Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    The thermal vibrations of a carbon nanotube are directly measured in real time with high displacement sensitivity and fine time resolution, revealing dynamics undetected by previous time-averaged measurements.

    • Arthur W. Barnard
    • , Mian Zhang
    •  & Paul L. McEuen

  • Letter |

    A modelling framework is presented to determine the optimal layout and physical properties of networks in which the nodes and links have physical sizes and intersections between components is prohibited.

    • Nima Dehmamy
    • , Soodabeh Milanlouei
    •  & Albert-László Barabási

  • Letter |

    A fundamental electronic noise—beyond electronic thermal noise and voltage-activated shot noise—that is generated by temperature differences across nanoscale conductors is demonstrated, with possible implications for thermometry and electronics.

    • Ofir Shein Lumbroso
    • , Lena Simine
    •  & Oren Tal

  • Letter |

    A lithographic patterning and release method is used to create a dense, fluctuating, Brownian system of mobile colloidal kite- and dart-shaped Penrose tiles over large areas that retains quasi-crystalline order.

    • Po-Yuan Wang
    •  & Thomas G. Mason

  • Letter |

    The domain-wall structure and dynamics are found to enhance, rather than inhibit, the high-frequency performance of an intrinsically tunable material, obtaining ultralow loss and exceptional frequency selectivity.

    • Zongquan Gu
    • , Shishir Pandya
    •  & Jonathan E. Spanier

  • Letter |

    The career trajectories of around 30,000 artists, film directors and scientists show that individuals in each domain have ‘hot streaks’ during which their works have increased impact, despite showing no increase in productivity.

    • Lu Liu
    • , Yang Wang
    •  & Dashun Wang

  • Letter |

    Freezing on a spherical surface is shown to proceed by the sequestration of defects into 12 icosahedrally coordinated ‘seas’ that enable the formation of a crystalline ‘continent’ with long-range orientational order.

    • Rodrigo E. Guerra
    • , Colm P. Kelleher
    •  & Paul M. Chaikin

  • Letter |

    Satellite data and modelling reveal that tropical forest fragments have similar size distributions across continents, and that forest fragmentation is close to a critical point, beyond which fragment numbers will strongly increase.

    • Franziska Taubert
    • , Rico Fischer
    •  & Andreas Huth

  • Letter |

    The relaxation dynamics of granular materials is more like that of complex fluids than that of thermal glass-forming systems, owing to the absence of the ‘cage effect’.

    • Binquan Kou
    • , Yixin Cao
    •  & Yujie Wang

  • Letter |

    A relaxation oscillator incorporating nanoscale niobium dioxide memristors that exhibit both a current- and a temperature-controlled negative differential resistance produces chaotic dynamics that aid biomimetic computing.

    • Suhas Kumar
    • , John Paul Strachan
    •  & R. Stanley Williams

  • Article |

    A mesoscopic cellular automaton arising from a microscopic reaction–diffusion system as a function of skin thickness is observed in ocellated lizards, showing that cellular automata are not merely abstract computational systems, but can directly correspond to processes generated by biological evolution.

    • Liana Manukyan
    • , Sophie A. Montandon
    •  & Michel C. Milinkovitch

  • Letter |

    The gradual development of a turbulent cascade in a weakly interacting homogeneous Bose gas is observed on application of a periodic driving force.

    • Nir Navon
    • , Alexander L. Gaunt
    •  & Zoran Hadzibabic

  • Letter |

    Lattices of cubic building blocks that deform anisotropically and that are designed to fit together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle are 3D printed to create aperiodic, frustration-free, mechanical metamaterials; these metamaterials act as programmable shape-shifters and are able to perform pattern analysis.

    • Corentin Coulais
    • , Eial Teomy
    •  & Martin van Hecke

  • Letter |

    Ablation cooling is demonstrated as an effective means of removing material using successive bursts of laser pulses with short intraburst delay times; the technique allows the overall pulse energy to be decreased, overcoming negative thermal effects during the ablation process.

    • Can Kerse
    • , Hamit Kalaycıoğlu
    •  & Fatih Ömer Ilday

  • Letter |

    An analytical method of determining the mean first-passage time (the time taken by a random walker in confinement to reach a target point) is presented for a Gaussian non-Markovian random walker, thus revealing the importance of memory effects in first-passage statistics.

    • T. Guérin
    • , N. Levernier
    •  & R. Voituriez

  • Letter |

    Molecular dynamics simulations of 90° domain walls in PbTiO3 are used to construct a nucleation-and-growth-based analytical model that quantifies the dynamics of many types of domain walls in various ferroelectrics, suggesting intrinsic domain-wall motion as a universal mechanism for ferroelectric switching.

    • Shi Liu
    • , Ilya Grinberg
    •  & Andrew M. Rappe

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    The growth of nucleated organic particles has been investigated in controlled laboratory experiments under atmospheric conditions; initial growth is driven by organic vapours of extremely low volatility, and accelerated by more abundant vapours of slightly higher volatility, leading to markedly different modelled concentrations of atmospheric cloud condensation nuclei when this growth mechanism is taken into account.

