A new Collection by the Physical Review journals celebrates the 50th anniversary of the discovery of asymptotic freedom in quantum chromodynamics (QCD)—the theoretical basis for the strong force of nature that binds quarks and gluons into hadrons.

Reversible to irreversible (R-IR) transitions have been found in a wide variety of both soft and hard matter periodically driven collectively interacting systems that, after a certain number of driving cycles, organize into either a reversible state where the particle trajectories repeat during every or every few cycles or into a chaotic motion state. An overview of R-IR transitions including recent advances in the field is followed by a discussion of how the general framework of R-IR transitions could be applied to a much broader class of nonequilibrium systems in which periodic driving occurs, including not only soft and hard condensed matter systems, but also astrophysics, biological systems, and social systems.

The American Physical Society is conducting an international search for a new Lead Editor of Physical Review Research, our fully open access, peer-reviewed journal welcoming the full spectrum of research topics of interest to the physics and physics-adjacent communities.

The preparation of spin squeezing in cavity QED using a combination of unitary one-axis-twisting (OAT) and quantum nondemolition (QND) measurements is studied. Fundamental sources of decoherence are taken into account and simple criteria are provided that determine under which conditions either approach (OAT, QND, or a combination) should be used.

Point disorder introduced by high-energy electron irradiation suppresses the superconducting transition temperature in bulk single-crystal and thin-film Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ at nearly identical rates, suggesting that part of the residual resistivity in films comes from defects that do not contribute to superconducting pairbreaking

In contrast to periodic oscillators, detecting chaotic biological systems’ rhythmicity and interaction is difficult. This study detects a springtime diel diving pattern and a long-distance ($\sim$100-km) synchronization of bowhead whales via a nonlinear analysis of the largest fine-scale dive-depth dataset to date.

Progress in fabrication has greatly diminished the number of fluctuating defects that produce detrimental 1/$f$ noise in solid-state qubits. It is shown that coherence of clean qubits is controlled by only a few special defects, whose impact is determined by their fluctuation rates; removing these defects can lead to great improvements in the coherence properties of individual qubits and qubit ensembles.

A theoretical framework integrating quantum electrodynamics and first-principles electronic structure calculations is used to study near-field energy transfer between localized defects in solids. The results suggest breaking of selection rules in optical absorption at near field, relevant toward a novel optical memory protocol.

A coupled cluster method technique captures strong quantum-mechanical fluctuations of generalized Kitaev models and uncovers new insights into their complex phase diagrams.

A theoretical investigation delves into the existence of anomalous Peregrine solitons exhibiting ultrahigh amplitudes, embedded within both flat and periodic backgrounds, in a spatially nonuniform Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) endowed with helicoidal spin-orbit coupling. This exploration extends the frontiers of research, transitioning from the realm of nonlinear optics into the domain of BECs, thereby advancing our understanding of these unique solitonic phenomena.

Two preasymptotic space-filling curves can lead to Moiré patterns when shifted or twisted against each other. If the curves are taken to be electric conductors, inductive coupling shows local extrema at the Moiré points, and zero coupling is possible, too.

In recent decades, there has been significant interest in symmetry-breaking higher-order condensation, such as the condensation of electron quadruplets or sextuplets instead of pairs. This work goes beyond the symmetry discussion in composite orders and proposes a topological counterpart to this concept, where the system is topologically trivial at the level of original degrees of freedom, but the higher-composite-order counterflow modes of multiple components are topologically nontrivial.

The transport dynamics of self-propelled particles in polycrystalline structures with regularly arranged channels is analyzed, revealing a congestion pattern where particle density spontaneously becomes strongly inhomogeneous at high driving forces and inverse temperatures. It is demonstrated that particle current is maximized at moderate levels of diffusion, which helps avoid overcrowding by allowing particles to redistribute across channels.

How clusters of densely packed, soft droplets behave when subjected to stresses in external flow is discussed. The interplay between effective crystallization and melting and how it occurs differently in the populations of interior and rim droplets of the cluster is explored.

Turbulence is generated in a quantum gas with an internal spin degree of freedom by inducing chaotic dynamics of the spin state. In both numerical simulations and experiments of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates, the onset of turbulence is consistent with the transition from regular to chaotic local spin dynamics.

Driving the process of high harmonic generation (HHG) with coherent or incoherent radiation gives rise to the same spectrum, and it is shown that the quantum state of the field in HHG does not necessarily exhibit quantum optical coherence.

Self-heating effects are experimentally investigated in a graphene multiterminal Josephson junction and simulated using a resistively shunted Josephson junction network model. Self-heating is also shown to significantly influence the switching dynamics of this multiterminal system.

Motion in bounded domains represents a paradigm in several settings ranging from billiard dynamics to random walks on a finite lattice, with applications to relevant physical, ecological, and biological problems. A universal property involving the average of return times to the boundary is proposed. Mechanisms that lead to violations of universality, induced by boundary effects, are discussed and related to the spatial structure of the invariant measure.

A comprehensive theoretical framework for Bloch-oscillation-enhanced atom interferometry, validated by numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation, is presented. Design criteria to reach the fundamental efficiency and accuracy limits for large momentum transfer and neutral atom transport using optical lattices is established.

Fast movements of a continuous laser can excite elastic parabolic wakes when illuminating a plate. The quadratic dispersion law yields a physical behavior opposite to that of Kelvin wakes on a water surface.

The policy requires authors to explain where research data can be found starting Sept. 4.

The American Physical Society (APS) is pleased to announce that it will begin sponsoring Astrobites, a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy. This mutually beneficial collaboration aims to enhance the dissemination of research, educational resources, and career insights in the field of astronomy and astrophysics.

