May 2012 Volume 8, Issue 5

Editorial

Publish and be damned p351
doi:10.1038/nphys2323
Controversial and out-of-line results should not be discarded or hidden — even though revealing them may come at some recriminatory cost, as the OPERA collaboration has discovered.
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Correspondence

Origin of logarithmic resistance correction in graphene p352
Johannes Jobst and Heiko B. Weber
doi:10.1038/nphys2297
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See also: Letter by Chen et al. | Correspondence by Chen et al.

Reply to "Origin of logarithmic resistance correction in graphene" p353
Jian-Hao Chen, Liang Li, William G. Cullen, Ellen D. Williams and Michael S. Fuhrer
doi:10.1038/nphys2306
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See also: Letter by Chen et al. | Correspondence by Jobst & Weber

Thesis

Testing, testing p355
Mark Buchanan
doi:10.1038/nphys2305
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Books and Arts

Version of events pp356 - 357
Patricia Fara reviews The Quantum Exodus: Jewish Fugitives, the Atomic Bomb, and the Holocaust by Gordon Fraser
doi:10.1038/nphys2303
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Moore things to do with string p357
Alison Wright
doi:10.1038/nphys2317
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Research Highlights

Give us a clue | One by one | Caught in a trap | A sharper emission | Damper on fireball

News and Views

Letters

Feynman diagrams versus Fermi-gas Feynman emulator pp366 - 370
K. Van Houcke, F. Werner, E. Kozik, N. Prokof'ev, B. Svistunov, M. J. H. Ku, A. T. Sommer, L. W. Cheuk, A. Schirotzek and M. W. Zwierlein
doi:10.1038/nphys2273
A cross-validation study comparing experimental findings obtained with a system of ultracold fermions with the results of a method based on computing contributions from millions of Feynman diagrams underlines the potential of the so-called bold diagrammatic Monte Carlo technique for solving problems in the area of strongly correlated quantum matter.
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Nodal superconducting-gap structure in ferropnictide superconductor BaFe₂(As_0.7P_0.3)₂  pp371 - 375
Y. Zhang, Z. R. Ye, Q. Q. Ge, F. Chen, Juan Jiang, M. Xu, B. P. Xie and D. L. Feng
doi:10.1038/nphys2248
The Cooper pairs of conventional superconductors exhibit a nodeless s-wave symmetry, and most unconventional superconductors, including cuprates and heavy-fermion materials, exhibit nodal d-wave pairing. In contrast to both, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements indicate that the iron-based superconductor BaFe₂(As_0.7P_0.3)₂ exhibits an unusual nodal s-wave pairing.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Lee

Nature of magnetic excitations in superconducting BaFe_1.9Ni_0.1As₂  pp376 - 381
Mengshu Liu, Leland W. Harriger, Huiqian Luo, Meng Wang, R. A. Ewings, T. Guidi, Hyowon Park, Kristjan Haule, Gabriel Kotliar, S. M. Hayden and Pengcheng Dai
doi:10.1038/nphys2268
An outstanding question about the iron-based superconductors has been whether or not their magnetic characteristics are dominated by itinerant or localized magnetic moments. Absolute measurements and calculations of the magnetic response of undoped and Ni-doped BaFe₂As₂ indicate the latter.
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Emergence of superlattice Dirac points in graphene on hexagonal boron nitride pp382 - 386
Matthew Yankowitz, Jiamin Xue, Daniel Cormode, Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Philippe Jacquod and Brian J. LeRoy
doi:10.1038/nphys2272
It is well known that graphene deposited on hexagonal boron nitride produces moire patterns in scanning tunnelling microscopy images. The interaction that produces this pattern also produces a commensurate periodic potential that generates a set of Dirac points that are different from those of the graphene lattice itself.
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Phonon-cavity electromechanics pp387 - 392
I. Mahboob, K. Nishiguchi, H. Okamoto and H. Yamaguchi
doi:10.1038/nphys2277
Conventional approaches to optomechanics control and monitor the motion of nanoscale mechanical resonators by coupling it to a high-quality photonic cavity. An all-mechanical implementation is now demonstrated by creating a so-called phonon cavity from different oscillating modes of the resonator. This idea opens a route to using solid-state systems to investigate physics not accessible in their analogous, but better developed, quantum-optics counterpart.
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Articles

