Social systems, when considered on an appropriately coarse-grained scale, display phenomena reminiscent of the behavior of physical many-body systems and can be studied using the methods of statistical mechanics. A particularly interesting subfield is opinion dynamics, which aims to understand the emergence of collective social phenomena, such as consensus, polarization, and fragmentation. This review systematizes the terminology and methods of opinion dynamics, surveys empirical findings alongside theoretical models, and summarizes the current state and future directions of this field.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 035004] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

It is sometimes said that if one uses quantum cryptography methods to distribute keys, their secrecy is guaranteed by the laws of physics. This is only partly true: while quantum physics provides a strong boost to security, the proper mathematical analysis of the full detailed protocol is still nontrivial. This review provides details of this analysis for one of the most important quantum protocols for key distribution and its variants, in which weak (few photon) coherent pulses are transmitted and threshold detectors are used for measurements.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 035003] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

The polaron, a single impurity embedded in a quantum many-body environment, conceptually bridges few- and many-body physics. Its properties provide both a test bed for many-body theories and physical insight into the phase structure of more complicated many-body systems. This review discusses two pristine experimental platforms in which polarons have recently been realized: ultracold atomic gases and atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides. The authors discuss the theory of Bose and Fermi polarons, compare theory to experiment, and provide a perspective on how polarons may serve as precise sensors in complex environments.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 035002] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Recent advances in molecular cooling have enabled the realization of strongly dipolar molecular Bose-Einstein condensates. Such systems provide a unique platform for investigating new states of matter, from quantum droplets to supersolids. This Colloquium surveys the collisional shielding techniques that make stable molecular condensates possible, the theoretical challenges that arise in the strongly dipolar regime, and the exotic quantum phases now within experimental reach.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 031002] Published Thu Aug 20, 2026

Coulomb crystals form when the Coulomb interaction between charged particles dominates over kinetic energy; the prototype is the Wigner crystal formed by conduction electrons in metals at low densities. In recent years, it has become possible to realize Coulomb crystals using laser-cooled trapped ions, and these systems allow for unprecedented control of experimental parameters. This review describes the state of the art of ion Coulomb crystals in one, two, and three dimensions, their properties in and out of equilibrium, and their importance across fields ranging from condensed matter to astrophysics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 035001] Published Wed Aug 05, 2026

Active matter has become a lively topic in recent years, but what exactly is meant by the term ‘active matter’ is often unclear. This Colloquium discusses the scientific and semantic issues underlying this ambiguity, as well as the history of the field, and offers a definition of active matter as a well-defined subset of nonequilibrium systems. It then surveys recent developments including nonreciprocal interactions, intracellular phase separation, and quantum active matter.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 031001] Published Mon Jul 13, 2026

Scanning probe techniques have transformed our ability to study materials at the atomic scale, providing atom-by-atom views of surfaces. Tip-enhanced molecular fluorescence microscopy combines scanning probes with optical fluorescence. Such optical techniques normally have spatial resolution limited by the wavelength of the light used. However, using the scanning tip itself as a nanoscale optical antenna confines the electromagnetic field to the tip apex, achieving superresolution down to the atomic scale. Fluorescence is a fundamental probe of materials that reveals electronic structure and vibronic properties by exciting electrons to higher levels and observing the photons emitted when they relax. These capabilities are of particular interest for studying and identifying molecules, submolecular structures, and their reactions. This review discusses the techniques of tip-enhanced molecular fluorescence microscopy and the new insights they have revealed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025007] Published Tue Jun 30, 2026

In this review, the authors provide a comprehensive multiwavelength view of high-energy emission from the center of our Galaxy. This region contains the closest supermassive black hole to us, which offers the best studied galactic nucleus in the Universe, with its quiescent emission and accretion contrasted by flaring activity. The Galactic Center also hosts diverse compact sources, plasma bubbles, and x-ray chimneys, altogether forming a dense interacting molecular zone—a gigantic powerhouse in the Milky Way.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025006] Published Mon Jun 29, 2026

