A new superresolution imaging technique reveals the behavior of cold atoms in an optical lattice with a spatial resolution of 32 nm and moiré patterns that are hugely magnified images of the microscopic atomic density distribution itself.

A new high-resolution imaging technique reveals the behavior of individual atoms in an optical lattice with a resolution fifty times better than the conventional diffraction limit.

Random quantum circuits with fractonic charges, which exhibit restricted mobility, fail to thermalize after a long time, thus showing a new mechanism for achieving many-body localization.

A study of chiral liquid-crystal droplets shows how defects lead to geometric arrangements similar to atoms in a molecule, and it provides a new mathematical framework for analyzing and designing novel chiral materials.

A new analysis provides a way to classify topological materials with quasiparticles that act as fermions. Combined with earlier work that assumed all quasiparticles to be bosons, this offers a complete classification of all 3D topological materials.

Simulations explore how a packed collection of particles gains or loses rigidity. Randomly placed particles exhibit new structures underlying rigidity changes, while strategically placed particles reveal links with known structures not typically associated with rigidity.

A theoretical analysis shows how quantum entanglement prevents thermodynamic equilibrium in systems connected to external reservoirs—a key insight for many metallic devices—and points to experiments for exploring this effect.

Experiments demonstrate a laser amplification technique capable of high and efficient energy transfer in under a picosecond, an essential step toward the design of next-generation extreme-intensity laser facilities.

A measure of irreversibility in active particle systems—such as a cluster of bacteria or a swarm of nanorobots—could be a useful metric for characterizing the out-of-equilibrium behavior of such systems.

Exactly solvable theoretical models open the door to new kinds of non-Abelian particles in quantum many-body systems.

Two-qubit quantum gates in silicon exhibit 92% fidelity when tested with a new benchmarking protocol, showing both the utility of the protocol and a promising start for developing fault-tolerant quantum computers based on spins in silicon.

Experiments achieve long-lived hallmarks of supersolidity—an exotic phase of matter where superfluidity and crystalline order coexist—via two different techniques, setting the stage for future investigations into the phase’s behavior.

A new theory reveals the topological origin of the mismatch between the number of left- and right-handed Dirac quasiparticles in twisted bilayer graphene, which is a step toward identifying new topological phases of matter.

Mathematical methods based on normal form theory allow for the classification of nonlinearities near critical points into families, which could help researchers better understand fractal systems.

Simulations identify the key parameters for directing self-assembly of nanocrystals into square or honeycomb structures, a helpful insight for realizing novel nanomaterials.

New experiments show how to generate single microwave photons from a Josephson junction without the need for complex control electronics, a key development for quantum metrology and computing.

A theoretical overview of the phase diagram of a strongly anisotropic quantum magnet yields evidence for two interrelated spin-liquid regions and provides a framework for studies of a class of quantum materials with strong spin-orbit interactions.

When glass is cyclically deformed back and forth, localized bands of shear strain appear when the glass yields, but they disappear when the deformation is below some critical amount, a useful insight for understanding how solids respond to stress.

Machine learning enables a nitrogen-vacancy center to track a changing magnetic field with unprecedented sensitivity at room temperature, paving the way for new and practical nanoscale quantum sensing applications.

Ultrashort laser pulses induce rapid dissolution of magnetic order in a Mott insulator, demonstrating the potential these materials might have in applications requiring ultrafast magnetic dynamics.

Scanning tunneling microscopy of cuprate crystals reveals a change between two distinct types of modulations in the electron density that could shed light on what controls exotic electronic behavior in these high-temperature superconductors.

Numerical simulations provide the first concrete evidence of 2D U(1) deconfined matter, an exotic phase whose existence has been hotly pursued by both condensed-matter and high-energy physicists.

Squeezed microwave vacuum allows physicists to overcome the quantum limits on cavity-based searches for axionic dark matter, enhancing detection rates twofold in a proof-of-principle experiment.

Simulations show that ions in room-temperature ionic liquids can exist in two states—free and cluster-bound—with easy exchange between them, supporting one hypothesis for how these designer liquids transfer charge.

An updated theoretical framework of a superconducting phase known as the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state adds quantum-mechanical considerations that flesh out ideas about how superconductors behave in strong magnetic fields.

Experiments reveal attractive dipolar interactions between two exciton fluids for the first time, establishing the anisotropic nature of the dipolar interaction between excitons—a step toward engineering and observing more complex and exotic collective quantum effects.

A new theoretical framework provides a simple yet general mechanism for understanding prethermalization, a common but poorly understood two-step process through which some quantum gases reach thermal equilibrium.

Experiments show how to control the spin-orbit interaction in a double quantum-dot structure, providing a possible way to produce quantum bits with greater uniformity and improved performance.

A novel regime of laser-matter interaction that combines ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses and silicon nanowires represents a promising way for producing extreme states of matter in the laboratory.

