http://physics.aps.org/ Physics - spotlighting exceptional research en-us Copyright (c) 2009 The American Physical Society 2009-11-20T16:26:27-05:00 assocpub@aps.org rss@aps.org hourly 4 2009-11-20T16:26:27-05:00 rss@aps.org http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/96?referer=rss Directed percolation, a class of nonequilibrium phase transitions as prominent as the Ising model in equilibrium statistical mechanics, is realized experimentally for the first time, after more than fifty years of research.
 <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3123/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 96] Published Mon Nov 16, 2009 Haye Hinrichsen 2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/97?referer=rss The popularity of various chess openings follows a power law distribution, but the exponent depends on the depth of the opening sequence. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3125/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 97] Published Mon Nov 16, 2009 Sergei Maslov 2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/95?referer=rss Scientists and novelists have been intrigued for centuries by the possibility of hiding an object so completely that neither trace of the object nor of its cloak is to be found. Recent theoretical developments show that cloaking is, in principle, possible for electromagnetic waves and to a limited extent for other types of wave, such as acoustic waves. An energetic program of experimental research has shown some of the schemes to be realizable in practice. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3093/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 95] Published Mon Nov 16, 2009 John Pendry 2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.217201?referer=rss First-principles calculations explore how magnetic interactions impede the formation of atomically thin wires.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3090/thumb_e1.jpg" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Nov 16, 2009 2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.210401?referer=rss Whether two quantum states can be distinguished over time provides a test to characterize noise from the environment.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3095/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Nov 16, 2009 2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.056103?referer=rss An analysis of the citation network leads to an alternative way to quantitatively assess the impact of a scientist’s work.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3059/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Wed Nov 11, 2009 2009-11-11T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/93?referer=rss A theory of novel phase formation near quantum critical points suggests that large fluctuations lead to magnetic analogs of inhomogeneous superconductivity. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3074/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 93] Published Mon Nov 09, 2009 A. J. Schofield 2009-11-09T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/94?referer=rss Two separate teams have achieved the long sought after Bose-Einstein condensation of strontium. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3077/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 94] Published Mon Nov 09, 2009 Tanya Zelevinsky 2009-11-09T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.187802?referer=rss Below a critical thickness, liquid-crystal films will exhibit molecular ordering similar to that of spins in a helical magnet.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3094/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Nov 09, 2009 2009-11-09T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/91?referer=rss Čerenkov radiation with the emission cone reversed has been observed in a metamaterial with negative refractive index. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3064/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 91] Published Mon Nov 02, 2009 Shuang Zhang, Xiang Zhang 2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/92?referer=rss Defects—in the form of vortices in superconductors or “strings” in the fabric of the universe—can reveal the state of a system at the time it was cooled. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3069/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 92] Published Mon Nov 02, 2009 John R. Kirtley, Francesco Tafuri 2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.188302?referer=rss When crystal formation is purely entropy driven, as is the case for superstructures of nanoparticles with hard-sphere interactions, new simulations that can run at finite temperature are needed.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3071/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Nov 02, 2009 2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.183901?referer=rss An advance in attosecond pulse generation will make it easier to produce a single pulse.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3070/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Nov 02, 2009 2009-11-02T00:00:00-05:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/89?referer=rss Simulations provide insight into how viscous flow transforms the shapes of red blood cells, which may influence their physiological properties. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3058/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 89] Published Mon Oct 26, 2009 Howard A. Stone, Alison M. Forsyth, Jiandi Wan 2009-10-26T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/90?referer=rss A new renormalization group approach that maps lattice problems to tensor networks may hold the key to solving seemingly intractable models of strongly correlated systems in any dimension. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3062/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 90] Published Mon Oct 26, 2009 Subir Sachdev 2009-10-26T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/88?referer=rss Is there a fundamental lower bound on viscosity? To answer this question, we can look at the coldest and hottest fluids that laboratories are able to produce. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3054/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 88] Published Mon Oct 26, 2009 Thomas Schäfer 2009-10-26T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.043411?referer=rss The properties of graphene might be studied from another angle by putting ultracold atoms into a hexagonal optical lattice.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3051/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 26, 2009 2009-10-26T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.177002?referer=rss Microwave-frequency excitation of a superconductor-metal-superconductor junction is used to resolve the dynamic mechanisms behind the temporal response.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3050/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 26, 2009 2009-10-26T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/86?referer=rss How freak or rogue waves form in the ocean is not well understood, but new investigations suggest a mechanism for these waves that may also allow formation of high-intensity pulses in optical fibers. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3032/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 86] Published Mon Oct 19, 2009 Mattias Marklund, Lennart Stenflo 2009-10-19T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/87?referer=rss Interactions among noncondensed bosonic atoms in a trap can cause one species of atoms accelerated by a magnetic field to drag along another species of atoms that would normally not interact with the field. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3035/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 87] Published Mon Oct 19, 2009 Marco Polini, Giovanni Vignale 2009-10-19T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.166402?referer=rss An alternative approach in density-functional theory addresses the effects of strong correlations in many-particle quantum systems.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3028/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 19, 2009 2009-10-19T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.150502?referer=rss A quantum algorithm that uses the solution to a set of linear equations provides an exponential speedup by comparison with classical alternatives.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3049/thumb_e1.jpg" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 19, 2009 2009-10-19T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/84?referer=rss Photoelectron spectroscopy reveals how carbon atoms aggregate to form domelike graphene structures on iridium surfaces. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3012/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 84] Published Mon Oct 12, 2009 J. O. Sofo, R. D. Diehl 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/85?referer=rss A new approach to reduce spherical and chromatic aberration in electron microscopy allows for low-energy imaging of single-layer boron nitride, a novel 2D nanostructure that is analogous to graphene. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/2996/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 85] Published Mon Oct 12, 2009 Robert F. Klie 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.156804?referer=rss Disorder causes an unexpected quantum phase transition in graphene.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3027/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 12, 2009 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.152301?referer=rss A model of the quark-gluon plasma predicts it could emit the sort of ultrashort light pulses that would be useful for high-speed spectroscopy.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/3026/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 12, 2009 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/82?referer=rss A theoretical analysis of recent experiments suggests that a key feature of a topological quantum computer—the unusual statistics of quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect—may finally have been observed. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/2986/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 82] Published Mon Oct 05, 2009 Joel E. Moore 2009-10-05T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/articles/v2/83?referer=rss An entangled state of six photons could potentially carry quantum information over large distances and between different reference frames. <br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/2988/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/>[Physics 2, 83] Published Mon Oct 05, 2009 Alexander Lvovsky 2009-10-05T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.153002?referer=rss Femtosecond light pulses at two different frequencies are effective in aligning and orienting molecules without the need for a strong static field.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/2990/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 05, 2009 2009-10-05T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.144503?referer=rss Rotating electric fields can power the flow of water along a nanochannel.<br/><img src="http://physics.aps.org/files/image_uploads/2991/thumb_e1.png" width="78" height="78"/><br/><br/> Published Mon Oct 05, 2009 2009-10-05T00:00:00-04:00 Personal use only, all commercial or other reuse prohibited