By combining experiments performed on nanoribbons in situ within a high-resolution TEM with objective molecular dynamics simulations, we reveal common mechanisms in the bending response of few-layer-thick hexagonal boron nitride and graphene nanoribbons. Both materials are observed forming localized kinks in the fully reversible bending experiments. Microscopic simulations and theoretical analysis indicate platelike bending behavior prior to kinking, in spite of the possibility of interlayer sliding, and give the critical curvature for the kinking onset. This behavior is distinct from the rippling and kinking of multi- and single-wall nanotubes under bending. Our findings have implications for future study of nanoscale layered materials, including nanomechanical device design.

Molecular switches on metal surfaces typically show very little photoreactivity. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that the ring-opening–ring-closing switch nitrospiropyran thermally and optically isomerizes to the open merocyanine form on a Bi(110) surface. Irradiation by blue light of a monolayer of spiropyran molecules leads to mixed domains of the two isomers. At large illumination intensities a photostationary state is established, indicating the bidirectional ring-opening and ring-closing reaction of these molecules on the bismuth surface. The enhanced photoactivity contrasts with the case of adsorption on other metal surfaces, probably due to the low density of states at the Fermi level of the semimetallic Bi(110) surface.

Interacting bosons generically form a superfluid state. In the presence of disorder it can get converted into a compressible Bose glass state. Here we study such a transition in one dimension at moderate interaction using bosonization and renormalization group techniques. We derive the two-loop scaling equations and discuss the phase diagram. We find that the correlation functions at the transition are characterized by universal exponents in a finite region around the fixed point.

Spin pumping driven by bistable exchange spin waves is demonstrated in a $\mathrm{Pt}/{\mathrm{Y}}_3{\mathrm{Fe}}_5{\mathrm{O}}_{12}$ film under parametric excitation. In the $\mathrm{Pt}/{\mathrm{Y}}_3{\mathrm{Fe}}_5{\mathrm{O}}_{12}$ film, the spin pumping driven by parametric excitation selectively enhances the relaxation of short-wavelength exchange spin waves, indicating strong coupling between the exchange spin waves and spin currents at the interface through efficient spin transfer. The parametric spin pumping, furthermore, allows direct access to nonlinear spin wave dynamics in combination with the inverse spin Hall effect, revealing unconventional bistability of the exchange spin waves.

We report magnetic-field and angular-dependent high-resolution specific-heat measurements of the organic superconductor ${\beta }^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{\text{−}}(\mathrm{BEDT}\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathrm{TTF}{)}_2{\mathrm{SF}}_5{\mathrm{CH}}_2{\mathrm{CF}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_3$. When the magnetic field is aligned precisely within the conducting BEDT-TTF layer, at low temperatures a clear upturn of the upper critical field beyond the Pauli limit of 9.73 T is observed, hinting at the emergence of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state. This upturn disappears when the field is oriented out of plane by more than $\sim 0.5\mathrm{deg}$. For smaller out-of-plane angles, the specific-heat anomaly at $T_c$ sharpens and a second peaky phase transition appears within the superconducting state.

In addition to unconventional high-$T_c$ superconductivity, the iron arsenides exhibit strong magnetoelastic coupling and a notable electronic anisotropy within the $a-b$ plane. We relate these properties by studying underdoped $\mathrm{Ba}({\mathrm{Fe}}_{\mathbf{1}\mathrm{\text{−}}\mathbf{x}}{\mathrm{Co}}_{\mathbf{x}}{)}_{\mathbf{2}}{\mathrm{As}}_{\mathbf{2}}$ by x-ray diffraction in pulsed magnetic fields up to 27.5 T. We exploit magnetic detwinning effects to demonstrate anisotropy in the in-plane susceptibility, which develops at the structural phase transition despite the absence of magnetic order. The degree of detwinning increases smoothly with decreasing temperature, and a single-domain condition is realized over a range of field and temperature. At low temperatures we observe an activated behavior, with a large hysteretic remnant effect. Detwinning was not observed within the superconducting phase for accessible magnetic fields.

