The theoretical understanding of pattern formation in active systems remains a central problem of interest. Heterogeneous flocks made up of multiple species can exhibit a remarkable diversity of collective states that cannot be obtained from single-species models. In this paper, we derive a kinetic …

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 034117] Published Wed Sep 09, 2026

Two intermingled species of active matter can exhibit coherent rotation or disorderly scrambling depending on their mutual interactions.

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 034115] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

In neurons, postsynaptic domains are critical protein clusters that trap neurotransmitter receptors to regulate synaptic strength during learning and memory. By reducing a complex reaction-diffusion model to a lower-dimensional system, this study directly links the radii of these interacting clusters to bulk protein concentrations. This mathematical reduction reveals the conditions required for multicluster stability.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 034402] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Active nematic models typically assume fixed layer thickness. A long-wavelength theory shows that evolving thickness couples active stresses to curvature, explaining how internal forces drive tissue invagination.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 034403] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

This paper proposes an optimal control strategy to cool an antiproton plasma in a time much shorter than that required by an adiabatic process. The authors examine the length and stability of the plasma, in addition to its duration. The work suggests that optimal control techniques may be useful for experiments with plasmas, in particular with antimatter plasmas, which need to be confined and cooled before significant losses and annihilation occur.

#TimelyTopic #TechnicalAdvancement #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 035208] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

This paper presents a predictive framework to scale granular flow from Earth to other gravitational environments, and shows that low gravity dramatically increases the probability of clogging. These findings explain previous contradictory results and establish a foundation for predicting and controlling granular flow in space.

#UniversalBehavior #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 035405] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Using a variational neural annealing approach to solve constrained portfolio optimization problems, the authors establish a connection between phase transitions in physics and computational complexity in finance. They demonstrate scaling behavior in financial optimization problems analogous to critical phenomena in spin glasses.

#Interdisciplinary #UniversalBehavior

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 024311] Published Mon Aug 24, 2026

Microgravity experiments reveal how toggled magnetic fields drive paramagnetic colloids past kinetic arrest into dynamic, highly anisotropic phases that are sustained by continuous energy dissipation.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #ElegantVisuals #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 025416] Published Fri Aug 21, 2026

This paper provides a systematic investigation into composition-dependent properties of side-chain acrylate liquid crystal elastomers. The work shows how small changes in mesogenic content can induce a phase transition and suggests design approaches for customization of material properties.

#ClearMotivation #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 025417] Published Fri Aug 21, 2026

The authors present a study of critical phenomena in neural systems. They present evidence that cortical networks display criticality flexibly through arousal tuning. The work points out that arousal should be treated as an experimental control parameter, not as a source of noise.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 024403] Published Tue Aug 18, 2026

A theory inspired by whale tracking suggests that interference could make the peak of a light-wave packet appear to travel faster than light—without transmitting information superluminally.

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 025107] Published Tue Aug 18, 2026

Velocity distributions in dense granular systems are difficult to measure because optical particle-tracking methods are hindered by opacity at high particle densities. In this work, a fiber Bragg grating sensor is introduced and shown to accurately recover granular velocity distributions by detecting collision-induced strain in an optical fiber, offering a viable alternative to existing methods for high volume fractions.

#ClearMotivation #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 025410] Published Mon Aug 17, 2026

Geometric ideas play a role in areas such as stochastic thermodynamics, spectral graph theory, and optimal transport. In this Letter, the authors link a thermodynamic friction metric that governs dissipation in slowly driven systems with two graph-theoretic geometries, the commute-time and resistance distances.

#TechnicalAdvancement #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, L022105] Published Mon Aug 17, 2026

The authors demonstrate fusion ignition in a hohlraum modified with diagnostic windows that burn through prior to ignition. This provides a platform for laboratory-astrophysics experiments previously inaccessible. The x-ray flux escaping the holraum during and after ignition is the brightest radiation source available in the laboratory.

#TechnicalAdvancement #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 114, L023201] Published Mon Aug 17, 2026

A computational approach efficiently models rare transition events driven by complex noise. It predicts optimal transition paths and rate scaling laws across unbounded time horizons.

#TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 024210] Published Wed Aug 12, 2026

Nonequilibrium systems with multiple metastable states can undergo noise-induced transitions that form cycles among the metastable states. To analyze this phenomenon, the authors introduce a minimal two-dimensional stochastic model with nonreciprocal couplings that can be treated analytically.

#TechnicalAdvancement #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 024104] Published Mon Aug 03, 2026

Placed in the context of the pursuit of monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by lasers, this work explains the fact that they are not observed in experiments. The authors show that this is due to the to the transverse inhomogeneity of the laser and that this can be overcome with flat top laser profiles.

#AdvancingField #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015222] Published Wed Jul 29, 2026

An exact analytical Flory-Huggins model efficiently predicts polymer fractionation, demonstrating how the subtle tails of molecular weight distributions govern phase coexistence across the composition space.

#TechnicalAdvancement #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015421] Published Mon Jul 27, 2026

While investigating radio-frequency gas breakdown, the authors experimentally observed and simulated a novel, time-dependent striated optical emission structure. The study reveals that these striking patterns are driven by differing electron-ion mobilities and locally amplified ionization, which are ultimately suppressed as the electric field becomes screened.

#AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, L013201] Published Thu Jul 23, 2026

Understanding how active particles, such as swimming bacteria, move in confined environments remains a challenge. The authors obtain the exact stationary distribution of a run-and-tumble particle trapped by a harmonic potential in one, two, and three dimensions, providing quantitative benchmarks for experiments on confined active matter.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014144] Published Wed Jul 22, 2026

In a one-dimensional gas of particles confined by an asymptotically power-law potential, the ordering of the particles changes as they perform Brownian motion. The authors show that the order statistics that describe how the particles are reshuffled are universal and independent of the potential’s exponent, while the timescale of the reshuffling does depend on it.

#UniversalBehavior #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014130] Published Thu Jul 16, 2026

The authors examine three definitions of internal energy, work, and heat that have been used for quantum systems coupled strongly to the environment. Their study focuses on quenches, processes in which the Hamiltonian changes abruptly. In these processes, the first law of thermodynamics holds for each set of definitions by construction. The authors show that only two sets of definitions obey the second law. They illustrate their findings with a model of two coupled spins.

#ClearMotivation #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014133] Published Thu Jul 16, 2026

The fast ignition paradigm previously developed for inertial confinement fusion is here extended to magnetized linear inertial fusion. The authors’ model showcases fast ignition’s potential to lead to more practical, cost-effective, and engineering-wise viable magnetized linear inertial fusion designs.

#AdvancingField #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015211] Published Wed Jul 15, 2026

Using neutron inelastic scattering, the authors investigate the dynamics of liquid hydrogen sulfide, which is similar to water but lacks the hydrogen-bond network. While fast sound is preserved, the secondary weakly dispersive mode typical of hydrogen-bonded liquids is not detected.

#WellStructured #ClearMotivation #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015412] Published Wed Jul 15, 2026

Cluster-based algorithms have led to remarkably efficient Monte Carlo sampling schemes that reduce critical slowing down. The authors demonstrate that seeking such cluster schemes for frustrated systems is futile, but they leave open the possibility that alternate approaches could be devised.

#TechnicalAdvancement #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014114] Published Thu Jul 09, 2026

This manuscript investigates static waveform memory in a system of jammed, soft, frictional particles. It is shown that a small, time-dependent shear strain applied during progressive compression can imprint an arbitrary waveform, which is recalled in time-reversed order upon decompression. The conditions that allow memory formation and the limits of memory readout are established.

#TimelyTopic #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015406] Published Wed Jul 08, 2026

Hyperuniformity, the anomalous suppression of density fluctuations in dense particle systems, has been reported in amorphous solids near the jamming transition. This manuscript shows that the value of the hyperuniformity scaling exponent in two dimensions differs from that in three dimensions, unlike previously thought.

#AdvancingField #UniversalBehavior

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015407] Published Wed Jul 08, 2026

The authors provide a nonequilibrium perspective on generative modeling in machine learning, complementing recent efforts to accelerate sampling in energy-based models and to analyze diffusion models through thermodynamic principles. They show that breaking detailed balance, rather than merely correcting for slow equilibrium mixing, can yield qualitatively different and beneficial learning dynamics.

#MachineLearningSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015301] Published Tue Jul 07, 2026

By minimizing the Onsager-Machlup integral with a neural-network framework, this Letter determines the most probable paths of a three-dimensional active Brownian particle. These optimal transition pathways exhibit distinct geometric shifts from planar to helical shapes. The work provides a versatile framework for exploring optimal transition pathways in active and nonequilibrium systems.

#WellStructured #UniversalBehavior

[Phys. Rev. E 114, L012103] Published Tue Jul 07, 2026

The authors investigate phase transitions in the two-dimensional Ising model with competing nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions, by combining machine learning with simulations and finite-size scaling. The results show that machine learning can decode ordering patterns, extract order-parameter analogs, and reproduce critical behavior in frustrated Ising systems.

#MachineLearningSpotlight #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014104] Published Mon Jul 06, 2026

A study of online language shows that niche terms—like the name of a narrowly popular music group—spread less quickly than mainstream words.

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 014304] Published Mon Jul 06, 2026

This paper presents experiments on a quasi-two-dimensional pile of photoelastic disks and investigates the microscopic structural and dynamical changes underlying granular creep and the signatures of the creep-to-failure transition. The experiments report rearrangement, force, and geometric events before macroscopic grain motion at the surface is observed, indicating that subtle rearrangements in the force chain network precede macroscopic failure.

#ClearMotivation #ElegantVisuals

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 065417] Published Tue Jun 16, 2026

The dynamics of stars orbiting a supermassive black hole can be used as a test case for statistical closure schemes that allow the calculation of dynamical correlation functions in the fully nonlinear and nonperturbative regime. The authors develop an iterative scheme based on the Martin–Siggia–Rose formalism, and find that it compares well with numerical simulations.

#AdvancingField #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 064127] Published Fri Jun 12, 2026

Giving nodes a memory of their susceptibility transition dynamically expands the state space in the susceptible-infectious-susceptible model. This enhanced pair approximation accurately determines epidemic thresholds and infection fractions across arbitrary networks.

#ClassicalProblem #UniversalBehavior

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 064305] Published Fri Jun 12, 2026

Using small-angle neutron scattering with contrast matching, combined with optical and electrical probes, this study focuses on the quantitative measurements of surfactant concentration profiles in foam. Enrichment is observed, with broad implications for foam stability, transport phenomena, and applications.

#SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L063401] Published Mon Jun 08, 2026

The authors tested the response of natural killer cells cocultured with cancer cells and with fibroblasts. They found that natural killer cells targeted the cancer cells, but not fibroblasts. The natural killer cells clustered around cancer cells and promoted apoptosis, whereas they scouted around fibroblasts and did not form large aggregates. Generality of these responses could be established by testing additional normal cell types and tumor lines.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #BroadlyAccessible #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L062401] Published Thu Jun 04, 2026

Nucleation in active and driven fluids often resembles equilibrium behavior, but a departure occurs when large-scale density fluctuations are strongly suppressed. In this work, it is demonstrated that droplet nucleation in nonequilibrium hyperuniform fluids is governed by a nonequilibrium quasipotential instead of the classical reversible work of formation.

#WellStructured #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 064103] Published Mon Jun 01, 2026

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” The authors develop a search model that formalizes this adage. They show that optimal ambition targets outcomes that are finite but strictly larger than the mean of available rewards. The prediction of the models are tested using examples from online dating and college admissions.

#ClearMotivation #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054317] Published Fri May 29, 2026

Using a mathematical model, this manuscript investigates the effect of cell-cell communication on bacterial chemotaxis. The authors find that self-secreted chemoattractants can either promote or hinder chemotaxis, depending on parameters. Analytical results identify which parameters are critical to collective migration and offer insights for future experiments.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #Interdisciplinary #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054415] Published Tue May 26, 2026

Percolation in complex networks has a long history. In finite networks the transition to a giant connected component is smoothed out, making the prediction of the critical point difficult. The theory presented here introduces the susceptibility of arbitrary random undirected and directed networks, showing that a strong increase in susceptibility is the early warning signal of approaching the percolation point.