Log multifractality, a logarithmic scale invariance that emerges at the Anderson transition in infinite dimensions, is revealed through a random matrix description of quantum dynamics and eigenstate statistics.

A moment scaling spectrum analysis is presented for light propagating through weakly scattering slabs. The results reveal the occurrence of long-lived transients characterized by different degrees of anomalous and/or non-self-similar scaling of the intensity profiles, accompanied by a significant enhancement of the spread rate along the transverse directions despite the homogeneous and isotropic distribution of scatterers.

An intensity increase due to quantum dot occupation dynamics via temperature-tuned quasi-Fermi levels, together with saturation nonlinearity, produces a statistics manipulation from thermal Bose-Einstein statistics toward Poissonian statistics in broadband quantum dot superluminescent diodes, thus producing “silent white light” with a reduced second-order correlation coefficient.

A study allows for the computation of spectral and thermodynamic properties of correlated materials via dynamical functionals. Both a computational framework (an algorithmic-inversion method on sum over poles) and a theoretical advance (a dynamical Hubbard functional) enable obtaining state-of-the-art results for SrVO${}_3$, a much discussed and paradigmatic perovskite.

The computational power of higher-order quantum operations, or supermaps, is investigated through the lens of quantum query complexity. It is shown that the class of QC supermaps, which use quantum control to exhibit causal indefiniteness, cannot reduce the query complexity of Boolean functions. Nevertheless, when the number of queries is fixed, some functions can be computed with a better probability of success with more general causally indefinite supermaps.

In the noninteracting description of electrons in solids, space group symmetries play an essential role for the formation of spectral degeneracies in the Bloch bands and the associated band topology. Electron correlations, when exceeding the width of noninteracting bands, can localize the electrons and cause a Mott insulator. It’s demonstrated that the space group symmetries constrain the dispersion of zeros in the Mott insulator’s Green’s function, thereby opening a way for understanding electronic topology in the strongly correlated limit.

The generation of broadband squeezed states of light is crucial for quantum computing, quantum key distribution, precision measurements, and enhanced metrology. Traditionally achieved by nonlinear optical interactions, this article demonstrates this using semiconductor quantum dot lasers, which can offer improved squeezing performance. The research reveals an efficient amplitude squeezing as large as 3.1 dB at room temperature over a wide frequency range (3 GHz to 12 GHz). This result is supported by comprehensive stochastic simulations that align well with the experiments, underlining the potential of quantum dot lasers to advance quantum information technologies.

The generation of x-ray beams in the energy range from keV to MeV is an active research area, essential to the study of high-energy-density matter, to improve the understanding of inertial confinement fusion and astrophysical systems. An ultrabroad-band x-ray source, with photon energies from 10 keV to >1 MeV, based on a picosecond laser-driven plasma accelerator, is characterized and used to radiograph a gold half hohlraum with a high-density sphere inside with relevant characteristics for high-energy-density science and inertial confinement fusion.

An anomalous constitutive law of hydrogen bonds ($X$-H···$Y$) using a benchmark $ab$ $initio$ method is observed, whereby a donor $X$-H bond shortening notably leads to a pronounced redshift and enhanced intensity in IR spectra. As a manifestation of quantum effects caused by electronic correlations, such an anomalous constitutive law could be happening widely in nature and stimulate further exploration of research paradigms and experimental characterization techniques.

A unified view of two-qubit decay processes in the framework of waveguide quantum electrodynamics is provided, and the common origin of directional single-photon emission and directional two-photon bunching is revealed. A calculation technique normally used to analyze quantum field theories is proved to be extremely effective even in this context.

Incommensurate charge and spin density waves are discovered in the topological kagome antiferromagnet Mn${}_3$Sn. The properties and dynamics of these density waves are studied to understand the interplay between electron, spin, and topological properties.

The incommensurate magnetic spin textures within centrosymmetric single-crystal EuGa${}_{2.4}$Al${}_{1.6}$ are studied using resonant elastic x-ray scattering with full linear polarization analysis under no applied magnetic field. The findings unambiguously demonstrate a transition from a transverse spin density wave into a noncollinear elliptically modulated helical ground state with a large coexistence regime.

How the nonlinear dynamics of a self-propelling biomolecular condensate can be reduced to an incompressible linear system reminiscent of fluid mechanics is demonstrated. Using this framework, the criteria is interrogated to observe condensate dynamics.

A thermal heterojunction with two inverted, kinetically constrained models is established, demonstrating the manipulation of entanglement flows and its relation with quantum thermodynamics.

An extra dimension is found to connect topological superconductors to Weyl semimetals.

Coherent emission of a cold relativistic electron bunch passing through a counterpropagating strong laser pulse substantially modifies the radiation spectrum and enhances its low-frequency part by orders of magnitude. The derived analytical estimates are confirmed by 3D particle-in-cell simulations.

The degree of itineracy, given by the charge correlation functions and the weights of 5$f$${}^n$ configurations contributing to the intermediate valence ground state in intermetallic U compounds are provided by DFT + DMFT calculations based on energy-dependent photoemission data. This combination yields reliable values for the double counting correction $\mu$${}_{\text{dc}}$, Hubbard $U$${}_{\text{ff}}$, and Coulomb $J$, thereby enabling a reliable description of this class of compounds.

When determining the authorship list for your next paper, be generous yet disciplined.

APS has selected 156 Outstanding Referees for 2024 who have demonstrated exceptional work in the assessment of manuscripts published in the Physical Review journals. A full list of the Outstanding Referees is available online.

Three journals are excited to announce a new article type, “Perspectives,” to provide forward-looking views of cutting-edge science that has recently emerged or is enjoying renewed activity.