We simulate an experiment in which a colloidal probe is pulled through an active nematic fluid. We find that the drag on the particle is non-Stokesian (not proportional to its radius). Strikingly, a large enough particle in contractile fluid (such as an actomyosin gel) can show negative viscous drag in steady state: the particle moves in the opposite direction to the externally applied force. We explain this, and the qualitative trends seen in our simulations, in terms of the disruption of orientational order around the probe particle and the resulting modifications to the active stress.

We introduce a class of dissipative quantum spin models with local interactions and without quenched disorder that show glassy behavior. These models are the quantum analogs of the classical facilitated spin models. Just like their classical counterparts, quantum facilitated models display complex glassy dynamics despite the fact that their stationary state is essentially trivial. In these systems, dynamical arrest is a consequence of kinetic constraints and not of static ordering. These models display a quantum version of dynamic heterogeneity: the dynamics toward relaxation is spatially correlated despite the absence of static correlations. Associated dynamical fluctuation phenomena such as decoupling of time scales is also observed. Moreover, we find that close to the classical limit, quantum fluctuations can enhance glassiness, as recently reported for quantum liquids.

We experimentally demonstrate the entanglement of spatial modes between two photons propagating through separate few-mode optical fibers. Quantum states over the two lowest-order spatial modes are measured with highly efficient spatial-mode analyzers based on acousto-optics. Quantum state tomography verifies the entanglement of the spatial-domain Bell state.

Using computer simulations, we study a membrane of parallel narrow pores filled with one-dimensional wires of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. We show that such a membrane is equivalent to a system of effective charges located at opposite sides of the membrane offering a computationally efficient way to model correlation effects in water-filled nanopore membranes. Based on our simulations we predict that membranes with square pore lattices undergo a continuous order-disorder transition to an antiferroelectric low-temperature phase in which water wires in adjacent pores are oriented in opposite directions. Strong antiferroelectric correlations exist also in the disordered phase far above the critical temperature or in membranes with geometric frustration, leading to a dielectric constant that is reduced considerably with respect to the case of uncoupled water wires. These correlations are also expected to hinder proton translocation through the membrane.

The coupling between matter and gravity in general relativity is given by a proportionality relation between the stress tensor and the geometry. This is an oriented assumption driven by the fact that both the stress tensor and the Einstein tensor are divergenceless. However, general relativity is in essence a nonlinear theory, so there is no obvious reason why the coupling to matter should be linear. On another hand, modified theories of gravity usually affect the vacuum dynamics, yet keep the coupling to matter linear. In this Letter, we address the implications of consistent nonlinear gravity-matter coupling. The Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory recently introduced by Bañados and Ferreira provides an enlightening realization of such coupling modifications. We find that this theory coupled to a perfect fluid reduces to general relativity coupled to a nonlinearly modified perfect fluid, leading to an ambiguity between modified coupling and modified equation of state. We discuss observational consequences of this degeneracy and argue that such a completion of general relativity is viable from both an experimental and theoretical point of view through energy conditions, consistency, and singularity-avoidance perspectives. We use these results to discuss the impact of changing the coupling paradigm.

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76\mathrm{TeV}$ is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) range up to approximately $60\mathrm{GeV}/c$. The data cover both the low-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter ($v_2$) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0–60% most-central events, the observed $v_2$ values are found to first increase with $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, reaching a maximum around $p_{\mathrm{T}}=3\mathrm{GeV}/c$, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least $p_{\mathrm{T}}=40\mathrm{GeV}/c$ over the full centrality range measured.

We investigate the dependence of optical-lattice trapping potentials for Rydberg atoms on the angular portion of the atomic wave function. While ground-state atoms are pointlike in relation to an optical-lattice field, Rydberg-atom wave functions extend over a substantial fraction of the lattice period, which leads to a dependence of the lattice trapping potential on the angular portion of the spatial wave function. The angular dependence of the potential is measured using various ($j$, $m_j$) levels of ${}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ Rydberg $nD$ states ($50\le n\le 65$) prepared in a one-dimensional optical lattice (wavelength 1064 nm) and a transverse dc electric field. The measured optical-lattice depths are found to be in agreement with theoretical results.

