Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) are fast routes to the final results of slow, adiabatic changes of the controlling parameters of a system. The shortcuts are designed by a set of analytical and numerical methods suitable for different systems and conditions. A motivation to apply STA methods to quantum systems is to manipulate them on timescales shorter than decoherence times. Thus shortcuts to adiabaticity have become instrumental in preparing and driving internal and motional states in atomic, molecular, and solid-state physics. Applications range from information transfer and processing based on gates or analog paradigms to interferometry and metrology. The multiplicity of STA paths for the controlling parameters may be used to enhance robustness versus noise and perturbations or to optimize relevant variables. Since adiabaticity is a widespread phenomenon, STA methods also extended beyond the quantum world to optical devices, classical mechanical systems, and statistical physics. Shortcuts to adiabaticity combine well with other concepts and techniques, in particular, with optimal control theory, and pose fundamental scientific and engineering questions such as finding speed limits, quantifying the third law, or determining process energy costs and efficiencies. Concepts, methods, and applications of shortcuts to adiabaticity are reviewed and promising prospects are outlined, as well as open questions and challenges ahead.

The particle that makes up the dark matter of the Universe could be an axion or axionlike particle. A collection of axions can condense into a bound Bose-Einstein condensate called an axion star. It is possible that a significant fraction of the axion dark matter is in the form of axion stars. This would make some efforts to identify the axion as the dark matter particle more challenging, but it would also open up new possibilities. The basic properties of axion stars, which can be gravitationally bound or bound by self-interactions, are summarized. Axions are naturally described by a relativistic field theory with a real scalar field, but low-energy axions can be described more simply by a classical nonrelativistic effective field theory with a complex scalar field.

Magnetism at low dimensions is a thriving field of research with exciting opportunities in technology. This Colloquium focuses on the properties of 1D magnetic systems on solid surfaces. From the emulation of 1D quantum phases to the potential realization of Majorana edge states, spin chains are unique systems to study. The advent of scanning tunneling microscope (STM) based techniques has permitted us to engineer spin chains in an atom-by-atom fashion via atom manipulation and to access their spin states on the ultimate atomic scale. Here the current state of research on spin correlations and dynamics of atomic spin chains as studied by the STM is presented. After a brief review of the main properties of spin chains on solid surfaces, spin chains are classified according to the coupling of their magnetic moments with the holding substrate. This classification scheme takes into account that the nature and lifetimes of the spin-chain excitations intrinsically depend on the holding substrate. Interest is shown of using insulating layers on metals, which generally results in an increase in the spin state’s lifetimes such that their quantized nature gets evident and they are individually accessible. Next shown is the use of semiconductor substrates promising additional control through the tunable electron density via doping. When the coupling to the substrate is increased for spin chains on metals, the substrate conduction electron mediated interactions can lead to emergent exotic phases of the coupled spin chain-substrate conduction electron system. A particularly interesting example is furnished by superconductors. Magnetic impurities induce states in the superconducting gap. Because of the extended nature of the spin chain, the in-gap states develop into bands that can lead to the emergence of 1D topological superconductivity and consequently to the appearance of Majorana edge states. Finally, an outlook is given on the use of spin chains in spintronics, quantum communication, quantum computing, quantum simulations, and quantum sensors.

Time-delayed optoelectronic oscillators are at the center of a large body of scientific literature. The complex behavior of these nonlinear oscillators has been thoroughly explored both theoretically and experimentally, leading to a better understanding of their dynamical properties. Beyond fundamental research, these systems have also inspired a wide and diverse set of applications, such as optical chaos communications, pseudorandom number generation, optoelectronic machine learning based on reservoir computing, ultrapure microwave generation, optical pulse-train synthesis, and sensing. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive survey of this field, to outline the latest achievements, and discuss the main challenges ahead.

The angular momentum of molecules, or, equivalently, their rotation in three-dimensional space, is ideally suited for quantum control. Molecular angular momentum is naturally quantized, time evolution is governed by a well-known Hamiltonian with only a few accurately known parameters, and transitions between rotational levels can be driven by external fields from various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Control over the rotational motion can be exerted in one-, two-, and many-body scenarios, thereby allowing one to probe Anderson localization, target stereoselectivity of bimolecular reactions, or encode quantum information to name just a few examples. The corresponding approaches to quantum control are pursued within separate, and typically disjoint, subfields of physics, including ultrafast science, cold collisions, ultracold gases, quantum information science, and condensed-matter physics. It is the purpose of this review to present the various control phenomena, which all rely on the same underlying physics, within a unified framework. To this end, recall the Hamiltonian for free rotations, assuming the rigid rotor approximation to be valid, and summarize the different ways for a rotor to interact with external electromagnetic fields. These interactions can be exploited for control—from achieving alignment, orientation, or laser cooling in a one-body framework, steering bimolecular collisions, or realizing a quantum computer or quantum simulator in the many-body setting.