#ClearMotivation #ClassicProblem

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054313] Published Fri May 22, 2026

An interplay of thermal fluctuations and nonlinear elasticity alters semiflexible polymer buckling, leading to a softened Young’s modulus. Unlike classical athermal buckling of rods, the critical compressional strain actually increases with system size, governed by distinct critical exponents.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #UniversalBehavior #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 055418] Published Thu May 21, 2026

The authors investigated interactions in groups of freshwater shrimp confined to a circular space. They introduced a model in which the orientation of each shrimp is mapped with spin aligned or antialigned with the boundary. They identified a distinct progression in network organization with increasing group size. Shrimp were selected as examples of active particles in a nonequilibrium system. The authors expect that collective behavior in other systems could be studied with the framework presented here.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #ClearMotivation #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054414] Published Wed May 20, 2026

Geometrically induced cohesion, by which mechanical stability arises from the shape and arrangement of the system’s particles, has been extensively studied in granular matter. Here, the authors experimentally study the stability of a granular pile of concave, multibranched particles by systematically varying key observables like the particle geometry or number of branches. They show that the origin of the pile’s geometrically induced cohesion lies in the capacity of the system to form a large number of reconfigurable contact chains.

#ClearMotivation #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 055415] Published Tue May 19, 2026

The authors use macroscopic fluctuation theory to study the large-scale dynamical properties of Brownian particles with arbitrary pairwise interactions. Combining this with a standard expression for the collective diffusion coefficient, they obtain exact results for dynamical correlations between the density and the current of particles.

#TechnicalAdvancement #AdvancingField #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054128] Published Mon May 18, 2026

This paper investigates maintenance of biodiversity in a spatial rock-paper-scissors game. The authors use reinforcement learning at the species level, rather than at an individual level, so that mobility in this model operates on “collective wisdom” of the species. Survival of biodiversity depends on the balance between two prominent tendencies: survival-priority (escaping from predators) and predation-priority (remaining near prey).

#ClearMotvation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054411] Published Mon May 18, 2026

At the intersection of population ecology and statistical physics, this study addresses how two factors, demographic stochasticity and migration, govern the emergence of large-scale synchronization in predator-prey metapopulations. The authors demonstrate that the collective phase dynamics of coupled ecological oscillators can be rigorously mapped onto a theoretical framework analogous to the classic $XY$ model of statistical mechanics.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054409] Published Wed May 13, 2026

The authors develop a model of musical rhythm and meter based on optimizing the trade-off between human psychological preferences for perceiving repeated patterns in time with a desire for variety and complexity. Using a statistical physics analogy, they observe phase transitions in the model from disordered events in time to orderings that closely reproduce those seen in music, for example in the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach.

#Interdisciplinary #BroadlyAccessible

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 054116] Published Mon May 11, 2026

Single-molecule measurements and a generalized Langevin framework show that subdiffusive, non-Gaussian probe transport near the glass transition arises from progressively softening viscoelastic confinement. This provides direct microscopic evidence of dynamic heterogeneity and suggests a pathway to more fully understand glassy dynamics in polymer glass formers.

#TheoryExperiment #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 055401] Published Mon May 04, 2026

Topological defects in active nematic systems are known to display strikingly different properties, such as self-propulsion, compared to their equilibrium counterparts. Combining analytical results with numerical simulations, the authors show that activity also modifies the shape of defects, which had been previously overlooked in the literature.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L053401] Published Mon May 04, 2026

This paper is a step toward a statistical field theory of language evolution. The author combines tools of statistical physics with tools of statistical inference to create a model in which macroscopic language patterns are rooted in plausible human behaviors.

#Interdisciplinary #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 044310] Published Thu Apr 23, 2026

This study extends the classical Ostwald ripening theory to phase-separating systems that continuously receive material from an external reservoir. It considers two transport regimes: diffusion-limited transport through the dilute phase and interface-resistance-limited transport across droplet interfaces, as well as two modes of material input: constant supersaturation and constant supply rate.

