Physics Reports最新文献

{"title":"Optically assisted ultrafast spintronics: A review","authors":"Surya Narain Dikshit ,&nbsp;Arshid Nisar ,&nbsp;Brahmdutta Dixit ,&nbsp;Baljinder Kaur ,&nbsp;Alok Kumar Shukla ,&nbsp;Ashutosh Kumar ,&nbsp;Junyang Chen ,&nbsp;Jian-Ping Wang ,&nbsp;Himanshu Fulara ,&nbsp;Brajesh Kumar Kaushik","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.07.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.07.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>All-optical switching (AOS) has emerged as a promising technique, utilizing ultrafast lasers with femto or picosecond-pulse durations for modulating magnetization without the use of magnetic fields. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in AOS, focusing on achieving sub-picosecond magnetization reversal in a diverse range of materials, including ferri-magnetic alloys, synthetic ferri-magnets, ferromagnetic multilayers, Heusler alloys, and 2D materials. These materials exhibit remarkable potential for the development of optically driven spintronics devices, offering ultrafast and energy-efficient solutions for circuits and systems, and promising avenues for future photonic integrated circuits. This article also delves into recent advances in opto-spintronic devices, examining their utilization in energy-efficient memory, logic circuits, neuromorphic computing, and terahertz applications. Despite the promising prospects, the integration of opto-spintronic systems into mainstream microelectronic platforms faces several challenges. This review comprehensively discusses these challenges at both the device and system levels, offering insights into potential solutions and future perspectives. By consolidating recent developments and identifying ongoing challenges, this review aims to contribute to the understanding and advancement of AOS in the context of opto-spintronics, paving the way for the next generation of ultrafast and energy-efficient spintronic devices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1140 ","pages":"Pages 1-46"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653832","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}

{"title":"Corrigendum to “Six decades of the FitzHugh–Nagumo model: A guide through its spatio-temporal dynamics and influence across disciplines” [Phys. Rep. 1096 (2024) 1–39]","authors":"Daniel Cebrián-Lacasa ,&nbsp;Pedro Parra-Rivas ,&nbsp;Daniel Ruiz-Reynés ,&nbsp;Lendert Gelens","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1140 ","pages":"Pages 47-48"},"PeriodicalIF":29.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895018","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}

{"title":"Subharmonic modulational instabilities","authors":"Wen-Rong Sun ,&nbsp;Boris A. Malomed","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.07.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.07.001","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Benjamin and Feir in 1967 demonstrated that Stokes waves in deep water are unstable against longitudinal sideband perturbations, and this instability leads to the transformation of an initial periodic wave train into a chain of wave packets. Nowadays, this phenomenon is known as the Benjamin–Feir or modulational instability (MI), with a more general definition. In particular, it may be the &lt;em&gt;subharmonic instability&lt;/em&gt;, when periodic wave trains are unstable against perturbations whose spatial period is a multiple of the underlying wave-train’s period. MI is well known as a ubiquitous effect occurring in diverse fields, such as water waves, plasmas, optics and photonics, and Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs). One can examine the initial (i.e., linear) stage of the MI development by the linearization of the governing equations for small perturbations around the initial (unperturbed) periodic wave train. The linearization ceases to be valid when the growing amplitude of the perturbations becomes comparable to the amplitude of the unperturbed periodic wave trains, which makes investigation of the nonlinear stage of the MI-driven dynamics necessary. It is well known that the nonlinear evolution of MI leads to the formation of localized structures, such as solitons, breathers and rogue waves (RWs). Another essential type of the instability is the high-frequency MI (HFMI), which also originates from the water-wave theory and has been extended to other fields of physics. Similar to the classical MI (alias the low-frequency MI (LFMI)), HFMI may also be viewed as a subharmonic instability of periodic wave trains, but with a very small growth rate and narrow intervals of the Floquet exponents in which HFMI occurs. In this review, we mainly focus on the linear and nonlinear dynamics of periodic wave trains in integrable and nearly integrable systems, including the linear and nonlinear stage of the MI development and investigation of the subharmonic MI. &lt;strong&gt;First&lt;/strong&gt;, we review findings concerning HFMI in fluid dynamics. Subsequently, we address outcomes of HFMI in various physical fields produced by the universal nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation, complemented by a spatially periodic potential. &lt;strong&gt;Second&lt;/strong&gt;, we review discoveries regarding MI of cnoidal waves in nearly integrable and non-integrable systems, drawing insights from the consideration of the long-wave-short-wave resonance equation and universal &lt;span&gt;&lt;math&gt;&lt;msup&gt;&lt;mrow&gt;&lt;mi&gt;ϕ&lt;/mi&gt;&lt;/mrow&gt;&lt;mrow&gt;&lt;mn&gt;4&lt;/mn&gt;&lt;/mrow&gt;&lt;/msup&gt;&lt;/math&gt;&lt;/span&gt; equation. In addition to that, we summarize analytical results pertaining to MI and modulational stability of cnoidal waves in some integrable systems. &lt;strong&gt;Third&lt;/strong&gt;, we review results for the nonlinear stage of the MI development, by introducing exact correspondence between MI and the formation of localized waves, including RWs with ultra-high peak amplitudes in the baseband-MI regime, and the formation of RWs in the zero-wave","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1139 ","pages":"Pages 1-62"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144631965","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}

