Pub Date : 2026-02-13DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03206-6
One hundred years ago, Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac worked out how fermions distribute across the quantum states available to them. Their intuition laid the statistical foundation for the study of systems ranging from solids to white dwarfs.
{"title":"Structure by exclusion","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03206-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41567-026-03206-6","url":null,"abstract":"One hundred years ago, Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac worked out how fermions distribute across the quantum states available to them. Their intuition laid the statistical foundation for the study of systems ranging from solids to white dwarfs.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"22 2","pages":"173-173"},"PeriodicalIF":18.4,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-026-03206-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146176696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-13DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03168-9
Alex R. Jones, Ian S. Gilmore, Peter L. Knight
Quantum technologies could be transformative for healthcare. Alex Jones, Ian Gilmore and Peter Knight discuss the role of metrology in the adoption of these technologies.
量子技术可能会给医疗保健带来变革。Alex Jones， Ian Gilmore和Peter Knight讨论了计量在采用这些技术中的作用。
{"title":"Quantum metrology for human health","authors":"Alex R. Jones, Ian S. Gilmore, Peter L. Knight","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03168-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41567-026-03168-9","url":null,"abstract":"Quantum technologies could be transformative for healthcare. Alex Jones, Ian Gilmore and Peter Knight discuss the role of metrology in the adoption of these technologies.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"22 2","pages":"331-331"},"PeriodicalIF":18.4,"publicationDate":"2026-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146176705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Metamaterials offer unprecedented control over wave propagation, but suffer from optical losses due to wave dissipation, particularly in optical imaging and sensing systems. Recent advances leveraging complex-frequency wave excitations with temporal attenuation offer promising solutions for optical loss compensation. However, this approach faces limitations in extreme loss scenarios. The complex-frequency wave requires sufficient temporal attenuation to offset material loss, inevitably triggering rapid signal decay to zero before reaching a quasi-static state. Here we engineer excitations with high-order temporal attenuation to slow down the decay rate. This allows the signal to persist for long enough to reach a quasi-static state and preserve the loss compensation efficiency. We experimentally demonstrate 20-fold noise suppression in plasmonic resonance systems compared with conventional complex-frequency excitations. This approach offers broad applicability across diverse fields, including imaging, biosensing and integrated photonic signal processing.
{"title":"High-order virtual gain for optical loss compensation in plasmonic metamaterials","authors":"Fuxin Guan, Zemeng Lin, Sixin Chen, Xinhua Wen, Tao Li, Shuang Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03171-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03171-0","url":null,"abstract":"Metamaterials offer unprecedented control over wave propagation, but suffer from optical losses due to wave dissipation, particularly in optical imaging and sensing systems. Recent advances leveraging complex-frequency wave excitations with temporal attenuation offer promising solutions for optical loss compensation. However, this approach faces limitations in extreme loss scenarios. The complex-frequency wave requires sufficient temporal attenuation to offset material loss, inevitably triggering rapid signal decay to zero before reaching a quasi-static state. Here we engineer excitations with high-order temporal attenuation to slow down the decay rate. This allows the signal to persist for long enough to reach a quasi-static state and preserve the loss compensation efficiency. We experimentally demonstrate 20-fold noise suppression in plasmonic resonance systems compared with conventional complex-frequency excitations. This approach offers broad applicability across diverse fields, including imaging, biosensing and integrated photonic signal processing.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":19.6,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-10DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03175-w
Jason Barckicke, Eric Falcon, Christophe Gissinger
Kelvin waves are the most fundamental excitations that propagate along vortex lines, and they play a central role in the redistribution of energy and the stability of rotating flows. They are believed to underpin key processes in both classical and quantum turbulence, from the decay of vortex tangles in superfluid helium to dissipation mechanisms in atmospheric vortices. Despite their importance, quantitative observations of Kelvin wave dynamics that resolve their dispersion relation remain a challenging problem. Here we experimentally characterize the propagation of Kelvin waves along a stable, controlled and macroscopic vortex core and access their dispersion relation. Our spatiotemporal measurements, spanning nearly two decades in scale, reveal both helical bending modes and double-helix waves, which validates theoretical predictions for turbulent rotating flows. We also observe the statistics of temporal fluctuations of Kelvin waves and show how their dynamics are shaped by local vortex properties, such as vertical flow and excitation location. Our results provide quantitative insight into the mechanisms driving energy cascades in Kelvin wave turbulence, thus offering a classical analogue to quantum systems in which direct measurements remain inaccessible. Beyond this fundamental relevance, they also shed light on the dynamics of large-scale vortices, from intermittent tornado behaviour to the stability of aircraft wake vortices.
