The physics of sliding friction is gaining impulse from nanoscale and mesoscale experiments, simulations, and theoretical modeling. This Colloquium reviews some recent developments in modeling and in atomistic simulation of friction, covering open-ended directions, unconventional nanofrictional systems, and unsolved problems.

Quantum mechanics is an extremely successful theory that agrees with every experimental test. However, the principle of linear superposition, a central tenet of the theory, apparently contradicts a commonplace observation: macroscopic objects are never found in a linear superposition of position states. Moreover, the theory does not explain why during a quantum measurement, deterministic evolution is replaced by probabilistic evolution, whose random outcomes obey the Born probability rule. In this article a review is given of an experimentally falsifiable phenomenological proposal, known as continuous spontaneous collapse: a stochastic nonlinear modification of the Schrödinger equation, which resolves these problems, while giving the same experimental results as quantum theory in the microscopic regime. Two underlying theories for this phenomenology are reviewed: trace dynamics and gravity-induced collapse. As the macroscopic scale is approached, predictions of this proposal begin to differ appreciably from those of quantum theory and are being confronted by ongoing laboratory experiments that include molecular interferometry and optomechanics. These experiments, which test the validity of linear superposition for large systems, are reviewed here, and their technical challenges, current results, and future prospects summarized. It is likely that over the next two decades or so, these experiments can verify or rule out the proposed stochastic modification of quantum theory.

Complex phenomena in photonics, in particular, dynamical properties of semiconductor lasers due to delayed coupling, are reviewed. Although considered a nuisance for a long time, these phenomena now open interesting perspectives. Semiconductor laser systems represent excellent test beds for the study of nonlinear delay-coupled systems, which are of fundamental relevance in various areas. At the same time delay-coupled lasers provide opportunities for photonic applications. In this review an introduction into the properties of single and two delay-coupled lasers is followed by an extension to network motifs and small networks. A particular emphasis is put on emerging complex behavior, deterministic chaos, synchronization phenomena, and application of these properties that range from encrypted communication and fast random bit sequence generators to bioinspired information processing.

Magnetic clusters, i.e., assemblies of a finite number (between two or three and several hundred) of interacting spin centers which are magnetically decoupled from their environment, can be found in many materials ranging from inorganic compounds and magnetic molecules to artificial metal structures formed on surfaces and metalloproteins. Their magnetic excitation spectra are determined by the nature of the spin centers and of the magnetic interactions, and the particular arrangement of the mutual interaction paths between the spin centers. Small clusters of up to four magnetic ions are ideal model systems in which to examine the fundamental magnetic interactions, which are usually dominated by Heisenberg exchange, but often complemented by anisotropic and/or higher-order interactions. In large magnetic clusters, which may potentially deal with a dozen or more spin centers, there is the possibility of novel many-body quantum states and quantum phenomena. In this review the necessary theoretical concepts and experimental techniques to study the magnetic cluster excitations and the resulting characteristic magnetic properties are introduced, followed by examples of small clusters, demonstrating the enormous amount of detailed physical information that can be retrieved. The current understanding of the excitations and their physical interpretation in the molecular nanomagnets which represent large magnetic clusters is then presented, with a section devoted to the subclass of single-molecule magnets, distinguished by displaying quantum tunneling of the magnetization. Finally, there is a summary of some quantum many-body states which evolve in magnetic insulators characterized by built-in or field-induced magnetic clusters. The review concludes by addressing future perspectives in the field of magnetic cluster excitations.

This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems. In the presence of effective photon-photon interactions induced by the optical nonlinearity of the medium, a many-photon system can behave collectively as a quantum fluid with a number of novel features stemming from its intrinsically nonequilibrium nature. A rich variety of recently observed photon hydrodynamical effects is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds, to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles. While the review is mostly focused on a specific class of semiconductor systems that have been extensively studied in recent years (planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong light-matter coupling regime having cavity polaritons as elementary excitations), the very concept of quantum fluids of light applies to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals, to atomic clouds embedded in optical fibers and cavities, to photonic crystal cavities, to superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions. The conclusive part of the article is devoted to a review of the future perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon gases and of artificial gauge fields for photons. In particular, several mechanisms to obtain efficient photon blockade are presented, together with their application to the generation of novel quantum phases.

