Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heat flows through thin, crack-like geo-compartments are shown to purify previously mixed compounds and enhance their reactivity, providing a selective mechanism for separating molecules relevant to the chemical origins of life.

    • Thomas Matreux
    • , Paula Aikkila
    •  & Christof B. Mast

  • Article |

    A local driving mechanism for solitons that accelerates both solitons and antisolitons in the same direction, called non-reciprocal driving, is introduced, showing a subtle interplay between non-reciprocity and topological solitons and providing waveguiding and wave-processing possibilities for other fields.

    • Jonas Veenstra
    • , Oleksandr Gamayun
    •  & Corentin Coulais

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Turbulent energy cascades can be arrested by non-dissipative viscosities, resulting in pattern formation at intermediate length scales.

    • Xander M. de Wit
    • , Michel Fruchart
    •  & Vincenzo Vitelli

  • Article |

    We demonstrate an all-optical, mode-locking, Kerr-comb frequency division method that provides a chip-scale microwave source that is extremely versatile, accurate, stable and has ultralow noise, using only a single continuous-wave laser.

    • Yun Zhao
    • , Jae K. Jang
    •  & Alexander L. Gaeta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-cycle terahertz pumps are used to impulsively trigger ionic hopping in battery solid electrolytes, probing ion transport at its fastest limit and demonstrating the connection between activated transport and the thermodynamics of information.

    • Andrey D. Poletayev
    • , Matthias C. Hoffmann
    •  & Aaron M. Lindenberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Examination of nucleation during self-assembly of multicomponent structures illustrates how ubiquitous molecular phenomena inherently classify high-dimensional patterns of concentrations in a manner similar to neural network computation.

    • Constantine Glen Evans
    • , Jackson O’Brien
    •  & Arvind Murugan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Behavioural and electrophysiological studies in simultaneously thirsty and hungry mice reveal a neural basis for resolving conflicts between needs, in which choices are guided by a persistent and distributed neural goal state that undergoes spontaneous transitions between goals.

    • Ethan B. Richman
    • , Nicole Ticea
    •  & Liqun Luo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study reports the creation of a model thermodynamic engine that is fuelled by the energy difference resulting from changing the statistics of a quantum gas from bosonic to fermionic.

    • Jennifer Koch
    • , Keerthy Menon
    •  & Artur Widera

  • Article |

    A quantum algorithm is introduced that performs Markov chain Monte Carlo to sample from the Boltzmann distribution of Ising models, demonstrating, through experiments and simulations, a polynomial speedup compared with classical alternatives.

    • David Layden
    • , Guglielmo Mazzola
    •  & Sarah Sheldon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A simple spectral selective active colloidal system is designed in which TiO2 colloidal species are coded with dyes to form a photochromic swarm that adapts the appearance of incident light due to layered phase segregation.

    • Jing Zheng
    • , Jingyuan Chen
    •  & Jinyao Tang

  • Article |

    An experiment is described in which the conversion of a single photon in a multimode cavity into a shower of low-energy photons was attempted, but failed owing to many-body localization and violation of Fermi’s golden rule.

    • Nitish Mehta
    • , Roman Kuzmin
    •  & Vladimir E. Manucharyan

  • Article |

    Experiments show that the dynamics of phase fluctuations  in a one-dimensional polariton condensate falls in the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang universality class, and theoretical analysis supports this finding revealing the key signatures of this universality class.

    • Quentin Fontaine
    • , Davide Squizzato
    •  & Jacqueline Bloch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A general and efficient approach to evaporatively cool ultracold polar molecules through elastic collisions to create a degenerate quantum gas in three dimensions is demonstrated using microwave shielding.

    • Andreas Schindewolf
    • , Roman Bause
    •  & Xin-Yu Luo

  • Article |

    Experiments show that swimming starfish embryos spontaneously assemble into large chiral crystals that exhibit self-sustained chiral oscillations and unconventional deformation responses characteristic of odd elastic materials.

    • Tzer Han Tan
    • , Alexander Mietke
    •  & Nikta Fakhri

  • Article |

    Bubbles of ultracold atoms have been created, observed and characterized at the NASA Cold Atom Lab onboard the International Space Station, made possible by the microgravity environment of the laboratory.

    • R. A. Carollo
    • , D. C. Aveline
    •  & N. Lundblad

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study establishes a scalable approach to engineer and characterize a many-body-localized discrete time crystal phase on a superconducting quantum processor.

    • Xiao Mi
    • , Matteo Ippoliti
    •  & Pedram Roushan

  • Article |

    Through an idealized set of simulations, with a model that incorporates key physics, research reveals dramatic swings between massive rainfall events and extended dry periods in hothouse climates.

    • Jacob T. Seeley
    •  & Robin D. Wordsworth

  • Article |

    A macroscopic analogue of a spin system is shown to emerge in an ensemble of droplets bouncing on the surface of a vibrating bath, revealing symmetry-breaking phenomena such as ‘magnetic’ ordering.

    • Pedro J. Sáenz
    • , Giuseppe Pucci
    •  & John W. M. Bush

  • Article |

    Using large-scale mobility data from diverse cities around the globe, a simple and robust scaling law that captures the temporal and spatial range of population movement is revealed.

