Letter | 10 Aug 2014

Generation and reversal of surface flows by propagating waves

Horst Punzmann et al.

Fetching an object by making waves — impossible? Not necessarily. It is now shown that vortices can create a tractor beam, allowing waves on a water surface to cause a floating particle to move against the general direction of wave propagation.

News & Views | 03 Aug 2014 Artificial spin ice: The unhappy wanderer Robert L. Stamps

Books and Arts | 01 Sep 2014 How Not to be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life Jordan Ellenberg; reviewed by Andreas Trabesinger

Thesis | 01 Sep 2014 Hello? Mark Buchanan

Futures | 01 Sep 2014 Waste knot, want knot free Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Announcements

01 Sep 2014
Independence day

If Scotland votes to leave the United Kingdom, will the independent nation maintain its level of science funding?
01 Sep 2014
Nature Physics welcomes its new Chief Editor

As the ninth year of Nature Physics draws to a close, we say goodbye to our launching Chief Editor, Alison Wright, and welcome her successor, Andrea Taroni, to the team.
01 Sep 2014
Benefits of diversity

Abraham Loeb discusses the importance of promoting a diversity of ideas for the progress of science.

Latest research

Letter | 7 September 2014
Environment-assisted quantum control of a solid-state spin via coherent dark states AOP

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Jack Hansom, Carsten H. H. Schulte, Claire Le Gall, Clemens Matthiesen, Edmund Clarke, Maxime Hugues, Jacob M. Taylor & Mete Atatüre
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The interaction of a quantum system with its surroundings is usually detrimental, introducing decoherence. Experiments now show how such interactions can be harnessed to provide all-optical control of the spin state of a quantum dot.
Letter | 7 September 2014
Van der Waals-coupled electronic states in incommensurate double-walled carbon nanotubes AOP

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Kaihui Liu, Chenhao Jin, Xiaoping Hong, Jihoon Kim, Alex Zettl, Enge Wang & Feng Wang
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Two concentric carbon nanotubes don’t need to have a common finite unit cell. Absorption spectra of such incommensurate double-walled carbon nanotubes reveal strong hybridization of the electron wavefunctions — unusual for van der Waals-coupled …

See also: News and Views by João Lopes dos Santos
Letter | 31 August 2014
Confined quantum Zeno dynamics of a watched atomic arrow AOP

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Adrien Signoles, Adrien Facon, Dorian Grosso, Igor Dotsenko, Serge Haroche, Jean-Michel Raimond, Michel Brune & Sébastien Gleyzes
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Repeatedly probing a quantum system restricts its evolution, providing a route for state engineering. Such confinement, described by quantum Zeno dynamics, has now been implemented to generate superposition states in a multi-level Rydberg atom.
Letter | 31 August 2014
Gate-dependent pseudospin mixing in graphene/boron nitride moiré superlattices AOP

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Zhiwen Shi, Chenhao Jin, Wei Yang, Long Ju, Jason Horng, Xiaobo Lu, Hans A. Bechtel, Michael C. Martin, Deyi Fu, Junqiao Wu, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Yuanbo Zhang, Xuedong Bai, Enge Wang, Guangyu Zhang & Feng Wang
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Electrons in graphene have a pseudospin, but controlling this degree of freedom is challenging. Evidence now suggests that the moiré superlattices arising in two-dimensional heterostructures can be used to electrically manipulate pseudospins.
Article | 31 August 2014
Observation of two-orbital spin-exchange interactions with ultracold SU(N)- symmetric fermions AOP

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F. Scazza, C. Hofrichter, M. Höfer, P. C. De Groot, I. Bloch & S. Fölling
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Using the two stable electronic states of alkaline-earth atoms, an orbital spin-exchange interaction—the building block of orbital quantum magnetism—has been observed in a fermionic quantum gas.
Letter | 31 August 2014
Gate-tunable superconducting weak link and quantum point contact spectroscopy on a strontium titanate surface AOP

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Patrick Gallagher, Menyoung Lee, James R. Williams & David Goldhaber-Gordon
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Strontium titanate is a common substrate for growing oxide heterostructures—from superconductors to interfaces that support several phases of matter. But in an all-strontium-titanate device with a liquid electrolyte and metal-oxide gate, the results …

See also: News and Views by Isao H. Inoue
Article | 24 August 2014
Universal van der Waals physics for three cold atoms near Feshbach resonances AOP

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Yujun Wang & Paul S. Julienne
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A class of van der Waals universality is introduced in the collision dynamics of three identical ultracold atoms at all scattering lengths. It is insensitive to short-range chemical details and can be computed using two-body parameters only.
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News and Views | 7 September 2014
Carbon nanotubes: Perfect mismatch AOP

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João Lopes dos Santos
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The electronic coupling between two stacked atomic layers is usually weak if their periodicities are incommensurate. Optical absorption experiments have now revealed unexpectedly strong interlayer coupling in incommensurate double-walled carbon …

See also: Letter by Kaihui Liu et al.
Commentary | 1 September 2014
Benefits of diversity