The aim of this article is to review the important role played by radiative corrections in precision electroweak physics, in the framework of both the Fermi theory of weak interactions and the standard theory of particle physics. Important theoretical developments, closely connected with the study and applications of the radiative corrections, are also reviewed. The role of radiative corrections in the analysis of some important signals of new physics is also discussed.

Core-collapse theory brings together many facets of high-energy and nuclear astrophysics and the numerical arts to present theorists with one of the most important, yet frustrating, astronomical questions: “What is the mechanism of core-collapse supernova explosions?” A review of all the physics and the 50-year history involved would soon bury the reader in minutiae that could easily obscure the essential elements of the phenomenon, as we understand it today. Moreover, much remains to be discovered and explained, and a complicated review of an unresolved subject in flux could grow stale fast. Therefore, this paper describes various important facts and perspectives that may have escaped the attention of those interested in this puzzle. Furthermore, an attempt to describe the modern theory’s physical underpinnings and a brief summary of the current state of play are given. In the process, a few myths that have crept into modern discourse are identified. However, there is much more to do and humility in the face of this age-old challenge is clearly the most prudent stance as its eventual resolution is sought.

A theoretical overview of the phenomenon of spontaneous magnon decays in quantum antiferromagnets is presented. The intrinsic zero-temperature damping of magnons in quantum spin systems is a fascinating many-body effect, which has recently attracted significant attention in view of its possible observation in neutron-scattering experiments. An introduction to the theory of magnon interactions and a discussion of necessary symmetry and kinematic conditions for spontaneous decays are provided. Various parallels with the decays of anharmonic phonons and excitations in superfluid ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ are extensively used. Three principal cases of spontaneous magnon decays are considered: field-induced decays in Heisenberg antiferromagnets, zero-field decays in spiral antiferromagnets, and triplon decays in quantum-disordered magnets. Analytical results are compared with available numerical data and prospective materials for experimental observation of the decay-related effects are briefly discussed.

The mesoscopic spin system formed by the ${10}^4–{10}^6$ nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot offers a unique setting for the study of many-body spin physics in the condensed matter. The dynamics of this system and its coupling to electron spins is fundamentally different from its bulk counterpart or the case of individual atoms due to increased fluctuations that result from reduced dimensions. In recent years, the interest in studying quantum-dot nuclear spin systems and their coupling to confined electron spins has been further fueled by its importance for possible quantum information processing applications. The fascinating nonlinear (quantum) dynamics of the coupled electron-nuclear spin system is universal in quantum dot optics and transport. In this article, experimental work performed over the last decade in studying this mesoscopic, coupled electron-nuclear spin system is reviewed. Here a special focus is on how optical addressing of electron spins can be exploited to manipulate and read out the quantum-dot nuclei. Particularly exciting recent developments in applying optical techniques to efficiently establish nonzero mean nuclear spin polarizations and using them to reduce intrinsic nuclear spin fluctuations are discussed. Both results critically influence the preservation of electron-spin coherence in quantum dots. This overall recently gained understanding of the quantum-dot nuclear spin system could enable exciting new research avenues such as experimental observations of spontaneous spin ordering or nonclassical behavior of the nuclear spin bath.

A fundamental property of QCD is the presence of the chiral anomaly, which is the dominant component of the ${\pi }^0\to \gamma \gamma$ decay rate. Based on this anomaly and its small ($\simeq 4.5\%$) chiral correction, a prediction of the ${\pi }^0$ lifetime can be used as a test of QCD at confinement scale energies. The interesting experimental and theoretical histories of the ${\pi }^0$ meson are reviewed, from discovery to the present era. Experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical prediction, within the current ($\simeq 3\%$) experimental error; however, they are not yet sufficiently precise to test the chiral corrected result, which is a firm QCD prediction and is known to $\simeq 1\%$ uncertainty. At this level there exist experimental inconsistencies, which require attention. Possible future work to improve the present precision is suggested.