Given vector b and matrix $A$, solve for vector x such that $A$x=b: this problem of solving linear-algebraic equations is arguably the central task of machine computation. The quantum linear system problem (QLSP) asks whether, given efficient quantum access to $A$ and a state encoding b, a quantum computer can prepare a state encoding the solution.The QLSP has driven extensive algorithmic development since Harrow, Hassidim, and Lloyd (HHL)’s pioneering 2009 algorithm. This review explores quantum algorithmic techniques that have been devised for efficiently tackling the QLSP, with a thorough explanation of HHL and subsequent post-HHL developments.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025005] Published Tue Jun 23, 2026

Vacuum breakdown or arcing happens when a very strong electric field causes a metal surface in a vacuum to suddenly form plasma, allowing large electrical currents to flow. Breakdown can damage particle accelerators, fusion reactors, satellites, and x-ray devices, though it is useful in technologies like plasma thrusters. Scientists have studied this unpredictable and fast phenomenon for over a century. Recent advances in experiments and computer simulations now provide a coherent mechanistic picture: tiny surface defects, electrical stress, heat, and emitted particles interact in complex ways to trigger breakdowns. These insights could improve high-power technologies and make advanced accelerators more reliable and efficient.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025004] Published Fri Jun 05, 2026

Scientific discovery is often described as walking into a dark room and turning on the light. The discovery of 2D magnetism in van der Waals materials in 2016 was one such leap forward, removing one spatial dimension from macroscopic materials. The study of 2D magnets has challenged established theories and uncovered new phenomena. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge of magnetic phenomena in 2D van der Waals materials. The field encompasses not just the traditional study of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets but also topology, quantum and nonequilibrium dynamics, Floquet effects, magnons and spintronics, and the interaction of magnetism with light, phonons, and electric fields (multiferroics). The field is actively evolving, expanding theoretical understanding, materials capabilities, and experimental phenomenology while opening new directions for application.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025003] Published Wed May 27, 2026

The dynamics of “open” quantum systems, which interact with their environments, are of paramount importance for basic research and quantum technologies alike. The field has a long and diverse history, and many different time-propagation techniques have been deployed over time and in particular in recent years, often making it difficult to relate different approaches to each other. Based on a unified framework, this Colloquium provides an overview of methods used to describe and to simulate open quantum systems in various contexts, including quantum optics, quantum information, quantum thermodynamics, and solid-state and many-body physics, as well as chemical physics, highlighting the commonalities and differences between them.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 021002] Published Mon May 11, 2026

This review presents a unified perspective of how local energy, momentum, and spin densities in optical and acoustic wave fields induce forces and torques on particles—a topic that has captivated researchers for centuries. Applications discussed include trapping and manipulation of atoms and nanoparticles by light, sorting of biological cells by the combination of acoustics and microfluidics, and pulling forces that draw particles against the direction of wave propagation.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025002] Published Thu Apr 30, 2026

Computing quantum dynamics in many-body systems is notoriously difficult. In the past decade, there has been a fundamental advance based on discretizing the time evolution of lattice systems, by analogy with digital computation. Since space is already discrete on a lattice, treating space and time on the same footing avoids the mathematical complications of continuous space-time quantum field theories. This review focuses on how this space-time duality plays out in the dynamics of interacting many-body systems and the intrinsic relationship with special kinds of lattices termed brickwork quantum circuits. From this pedagogical review, readers will learn how this far-reaching analogy with quantum computation lies at the heart of a unified view of dynamical evolution of quantum many-body systems.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 025001] Published Wed Apr 15, 2026

Hadron spectroscopy is a frontier of particle physics; searching for new hadrons is crucial for validating the theory of strong interaction (QCD). Investigating how charmonium, a bound state of charm and anticharm quarks, decays and searching for new charmoniumlike states yield valuable insights into strong interaction mechanisms, including quark confinement and gluon binding. Hadrons produced at $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collisions decaying to open-charm meson pairs are a primary source of experimental information for these investigations. This Colloquium reviews current progress from BARBAR, Belle, CLEO-c, and BESIII experiments. As BESIII accumulates high-precision data, it has emerged as the leading facility for measuring hadron production in charm-meson pair systems, and recent advances are highlighted.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 021001] Published Fri Apr 03, 2026

