In recent years synchrotron x-ray microprobes and nanoprobes have emerged as key characterization tools with a remarkable impact for different scientific fields including solid-state, applied, high-pressure, and nuclear physics, chemistry, catalysis, biology, and cultural heritage. This review provides a comparison of the different probes available for the space-resolved characterization of materials (i.e., photons, electrons, ions, neutrons) with particular emphasis on x rays. Subsequently, an overview of the optics employed to focus x rays and the most relevant characterization techniques using x rays (i.e., x-ray diffraction, wide-angle x-ray scattering, small-angle x-ray scattering, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence, x-ray-excited optical luminescence, and photoelectron spectroscopy) is reported. Strategies suitable to minimize possible radiation damage induced by brilliant focused x-ray beams are briefly discussed. The general concepts are then exemplified by a selection of significant applications of x-ray microbeams and nanobeams to materials science. Finally, the future perspectives for the development of nanoprobe science at synchrotron sources and free-electron lasers are discussed.

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) contains emissions accumulated over the entire history of the Universe, including from objects inaccessible to individual telescopic studies. The near-infrared ($\sim 1–10\mu \mathrm{m}$) part of the CIB, and its fluctuations, reflects emissions from nucleosynthetic sources and gravitationally accreting black holes. If known galaxies are removed to sufficient depths the source-subtracted CIB fluctuations at near-infrared can reveal sources present in the first stars era and possibly new stellar populations at more recent times. This review discusses the recent progress in this newly emerging field which identified, with new data and methodology, significant source-subtracted CIB fluctuations substantially in excess of what can be produced by remaining known galaxies. The CIB fluctuations further appear coherent with unresolved cosmic x-ray background indicating a very high fraction of black holes among the new sources producing the CIB fluctuations. These observations have led to intensive theoretical efforts to explain the measurements and their properties. While current experimental configurations have limitations in decisively probing these theories, their potentially remarkable implications will be tested in the upcoming CIB measurements with the European Space Agency’s Euclid dark energy mission. The goals and methodologies of LIBRAE (Looking at Infrared Background Radiation with Euclid), a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected project for CIB science with Euclid, which has the potential for transforming the field into a new area of precision cosmology, are described.

A hot, dense medium called a quark gluon plasma (QGP) is created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. Early in the collision, hard parton scatterings generate high momentum partons that traverse the medium, which then fragment into sprays of particles called jets. Understanding how these partons interact with the QGP and fragment into final state particles provides critical insight into quantum chromodynamics. Experimental measurements from high momentum hadrons, two particle correlations, and full jet reconstruction at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) continue to improve our understanding of energy loss in the QGP. Run 2 at the LHC recently began and there is a jet detector at RHIC under development. Now is the perfect time to reflect on what the experimental measurements have taught us so far, the limitations of the techniques used for studying jets, how the techniques can be improved, and how to move forward with the wealth of experimental data such that a complete description of energy loss in the QGP can be achieved. Measurements of jets to date clearly indicate that hard partons lose energy. Detailed comparisons of the nuclear modification factor between data and model calculations led to quantitative constraints on the opacity of the medium to hard probes. However, while there is substantial evidence for softening and broadening jets through medium interactions, the difficulties comparing measurements to theoretical calculations limit further quantitative constraints on energy loss mechanisms. Since jets are algorithmic descriptions of the initial parton, the same jet definitions must be used, including the treatment of the underlying heavy ion background, when making data and theory comparisons. An agreement is called for between theorists and experimentalists on the appropriate treatment of the background, Monte   Carlo generators that enable experimental algorithms to be applied to theoretical calculations, and a clear understanding of which observables are most sensitive to the properties of the medium, even in the presence of background. This will enable us to determine the best strategy for the field to improve quantitative constraints on properties of the medium in the face of these challenges.

Large-scale quantum effects have always played an important role in the foundations of quantum theory. With recent experimental progress and the aspiration for quantum enhanced applications, the interest in macroscopic quantum effects has been reinforced. In this review, measures aiming to quantify various aspects of macroscopic quantumness are critically analyzed and discussed. Recent results on the difficulties and prospects to create, maintain, and detect macroscopic quantum states are surveyed. The role of macroscopic quantum states in foundational questions as well as practical applications is outlined. Finally, past and ongoing experimental advances aiming to generate and observe macroscopic quantum states are presented.