{"title":"Kelvin wave propagation along vortex cores","authors":"Jason Barckicke, Eric Falcon, Christophe Gissinger","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03175-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03175-w","url":null,"abstract":"Kelvin waves are the most fundamental excitations that propagate along vortex lines, and they play a central role in the redistribution of energy and the stability of rotating flows. They are believed to underpin key processes in both classical and quantum turbulence, from the decay of vortex tangles in superfluid helium to dissipation mechanisms in atmospheric vortices. Despite their importance, quantitative observations of Kelvin wave dynamics that resolve their dispersion relation remain a challenging problem. Here we experimentally characterize the propagation of Kelvin waves along a stable, controlled and macroscopic vortex core and access their dispersion relation. Our spatiotemporal measurements, spanning nearly two decades in scale, reveal both helical bending modes and double-helix waves, which validates theoretical predictions for turbulent rotating flows. We also observe the statistics of temporal fluctuations of Kelvin waves and show how their dynamics are shaped by local vortex properties, such as vertical flow and excitation location. Our results provide quantitative insight into the mechanisms driving energy cascades in Kelvin wave turbulence, thus offering a classical analogue to quantum systems in which direct measurements remain inaccessible. Beyond this fundamental relevance, they also shed light on the dynamics of large-scale vortices, from intermittent tornado behaviour to the stability of aircraft wake vortices.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"315 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":19.6,"publicationDate":"2026-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-09DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03177-8
Yuejun Shen, Chutian Chen, Haoran Ma, Ashley P. Saunders, Christian Heide, Fang Liu, Grant M. Rotskoff, Jiaojian Shi, Aaron M. Lindenberg
The work required to drive a system from one state to another comprises both the equilibrium free energy difference and the dissipation associated with irreversibility. As physical processes—such as computing—approach fast limits, calculating this excess dissipation becomes increasingly critical. Yet, precisely quantifying dissipation, more specifically, entropy production, in strongly driven, time-dependent, realistic nanoscale systems remains a considerable challenge. Consequently, previous studies have largely been limited to either idealized Markovian systems under time-dependent driving or non-Markovian steady-state systems under constant driving. Here we measure the full dynamics of trajectory-level entropy production in a non-stationary, non-Markovian material arising from time-dependent driving. We use machine learning to extract the entropy produced by a quantum dot stochastically blinking under a stepwise control protocol. The entropy produced corresponds to the loss of memory in the material as the carrier distribution evolves. In addition, our approach quantifies both information insertion and dissipation under a quenched protocol. This work demonstrates a simple and effective approach for visualizing dissipation dynamics following a fast quench and serves as a stepping stone towards optimizing energy costs in the control of real materials and devices.
{"title":"Non-equilibrium entropy production and information dissipation in a non-Markovian quantum dot","authors":"Yuejun Shen, Chutian Chen, Haoran Ma, Ashley P. Saunders, Christian Heide, Fang Liu, Grant M. Rotskoff, Jiaojian Shi, Aaron M. Lindenberg","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03177-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03177-8","url":null,"abstract":"The work required to drive a system from one state to another comprises both the equilibrium free energy difference and the dissipation associated with irreversibility. As physical processes—such as computing—approach fast limits, calculating this excess dissipation becomes increasingly critical. Yet, precisely quantifying dissipation, more specifically, entropy production, in strongly driven, time-dependent, realistic nanoscale systems remains a considerable challenge. Consequently, previous studies have largely been limited to either idealized Markovian systems under time-dependent driving or non-Markovian steady-state systems under constant driving. Here we measure the full dynamics of trajectory-level entropy production in a non-stationary, non-Markovian material arising from time-dependent driving. We use machine learning to extract the entropy produced by a quantum dot stochastically blinking under a stepwise control protocol. The entropy produced corresponds to the loss of memory in the material as the carrier distribution evolves. In addition, our approach quantifies both information insertion and dissipation under a quenched protocol. This work demonstrates a simple and effective approach for visualizing dissipation dynamics following a fast quench and serves as a stepping stone towards optimizing energy costs in the control of real materials and devices.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":19.6,"publicationDate":"2026-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146152302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-04DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-03154-7
Archishna Bhattacharyya, Eric Culf
The laws of quantum physics mean that prominent classical cryptographic protocols can be broken using quantum computers, but they also permit security guarantees that are classically impossible. For example, quantum states cannot be cloned, which restricts the capabilities of any adversary. Here we show that uncloneable encryption exists with no computational assumptions, with security approaching the ideal value as an inverse-polynomial function of the security parameter. With this scheme, two non-interacting adversaries cannot both learn an encrypted message, even if they are both given the encryption key. Our proof uses the properties of a monogamy-of-entanglement game associated with the Haar measure encryption. Using this connection, we show that any state that succeeds with high probability cannot be close to being maximally entangled between the referee and either of the adversaries. The decoupling principle then implies that either adversary becomes completely uncorrelated and, therefore, cannot win significantly better than random guessing. Quantum correlations enable some cryptographic protocols that are classically impossible. Now the security of an uncloneable encryption scheme using quantum systems has been proven.