Spin-orbit coupling in inversion-asymmetric magnetic crystals and structures has emerged as a powerful tool to generate complex magnetic textures, interconvert charge and spin under applied current, and control magnetization dynamics. Current-induced spin-orbit torques mediate the transfer of angular momentum from the lattice to the spin system, leading to sustained magnetic oscillations or switching of ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic structures. The manipulation of magnetic order, domain walls, and skyrmions by spin-orbit torques provides evidence of the microscopic interactions between charge and spin in a variety of materials and opens novel strategies to design spintronic devices with potentially high impact in data storage, nonvolatile logic, and magnonic applications. This paper reviews recent progress in the field of spin orbitronics, focusing on theoretical models, material properties, and experimental results obtained on bulk noncentrosymmetric conductors and multilayer heterostructures, including metals, semiconductors, and topological insulator systems. Relevant aspects for improving the understanding and optimizing the efficiency of nonequilibrium spin-orbit phenomena in future nanoscale devices are also discussed.

The fundamental coherent radiation emission processes from a bunched charged particles beam are outlined. In contrast to spontaneous emission of radiation from a random electron beam that is proportional to the number of particles, a prebunched electron beam can emit spontaneously coherent radiation proportional to the number of particles—squared, through the process of (spontaneous) superradiance (SP-SR) (in the sense of Dicke’s). The coherent SP-SR emission of a bunched electron beam can be even further enhanced by a process of stimulated superradiance in the presence of a seed-injected radiation field. In this review, these coherent radiation emission processes for both single bunch and periodically bunched beams are considered in a model of radiation mode expansion. The general model of coherent spontaneous emission is extended to the nonlinear regime, particularly for undulator (wiggler) interaction: tapering-enhanced stimulated-superradiant amplification (TESSA). Processes of SP-SR and TESSA take place in tapered wiggler seed-injected free-electron lasers (FELs). In such FELs, operating in the x-ray regime, these processes are convoluted with other effects. However these fundamental emission concepts are useful guidelines for the strategy of wiggler tapering efficiency and power enhancement. Based on this model, previous theories and experiments are reviewed on coherent radiation sources based on SP-SR (coherent undulator radiation, synchrotron radiation, Smith-Purcell radiation, etc.), in the THz regime and on-going works on tapered wiggler efficiency-enhancement concepts in all optical frequency regimes up to x rays.

Protein is matter of dual nature. As a physical object, a protein molecule is a folded chain of amino acids with diverse biochemistry. But it is also a point along an evolutionary trajectory determined by the function performed by the protein within a hierarchy of interwoven interaction networks of the cell, the organism, and the population. A physical theory of proteins therefore needs to unify both aspects, the biophysical and the evolutionary. Specifically, it should provide a model of how the DNA gene is mapped into the functional phenotype of the protein. Several physical approaches to the protein problem are reviewed, focusing on a mechanical framework which treats proteins as evolvable condensed matter: Mutations introduce localized perturbations in the gene, which are translated to localized perturbations in the protein matter. A natural tool to examine how mutations shape the phenotype are Green’s functions. They map the evolutionary linkage among mutations in the gene (termed epistasis) to cooperative physical interactions among the amino acids in the protein. The mechanistic view can be applied to examine basic questions of protein evolution and design.

Memory formation in matter is a theme of broad intellectual relevance; it sits at the interdisciplinary crossroads of physics, biology, chemistry, and computer science. Memory connotes the ability to encode, access, and erase signatures of past history in the state of a system. Once the system has completely relaxed to thermal equilibrium, it is no longer able to recall aspects of its evolution. The memory of initial conditions or previous training protocols will be lost. Thus many forms of memory are intrinsically tied to far-from-equilibrium behavior and to transient response to a perturbation. This general behavior arises in diverse contexts in condensed-matter physics and materials, including phase change memory, shape memory, echoes, memory effects in glasses, return-point memory in disordered magnets, as well as related contexts in computer science. Yet, as opposed to the situation in biology, there is currently no common categorization and description of the memory behavior that appears to be prevalent throughout condensed-matter systems. Here the focus is on material memories. The basic phenomenology of a few of the known behaviors that can be understood as constituting a memory will be described. The hope is that this will be a guide toward developing the unifying conceptual underpinnings for a broad understanding of memory effects that appear in materials.

