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Physical Review Letters
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September 19, 2008 Optical micrograph of wrinkle patterns formed on a metal and polymer multilayer after immersion in solvent vapors. The diffusion wavefront of the solvent determines the pattern, with parallel or radial formations originating at localized defects.
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September 22, 2008 Edited by Martin Blume
Letters from the Past — A PRL Retrospective: This week's Milestone Letters were originally published in 1988. Milestone Letters: Laser Cooling Milestone Letters: Giant Magnetoresistance Milestone Letters >
September 15, 2008
Information overload is everywhere, and physicists have not escaped. APS alone publishes over 18,000 articles a year, and lurking within them are some truly exceptional papers that every physicist should know about. How can we most effectively bring the best in all of the Physical Review journals to the wider notice of working physicists? Today is the formal debut of a new free online publication called Physics. Available in preliminary form since July, this new venture offers expert-written commentary articles that highlight and provide context for a select group of papers published by APS and occasionally others.
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July 31, 2008
During my tenure as APS Editor-in-Chief Physical Review Letters changed from a journal whose authors were mostly from the U.S. to one whose authors were mostly from abroad. I encouraged authors to publicize their work even before their papers were accepted for publication. And I sought to raise the quality of the papers that were published even higher than before.
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July 30, 2008 The editors of Physical Review Letters seek a dynamic and personable
colleague to join our group at the American Physical Society.
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June 30, 2008 When Sam Goudsmit was 23, he and George Uhlenbeck hypothesized that the electron had spin. Sam was a well-known atomic physicist working at the University of Michigan when World War II began. During the war he first worked on radar at the MIT Radiation Lab, and then in the waning days of the war in Europe he led a mission to determine how far the Nazis had gotten in developing an atomic bomb. After chairing the Physics Department at Brookhaven, in 1950 APS named Goudsmit Managing Editor of Physical Review and Reviews of Modern Physics; in 1966 he was named Editor-in-Chief. He founded Physical Review Letters in 1958.
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March 10, 2008 The American Physical Society announces a highly selective award program to recognize scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. The program will annually recognize 130 of the 42,000 currently active referees, but in this inaugural year a larger group of 534 referees has been selected for the “Outstanding Referee” designation.
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September 19, 2008
When moved across a surface, some nanoscale metallic islands show frictional resistance, while others do not, adding new support to a theory that attributes friction to trapped impurity atoms.
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More Focus Articles
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The timeline features events related to the Physical Review and PRL, as well as seminal developments in physics after 1893. We also list a few important papers published by the journals. Each week, papers published in PRL will be highlighted separately as Milestone Letters.
Complete Timeline >
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To promote reading across fields, the editors of Physical Review Letters offer "Suggestions" each week of papers that they hope will lead readers to explore other areas of physics. Please see our Announcement PRL 98, 010001 (2007).
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J. M. Brader, M. E. Cates, and M. Fuchs
Using mode-coupling theory, we derive a constitutive equation for the nonlinear rheology of dense colloidal suspensions under arbitrary time-dependent homogeneous flow. Generalizing previous results for simple shear, this allows the full tensorial structure of the theory to be identified. Macroscopi...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 138301
] Published Mon Sep 22, 2008
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D. H. Mosca, F. Vidal, and V. H. Etgens
By using heteroepitaxy on two different GaAs templates, we have investigated the impact of anisotropic strain on the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of MnAs. The temperature range, spread around room temperature, and the maximal MCE position are markedly different in the two epitaxial systems. Simulated...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 125503
] Published Fri Sep 19, 2008
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Alexis Diaz-Torres
A general new technique to solve the two-center problem with arbitrarily oriented deformed realistic potentials is demonstrated, which is based on the powerful potential separable expansion method. As an example, molecular single-particle spectra for 12C+12C→24Mg are calculated using deformed Wood...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 122501
] Published Fri Sep 19, 2008
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I. M. Vellekoop and A. P. Mosk
We experimentally demonstrate increased diffuse transmission of light through strongly scattering materials. Wave front shaping is used to selectively couple light to the open transport eigenchannels, specific solutions of Maxwell’s equations which the sample transmits fully, resulting in an incre...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 120601
] Published Mon Sep 15, 2008
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M. Saito, K. Ishikawa, K. Taniguchi, and T. Arima
The possibility of a magnetic field controlling the chirality of matter has been debated for a long time. Here, we report the successful induction of chirality in the noncentrosymmetric canted antiferromagnet, CuB2O4, by application of a low intensity static magnetic field. The chirality is reversed...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 117402