#AdvancingField #ClassicProblem #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045420] Published Thu Apr 23, 2026

This study introduces a theoretical model explaining how eukaryotic cells can achieve perfect adaptation in chemical gradient sensing through cooperative allosteric regulation of receptor activity.

#AdvancingField #BiophysicsSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 044414] Published Fri Apr 17, 2026

By pairing a fly-eye-inspired camera with motion signals, this study shows that characteristic perceptual biases arise from input statistics. From camera data sampled in nature, the authors construct optimal motion estimators, suggesting that biological performance is limited more by environmental statistics than physiology.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #ElegantVisuals #TheoryExperiment

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 044412] Published Tue Apr 14, 2026

Plasma-based accelerators are often distinguished by their compact size. This paper presents theoretical designs for several compact plasma-based devices to accelerate ions relevant for medical applications. Design parameters are validated with a Monte Carlo particle-tracking code.

#TechnicalAdvancement #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L043202] Published Tue Apr 14, 2026

The authors consider a two-dimensional nonequilibrium model, where particles interact only through repulsive kicks when they overlap. The system goes through a sequence of phase transitions exhibiting reentrancy, from a disordered phase to a hexagonal crystal and then to a second disordered phase. The driving parameter is the size of the repulsive kicks, which is the mechanism for both ordering and disordering.

#AdvancingField #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 044108] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026

This is a study of swarming in three different biological systems, honey bees, midges, and jackdaws. The authors combine three complementary network identification approaches with anisotropy analysis to identify task-dependent interaction neighborhood size. The work provides a framework for uncovering emergence of collective motion in different biological systems.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #ClearMotivation #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 044403] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026

Elastic shells are present in nature, as in viral capsids and red blood cells, and are often found immersed in flowing fluids. In this manuscript, the authors study a two-dimensional active nematic fluid with an embedded elastic capsule and explore how the geometry and flexibility of these elastic shells dictate their motility via defect-mediated dynamics.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L043401] Published Wed Apr 01, 2026

When a bidisperse system of granular spherical particles flows down an inclined plane, coarse particles tend to accumulate at the flow surface, but above a certain coarse-to-fine diameter ratio, reverse segregation takes place, and coarse particles begin to sink. The authors confirm this phenomenon in discrete element method simulations and study the development of alternating coarse and fine particle layers in the reverse segregation regime, showing that layer spacing correlates with coarse particle size.

#WellStructured #ClearMotivation #BroadlyAccessible

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 035413] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Closing a gap between theory and experiments, this work establishes substrate chemistry as a new control parameter in active matter. This has broad implications for nonequilibrium physics, self-assembly, and microscale transport.

#AdvancingField #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, L033404] Published Thu Mar 26, 2026

Cells navigating multiple chemoattractant gradients prioritize signals according to how accurately each can be sensed, leading to diverse migration behaviors and spatial patterns in complex environments.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 034406] Published Mon Mar 23, 2026

By high-precision Monte Carlo cluster simulations, the authors obtained the backbone three-point structure constant for the two-dimensional $Q$-state Potts model. The results are consequential for critical phenomena, percolation, and conformal field theory.

#AdvancingField #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 034115] Published Fri Mar 13, 2026

Using Foursquare users’ check-in data and heavy truck GPS trajectory data, the authors study the number of intermediate stops in a tour of humans and heavy trucks. They find that the tour length distribution follows a truncated power-law distribution and propose a tour terminate-continue model to explain this.

#Interdisciplinary #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 034303] Published Fri Mar 06, 2026

Bridging concepts from statistical physics, complex networks, and biological rhythm dynamics, the authors study how multiscale network structure influences circadian rhythms in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. The results highlight the resilience of suprachiasmatic-nucleus rhythms to network scaling and establish a framework for linking multiscale network organization to biological timekeeping.

#Interdisciplinary #BiophysicsSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 034304] Published Fri Mar 06, 2026

This paper discusses the influence of Casimir contributions to wetting transitions of fluid in the presence of a wall. Previous interfacial theories have overlooked this entropic contribution to the binding potential, which is equivalent to a thermal Casimir effect. The authors give physical insight into why the effect of bulk fluctuations matters and provide details about calculations.