Strong electronic correlations pose one of the biggest challenges to solid state theory. Recently developed methods that address this problem by starting with the local, eminently important correlations of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) are reviewed. In addition, nonlocal correlations on all length scales are generated through Feynman diagrams, with a local two-particle vertex instead of the bare Coulomb interaction as a building block. With these diagrammatic extensions of DMFT long-range charge, magnetic, and superconducting fluctuations as well as (quantum) criticality can be addressed in strongly correlated electron systems. An overview is provided of the successes and results achieved, mainly for model Hamiltonians, and an outline is given of future prospects for realistic material calculations.

In the past 20 years, dual-readout calorimetry has emerged as a technique for measuring the properties of high-energy hadrons and hadron jets that offers considerable advantages compared with the instruments that are currently used for this purpose in experiments at the high-energy frontier. The status of this experimental technique and the challenges faced for its further development are reviewed.

The vast majority of hadrons observed in nature are not stable under the strong interaction; rather they are resonances whose existence is deduced from enhancements in the energy dependence of scattering amplitudes. The study of hadron resonances offers a window into the workings of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the low-energy nonperturbative region, and in addition many probes of the limits of the electroweak sector of the standard model consider processes which feature hadron resonances. From a theoretical standpoint, this is a challenging field: the same dynamics that binds quarks and gluons into hadron resonances also controls their decay into lighter hadrons, so a complete approach to QCD is required. Presently, lattice QCD is the only available tool that provides the required nonperturbative evaluation of hadron observables. This article reviews progress in the study of few-hadron reactions in which resonances and bound states appear using lattice QCD techniques. The leading approach is described that takes advantage of the periodic finite spatial volume used in lattice QCD calculations to extract scattering amplitudes from the discrete spectrum of QCD eigenstates in a box. An explanation is given of how from explicit lattice QCD calculations one can rigorously garner information about a variety of resonance properties, including their masses, widths, decay couplings, and form factors. The challenges which currently limit the field are discussed along with the steps being taken to resolve them.

The advent of visible-infrared laser pulses carrying a substantial fraction of their energy in a single field oscillation cycle has opened a new era in the experimental investigation of ultrafast processes in semiconductors and dielectrics (bulk as well as nanostructured), motivated by the quest for the ultimate frontiers of electron-based signal metrology and processing. Exploring ways to approach those frontiers requires insight into the physics underlying the interaction of strong high-frequency (optical) fields with electrons moving in periodic potentials. This Colloquium aims at providing this insight. Introduction to the foundations of strong-field phenomena defines and compares regimes of field-matter interaction in periodic systems, including (perfect) crystals as well as optical and semiconductor superlattices, followed by a review of recent experimental advances in the study of strong-field dynamics in crystals and nanostructures. Avenues toward measuring and controlling electronic processes up to petahertz frequencies are discussed.

Atomically thin materials such as graphene and monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit remarkable physical properties resulting from their reduced dimensionality and crystal symmetry. The family of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides is an especially promising platform for fundamental studies of two-dimensional (2D) systems, with potential applications in optoelectronics and valleytronics due to their direct band gap in the monolayer limit and highly efficient light-matter coupling. A crystal lattice with broken inversion symmetry combined with strong spin-orbit interactions leads to a unique combination of the spin and valley degrees of freedom. In addition, the 2D character of the monolayers and weak dielectric screening from the environment yield a significant enhancement of the Coulomb interaction. The resulting formation of bound electron-hole pairs, or excitons, dominates the optical and spin properties of the material. Here recent progress in understanding of the excitonic properties in monolayer TMDs is reviewed and future challenges are laid out. Discussed are the consequences of the strong direct and exchange Coulomb interaction, exciton light-matter coupling, and influence of finite carrier and electron-hole pair densities on the exciton properties in TMDs. Finally, the impact on valley polarization is described and the tuning of the energies and polarization observed in applied electric and magnetic fields is summarized.