{"title":"Undecidability in physics: A review","authors":"Álvaro Perales-Eceiza ,&nbsp;Toby Cubitt ,&nbsp;Mile Gu ,&nbsp;David Pérez-García ,&nbsp;Michael M. Wolf","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study of undecidability in problems arising from physics has experienced a renewed interest, mainly in connection with quantum information problems. The goal of this review is to survey this recent development. After a historical introduction, we first explain the necessary results about undecidability in mathematics and computer science. Then we briefly review the first results about undecidability in physics which emerged mostly in the 80s and early 90s. Finally, we focus on the most recent contributions, which we divide in two main categories: many body systems and quantum information problems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1138 ","pages":"Pages 1-29"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144605419","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}

{"title":"Persistent currents in ultracold gases","authors":"J. Polo ,&nbsp;W.J. Chetcuti ,&nbsp;T. Haug ,&nbsp;A. Minguzzi ,&nbsp;K. Wright ,&nbsp;L. Amico","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Persistent currents flowing in spatially closed tracks define one of the most iconic concepts in mesoscopic physics. They have been studied in solid-state platforms such as superfluids, superconductors and metals. Cold atoms trapped in magneto-optical toroidal circuits and driven by suitable artificial gauge fields allow us to study persistent currents with unprecedented control and flexibility of the system’s physical conditions. Here, we review persistent currents of ultracold matter. Capitalizing on the remarkable progress in driving different atomic species to quantum degeneracy, persistent currents of single or multicomponent bosons/fermions, and their mixtures can be addressed within the present experimental know-how. This way, fundamental concepts of quantum science and many-body physics, like macroscopic quantum coherence, solitons, vortex dynamics, fermionic pairing and BEC-BCS crossover can be studied from a novel perspective. Finally, we discuss how persistent currents can form the basis of new technological applications like matter-wave gyroscopes and interferometers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1137 ","pages":"Pages 1-70"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579642","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}

{"title":"Introduction to correlation networks: Interdisciplinary approaches beyond thresholding","authors":"Naoki Masuda ,&nbsp;Zachary M. Boyd ,&nbsp;Diego Garlaschelli ,&nbsp;Peter J. Mucha","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many empirical networks originate from correlational data, arising in domains as diverse as psychology, neuroscience, genomics, microbiology, finance, and climate science. Specialized algorithms and theory have been developed in different application domains for working with such networks, as well as in statistics, network science, and computer science, often with limited communication between practitioners in different fields. This leaves significant room for cross-pollination across disciplines. A central challenge is that it is not always clear how to best transform correlation matrix data into networks for the application at hand, and probably the most widespread method, i.e., thresholding on the correlation value to create either unweighted or weighted networks, suffers from multiple problems. In this article, we review various methods of constructing and analyzing correlation networks, ranging from thresholding and its improvements to weighted networks, regularization, dynamic correlation networks, threshold-free approaches, comparison with null models, and more. Finally, we propose and discuss recommended practices and a variety of key open questions currently confronting this field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1136 ","pages":"Pages 1-39"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517941","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}