#AdvancingField #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 024133] Published Tue Feb 24, 2026

Data assimilation techniques make it possible to predict a system’s evolution by combining model predictions with sparse and noisy measurements. The authors apply these techniques to a chaotic multiscale model of turbulence, and find that measuring at intermediate scales can allow reconstruction of both large and small scales, while their technique compares well with other similar approaches.

#TechnicalAdvancement #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 024208] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

Researchers have used molecular dynamics simulations to study changes in the charge-transport properties of a room-temperature ionic liquid under a strong electric field.

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 025415] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

Generalized Lotka-Volterra models, common in ecology, are plagued by unbounded population growth. By adding a biologically realistic nonlinear interaction mechanism to address this issue, and studying the modified model’s phase diagram, the authors arrive at a more robust and ecologically grounded understanding of complex disordered ecosystems.

#ClearMotivation #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 024206] Published Thu Feb 12, 2026

By performing a systematic series of impact tests, varying parameters such as impact velocity, solvent viscosity, and surface tension, the authors sketch a state diagram for dense suspensions, highlighting fracturing and nonfracturing behaviors across shear jamming, shear thickening, and liquidlike regimes.

#PedagogicalExposition #ElegantVisuals #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 025410] Published Mon Feb 09, 2026

In this paper, the authors experimentally study wave propagation in two- and three-dimensional dense granular media and identify an acoustic transparency window, where scattering is substantially reduced, enabling low-frequency waves to propagate almost ballistically. They attribute this phenomenon to spatial correlations in the structural disorder of the medium, and support this interpretation with a theoretical model.

#TheoryExperiment #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 025411] Published Mon Feb 09, 2026

Community detection is one of the most debated issues in network theory. Here, the authors study the detectability limits in the case of undirected weighted networks. The results indicate that large variability in edge weights can make communities less detectable.

#WellStructured #ClearMotivation #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014318] Published Fri Jan 30, 2026

Using a camera with 2-picosecond time resolution, researchers show that the atoms in a laser-induced plasma are more highly ionized than theory predicts.

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 015209] Published Fri Jan 30, 2026

Roughness in a potential landscape is usually seen as a kinetic impediment that suppresses the diffusion of thermally driven particles. The authors demonstrate that for systems driven by nonequilibrium fluctuations, roughness on an asymmetric potential can instead act as an effective means to accelerate diffusion.

#AdvancingField #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014135] Published Tue Jan 27, 2026

Several external factors are known to influence active cell movement, but little is known about the impact of the porous structure of the extracellular matrix. This work combines computational modeling and theory to show how such porous environments determine cell migration dynamics, and how spatial heterogeneities effectively guide cell movement towards regions of low porosity.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #AdvancingField #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014407] Published Tue Jan 27, 2026

This work applies the functional renormalization group to active model B+, uncovering global flows inaccessible by earlier methods. By pushing the theoretical description of nonequilibrium phase separation into a new regime, the results advance the state of the art in active-matter field theory.

#AdvancingField #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014130] Published Thu Jan 22, 2026

Applied electric fields precisely steer protein crystallization pathways, inducing distinct multiarm morphologies such as flowerlike and triconic structures. This field-driven control over angular ordering and phase behavior offers new insights into engineering complex protein architectures.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TheoryExperiment

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014403] Published Thu Jan 22, 2026

Triadic interactions between network nodes take place when interactions between two or more nodes are controlled by regulator nodes. Triadic regulators turn network percolation into a dynamical process very different from standard percolation, which has been extensively studied in single networks. Here, the authors go one step further and propose a framework to study triadic percolation in multilayer networks, called multilayer triadic percolation, and analyze how multilayer network structure affects the dynamical behavior of triadic percolation.

#AdvancingField #UniversalBehavior #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014313] Published Wed Jan 21, 2026

The onset of Bose-Einstein condensation in systems with various densities of states is examined. The authors consider, in particular, the behavior of the energy spectrum at low and high energies and resolve a puzzle resulting from different methods of analysis.