] Published Fri Sep 12, 2008
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Germán Sierra and Paul K. Townsend
The number N(E) of complex zeros of the Riemann zeta function with positive imaginary part less than E is the sum of a “smooth” function N̅ (E) and a “fluctuation.” Berry and Keating have shown that the asymptotic expansion of N̅ (E) counts states of positive energy less th...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 110201
] Published Fri Sep 12, 2008
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S. Gronenborn, B. Sturman, M. Falk, D. Haertle, and K. Buse
We show, experimentally and theoretically, that the application of modest voltages, U0=(0.1–1) kV, to LiNbO3∶Fe crystals at sufficiently high temperatures, T≈(550–700) °C, leads to the formation of ultraslow shock waves (moving discontinuities) of the electron density owing to the re...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 116601
] Published Mon Sep 8, 2008
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Tomohiko Tanaka and John K. Eaton
A novel dimensionless parameter, the particle moment number Pa, was derived using dimensional analysis of the particle-laden Navier-Stokes equations, in order to understand the underlying physics of turbulence modification by particles. A set of 80 previous experimental measurements where the turbu...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 114502
] Published Mon Sep 8, 2008
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Y. Nakai, Y. Nakano, T. Azuma, A. Hatakeyama, C. Kondo, K. Komaki, Y. Yamazaki, E. Takada, and T. Murakami
We report the Autler-Townes doublet demonstrating a novel type of coherent interaction of atoms not with photons but with a periodic crystal field when the atom is in flight through a crystal at high velocity. It was observed by the nonoptical X-VUV (vacuum-ultraviolet) double resonance of three-dim...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 113201
] Published Mon Sep 8, 2008
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Kalyan Sasmal, Bing Lv, Bernd Lorenz, Arnold M. Guloy, Feng Chen, Yu-Yi Xue, and Ching-Wu Chu
New high-Tc Fe-based superconducting compounds, AFe2As2 with A=K, Cs, K/Sr, and Cs/Sr, were synthesized. The Tc of KFe2As2 and CsFe2As2 is 3.8 and 2.6 K, respectively, which rises with partial substitution of Sr for K and Cs and peaks at 37 K for 50%–60% Sr substitution, and the compounds enter ...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 107007
] Published Fri Sep 5, 2008
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General Physics: Statistical and Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, etc.
Hyunchul Nha and M. Suhail Zubairy
In this Letter, we show that the fulfillment of uncertainty relations is a sufficient criterion for a quantum-mechanically permissible state. We specifically construct two pseudospin observables for an arbitrary nonpositive Hermitian matrix whose uncertainty relation is violated. This method enables...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130402
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Elementary Particles and Fields
Steven S. Gubser, Abhinav Nellore, Silviu S. Pufu, and Fábio D. Rocha
We consider classes of translationally invariant black hole solutions whose equations of state closely resemble that of QCD at zero chemical potential. We use these backgrounds to compute the ratio ζ/s of bulk viscosity to entropy density. For a class of black holes that exhibits a first-order tran...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 131601
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Nuclear Physics
S. Gandolfi, A. Yu. Illarionov, S. Fantoni, F. Pederiva, and K. E. Schmidt
We present a quantum Monte Carlo study of the zero-temperature equation of state of neutron matter and the computation of the 1S0 pairing gap in the low-density regime with ρ<0.04 fm-3. The system is described by a nonrelativistic nuclear Hamiltonian including both two- and three-nucleon i...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 132501
] Published Mon Sep 22, 2008
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Plasma and Beam Physics
Guy Dimonte and Jerome Daligault
Molecular-dynamics simulations are used to investigate temperature relaxation between electrons and ions in a fully ionized, classical Coulomb plasma with minimal assumptions. Recombination is avoided by using like charges. The relaxation rate agrees with theory in the weak coupling limit (g≡poten...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 135001
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Condensed Matter: Structure, etc.
Y. Tsutsumi, T. Kawakami, T. Mizushima, M. Ichioka, and K. Machida
A concrete and experimentally feasible example for testing the putative Majorana zero-energy state bound in a vortex is theoretically proposed for a parallel plate geometry of superfluid 3He-A phase. We examine the experimental setup in connection with ongoing rotating cryostat experiments. The theo...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 135302
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Toshiro Yamanaka
Active sites for a thermally induced bimolecular two-step catalytic reaction (O2→2O, O+CO→CO2) that occurs on a Pt(113)(1×2) structure at around 160 K were studied by angular distribution measurements of desorbing product CO2. It was found that the intrinsic activity level of two-atom-wide (00...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 136101
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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S. B. Papp, J. M. Pino, R. J. Wild, S. Ronen, C. E. Wieman, D. S. Jin, and E. A. Cornell
We report on measurements of the excitation spectrum of a strongly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate. A magnetic-field Feshbach resonance is used to tune atom-atom interactions in the condensate and to reach a regime where quantum depletion and beyond mean-field corrections to the condensate chem...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 135301
] Published Mon Sep 22, 2008
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Condensed Matter: Electronic Properties, etc.