Superconducting (SC) fluctuations, discovered in the late 1960s, have constituted an important research area in superconductivity as they are manifest in a variety of phenomena. Indeed, the underlying physics of SC fluctuations makes it possible to elucidate the fundamental properties of the superconducting state. The interest in SC fluctuation phenomena was further enhanced with the discovery of cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTSs). In these materials, superconducting fluctuations appear over a wide range of temperatures due to the superconductors extremely short coherence lengths and low effective dimensionality of the electron systems. These strong fluctuations lead to anomalous properties of the normal state in some HTS materials. Within the framework of the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory, and more extensively in the diagrammatic microscopic approach based on BCS theory, SC fluctuations as well as other quantum contributions (weak localization, etc.) enabled a new way to investigate and characterize disordered electron systems, granular metals, Josephson structures, artificial superlattices, and others. The characteristic feature of SC fluctuations is its strong dependence on temperature and magnetic field in the vicinity of the superconducting phase transition. This dependence allows the separation of fluctuation effects from other contributions and provides information about the microscopic parameters of a material, in particular, the critical temperature and the zero-temperature critical magnetic field. As such, SC fluctuations are very sensitive to the relaxation processes that break phase coherence and can be used as a versatile characterization instrument for SCs: Fluctuation spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful tool for studying the properties of superconducting systems on a quantitative level. Here the physics of SC fluctuations is reviewed, commencing from a qualitative description of thermodynamic fluctuations close to the critical temperature and quantum fluctuations at zero temperature in the vicinity of the second critical field. The analysis of the latter allows us to present fluctuation formation as a fragmentation of the Abrikosov lattice. This review highlights a series of experimental findings followed by microscopic description and numerical analysis of the effects of fluctuations on numerous properties of superconductors in the entire phase diagram and beyond the superconducting phase.

A fully analytical description of the allowed $\beta$ spectrum shape is given in view of ongoing and planned measurements. Its study forms an invaluable tool in the search for physics beyond the standard electroweak model and the weak magnetism recoil term. Contributions stemming from finite size corrections, mass effects, and radiative corrections are reviewed. Particular focus is placed on atomic and chemical effects, where the existing description is extended and analytically provided. The effects of QCD-induced recoil terms are discussed, and cross-checks were performed for different theoretical formalisms. Special attention was given to a comparison of the treatment of nuclear structure effects in different formalisms. Corrections were derived for both Fermi and Gamow-Teller transitions, and methods of analytical evaluation thoroughly discussed. In its integrated form, calculated $f$ values were in agreement with the most precise numerical results within the aimed for precision. The need for an accurate evaluation of weak magnetism contributions was stressed, and the possible significance of the oft-neglected induced pseudoscalar interaction was noted. Together with improved atomic corrections, an analytical description was presented of the allowed $\beta$ spectrum shape accurate to a few parts in ${10}^{-4}$ down to 1 keV for low to medium $Z$ nuclei, thereby extending the work by previous authors by nearly an order of magnitude.

Pressure has long been recognized as a fundamental thermodynamic variable but its application was previously limited by the available pressure vessels and probes. The development of megabar diamond anvil cells and a battery of associated in-laboratory and synchrotron techniques at the turn of the century have opened a vast new window of opportunities. With the addition of the pressure dimension, we are facing a new world with an order of magnitude more materials to be discovered than all that have been explored at ambient pressure. Pressure drastically and categorically alters all elastic, electronic, magnetic, structural, and chemical properties, and pushes materials across conventional barriers between insulators and superconductors, amorphous and crystalline solids, ionic and covalent compounds, vigorously reactive and inert chemicals, etc. In the process, it reveals surprising high-pressure physics and chemistry and creates novel materials. This review describes the principles and methodology used to reach ultrahigh static pressure: the in situ probes, the physical phenomena to be investigated, the long-pursued goals, the surprising discoveries, and the vast potential opportunities. Exciting examples include the quest for metallic hydrogen, the record-breaking superconducting temperature of 203 K in ${\mathrm{H}}_n\mathrm{S}$, the complication of “free-electron gas” alkali metals, the magnetic collapse in $3d$ transition elements, the pressure-induced superconductivity from topological insulators, the novel stoichiometry in simple compounds, the interaction of nanoscience, the accomplishment of 750 GPa pressure, etc. These highlights are the integral results of technological achievements, specific measurements, and theoretical advancement; therefore, the same highlights will appear in different sections corresponding to these different aspects. Overall, this review demonstrates that high-pressure research is a new dimension in condensed-matter physics.