#ClearMotivation #TechnicalAdvancement

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 014122] Published Fri Jan 16, 2026

Fluid ascent through multilayered sediments takes place in many geophysical and industrial processes. In this paper, the authors perform experiments in a two-layer granular column consisting of coarse grains at the bottom and fine grains at the top, in which water is injected from below at a constant flow rate. They report the formation of a regular fluidization pattern at the two-layer interface in the form of dust chimneys, and propose a mechanism based on pressure-drop estimates to predict the wavelength of the fluidization pattern.

#AdvancingField #WellStructured #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 015414] Published Thu Jan 15, 2026

In the inference problem for epidemic spreading processes on graphs in the case of correlated initial states (i.e., epidemic sources), the initial states can be given as the output of a neural network. This paper presents a framework to study this case.

#AdvancingField #MachineLearningSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 015301] Published Wed Jan 07, 2026

Intermittency and clogging statistics have been extensively investigated in a variety of systems – from granular materials to pedestrian evacuations. Here, the authors experimentally study the evolution of mechanical pressure in a two-dimensional system of self-propelled agents flowing through a bottleneck, revealing a strong correlation between pressure dynamics and the system state (clogged vs unclogged).

#ClearMotivation #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 015406] Published Wed Jan 07, 2026

Transformers are a type of machine learning architecture. The authors investigate in this study how they can acquire an understanding of language structure when trained via next-token prediction. Notably, the authors find that when the data exhibit hierarchical structure, convolutional neural networks actually learn the task more efficiently than transformers. #MachineLearningSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 065312] Published Tue Dec 23, 2025

This is a comprehensive analysis of a lattice Hamiltonian designed to investigate geometrically frustrated assembly. The work sheds light on self-limiting assembly and results in a frustration-concentration phase diagram.

#ElegantVisuals #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 065419] Published Mon Dec 15, 2025

This study presents a novel model for spatial networks generated from intersecting lines. It is based on a principle of growth present in various real systems such as transportation networks, fungal hyphae, and vascular structures.

#ClearMotivation #Interdisciplinary

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 064304] Published Fri Dec 05, 2025

The authors introduce a class of generalized exclusion processes, modeling particles performing random walks on a one-dimensional lattice while obeying exclusion constraints. They provide a unifying framework for several such processes and highlight their rich dynamical properties.

#AdvancingField #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 064108] Published Thu Dec 04, 2025

By combining nonlocal electrostatics, dressed ion theory, and advanced molecular dynamics simulations, this study provides a comprehensive framework for understanding ionic correlations and solvation effects in dense electrolytes. It has implications across soft matter, electrochemistry, and energy storage applications.

#WellStructured #TechnicalAdvancement #ClassicProblem

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 065407] Published Tue Dec 02, 2025

The author provides a principled solution to correct the widely used transfer entropy measure for finite data and applies their measure to a range of real and synthetic datasets. The work shows that this corrected measure may change conclusions for some applications.

#AdvancingField #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 112, L052304] Published Mon Nov 24, 2025

Understanding the behavior of differentially rotating plasmas is important for the study of turbulence and transport in systems such as accretion disks and stellar interiors, as well as in laboratory experiments. The authors use various techniques to analyze the stability of these systems, in particular focusing on the competition between the magneto-rotational instability and the magneto-curvature instability.

#AdvancingField #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 055207] Published Mon Nov 17, 2025

The authors studied the rotational motion of isolated ferromagnetic spheres that were suspended in viscoelastic fluids of various compositions and driven by rotating magnetic fields. The experiments and theoretical analysis show that the dynamics in polymer solutions resemble those seen in Newtonian fluids but with a smaller critical frequency, which decreases with increasing polymer concentration.

#TheoryExperiment #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 055417] Published Mon Nov 17, 2025

Inferring tree structure is a problem of practical relevance across diverse domains, from biological transport networks to engineered systems. The results presented here lend themselves to potential applications in noninvasive structural inference, particularly in scenarios where direct observation is challenging.