Probing Planck-scale physics with quantum optics pp393 - 397
Igor Pikovski, Michael R. Vanner, Markus Aspelmeyer, M. S. Kim and Časlav Brukner
doi:10.1038/nphys2262
Commutation relations define the limit to which two complementary properties can be simultaneously known—Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Yet it is thought that these canonical relations might be different in the quantum gravity regime. Researchers now show how quantum-optics experiments might provide a direct route for studying these effects.
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Three-dimensional localization of ultracold atoms in an optical disordered potential pp398 - 403
F. Jendrzejewski, A. Bernard, K. Müller, P. Cheinet, V. Josse, M. Piraud, L. Pezzé, L. Sanchez-Palencia, A. Aspect and P. Bouyer
doi:10.1038/nphys2256
An experimental study of three-dimensional localization of ultracold atoms in controlled disorder provides evidence for behaviour that is consistent with Anderson localization, but incompatible with classical trapping.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Kaiser

Two Ising-like magnetic excitations in a single-layer cuprate superconductor pp404 - 410
Yuan Li, G. Yu, M. K. Chan, V. Balédent, Yangmu Li, N. Barišić, X. Zhao, K. Hradil, R. A. Mole, Y. Sidis, P. Steffens, P. Bourges and M. Greven
doi:10.1038/nphys2271
The magnetic character of the cuprates is suspected by many to be involved in the emergence of unconventional superconductivity. The discovery of a second distinct magnetic excitation in HgBa₂CuO₄ supports a multiband picture of the magnetic structure of these materials.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF

Experimental observation of the optical spin transfer torque pp411 - 415
P. Němec, E. Rozkotová, N. Tesařová, F. Trojánek, E. De Ranieri, K. Olejník, J. Zemen, V. Novák, M. Cukr, P. Malý and T. Jungwirth
doi:10.1038/nphys2279
Spin transfer torque—the transfer of angular momentum from a spin-polarized current to a ferromagnet's magnetization—has already found commercial application in memory devices, but the underlying physics is still not fully understood. Researchers now demonstrate the crucial role played by the polarization of the laser light that generates the current; a subtle effect only evident when isolated from other influences such as heating.
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Attosecond control of collective electron motion in plasmas pp416 - 421
Antonin Borot, Arnaud Malvache, Xiaowei Chen, Aurélie Jullien, Jean-Paul Geindre, Patrick Audebert, Gérard Mourou, Fabien Quéré and Rodrigo Lopez-Martens
doi:10.1038/nphys2269
A demonstration of the ability to coherently control the collective attosecond dynamics of relativistic electrons driven through a plasma by an intense laser represents an important step in the development of techniques to manipulate and study extreme states of matter.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF

The energy-speed-accuracy trade-off in sensory adaptation pp422 - 428
Ganhui Lan, Pablo Sartori, Silke Neumann, Victor Sourjik and Yuhai Tu
doi:10.1038/nphys2276
It is well known that organisms profit from adapting to their environment. A study of stochastic adaptation dynamics shows that this comes at the expense of adaptive speed and accuracy—providing a framework for understanding adaptation in noisy biological systems.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by ten Wolde

The organization of strong links in complex networks pp429 - 436
Sinisa Pajevic and Dietmar Plenz
doi:10.1038/nphys2257
Small-world topologies characterize many natural and human-built networks. Yet, how such networks organize their link weights is not fully understood. These authors report an organization scheme that captures important features of real-world systems, and identify learning rules that allow evolving networks to obtain such weight organizations based on their history.
Abstract | Full Text | PDF