{"title":"Uncloneable encryption from decoupling","authors":"Archishna Bhattacharyya, Eric Culf","doi":"10.1038/s41567-025-03154-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41567-025-03154-7","url":null,"abstract":"The laws of quantum physics mean that prominent classical cryptographic protocols can be broken using quantum computers, but they also permit security guarantees that are classically impossible. For example, quantum states cannot be cloned, which restricts the capabilities of any adversary. Here we show that uncloneable encryption exists with no computational assumptions, with security approaching the ideal value as an inverse-polynomial function of the security parameter. With this scheme, two non-interacting adversaries cannot both learn an encrypted message, even if they are both given the encryption key. Our proof uses the properties of a monogamy-of-entanglement game associated with the Haar measure encryption. Using this connection, we show that any state that succeeds with high probability cannot be close to being maximally entangled between the referee and either of the adversaries. The decoupling principle then implies that either adversary becomes completely uncorrelated and, therefore, cannot win significantly better than random guessing. Quantum correlations enable some cryptographic protocols that are classically impossible. Now the security of an uncloneable encryption scheme using quantum systems has been proven.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"22 2","pages":"315-318"},"PeriodicalIF":18.4,"publicationDate":"2026-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-04DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03169-8
Prabhanjan Ananth
Quantum states cannot be copied, which could enable encryption schemes that are impossible classically. Now, substantial progress has been made towards a practical uncloneable encryption protocol using ideas from quantum information theory.
{"title":"Classically impossible cryptography","authors":"Prabhanjan Ananth","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03169-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41567-026-03169-8","url":null,"abstract":"Quantum states cannot be copied, which could enable encryption schemes that are impossible classically. Now, substantial progress has been made towards a practical uncloneable encryption protocol using ideas from quantum information theory.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"22 2","pages":"184-185"},"PeriodicalIF":18.4,"publicationDate":"2026-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emergent non-reciprocity in active matter drives the formation of self-organized states that transcend the behaviours of equilibrium systems. Here we show that active solids composed of living starfish embryos spontaneously transition between stable fluctuating and stable oscillatory steady states. The non-equilibrium steady states arise from two distinct chiral symmetry-breaking mechanisms at the microscopic scale: the spinning of individual embryos resulting in a macroscopic odd elastic response and the precession of their rotation axis leading to active gyroelasticity. In the oscillatory state, we observe long-wavelength optical vibrational modes that can be excited through mechanical perturbations. These excitable non-reciprocal solids exhibit non-equilibrium work generation without cycling protocols, due to coupled vibrational modes. Our work introduces a new class of tunable non-equilibrium processes and offers a framework for designing and controlling soft robotic swarms and adaptive active materials while opening new possibilities for harnessing non-reciprocal interactions in engineered systems.
{"title":"Selective excitation of work-generating cycles in non-reciprocal living solids","authors":"Yu-Chen Chao, Shreyas Gokhale, Lisa Lin, Alasdair Hastewell, Alexandru Bacanu, Yuchao Chen, Junang Li, Jinghui Liu, Hyunseok Lee, Jörn Dunkel, Nikta Fakhri","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03178-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03178-7","url":null,"abstract":"Emergent non-reciprocity in active matter drives the formation of self-organized states that transcend the behaviours of equilibrium systems. Here we show that active solids composed of living starfish embryos spontaneously transition between stable fluctuating and stable oscillatory steady states. The non-equilibrium steady states arise from two distinct chiral symmetry-breaking mechanisms at the microscopic scale: the spinning of individual embryos resulting in a macroscopic odd elastic response and the precession of their rotation axis leading to active gyroelasticity. In the oscillatory state, we observe long-wavelength optical vibrational modes that can be excited through mechanical perturbations. These excitable non-reciprocal solids exhibit non-equilibrium work generation without cycling protocols, due to coupled vibrational modes. Our work introduces a new class of tunable non-equilibrium processes and offers a framework for designing and controlling soft robotic swarms and adaptive active materials while opening new possibilities for harnessing non-reciprocal interactions in engineered systems.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"275 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":19.6,"publicationDate":"2026-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146102081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-03DOI: 10.1038/s41567-026-03173-y
Bruno Bertini
Using classical operations to reverse the effects of noise, current quantum devices can outperform classical computers in simulating the dynamics of a chaotic quantum system.
使用经典操作来逆转噪声的影响，当前的量子设备在模拟混沌量子系统的动力学方面可以胜过经典计算机。
{"title":"Mitigated chaos","authors":"Bruno Bertini","doi":"10.1038/s41567-026-03173-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41567-026-03173-y","url":null,"abstract":"Using classical operations to reverse the effects of noise, current quantum devices can outperform classical computers in simulating the dynamics of a chaotic quantum system.","PeriodicalId":19100,"journal":{"name":"Nature Physics","volume":"22 2","pages":"182-183"},"PeriodicalIF":18.4,"publicationDate":"2026-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146115682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：