In 1989, Sir Sam Edwards made the visionary proposition to treat jammed granular materials using a volume ensemble of equiprobable jammed states in analogy to thermal equilibrium statistical mechanics, despite their inherent athermal features. Since then, the statistical mechanics approach for jammed matter—one of the very few generalizations of Gibbs-Boltzmann statistical mechanics to out-of-equilibrium matter—has garnered an extraordinary amount of attention by both theorists and experimentalists. Its importance stems from the fact that jammed states of matter are ubiquitous in nature appearing in a broad range of granular and soft materials such as colloids, emulsions, glasses, and biomatter. Indeed, despite being one of the simplest states of matter—primarily governed by the steric interactions between the constitutive particles—a theoretical understanding based on first principles has proved exceedingly challenging. Here a systematic approach to jammed matter based on the Edwards statistical mechanical ensemble is reviewed. The construction of microcanonical and canonical ensembles based on the volume function, which replaces the Hamiltonian in jammed systems, is discussed. The importance of approximation schemes at various levels is emphasized leading to quantitative predictions for ensemble averaged quantities such as packing fractions and contact force distributions. An overview of the phenomenology of jammed states and experiments, simulations, and theoretical models scrutinizing the strong assumptions underlying Edwards approach is given including recent results suggesting the validity of Edwards ergodic hypothesis for jammed states. A theoretical framework for packings whose constitutive particles range from spherical to nonspherical shapes such as dimers, polymers, ellipsoids, spherocylinders or tetrahedra, hard and soft, frictional, frictionless and adhesive, monodisperse, and polydisperse particles in any dimensions is discussed providing insight into a unifying phase diagram for all jammed matter. Furthermore, the connection between the Edwards ensemble of metastable jammed states and metastability in spin glasses is established. This highlights the fact that the packing problem can be understood as a constraint satisfaction problem for excluded volume and force and torque balance leading to a unifying framework between the Edwards ensemble of equiprobable jammed states and out-of-equilibrium spin glasses.

Antiferromagnetic materials could represent the future of spintronic applications thanks to the numerous interesting features they combine: they are robust against perturbation due to magnetic fields, produce no stray fields, display ultrafast dynamics, and are capable of generating large magnetotransport effects. Intense research efforts over the past decade have been invested in unraveling spin transport properties in antiferromagnetic materials. Whether spin transport can be used to drive the antiferromagnetic order and how subsequent variations can be detected are some of the thrilling challenges currently being addressed. Antiferromagnetic spintronics started out with studies on spin transfer and has undergone a definite revival in the last few years with the publication of pioneering articles on the use of spin-orbit interactions in antiferromagnets. This paradigm shift offers possibilities for radically new concepts for spin manipulation in electronics. Central to these endeavors are the need for predictive models, relevant disruptive materials, and new experimental designs. This paper reviews the most prominent spintronic effects described based on theoretical and experimental analysis of antiferromagnetic materials. It also details some of the remaining bottlenecks and suggests possible avenues for future research. This review covers both spin-transfer-related effects, such as spin-transfer torque, spin penetration length, domain-wall motion, and “magnetization” dynamics, and spin-orbit related phenomena, such as (tunnel) anisotropic magnetoresistance, spin Hall, and inverse spin galvanic effects. Effects related to spin caloritronics, such as the spin Seebeck effect, are linked to the transport of magnons in antiferromagnets. The propagation of spin waves and spin superfluids in antiferromagnets is also covered.

A large number of experimental discoveries especially in the heavy quarkonium sector that did not meet the expectations of the until then very successful quark model led to a renaissance of hadron spectroscopy. Among various explanations of the internal structure of these excitations, hadronic molecules, being analogs of light nuclei, play a unique role since for those predictions can be made with controlled uncertainty. Experimental evidence of various candidates of hadronic molecules and methods of identifying such structures are reviewed. Nonrelativistic effective field theories are the suitable framework for studying hadronic molecules and are discussed in both the continuum and finite volumes. Also pertinent lattice QCD results are presented. Further, the production mechanisms and decays of hadronic molecules are discussed and comments are given on the reliability of certain assertions often made in the literature.