#WellStructured #ClearMotivation

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 054306] Published Mon Nov 10, 2025

The authors investigate how behavior and dynamics of bacterial flagella are affected by complex environments, an area that has been largely unexplored. They visualize dynamics of fluorescently labeled flagellar filaments of $E$. $coli$ bacteria in a hydrogel and find three distinct types of flagellar motions.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TheoryExperiment #ElegantVisuals

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 054404] Published Thu Nov 06, 2025

This study compares a series of coarse-grained protein models of increasing complexity to identify the simplest model that reproduces key structural properties of protein cores. The results show that accurate modeling of protein cores requires capturing the correct size and anisotropic shape of side chains.

#BiophysicsSpotlight #TheoryExperiment #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 054405] Published Thu Nov 06, 2025

This study addresses particle acceleration up to relativistic energies via a nonlinear evolution of a large-amplitude Alfvén wave. A multistage process is observed in numerical particle-in-cell simulations. The results provide insights into coherent wave-particle interactions in collisionless plasmas with potential implications for the understanding of high-energy cosmic-ray generation in astrophysical environments such as pulsar magnetospheres, accretion disks, and relativistic jets.

#AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 055201] Published Tue Nov 04, 2025

This manuscript investigates the mechanical response, i.e. non-affine displacement, of jammed disk packings subject to athermal, quasistatic shear. The authors identify that isolated effective quadrupoles emerge upon shearing and that these are correlated with the breaking of interparticle contacts. They interpret the numerical results in terms of Eshelby-like triangle defects.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 055402] Published Tue Nov 04, 2025

In the context of machine learning, a novel permutation-symmetric ansatz allows the authors to extend earlier results from the multilayer perceptron to a transformer architecture. The study of the correlations inside the model and between the model weights and data should lead to a deeper understanding of the structure of trained transformers.

#MachineLearningSpotlight #WellStructured #AdvancingField

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 055301] Published Mon Nov 03, 2025

A simulation study of polar active polymers with a fixed end shows how the choice of the fixed point, either the tail or the head, leads to dramatically distinct conformational and dynamical behaviors. Active polymers with a fixed tail undergo nonuniform stretching, while those with a fixed head experience uniform compression.

#SoftMatterSpotlight #UniversalBehavior #WellStructured

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 045431] Published Thu Oct 30, 2025

Mutually repelling particles form spontaneously ordered clusters when forced into confinement. With experiments and simulations, this work demonstrates that it is possible to induce particles of very different types to self-assemble into the same ordered geometric structure.

#WellStructured #SoftMatterSpotlight #TheoryExperiment

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 044150] Published Wed Oct 29, 2025

Chiral active matter composed of particles that self-propel and self-rotate at a constant angular velocity has been extensively studied in two dimensions, but far less is known in three dimensions, where particles exhibit helical motion. This manuscript studies density fluctuations in a system of helical active swimmers. Numerical simulations, supported by a fluctuating hydrodynamic theory, show that helicity induces singular density correlations and hyperuniformity in the direction perpendicular to the torque, while giant density fluctuations emerge along the parallel direction.

#AdvancingField #SoftMatterSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 045426] Published Mon Oct 27, 2025

A one-dimensional lattice model of a waterlike system, with van der Waals and hydrogen-bond interactions, shows sharp thermodynamic anomalies similar to a classical phase transition, despite the absence of a true transition. The authors also find that these anomalies behave differently in grand-canonical or fixed-density conditions.

#AdvancingField #TimelyTopic

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 044144] Published Fri Oct 24, 2025

The authors present a proof about upper bounds for the stability of basins of attraction in Boolean networks. They also demonstrate that coherence and basin entropy are negatively linearly related. The work is relevant for gene regulatory systems, which often use Boolean networks as models.

#TechnicalAdvancement #BiophysicsSpotlight

[Phys. Rev. E 112, 044310] Published Fri Oct 24, 2025

Ring-shaped assemblies of magnetic beads behave similarly to a flexible, elastic annulus. In this paper, the authors perform a tabletop experiment with rings under gravity and report that initially circular rings experience flattening as the number of magnetic beads grows, until they reach a zipping state, where opposite sites stick together. The experiments are supported by a theoretical model and simulations that predict the observed scaling laws.

#TheoryExperiment #ClearMotivation #BroadlyAccessible

[Phys. Rev. E 112, L043403] Published Fri Oct 24, 2025