{"title":"Progress in reactions, momentum transfer, and energy transfer processes for nanoparticles in processing non-thermal plasmas","authors":"Chenxi Li ,&nbsp;Franko Greiner ,&nbsp;Xiaoshuang Chen ,&nbsp;Christopher J. Hogan","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.06.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nanoparticles can form and grow from vapor phase precursors within processing non-thermal plasmas (NTPs). In physical and chemical vapor deposition NTPs, such particles can act as contaminants, and measures need to be taken to either avoid their formation, or to prevent their deposition onto product thin films. NTPs can also be used to intentionally synthesize nanomaterials at industrially scalable levels. In both instances, nanoparticle behavior and the effects nanoparticles may have on the plasma depend upon particle interactions with the surrounding plasma species and neutral gas. Understanding and predicting the behavior of nanoparticles in NTPs requires the development of models for collision limited reactions, momentum transfer, and energy transfer between particles, electron, ions, photons, and neutral gas. As NTPs can be operated at a wide range of pressures, these transport processes occur over a wide range of collisionalities, and are also strongly influenced by both short range and long range potential interactions. The purpose of this review is to compile state-of-the-art knowledge in predicting the behavior of nanoparticles in plasmas with an emphasis on charging, momentum transfer, and energy transfer processes between particles and the surrounding plasma environment. Model development for nanoparticle reactivity and transport in NTPs lies at the interface of dusty plasma physics and aerosol physics, and efforts are made throughout the review to present, intercompare, and blend approaches from these two, often distinct research communities. The review begins by introducing applications and instances where nanoparticles are encountered in NTPs, and subsequently introduces multidimensional nanoparticle population balance modeling. Solution to population balance modeling highlights the need to develop accurate nanoparticle charging rate models, momentum transfer models, and energy transfer models, which are then discussed in successive chapters. Modeling approaches to examine the evolution of particle size distributions in plasmas are discussed, as are the effects of passage through plasma afterglows. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion of nanoparticle voids and waves which can form in NTPs, and an overview of in-situ and extractive measurement techniques to characterize nanoparticle size distributions, number densities, and charge levels. This review is intended both for the aerosol research community as an introduction to the unique aspects of nanoparticle behavior in non-equilibrium environments, and for the plasma community, introducing models arising from predicting the behavior of aerosols, which can be expanded to predict nanoparticle behavior in NTPs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1135 ","pages":"Pages 1-73"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144490598","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}

{"title":"Review: Quantum metrology and sensing with many-body systems","authors":"Victor Montenegro ,&nbsp;Chiranjib Mukhopadhyay ,&nbsp;Rozhin Yousefjani ,&nbsp;Saubhik Sarkar ,&nbsp;Utkarsh Mishra ,&nbsp;Matteo G.A. Paris ,&nbsp;Abolfazl Bayat","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Quantum systems, fabricated across various spatial scales from nano to micrometers, are very delicate and naturally sensitive to the variations of their environment. These features make them excellent candidates for serving as sensors with wide range of applications. Indeed, the exceptional precision of quantum sensors arises from their compact size and inherent sensitivity, enabling measurements with unprecedented accuracy within highly localized regions. A key advantage of quantum sensors lies in their resource efficiency, as their achievable precision can scale super-linearly with respect to resources, such as system size, in contrast to the linear scaling characteristic of classical sensors. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as quantum-enhanced sensitivity, fundamentally depends on exploiting uniquely quantum mechanical features, including superposition, entanglement, and squeezing. Originally, quantum sensing was formulated for particles prepared in a special form of entangled states. Yet, certain realization of these probes may be susceptible to decoherence and interaction between particles may also be detrimental to their performance. An alternative framework for quantum sensing has been developed through exploiting quantum many-body systems, where the interaction between particles plays a crucial role. In this review, we investigate different aspects of the latter approach for quantum metrology and sensing. Many-body probes have been used for sensing purposes in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium scenarios. Quantum criticality, as a well-studied subject in many-body physics, has been identified as a resource for achieving quantum-enhanced sensitivity in both of these scenarios. In equilibrium, various types of criticalities, such as first order, second order, topological, and localization phase transitions have been exploited for sensing purposes. In non-equilibrium scenarios, quantum-enhanced sensitivity has been discovered for Floquet, dissipative, and time crystal phase transitions. While each type of these criticalities, either in equilibrium or non-equilibrium scenarios, has its own characteristics, the presence of one feature is crucial for achieving quantum-enhanced sensitivity and that is energy/quasi-energy gap closing. In non-equilibrium quantum sensing, time becomes another parameter which can affect the sensitivity of the probe. Typically, the sensitivity enhances as the probe evolves in time. In this review, we provide an overview on recent progresses on different aspects of quantum metrology and sensing with many-body systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1134 ","pages":"Pages 1-62"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223360","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}