Guillaume Schull, Michael Becker, and Richard Berndt
Variations of the spectra of plasmonic light emitted from the junction of a scanning tunneling microscope have been observed for different lateral positions of the scanning tunneling microscope tip on a Au(111) surface. Subnanometer spatial variations of the light emission intensity over a triangula...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 136801
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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R. Sainidou and F. J. García de Abajo
We introduce optically tunable surfaces based upon metallic gold nanoparticles trapped in open, water-filled gold cavities. The optical properties of the surfaces change dramatically with the presence and location of the particles inside the cavities. The precise position of the particles is shown t...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 136802
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Revaz Ramazashvili
In this Letter, I study the magnetic response of electron wave functions in a commensurate collinear antiferromagnet. I show that, at a special set of momenta, hidden antiunitary symmetry protects Kramers degeneracy of Bloch eigenstates against a magnetic field, pointing transversely to staggered ma...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 137202
] Published Tue Sep 23, 2008
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Papers recently accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters (view more).
General Physics: Statistical and Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, etc.
Approximate locality for quantum systems on graphs
Tobias J. Osborne
In this Letter we make progress on a longstanding open problem of Aaronson and Ambainis [Theory of Computing 1, 47 (2005)]: we show that if U is a sparse unitary operator with a gap D in its spectrum, then there exists an approximate logarithm H of U which is also sparse. The sparsity pattern of H gets more dense as 1/D increases. This result can be interpreted as a way to convert between local continuous-time and local discrete-time quantum processes. As an example we show that the discrete-time coined quantum walk can be realised stroboscopically from an approximately local continuous-time quantum walk.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Dynamics of matter wave solitons in a ratchet potential
Dario Poletti, Tristram Alexander, Elena Ostrovskaya, Li Baowen and Yuri S. Kivshar
We study the dynamics of bright solitons formed in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive atomic interactions perturbed by a weak bichromatic optical lattice potential. The lattice depth is a biperiodic function of time with a zero mean, which realizes a flashing ratchet for matter-wave solitons. We find that the average velocity of a soliton and the soliton current induced by the ratchet depend on the number of atoms in the soliton. As a consequence, soliton transport can be induced through scattering of different solitons. In the regime when matter-wave solitons are narrow compared to the lattice period the dynamics is well described by the effective Hamiltonian theory.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Reversal of the weak measurement of a quantum state in a superconducting phase qubit
Nadav Katz, Matthew Neeley, M. Ansmann, Radoslaw C. Bialczak, M. Hofheinz, Erik Lucero, A. OConnell, H. Wang, A. N. Cleland, John M. Martinis and Alexander N. Korotkov
We demonstrate in a superconducting qubit the conditional recovery ("uncollapsing") of a quantum state after a partial-collapse measurement. A weak measurement extracts information and results in a non-unitary transformation of the qubit state. However, by adding a rotation and a second partial measurement with the same strength, we erase the extracted information, canceling the effect of both measurements. The fidelity of the state recovery is measured using quantum process tomography and found to be above 70% for partial-collapse strength less than 0.6.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Gravitation and Astrophysics
High energy collision of two black holes
Ulrich Sperhake, Vitor Cardoso, Frans Pretorius, Emanuele Berti and Jose A. Gonzalez
We study the head-on collision of two highly boosted equal mass, nonrotating black holes. We determine the waveforms, radiated energies, and mode excitation in the center of mass frame for a variety of boosts. For the first time we are able to compare analytic calculations, black hole perturbation theory, and strong field, nonlinear numerical calculations for this problem. Extrapolation of our results, which include velocities of up to 0.94c, indicate that in the ultra-relativistic regime about 143 % of the energy is converted into gravitational waves. This gives rise to a luminosity of order 10-2c5/G, the largest known so far in a black hole merger.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Elementary Particles and Fields
Top quark tagging: A method for identifying boosted hadronically decaying top quarks
David E. Kaplan, Keith Rehermann, Matthew D. Schwartz and Brock Tweedie
A method is introduced for distinguishing top jets (boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks) from light quark and gluon jets using jet substructure. The procedure involves parsing the jet cluster to resolve its subjets, and then imposing kinematic constraints. With this method, light quark or gluon jets with pT @ 1 TeV can be rejected with an efficiency of around 99% while retaining up to 40% of top jets. This reduces the dijet background to heavy resonances by a factor of ~ 10,000, thereby allowing resonance searches in to be extended into the all-hadronic channel. In addition, top-tagging can be used in events when one of the tops decays semi-leptonically, in events with missing energy, and in studies of b-tagging efficiency at high pT.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Nuclear Physics
The magnetic component of quark gluon plasma is also a liquid
Jinfeng Liao and Edward Shuryak
The magnetic scenario recently suggested in emphasizes the role of monopoles in strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) near/above the deconfinement temperature, and specifically predicts that they help reduce its viscosity by the "magnetic bottle" effect. Arguments for "magnetic liquid" in 1-2Tc based on lattice results of monopole density were provided in . Here we present results for monopole-(anti)monopole correlation functions from the same classical molecular dynamics simulations, which are found to be in good agreement with lattice results in . We show that the magnetic Coulomb coupling runs in the direction opposite to the electric one, as expected, and it is roughly inverse of the asymptotic freedom formula for the electric one. However, as T decreases to Tc, the magnetic coupling never gets too weak, with the plasma parameter always large enough (G > 1). This nicely agrees with empirical evidences from RHIC experiments, implying that magnetic objects cannot have large mean free path and should also form a good liquid with low viscosity.