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Abraham Loeb
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Discoveries in astronomy — or, in fact, any branch of science — can only happen when people are open-minded and willing to take risks.
Editorial | 1 September 2014
Independence day

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If Scotland votes to leave the United Kingdom, will the independent nation maintain its level of science funding?
Editorial | 1 September 2014
In with the new

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As the ninth year of Nature Physics draws to a close, we say goodbye to our launching Chief Editor, Alison Wright, and welcome her successor, Andrea Taroni, to the team.
News and Views | 1 September 2014
Spectroscopy: Vibrant colours

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Iulia Georgescu
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News and Views | 1 September 2014
Quantum physics: The other sight

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Federico Levi
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Research Highlights | 1 September 2014
Something fishy

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Abigail Klopper
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Research Highlights | 1 September 2014
Cheap trick

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Federico Levi
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Article | 10 Aug 2014
One-dimensional topological edge states of bismuth bilayers

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Ilya K. Drozdov, A. Alexandradinata, Sangjun Jeon, Stevan Nadj-Perge, Huiwen Ji, R. J. Cava, B. Andrei Bernevig & Ali Yazdani
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The conducting surface states of 3D topological insulators are two-dimensional. In an analogous way, the edge states of 2D topological insulators are one-dimensional. Direct evidence of this one-dimensionality is now presented, by means of scanning …
Article | 13 Jul 2014
Quantum coherence in photosynthesis for efficient solar-energy conversion

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Elisabet Romero, Ramunas Augulis, Vladimir I. Novoderezhkin, Marco Ferretti, Jos Thieme, Donatas Zigmantas & Rienk van Grondelle
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Two-dimensional electronic spectroscopic data and theoretical simulations provide the most convincing evidence so far that organisms exploit quantum coherence for efficient energy conversion during photosynthesis.
Letter | 13 Jul 2014
Underdoped superconducting cuprates as topological superconductors

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Yuan-Ming Lu, Tao Xiang & Dung-Hai Lee
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High-T_c superconducting cuprates exhibit gap nodes. Recent experiments have revealed the existence of a node-free superconducting-like energy gap in deeply underdoped cuprates. Now it is argued that such systems are topological superconductors with …
Letter | 22 Jun 2014
Evidence for the direct decay of the 125 GeV Higgs boson to fermions Open

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The CMS Collaboration
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From the manner of its discovery in 2012, it was apparent that the 125 GeV Higgs boson couples to bosons, but does it couple to fermions too? Yes, says the CMS Collaboration at CERN, who present combined evidence of Higgs decay to pairs of bottom …
News and Views | 1 Sep 2014
Quantum physics: The other sight

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Federico Levi
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Article | 27 Jul 2014
Information transfer and behavioural inertia in starling flocks

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Alessandro Attanasi, Andrea Cavagna, Lorenzo Del Castello, Irene Giardina, Tomas S. Grigera, Asja Jelić, Stefania Melillo, Leonardo Parisi, Oliver Pohl, Edward Shen & Massimiliano Viale
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How do flocks of birds remain cohesive while dodging predators? A study tracking up to 400 starlings reveals that information propagates in a linear fashion and with no attenuation, meaning that the language of phase transitions in correlated …
News and Views | 13 Jul 2014
Quantum biology: A vibrant environment

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Susana F. Huelga & Martin B. Plenio
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Detection of coherent energy transport has fuelled claims that quantum effects make photosynthesis more efficient. Experiments now show that the interplay between electronic and vibrational motion also sustains coherence in the subsequent …
Article | 3 Aug 2014
Forces driving epithelial wound healing

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Agustí Brugués, Ester Anon, Vito Conte, Jim H. Veldhuis, Mukund Gupta, Julien Colombelli, José J. Muñoz, G. Wayne Brodland, Benoit Ladoux & Xavier Trepat
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Wound repair is thought to involve cell migration and the contraction of a tissue-level biopolymer ring—invoking analogy with the pulling of purse strings. Traction-force measurements now show that this ring engages the tissue's surroundings to …
Letter | 27 Jul 2014
Quantum principal component analysis

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Seth Lloyd, Masoud Mohseni & Patrick Rebentrost
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Characterizing an unknown quantum state typically relies on analysing the outcome of a large set of measurements. Certain quantum-processing tasks are now shown to be realizable using only approximate knowledge of the state, which can be gathered …
Letter | 10 Aug 2014
Generation and reversal of surface flows by propagating waves

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Horst Punzmann, Nicolas Francois, Hua Xia, Gregory Falkovich & Michael Shats
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Fetching an object by means of sending a wave—impossible? Not necessarily. As now demonstrated experimentally, generating waves on a water surface using a set of plungers can cause a floating particle to move counter to the general direction of wave …

News & Views | 03 Aug 2014 Artificial spin ice: The unhappy wanderer Robert L. Stamps

Books and Arts | 01 Sep 2014 How Not to be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life Jordan Ellenberg; reviewed by Andreas Trabesinger

Thesis | 01 Sep 2014 Hello? Mark Buchanan

Futures | 01 Sep 2014 Waste knot, want knot free Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

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