    • Jasmin Tröstl
    • , Wayne K. Chuang
    •  & Urs Baltensperger

  • Letter |

    Dense suspensions of hard granular particles can transform from liquid-like to solid-like when perturbed; a state diagram is mapped out that reveals how this transformation can occur via dynamic jamming at sufficiently large shear stress while leaving the particle density unchanged.

    • Ivo R. Peters
    • , Sayantan Majumdar
    •  & Heinrich M. Jaeger

  • Brief Communication |

    • Jeremy C. Palmer
    • , Fausto Martelli
    •  & Pablo G. Debenedetti

  • Letter |

    An analytical framework is proposed for a complex network to accurately predict its dynamic resilience and unveil the network characteristics that can enhance or diminish resilience.

    • Jianxi Gao
    • , Baruch Barzel
    •  & Albert-László Barabási

  • Letter |

    A diverse range of molecular and genetic manipulations all alter lifespan distributions of Caenorhabditis elegans by an apparent stretching or shrinking of time.

    • Nicholas Stroustrup
    • , Winston E. Anthony
    •  & Walter Fontana

  • Letter |

    Experiments, asymptotic theory and computer simulations of wall-bounded shear flow uncover a bifurcation scenario that explains the transition from localized turbulent patches to fully turbulent flow.

    • Dwight Barkley
    • , Baofang Song
    •  & Björn Hof

  • Letter |

    Zero-temperature quantum phase transitions and their associated quantum critical points are believed to underpin the exotic finite-temperature behaviours of many strongly correlated electronic systems, but identifying the microscopic origins of these transitions can be challenging and controversial; Keller et al. (see also the related paper by Iftikhar et al.) show how such behaviours can be engineered into nanoelectronic quantum dots, which permit both precise experimental control of the quantum critical behaviour and its exact theoretical characterization.

    • A. J. Keller
    • , L. Peeters
    •  & D. Goldhaber-Gordon

  • Letter |

    A particle accelerator that is two orders of magnitude more efficient than conventional radio-frequency accelerators is described in which positrons (rather than electrons) at the front of a bunch transfer their energy to a substantial number of positrons at the rear of the same bunch by exciting a wakefield in the plasma.

    • S. Corde
    • , E. Adli
    •  & G. Yocky

  • Letter |

    A rigorous method to determine the most influential superspreaders in complex networks is presented—involving the mapping of the problem onto optimal percolation along with a scalable algorithm for big-data social networks—showing, unexpectedly, that many weak nodes can be powerful influencers.

    • Flaviano Morone
    •  & Hernán A. Makse

  • Letter |

    A stable crystal phase and two metastable liquid phases of the ST2 model of water exist at the same deeply supercooled condition, and the two liquids undergo a first-order liquid–liquid transition that meets stringent thermodynamic criteria.

    • Jeremy C. Palmer
    • , Fausto Martelli
    •  & Pablo G. Debenedetti

  • Letter |

    An ultracold gas of erbium atoms is shown to have many scattering resonances whose quantum fluctuations exhibit chaotic behaviour resulting from the anisotropy of the atoms’ interactions.

    • Albert Frisch
    • , Michael Mark
    •  & Svetlana Kotochigova

  • Letter |

    Populations of millions of colloidal rolling particles are shown to self-organize to achieve coherent motion; comparison between experiment and theory based on the microscopic interactions between these ‘rollers’ suggests that hydrodynamic interactions promote the emergence of the collective motion.

    • Antoine Bricard
    • , Jean-Baptiste Caussin
    •  & Denis Bartolo

  • Perspective |

    Strongly connected and interdependent networks create risks of global-scale catastrophic failure; to make networked risks more manageable, it is suggested to establish a ‘Global Systems Science’.

    • Dirk Helbing

  • News & Views |

    A thermal effect predicted more than 40 years ago was nearly forgotten, while a related phenomenon stole the limelight. Now experimentally verified, the effect could spur the development of heat-controlling devices. See Letter p.401

    • Raymond W. Simmonds

  • News & Views |

    Magnetic particles have been made that undergo synchronized oscillations when suspended in liquid in a rotating magnetic field. This discovery links the fields of nonlinear dynamics and materials science. See Letter p.578

    • Sabine H. L. Klapp

  • News & Views |

    Logic gates are the elementary building blocks of computers. The finding that a single logic gate may drive a refrigerator is a beautiful demonstration that information-processing devices can have useful thermodynamic properties.

    • Renato Renner

  • Letter |

    Collective motion is a ubiquitous self-organization phenomenon that can be observed in systems ranging from flocks of animals to the cytoskeleton. Similarities between these systems suggest that there are universal underlying principles. This idea can be tested with 'active' or 'driven' fluids, but so far such systems have offered limited parameter control. Here, an active fluid is studied that contains only a few components — actin filaments and molecular motors — allowing the control of all relevant system parameters.

    • Volker Schaller
    • , Christoph Weber
    •  & Andreas R. Bausch

  • News & Views |

    A simple model highlights the pros and cons of chasing — and escaping — in groups. It shows that, for a given number of prey animals, an optimal number of predators exists that maximizes the success of the catch.

    • Tamás Vicsek

  • News & Views |

    Optoelectronic circuits with delayed feedback provide a convenient bench-top platform to study a wide range of nonlinear dynamic systems, from ultrastable clocks to complex chaotic devices.

    • Laurent Larger
    •  & John M. Dudley

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