Accepted Tue Sep 23, 2008
Mass measurements and implications for the energy of the high spin isomer in ^{94}Ag
A. Kankainen, V. V. Elomaa, L. Batist, S. Eliseev, T. Eronen, U. Hager, J. Hakala, A. Jokinen, I. D. Moore, Yu. N. Novikov, H. Penttila, A. Popov, S. Rahaman, S. Rinta Antila, J. Rissanen, A. Saastamoinen, D. M. Seliverstov, T. Sonoda, G. Vorobjev, C. Weber and J. Aysto
Nuclides in the vicinity of 94Ag have been studied with the Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP at IGISOL. The masses of the two-proton decay daughter 92Rh and the beta-decay daughter 94Pd of the high-spin isomer in 94Ag have been measured and the masses of 93Pd and 94Ag have been deduced. When combined with the data from the one-proton or two-proton decay experiments, the results lead to contradictory mass excess values for the high-spin isomer in 94Ag, -46370(170) \textkeV or -44970(100) \textkeV, corresponding to excitation energies of 6960(400) \textkeV or 8360(370) \textkeV, respectively.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Development of electron proton density functionals for multicomponent density functional theory
Arindam Chakraborty, Michael V. Pak and Sharon Hammes Schiffer
We present a general approach for the development of electron-proton density functionals in multicomponent density functional theory, treating electrons and nuclei quantum mechanically without the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The electron-proton functional is derived using an explicitly correlated electron-proton energy term. This functional provides accurate hydrogen nuclear densities, thereby enabling reliable calculations of molecular properties. This approach is computationally practical for relatively large molecular systems with key hydrogen nuclei treated quantum mechanically.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Size dependence of L_{2,3} branching ratio and 2p core hole screening in x-ray absorption of metal clusters
J. T. Lau, J. Rittmann, V. Zamudio Bayer, M. Vogel, K. Hirsch, Ph. Klar, F. Lofink, T. Moller and v.Issendorff B.
Resonant 2p X-ray absorption spectra of size-selected transition metal ions and clusters consisting of 1 n 200 atoms are reported. Remnants of atomic multiplet splitting in L2,3-edge X-ray absorption can be resolved up to the trimer, above which the overall line shape is already bulk-like. A strong cluster size dependence of the L2,3 branching ratio was found for titanium, vanadium, and cobalt clusters. While 3d electron delocalization increases with cluster size, the apparent 2p spin-orbit splitting remains constant within the error bars. The size dependence of the L2,3 branching ratio can be attributed to cluster size specific screening of the 2p-3d Coulomb interaction by 3d/4s valence electrons.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
Nonlinear Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Classical Optics, etc.
Effect of nuclear motion on molecular high order harmonics and on generation of attosecond pulses in intense laser pulses
Andre D. Bandrauk, Szczepan Chelkowski, Shinnosuke Kawai and Lu Huizhong
We calculate harmonic spectra and shapes of attosecond pulse trains using numerical solutions of Non-Born Oppenheimer time-dependent Shrödinger equation for 1-D H2 molecules in an intense laser pulse. A very strong signature of nuclear motion is seen in the time profiles of high order harmonics. In general the nuclear motion shortens the part of the attosecond pulse train originating from the first electron contribution but it may enhance the second electron contribution for longer pulses. The shape of time profiles of harmonics can thus be used for monitoring the nuclear motion.
Accepted Mon Sep 22, 2008
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In Oct 2007, 90% of new papers received by Physical Review Letters were sent to referees within 14 days; in Oct 2004, 65% were sent out within 14 days.
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