A nanoengineered circuit provides a way to increase the electron coherence length to 0.25 mm—well above previous studies—thereby setting the stage for quantum manipulation of electrons at the macroscopic scale.

Complex patterns of electron emission from a metal surface are controlled by exotic interactions of two forms of light carrying spin and orbital “rotations,” and they reveal internal quantum transitions within the metal.

A scheme for implementing optical neural networks offers the energy benefits of optical components while being scalable to large systems, promising low-energy processing with order-of-magnitude improvements in network performance.

A mathematical analysis provides the first exact computation of entanglement dynamics in chaotic quantum systems and offers a potential way to describe how entanglement spreads more generally in many-body systems.

A new theoretical analysis explores quantum phase transitions in the absence of symmetry breaking and identifies several strange and surprising quantum critical phenomena.

The ways in which 2D Bose gases evolve from different initial conditions are related to each other through a subtle type of symmetry, which also reveals the existence of “breathing” geometric shapes in the gas.

Rapid pulses of laser light trigger subpicosecond phase transitions in the layered transition-metal dichalcogenide MoTe${}_2$, pointing to potential realizations of ultrafast topological switches.

New techniques for analyzing the response of quantum many-body systems to time-varying, periodic external fields extend current methods to the low-frequency regime, a critical step for predicting emergent novel phases.

Experiments and multilevel modeling combine to reveal how different geometrical configurations of molecular units in a semiconducting polymer impact the electronic properties of the material.

Researchers have created a molecule in a single, precisely characterized quantum state by merging two carefully prepared atoms.

An extension of tensor networks—mathematical tools that simplify the study of complex quantum systems—could allow their application to a broad range of quantum field theory problems.

An analysis of a family of quantum error-correcting codes provides fundamental properties and behaviors that will help in developing such codes for future robust quantum computing applications.

A deep search of a large materials database turns up 14 strongly correlated materials with electronic properties similar to cuprates, a key step toward the design and discovery of compounds with exotic behaviors such as superconductivity.

A new analysis of quantum-mechanical models that describe interactions in large ensembles of Majorana fermions reveals richer phenomena in these complex systems, providing a potential path towards physical applications.

Investigations of the superconductor Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ when mechanically stressed reveal increases in the electronic “density of states” and ferromagnetic fluctuations, both potentially important in relation to a known increase in the superconducting critical temperature.

A new protocol benchmarks the stability of qubit-based processors, detecting whether quantum logic operations drift over time or are sensitive to crosstalk from neighboring qubits.

A new protocol for distributing keys in a quantum network overcomes theoretical bounds for key transmission rates, potentially enabling implementation of secure communication in large networks.

A theoretical analysis provides new insight into how Majorana fermions behave in fractional quantum Hall systems, which, in turn, could lead to a better understanding of the interplay between topology and symmetry breaking in quantum matter.

Experiments reveal that quasiparticle properties in the superconductor Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ have a significant angular dependence due to the combined effects of local electron interactions and spin-orbit coupling.

Experiments demonstrate a quantum parametric oscillator, a device with great potential in quantum error correction. Its minimal hardware design makes it a suitable building block for scalable quantum computing.

Combining the “long-wave method”—a mainstay of condensed-matter theory since the 1950s—with modern electronic-structure techniques allows for highly accurate predictions of physical responses of crystals to nonhomogenous external perturbations.

Using carefully tailored rotations of a transparent anisotropic medium, light can be guided without resorting to local changes in the speed of light.

High-resolution x-ray imaging of a laser-based manufacturing technique has captured the formation process of molten metal projectiles that produce imperfections.

A prediction of a new heat-transport mechanism—called chiral zero sound—may explain recent observations of a “giant” thermal conductivity in Weyl semimetals.

A theoretical analysis extends concepts of topological mechanics to quasicrystals—structures that are ordered but not periodic—and finds rich new physics with potential applications to problems in condensed matter and engineering.

X-ray scattering experiments on the superconductor manganese phosphide reveal two types of helical orbital arrangements that appear intertwined with the double helix of spins, suggesting that orbital physics may underlie its superconductivity.

A device enables the detection of single quanta of sound, a step towards using them in quantum technologies.

A theoretical analysis explores how light in a nanoscale cavity can induce chemical reactivity changes in a single simple molecule.

Fluid flows induced by nutrient gradients in the vicinity of microbial colonies help direct the expansion of those microbes into new territory.

A theoretical study suggests that “continuous variable” quantum key distribution—an approach to quantum cryptography compatible with telecom networks—could be made absolutely secure against hacking.

A theoretical analysis reveals two types of Mpemba effects—nonequilibrium shortcuts in which a hot system cools down faster than a colder one—which can be relevant to macroscopic everyday systems.

A new analysis tool provides details on the amount of quantum information scrambling in a system by relying on statistical correlations among measured spin states as they evolve.

Models for self-organized critical systems require an external driving force to be much slower than the internal dynamics. A modified model illuminates how abandoning this requirement shapes dynamics in ensembles of neurons suggested to operate close to criticality.