It is often assumed that few- and many-body systems can be accurately described by considering only pairwise two-body interactions of the constituents. We illustrate that three- and higher-body forces enter naturally in effective field theories and are especially prominent in strongly interacting quantum systems. We focus on three-body forces and discuss examples from atomic and nuclear physics. In particular, the importance and the challenges of three-nucleon forces for nuclear structure and reactions, including applications to astrophysics and fundamental symmetries, are highlighted.

The interior of a living cell is a crowded, heterogenuous, fluctuating environment. Hence, a major challenge in modeling intracellular transport is to analyze stochastic processes within complex environments. Broadly speaking, there are two basic mechanisms for intracellular transport: passive diffusion and motor-driven active transport. Diffusive transport can be formulated in terms of the motion of an overdamped Brownian particle. On the other hand, active transport requires chemical energy, usually in the form of adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis, and can be direction specific, allowing biomolecules to be transported long distances; this is particularly important in neurons due to their complex geometry. In this review a wide range of analytical methods and models of intracellular transport is presented. In the case of diffusive transport, narrow escape problems, diffusion to a small target, confined and single-file diffusion, homogenization theory, and fractional diffusion are considered. In the case of active transport, Brownian ratchets, random walk models, exclusion processes, random intermittent search processes, quasi-steady-state reduction methods, and mean-field approximations are considered. Applications include receptor trafficking, axonal transport, membrane diffusion, nuclear transport, protein-DNA interactions, virus trafficking, and the self-organization of subcellular structures.

Relativistic interaction of short-pulse lasers with underdense plasmas has recently led to the emergence of a novel generation of femtosecond x-ray sources. Based on radiation from electrons accelerated in plasma, these sources have the common properties to be compact and to deliver collimated, incoherent, and femtosecond radiation. In this article, within a unified formalism, the betatron radiation of trapped and accelerated electrons in the so-called bubble regime, the synchrotron radiation of laser-accelerated electrons in usual meter-scale undulators, the nonlinear Thomson scattering from relativistic electrons oscillating in an intense laser field, and the Thomson backscattered radiation of a laser beam by laser-accelerated electrons are reviewed. The underlying physics is presented using ideal models, the relevant parameters are defined, and analytical expressions providing the features of the sources are given. Numerical simulations and a summary of recent experimental results on the different mechanisms are also presented. Each section ends with the foreseen development of each scheme. Finally, one of the most promising applications of laser-plasma accelerators is discussed: the realization of a compact free-electron laser in the x-ray range of the spectrum. In the conclusion, the relevant parameters characterizing each sources are summarized. Considering typical laser-plasma interaction parameters obtained with currently available lasers, examples of the source features are given. The sources are then compared to each other in order to define their field of applications.

Tokamaks have demonstrated excellent plasma confinement capability because of their symmetry but has an intrinsic drawback because of their pulsed inductive operation. Efforts have been made in the past 20 years to realize steady-state operation, the most successful utilizing a bootstrap current. In this review, progress in understanding tokamak physics related to steady-state operation is described to investigate the scientific feasibility of a steady-state tokamak fusion power system.

Tissue engineering is a rapidly evolving discipline that aims at building functional tissues to improve or replace damaged ones. To be successful in such an endeavor, ideally, the engineering of tissues should be based on the principles of developmental biology. Recent progress in developmental biology suggests that the formation of tissues from the composing cells is often guided by physical laws. Here a comprehensive computational-theoretical formalism is presented that is based on experimental input and incorporates biomechanical principles of developmental biology. The formalism is described and it is shown that it correctly reproduces and predicts the quantitative characteristics of the fundamental early developmental process of tissue fusion. Based on this finding, the formalism is then used toward the optimization of the fabrication of tubular multicellular constructs, such as a vascular graft, by bioprinting, a novel tissue engineering technology.