Hybrid systems of laser-cooled trapped ions and ultracold atoms combined in a single experimental setup have recently emerged as a new platform for fundamental research in quantum physics. This paper reviews the theoretical and experimental progress in research on cold hybrid ion-atom systems which aim to combine the best features of the two well-established fields. A broad overview is provided of the theoretical description of ion-atom mixtures and their applications, and a report is given on advances in experiments with ions trapped in Paul or dipole traps overlapped with a cloud of cold atoms, and with ions directly produced in a Bose-Einstein condensate. This review begins with microscopic models describing the electronic structure, interactions, and collisional physics of ion-atom systems at low and ultralow temperatures, including radiative and nonradiative charge-transfer processes and their control with magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances. Then the relevant experimental techniques and the intrinsic properties of hybrid systems are described. In particular, the impact is discussed of the micromotion of ions in Paul traps on ion-atom hybrid systems. Next, a review of recent proposals is given for using ions immersed in ultracold gases for studying cold collisions, chemistry, many-body physics, quantum simulation, and quantum computation and their experimental realizations. The last part focuses on the formation of molecular ions via spontaneous radiative association, photoassociation, magnetoassociation, and sympathetic cooling. Applications and prospects are discussed of cold molecular ions for cold controlled chemistry and precision spectroscopy.

Ion transport through nanopores permeates through many areas of science and technology, from cell behavior to sensing and separation to catalysis and batteries. Two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, molybdenum disulfide (${\mathrm{MoS}}_2$), and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), are recent additions to these fields. Low-dimensional materials present new opportunities to develop filtration, sensing, and power technologies, encompassing ion exclusion membranes, DNA sequencing, single molecule detection, osmotic power generation, and beyond. Moreover, the physics of ionic transport through pores and constrictions within these materials is a distinct realm of competing many-particle interactions (e.g., solvation or dehydration, electrostatic blockade, hydrogen bond dynamics) and confinement. This opens up alternative routes to creating biomimetic pores and may even give analogs of quantum phenomena, such as quantized conductance, in the classical domain. These prospects make membranes of 2D materials, i.e., 2D membranes, fascinating. This Colloquium gives a discussion of the physics and applications of ionic transport through nanopores in 2D membranes.

A theory of fractional electricity and magnetism is presented here which is capable of describing phenomena as disparate as the nonlocality of the Pippard kernel in superconductivity and anomalous dimensions for conserved currents in holographic dilatonic models. While it is a standard result in field theory that the scaling dimension of conserved currents and their associated gauge fields are determined strictly by dimensional analysis and hence cannot change under any amount of renormalization, it is also the case that the standard conservation laws for currents, $dJ=0$, remain unchanged in form if any differential operator that commutes with the total exterior derivative, $[d,\widehat{Y}]=0$, multiplies the current. Such an operator, effectively changing the dimension of the current, increases the allowable gauge transformations in electromagnetism and is at the heart of Nöther’s second theorem. However, this observation has not been exploited to generate new electromagnetisms. Here a consistent theory of electromagnetism is developed that exploits this hidden redundancy in which the standard gauge symmetry in electromagnetism is modified by the rotationally invariant operator, the fractional Laplacian. The resultant theories are shown to all allow for anomalous (nontraditional) scaling dimensions of the gauge field and the associated current. Using the Caffarelli-Silvestre theorem [Caffarelli, L., and L. Silvestre, 2007, Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 32, 1245.], its extension [La Nave, G., and P. Phillips, 2017, arXiv:1708.00863 [Commun. Math. Phys. (in press)] ] to $p$ forms and the membrane paradigm, either the boundary (UV) or horizon (IR) theory of holographic dilatonic models are shown to both be described by such fractional electromagnetic theories. The nonlocal Pippard kernel introduced to solve the problem of the Meissner effect in elemental superconductors can also be formulated as a special case of fractional electromagnetism. Because the holographic dilatonic models produce boundary theories that are equivalent to those arising from a bulk theory with a massive gauge field along the radial direction, the common thread linking both of these problems is the breaking of $U(1)$ symmetry down to ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$. The standard charge quantization rules fail when the gauge field acquires an anomalous dimension. The breakdown of charge quantization is discussed extensively in terms of the experimentally measurable modified Aharonov-Bohm effect in the strange metal phase of the cuprate superconductors.