Three Colloquia honor the Arecibo Observatory’s legacy, exploring its revolutionary impact on planetary radar studies, radio astronomy, and geospace science.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 010001] Published Tue Mar 31, 2026

For more than two decades, the planetary radar installed at the Arecibo Telescope was the most sensitive instrument of its kind, harnessing the penetrating power of radio waves to perform observations of the (sub)surface of planets, moons, and asteroids in the Solar System—providing a unique perspective on those bodies that helped to drive in situ exploration. This Colloquium presents an overview of the scientific legacy of the Arecibo radar system, focusing on the period posterior to the Gregorian Update in the late 1990s until the unexpected demise of the telescope in 2020. After recalling the basics of planetary radar techniques, it reviews key Arecibo observations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, our Moon, and the Saturn system, and highlights its essential role in the characterization of a large sample of near-Earth asteroids and comets.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 011003] Published Tue Mar 31, 2026

The Arecibo Observatory, inaugurated in 1963 as the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, remained at the forefront of astronomy and atmospheric science for more than five decades, until its catastrophic collapse in December 2020. This Colloquium focuses on Arecibo’s enduring legacy in radio astronomy, offering a historical perspective that emphasizes how successive major upgrades of the telescope continuously expanded its observational capabilities and scientific impact. It presents Arecibo’s most influential contributions in topics as diverse as pulsar studies, the mapping of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the Milky Way and other galaxies, the characterization of the interstellar medium, the imaging of extragalactic radio sources with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and being a major contributor to the first-ever detection of a stochastic gravitational-wave background.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 011004] Published Tue Mar 31, 2026

The Arecibo Observatory housed the largest single-aperture radio telescope for approximately 50 years. A major scientific focus was studying the upper atmosphere; its highly sensitive radar facility, combined with lidars, optical sensors, and satellite-based systems, enabled unprecedented studies of ionospheric physics based on incoherent scattering of radio waves off free electrons. After establishing the fundamental concepts and observables of the incoherent scattering radar technique, this Colloquium reviews key advances obtained with the Arecibo suite of instruments in multiple areas of geospace science, including plasma physics, space weather, lidar studies of atomic metals in the ionosphere, and ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 011005] Published Tue Mar 31, 2026

Materials containing transplutonium elements (the actinides Am–Cm that come after Pu in the periodic table) are important for nuclear power, nuclear waste management, and long-term storage. They also have fascinating properties, with 5$f$ electrons that lie at the boundary of being localized and itinerant. This paper reviews the physics and chemistry of transplutonium compounds under high pressure, covering both traditional metals, alloys, and compounds, as well as recent work on coordination complexes. Both the theory and experiments are challenging due to the high radioactivity and the complexity of studying heavy elements with both itinerant and localized electrons. The reviewed work represents a tour-de-force expansion of our understanding of the unique behavior of these materials.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 015004] Published Tue Mar 31, 2026

The quantum nature of radiation is not solely corpuscular. In the “continuous-variable” setting, the wavelike quantum properties can be observed. Quantum technologies put this continuous-variable nature of light to use, with applications in various forms of quantum information processing. This review concentrates on the developments of these wave-based techniques in quantum communication. Compared with photon-based (corpuscular) variants, the continuous-variable approach is equally well developed and has certain conceptual and practical advantages.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 015003] Published Mon Mar 23, 2026

The search for continuous gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars represents a key frontier of gravitational-wave astrophysics, with strong connections to electromagnetic astronomy, nuclear astrophysics, and condensed matter physics. This Colloquium discusses the detection prospects for these long-lived yet elusive signals in the upcoming generation of gravitational-wave detectors, emphasizing the importance of simultaneous electromagnetic observations. It also surveys the potential implications of such multimessenger observations for our understanding of the physical and astrophysical processes taking place in the extremely dense environments of their sources.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 011002] Published Tue Mar 10, 2026