This work reports on an extended research endeavor focused on the theoretical and experimental realization of a macroscopic quantum superposition (MQS) made up of photons. This intriguing, fundamental quantum condition is at the core of a famous argument conceived by Schrödinger in 1935. The main experimental challenge to the actual realization of this object resides generally in unavoidable and uncontrolled interactions with the environment, i.e., “decoherence,” leading to the cancellation of any evidence of the quantum features associated with the macroscopic system. The present scheme is based on a nonlinear process, “quantum-injected optical parametric amplification,”which, by a linearized cloning process maps the quantum coherence of a single-particle state, i.e., a microqubit, onto a macroqubit consisting of a large number $M$ of photons in quantum superposition. Since the adopted scheme was found resilient to decoherence, a MQS demonstration was carried out experimentally at room temperature with $M\ge {10}^4$. The result led to an extended study of quantum cloning, quantum amplification, and quantum decoherence. The related theory is outlined and several experiments are reviewed, such as the test of the “no-signaling theorem” and the dynamical interaction of the photon MQS with a Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition, the consideration of the microqubit-macroqubit entanglement regime is extended to macroqubit-macroqubit conditions. The MQS interference patterns for large $M$ are revealed in the experiment and bipartite microqubit-macroqubit entanglement was also demonstrated for a limited number of generated particles: $M\precsim 12$. Finally, the perspectives opened by this new method for further studies on quantum foundations and quantum measurement are considered.

Developments in the physics of 2D electron systems during the last decade revealed a new class of nonequilibrium phenomena in the presence of a moderately strong magnetic field. The hallmark of these phenomena is magnetoresistance oscillations generated by the external forces that drive the electron system out of equilibrium. The rich set of dramatic phenomena of this kind, discovered in high-mobility semiconductor nanostructures, includes, in particular, microwave radiation-induced resistance oscillations and zero-resistance states, as well as Hall field-induced resistance oscillations and associated zero-differential resistance states. The experimental manifestations of these phenomena and the unified theoretical framework for describing them in terms of a quantum kinetic equation are reviewed. This survey also contains a thorough discussion of the magnetotransport properties of 2D electrons in the linear-response regime, as well as an outlook on future directions, including related nonequilibrium phenomena in other 2D electron systems.

One of the best signatures of nonclassicality in a quantum system is the existence of correlations that have no classical counterpart. Different methods for quantifying the quantum and classical parts of correlations are among the more actively studied topics of quantum-information theory over the past decade. Entanglement is the most prominent of these correlations, but in many cases unentangled states exhibit nonclassical behavior too. Thus distinguishing quantum correlations other than entanglement provides a better division between the quantum and classical worlds, especially when considering mixed states. Here different notions of classical and quantum correlations quantified by quantum discord and other related measures are reviewed. In the first half, the mathematical properties of the measures of quantum correlations are reviewed, related to each other, and the classical-quantum division that is common among them is discussed. In the second half, it is shown that the measures identify and quantify the deviation from classicality in various quantum-information-processing tasks, quantum thermodynamics, open-system dynamics, and many-body physics. It is shown that in many cases quantum correlations indicate an advantage of quantum methods over classical ones.

Hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in the Universe. They are also, in principle, the most simple. Nonetheless, they display remarkable properties under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature that have fascinated theoreticians and experimentalists for over a century. Advances in computational methods have made it possible to elucidate ever more of their properties. Some of these methods that have been applied in recent years, in particular, those that perform simulations directly from the physical picture of electrons and ions, such as density functional theory and quantum Monte Carlo are reviewed. The predictions from such methods as applied to the phase diagram of hydrogen, with particular focus on the solid phases and the liquid-liquid transition are discussed. The predictions of ordered quantum states, including the possibilities of a low- or zero-temperature quantum fluid and high-temperature superconductivity are also considered. Finally, pure helium and hydrogen-helium mixtures, the latter which has particular relevance to planetary physics, are discussed.

This paper gives the 2010 self-consistent set of values of the basic constants and conversion factors of physics and chemistry recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) for international use. The 2010 adjustment takes into account the data considered in the 2006 adjustment as well as the data that became available from 1 January 2007, after the closing date of that adjustment, until 31 December 2010, the closing date of the new adjustment. Further, it describes in detail the adjustment of the values of the constants, including the selection of the final set of input data based on the results of least-squares analyses. The 2010 set replaces the previously recommended 2006 CODATA set and may also be found on the World Wide Web at physics.nist.gov/constants.