    • Markus Schläpfer
    • , Lei Dong
    •  & Geoffrey B. West

  • Article |

    The pressure dependence and magnetic field dependence of the specific heat of a quantum magnet, SrCu2(BO3)2, demonstrate that its phase diagram contains a line of first-order transitions terminating at a critical point, in analogy with water.

    • J. Larrea Jiménez
    • , S. P. G. Crone
    •  & F. Mila

  • Article |

    A theoretical study of non-reciprocity in collective phenomena reveals the emergence of time-dependent phases heralded by exceptional points in contexts ranging from synchronization and flocking to pattern formation.

    • Michel Fruchart
    • , Ryo Hanai
    •  & Vincenzo Vitelli

  • Article |

    Analyses of virological and surveillance data in France show that a substantial proportion of symptomatic cases of COVID-19 have remained undetected and that easily accessible and efficient testing is required to control the pandemic.

    • Giulia Pullano
    • , Laura Di Domenico
    •  & Vittoria Colizza

  • Article |

    An atomic simulator formed of a few ultracold fermionic atoms trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential exhibits precursors of a quantum phase transition, revealing the onset of collective quantum many-body phenomena in a few-body system.

    • Luca Bayha
    • , Marvin Holten
    •  & Selim Jochim

  • Article |

    A model shows that human mobility is organized within hierarchical containers that coincide with familiar scales and that a power-law distribution emerges when movements between different containers are combined.

    • Laura Alessandretti
    • , Ulf Aslak
    •  & Sune Lehmann

  • Article |

    A theoretical model in the form of a stochastic differential equation is proposed that describes, more accurately than previous models, the population evolution of cities, revealing that rare but very large interurban migration is a dominant factor.

    • Vincent Verbavatz
    •  & Marc Barthelemy

  • Article |

    Manipulation of the effective gravity of an oscillating liquid creates stable buoyancy in the lower surface of a liquid layer levitating above air, allowing bodies to float upside down.

    • Benjamin Apffel
    • , Filip Novkoski
    •  & Emmanuel Fort

  • Article |

    A superconducting diode that has zero resistance in only one direction is realized in an artificially engineered superlattice without inversion symmetry, enabling directional charge transport without energy loss.

    • Fuyuki Ando
    • , Yuta Miyasaka
    •  & Teruo Ono

  • Article |

    A colloidal system is used to demonstrate the Mpemba effect and obtain the parameters responsible for its anomalous relaxation dynamics, which are manipulated to achieve exponentially faster cooling than typical.

    • Avinash Kumar
    •  & John Bechhoefer

  • Article |

    A theoretical framework describing the hydrodynamic interactions between a passive particle and an active medium in out-of-equilibrium systems predicts long-range Lévy flights for the diffusing particle driven by the density of the active component.

    • Kiyoshi Kanazawa
    • , Tomohiko G. Sano
    •  & Adrian Baule

  • Article |

    Dualities—mathematical mappings between different systems—can act as hidden symmetries that enable materials design beyond that suggested by crystallographic space groups.

    • Michel Fruchart
    • , Yujie Zhou
    •  & Vincenzo Vitelli

  • Article |

    A driven–dissipative gas of ultracold potassium atoms is used to demonstrate three key signatures of self-organized criticality, and provides a system in which the phenomenon can be experimentally tested.

    • S. Helmrich
    • , A. Arias
    •  & S. Whitlock

  • Article |

    A model demonstrates that people who eventually succeed and those who do not may initially appear similar, but are characterized by fundamentally distinct failure dynamics in terms of the efficiency and quality of each subsequent attempt to succeed.

    • Yian Yin
    • , Yang Wang
    •  & Dashun Wang

  • Article |

    Microfluidic systems controlled by a single driving pressure are programmed to exhibit complex flow-switching schemes and a fluid analogue of Braess’s paradox by exploiting fluid inertia and network design.

    • Daniel J. Case
    • , Yifan Liu
    •  & Adilson E. Motter

  • Article |

    Architected silicon-based lattices are reported that reversibly transform their structure on electrochemical lithiation and delithiation, through cooperatively coupled buckling instabilities that are sensitive to random  and  pre-designed defects.

    • Xiaoxing Xia
    • , Arman Afshar
    •  & Julia R. Greer

  • Letter |

    Analysis of a dataset of high-sensitivity Tohoku–Hokkaido seismograph records shows that pairs of subduction-type earthquakes of different sizes have very similar initial characteristics, implying that the final size of an earthquake cannot be reliably predicted from these.

    • Satoshi Ide

  • Letter |

    The dynamics of interactions between hate-orientated networks on different online platforms is characterized, and a mathematical model predicts that policing on one online platform can make matters worse and generate ‘darker’ parts of the Internet.

    • N. F. Johnson
    • , R. Leahy
    •  & S. Wuchty

  • Letter |

    Analyses of the output produced by large versus small teams of researchers and innovators demonstrate that their work differs systematically in the extent to which it disrupts or develops existing science and technology.

    • Lingfei Wu
    • , Dashun Wang
    •  & James A. Evans

  • Letter |

    The thermal vibrations of a carbon nanotube are directly measured in real time with high displacement sensitivity and fine time resolution, revealing dynamics undetected by previous time-averaged measurements.

    • Arthur W. Barnard
    • , Mian Zhang
    •  & Paul L. McEuen

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