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the generally accepted theory for strong interactions, describes the interactions between quarks and gluons. The strongly interacting particles that are seen in nature are hadrons, which are composites of quarks and gluons. Since QCD is a strongly coupled theory at distance scales that are characteristic of observable hadrons, there are no rigorous, first-principle methods to derive the spectrum and properties of the hadrons from the QCD Lagrangian, except for lattice QCD simulations that are not yet able to cope with all aspects of complex and short-lived states. Instead, a variety of “QCD inspired” phenomenological models have been proposed. Common features of these models are predictions for the existence of hadrons with substructures that are more complex than the standard quark-antiquark mesons and the three-quark baryons of the original quark model that provides a concise description of most of the low-mass hadrons. Recently, an assortment of candidates for nonstandard multiquark mesons, meson-gluon hybrids, and pentaquark baryons that contain heavy (charm or bottom) quarks has been discovered. Here the experimental evidence for these states is reviewed and some general comparisons of their measured properties with standard quark model expectations and predictions of various models for nonstandard hadrons are made. The conclusion is that the spectroscopy of all but the simplest hadrons is not yet understood.

Adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) started as an approach to solving optimization problems and has evolved into an important universal alternative to the standard circuit model of quantum computing, with deep connections to both classical and quantum complexity theory and condensed matter physics. This review gives an account of the major theoretical developments in the field, while focusing on the closed-system setting. The review is organized around a series of topics that are essential to an understanding of the underlying principles of AQC, its algorithmic accomplishments and limitations, and its scope in the more general setting of computational complexity theory. Several variants are presented of the adiabatic theorem, the cornerstone of AQC, and examples are given of explicit AQC algorithms that exhibit a quantum speedup. An overview of several proofs of the universality of AQC and related Hamiltonian quantum complexity theory is given. Considerable space is devoted to stoquastic AQC, the setting of most AQC work to date, where obstructions to success and their possible resolutions are discussed.

Weyl and Dirac semimetals are three-dimensional phases of matter with gapless electronic excitations that are protected by topology and symmetry. As three-dimensional analogs of graphene, they have generated much recent interest. Deep connections exist with particle physics models of relativistic chiral fermions, and, despite their gaplessness, to solid-state topological and Chern insulators. Their characteristic electronic properties lead to protected surface states and novel responses to applied electric and magnetic fields. The theoretical foundations of these phases, their proposed realizations in solid-state systems, and recent experiments on candidate materials as well as their relation to other states of matter are reviewed.

This Colloquium is concerned with the superconducting state of new high-$T_c$ compounds containing hydrogen ions (hydrides). Recently superconductivity with the record-setting transition temperature of $T_c=203\mathrm{K}$ was reported for sulfur hydrides under high pressure. In general, high pressure serves as a path finding tool toward novel structures, including those with very high $T_c$. The field has a rich and interesting history. Currently, it is broadly recognized that superconductivity in sulfur hydrides owes its origin to the phonon mechanism. However, the picture differs from the conventional one in important ways. The phonon spectrum in sulfur hydride is both broad and has a complex structure. Superconductivity arises mainly due to strong coupling to the high-frequency optical modes, although the acoustic phonons also make a noticeable contribution. A new approach is described, which generalizes the standard treatment of the phonon mechanism and makes it possible to obtain an analytical expression for $T_c$ in this phase. It turns out that, unlike in the conventional case, the value of the isotope coefficient (for the deuterium-hydrogen substitution) varies with the pressure and reflects the impact of the optical modes. The phase diagram, that is the pressure dependence of $T_c$, is rather peculiar. A crucial feature is that increasing pressure results in a series of structural transitions, including the one which yields the superconducting phase with the record $T_c$ of 203 K. In a narrow region near $P\approx 150\mathrm{GPa}$ the critical temperature rises sharply from $T_c\approx 120$ to $\approx 200\mathrm{K}$. It seems that the sharp structural transition, which produces the high-$T_c$ phase, is a first-order phase transition caused by interaction between the order parameter and lattice deformations. A remarkable feature of the electronic spectrum in the high-$T_c$ phase is the appearance of small pockets at the Fermi level. Their presence leads to a two-gap spectrum, which can, in principle, be observed with the future use of tunneling spectroscopy. This feature leads to nonmonotonic and strongly asymmetric pressure dependence of $T_c$. Other hydrides, e.g., ${\mathrm{CaH}}_6$ and ${\mathrm{MgH}}_6$, can be expected to display even higher values of $T_c$ up to room temperature. The fundamental challenge lies in the creation of a structure capable of displaying high $T_c$ at ambient pressure.