystal is observed in a moiré electron–hole bilayer. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Lattice gauge theories with non-local conservation laws are expected to thermalize locally. Using a Rydberg simulator, it is now shown that most charge patterns can remain effectively frozen, a phenomenon known as statistical localization. nature.com/articles/s4156…

The transition from laminar to turbulent flow is normally of a continuous nature. Now, simulations and experiments show that a discontinuous transition can be realized through the application of particular force fields. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Topological Kondo insulators have been suggested in three-dimensional bulk materials like SmB₆, but they have not been observed in two-dimensional materials. Now, this is achieved in a transition metal dichalcogenide moiré bilayer. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Complex-frequency waves compensate for optical losses, but their efficacy is limited in systems with extreme losses. Now, high-order virtual gain excitations have been shown to preserve loss compensation efficiency in plasmonic resonance systems. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Kelvin waves are elementary excitations of vortex lines, manifesting as propagating helical disturbances in rotational flows. Through spatiotemporal imaging, experimental verification of their dispersion relation has now been achieved. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Experimentally assessing entropy production in nanosystems is challenging. Now, the dissipation is visualized in a time-dependently driven non-Markovian quantum-dot blinking process in real time. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Quantum correlations enable some cryptographic protocols that are classically impossible. Now the security of an uncloneable encryption scheme using quantum systems has been proven. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Starfish embryos can form living chiral crystals. Now it is shown that these crystals can spontaneously, as well as inducibly, transition between two stable states: fluctuating and oscillatory. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Topological interface states typically support the propagation of a single state in each direction, which limits their applicability. Now, co-propagating states are achieved in a photonic topological insulator system. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Gallium arsenide photocathodes inside a superconducting radio-frequency gun are a promising source of polarized electrons for future colliders. Now the operation of such a source has been demonstrated. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Fractional Chern insulators have been observed in moiré MoTe₂ at zero magnetic field, but the expected zero longitudinal resistance has not been demonstrated. Now it is shown that improving device quality allows this effect to appear. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Quantum error correction codes protect quantum information, but running algorithms also requires the ability to perform gates on logical qubits. A lattice surgery scheme for fault-tolerant gates has now been demonstrated in a quantum repetition code. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Many biological systems appear to organize their dynamics close to a critical point. Now it is shown that the protein array mediating Escherichia coli chemosensing is near-critical, enabling large signal amplification without compromising response speeds. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Understanding microwave emission from resonating spin spirals is key for on-chip magnonics. Now, real-time spin precession modes with distinct microwave patterns are captured in a helimagnet/ferromagnet heterostructure. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Applications of optical laser-based techniques are limited by the long wavelengths of the lasers. Now, observations of phonons and thermal transport at nanometre length scales are reported with an all-hard X-ray transient-grating spectroscopy technique. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Symmetry breaking is key to tissue formation. Now it is shown that symmetry breaking of epithelial spheroids is controlled by an interplay of collective migration with curvature and matrix remodelling. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Coherent spin waves—quantized into magnons—can be emitted as Cherenkov radiation, but their experimental realization is hindered by the lack of fast-moving magnetic perturbations. Now, a picosecond strain pulse is shown to induce this effect. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Quantum low-density parity-check error correction codes are anticipated to deliver high performance, but require long-range qubit–qubit interactions. Two of these error correction codes have now been successfully implemented on a superconducting device. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Generation of orbital currents in a non-magnetic material can be useful to build efficient orbitronic devices. Now, the interplay of chiral phonons and electrons is shown to produce orbital currents in α-quartz. nature.com/articles/s4156…