This review covers the modern era of experimental kaonic atom studies, encompassing 20 years of activity, defined by breakthroughs in technological developments which allowed performing a series of long-awaited precision measurements. Kaonic atoms are atomic systems where an electron is replaced by a negatively charged kaon, containing the strange quark, which interacts in the lowest orbits with the nucleus also by the strong interaction. As a result, their study offers the unique opportunity to perform experiments equivalent to scattering at vanishing relative energy. This allows one to study the strong interaction between the antikaon and the nucleon or the nucleus “at threshold,” namely, at zero relative energy, without the need of ad hoc extrapolation to zero energy, as in scattering experiments. The fast progress achieved in performing precision light kaonic atom experiments, which also solved long-pending inconsistencies with theoretical calculations generated by old measurements, relies on the development of novel cryogenic targets, x-ray detectors, and the availability of pure and intense charged kaon beams, which propelled an unprecedented progress in the field. Future experiments, based on new undergoing technological developments, will further boost the kaonic atom studies, thus fostering a deeper understanding of the low-energy strong interaction extended to the second family of quarks.

Recently, many Earth-sized planets have been discovered around stars other than the Sun that might possess appropriate conditions for life. The development of theoretical methods for assessing the putative habitability of these worlds is of paramount importance, since it serves the dual purpose of identifying and quantifying what types of biosignatures may exist and determining the selection of optimal target stars and planets for subsequent observations. This Colloquium discusses how a multitude of physical factors act in tandem to regulate the propensity of worlds for hosting detectable biospheres. The focus is primarily on planets around low-mass stars, as they are most readily accessible to searches for biosignatures. This Colloquium outlines how factors such as stellar winds, the availability of ultraviolet and visible light, the surface water and land fractions, stellar flares, and associated phenomena place potential constraints on the evolution of life on these planets.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that light and matter can mix together to an extreme degree, and previously uncharted regimes of light-matter interactions are currently being explored in a variety of settings. The so-called ultrastrong coupling (USC) regime is established when the light-matter interaction energy is a comparable fraction of the bare frequencies of the uncoupled systems. Furthermore, when the interaction strengths become larger than the bare frequencies, the deep-strong coupling (DSC) regime emerges. This article reviews advances in the field of the USC and DSC regimes, in particular, for light modes confined in cavities interacting with two-level systems. An overview is first provided on the theoretical progress since the origins from the semiclassical Rabi model until recent developments of the quantum Rabi model. Next, several key experimental results from a variety of quantum platforms are described, including superconducting circuits, semiconductor quantum wells, and other hybrid quantum systems. Finally, anticipated applications are highlighted utilizing USC and DSC regimes, including novel quantum optical phenomena, quantum simulation, and quantum computation.

This review discusses the lattice Boltzmann–particle dynamics (LBPD) multiscale paradigm for the simulation of complex states of flowing matter at the interface between physics, chemistry, and biology. In particular, current large-scale LBPD simulations of biopolymer translocation across cellular membranes, molecular transport in ion channels, and amyloid aggregation in cells are described. Prospects are provided for future LBPD explorations in the direction of cellular organization, the direct simulation of full biological organelles, all the way up to physiological scales of potential relevance to future precision-medicine applications, such as the accurate description of homeostatic processes. It is argued that, with the advent of Exascale computing, the mesoscale physics approach advocated in this review may come to age in the next decade and open up new exciting perspectives for physics-based computational medicine.

Thermalizing quantum systems are conventionally described by statistical mechanics at equilibrium. However, not all systems fall into this category, with many-body localization providing a generic mechanism for thermalization to fail in strongly disordered systems. Many-body localized (MBL) systems remain perfect insulators at nonzero temperature, which do not thermalize and therefore cannot be described using statistical mechanics. This Colloquium reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in studies of MBL systems, focusing on the new perspective provided by entanglement and nonequilibrium experimental probes such as quantum quenches. Theoretically, MBL systems exhibit a new kind of robust integrability: an extensive set of quasilocal integrals of motion emerges, which provides an intuitive explanation of the breakdown of thermalization. A description based on quasilocal integrals of motion is used to predict dynamical properties of MBL systems, such as the spreading of quantum entanglement, the behavior of local observables, and the response to external dissipative processes. Furthermore, MBL systems can exhibit eigenstate transitions and quantum orders forbidden in thermodynamic equilibrium. An outline is given of the current theoretical understanding of the quantum-to-classical transition between many-body localized and ergodic phases and anomalous transport in the vicinity of that transition. Experimentally, synthetic quantum systems, which are well isolated from an external thermal reservoir, provide natural platforms for realizing the MBL phase. Recent experiments with ultracold atoms, trapped ions, superconducting qubits, and quantum materials, in which different signatures of many-body localization have been observed, are reviewed. This Colloquium concludes by listing outstanding challenges and promising future research directions.