A nonlinear oscillation of frequency and amplitude is found by massively parallel gyrokinetic simulations of Alfvén eigenmodes excited by energetic particles in toroidal plasmas. The fast and repetitive frequency chirping is induced by the evolution of coherent structures in the phase space. The dynamics of the coherent structures is controlled by the competition between the phase-space island formation due to the nonlinear particle trapping and the island destruction due to the free streaming. The chirping dynamics provides a conceptual framework for understanding nonlinear wave-particle interactions underlying the transport process in collisionless plasmas.

This Letter reports a modeling study on the formation of streamer discharges from an isolated ionization column under subbreakdown condition. Numerical simulations show that positive streamers are able to form from the tip of an ionization column in a uniform applied electric field well below the breakdown threshold field. However, even when the applied field approaches the breakdown threshold field, negative streamers fail to originate from the other tip of the ionization column after the positive streamer has propagated a certain distance. The results reported explain some puzzling observations on streamer discharges in nature such as the predominant initiation of sprites by downward propagating positive streamers and help advance the initiation theories of sprites and lightning.

Measurements of the neutron spectrum from the $\mathrm{T}(t,2n){}^4\mathrm{He}$ ($tt$) reaction have been conducted using inertial confinement fusion implosions at the OMEGA laser facility. In these experiments, deuterium-tritium (DT) gas-filled capsules were imploded to study the $tt$ reaction in thermonuclear plasmas at low reactant center-of-mass (c.m.) energies. In contrast to accelerator experiments at higher c.m. energies (above 100 keV), these results indicate a negligible $n+{}^5\mathrm{He}$ reaction channel at a c.m. energy of 23 keV.

Sulci are surface folds commonly seen in strained soft elastomers and form via a strongly subcritical, yet scale-free, instability. Treating the threshold for nonlinear instability as a nonlinear critical point, we explain the nature of sulcus patterns in terms of the scale and translation symmetries which are broken by the formation of an isolated, small sulcus. Our perturbative theory and simulations show that sulcus formation in a thick, compressed slab can arise either as a supercritical or as a weakly subcritical bifurcation relative to this nonlinear critical point, depending on the boundary conditions. An infinite number of competing, equilibrium patterns simultaneously emerge at this critical point, but the one selected has the lowest energy. We give a simple, physical explanation for the formation of these sulcification patterns using an analogy to a solid-solid phase transition with a finite energy of transformation.

We present an ab initio description of the thermal transport phenomenon called the spin Nernst effect. It refers to generation of a spin accumulation or a pure spin current transverse to an applied temperature gradient. This is similar to the intensively studied spin Hall effect described by intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms due to an applied electric field. Analogously, several contributions are present for the spin Nernst effect. Here we investigate the extrinsic skew scattering mechanism which is dominant in the limit of dilute alloys. Our calculations are based on a fully relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method and a solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation. As a first application, we consider a Cu host with Au, Ti, and Bi impurities.

We predict a complete $\mathrm{TM}\leftrightarrow \mathrm{TE}$ transformation of the polarization of terahertz electromagnetic waves reflected from a strongly anisotropic boundary of a layered superconductor. We consider the case when the wave is incident on the superconductor from a dielectric prism separated from the sample by a thin vacuum gap. The physical origin of the predicted phenomenon is similar to the Wood anomalies known in optics and is related to the resonance excitation of the oblique surface waves. We also discuss the dispersion relation for these waves, propagating along the boundary of the superconductor at some angle with respect to the anisotropy axis, as well as their excitation by the attenuated-total-reflection method.

Thermal fluctuations of lipid orientation are analyzed to infer the bending rigidity of lipid bilayers directly from molecular simulations. Compared to the traditional analysis of thermal membrane undulations, the proposed method is reliable down to shorter wavelengths and allows for determination of the bending rigidity using smaller simulation boxes. The requisite theoretical arguments behind this analysis are presented and verified by simulations spanning a diverse range of lipid models from the literature.