{"title":"Three-dimensional Abelian and non-Abelian gauge Higgs theories","authors":"Claudio Bonati ,&nbsp;Andrea Pelissetto ,&nbsp;Ettore Vicari","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gauge symmetries and Higgs mechanisms are key features of theories describing high-energy particle physics and collective phenomena in statistical and condensed-matter physics. In this review we address the collective behavior of systems of multicomponent scalar fields interacting with gauge fields, which can be already present in the underlying microscopic system or emerge only at criticality. The interplay between local gauge and global symmetries determines the phase diagram, the nature of the Higgs phases, and the nature of phase transitions between the high-temperature disordered and the low-temperature Higgs phases. However, additional crucial features determine the universal properties of the critical behavior at continuous transitions. Specifically, their nature also depends on the role played by the gauge modes at criticality. Effective (Abelian or non-Abelian) gauge Higgs field theories emerge when gauge modes develop critical correlations. On the other hand, a more standard critical behavior, which admits an effective description in terms of Landau–Ginzburg–Wilson <span><math><msup><mrow><mi>Φ</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup></math></span> theories, occurs when gauge-field modes are short ranged at the transition. In the latter case, gauge fields only prevent non-gauge invariant correlation functions from becoming critical. This review covers the recent progress made in the study of Higgs systems with Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields. We discuss the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of systems with a classical partition function, focusing mainly on three-dimensional systems, and only briefly discussing two-dimensional models. However, by using the quantum-to-classical mapping, the results on the critical behavior for classical systems in <span><math><mrow><mi>D</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>d</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></math></span> dimensions can be extended to quantum transitions in <span><math><mi>d</mi></math></span> dimensions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1133 ","pages":"Pages 1-92"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144190402","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}

{"title":"On the foundations of statistical mechanics","authors":"Marco Baldovin ,&nbsp;Giacomo Gradenigo ,&nbsp;Angelo Vulpiani ,&nbsp;Nino Zanghì","doi":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.physrep.2025.05.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although not as wide, and popular, as that of quantum mechanics, the investigation of fundamental aspects of statistical mechanics constitutes an important research field in the building of modern physics. Besides the interest for itself, both for physicists and philosophers, and the obvious pedagogical motivations, there is a further, compelling reason for a thorough understanding of the subject. The fast development of models and methods at the edge of the established domain of the field requires indeed a deep reflection on the essential aspects of the theory, which are at the basis of its success. These elements should never be disregarded when trying to expand the domain of statistical mechanics to systems with novel, little known features.</div><div>It is thus important to (re)consider in a careful way the main ingredients involved in the foundations of statistical mechanics. Among those, a primary role is covered by the dynamical aspects (e.g. presence of chaos), the emergence of collective features for large systems, and the use of probability in the building of a consistent statistical description of physical systems.</div><div>With this goal in mind, in the present review we aim at providing a consistent picture of the state of the art of the subject, both in the classical and in the quantum realm. In particular, we will highlight the similarities of the key technical and conceptual steps with emphasis on the relevance of the many degrees of freedom, to justify the use of statistical ensembles in the two domains.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":404,"journal":{"name":"Physics Reports","volume":"1132 ","pages":"Pages 1-79"},"PeriodicalIF":23.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144107018","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}