The kagome lattice is a two-dimensional tiling of hexagons and triangles named after a Japanese basket weaving technique. Its geometry gives rise to highly frustrated interactions and interference effects experienced by electrons and their multiple degrees of freedom. In metals, the exploration of materials with kagome conduction networks is driven by predictions of realizing new electronic states where these interference effects are dominant, amplifying electronic interactions and many-body effects. In these kagome metals, these amplified correlation effects in combination with spin-orbit coupling and other forms of frustration have given rise to a wealth of phenomena beyond expectations. These include unusual states and responses born from topological flat bands, massive Dirac fermions, sublattice interference effects at saddle points such as unconventional superconductivity, orbital antiferromagnetism and flux phases, amplified anomalous Hall effects, and electronic nematic states. This review examines the theoretical and experimental work on kagome metals, with the aim of elucidating fundamental mechanisms underlying the observed exotic phenomena.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 015002] Published Thu Feb 12, 2026

In warm clouds, drops grow into raindrops through both condensation and collision coalescence, but the observed rapid transition between these mechanisms remains difficult to theoretically explain. The convection-cloud chamber, which reproduces key phenomena such as turbulent fluctuations in droplet concentrations and supersaturation under controlled laboratory conditions, offers a promising approach to addressing this long-standing bottleneck in understanding in cloud physics. This Colloquium reviews the physics underlying the precipitation bottleneck, examines how convection-cloud chambers capture the essential processes, and synthesizes insights from experiments, theory, and computational models that bridge laboratory and atmospheric scales.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 011001] Published Wed Feb 04, 2026

The exchange of energy and molecules in a living cell, the spread of opinions through a society, and the flow of traffic in a crowded city are very different phenomena, yet they are all examples of complex systems composed of many agents that interact with each other and exchange energy or particles with the environment. These systems can be modeled as stochastic reaction-diffusion systems. In this pedagogical review, the authors apply powerful field-theoretic methods to these systems, unifying diverse approaches under a single framework. The methods are useful for handling chemical systems but also have applications in a wide range of areas such as ecology and epidemiology.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 98, 015001] Published Thu Jan 22, 2026

The observation of a core collapse supernova explosion of (near-)Galactic origin would constitute a landmark, once-in-a-century event for multimessenger astronomy, eagerly awaited by observers and modelers alike. The detection of gravitational waves, along with photons and neutrinos, from such an event would provide unique insights into the supernova central engine and the physics of the newly forming neutron star. This Colloquium presents the latest progress in core collapse supernova modeling and the associated gravitational wave signal predictions. It also provides an overview of the specific methods of detection and physical parameter estimation that can be implemented for such signals in ground-based laser interferometers, in the context of multimessenger research strategies.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 041002] Published Tue Dec 30, 2025

Neutron stars, the remnants of supernova explosions, are the densest objects in the Universe. A typical neutron star has a mass between one and two solar masses, and a radius of around 12 km. The density at the center of the star is higher than that in atomic nuclei. As a result, the properties of neutron stars provide important information about the behavior of ordinary matter under extreme compression. In recent years, new information about neutron stars has emerged from two sources. The first is the observation of the gravitational-wave signal from the final inspiral of a coalescing binary neutron star. The second is a careful measurement of the x-ray pulse profile of a spinning neutron star. This review discusses these measurements and summarizes how they constrain masses, radii, and central densities. The results are compared to predictions based on calculations of the nuclear equation of state at densities comparable to that in atomic nuclei, which are then extrapolated to higher density. The review ends with an outlook on future observational opportunities.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045007] Published Wed Dec 24, 2025

Cryptography not only involves the sending of secret messages but also encompasses many protocols and procedures that provide privacy and security in the networked world. Likewise, quantum resources have the potential to enhance cryptography in ways that go beyond the well-known example of quantum key distribution. This review offers a classification of the main crypto primitives that are available quantum mechanically. It explains the security that they offer, including the sometimes significant limitations on their theoretical capabilities. Implementations using current photonic techniques are discussed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045006] Published Fri Dec 19, 2025

This review updates the field of spin glasses with broad application to a large variety of physical systems. In particular, this review tracks the progress of experiment, theory, and large-scale simulations. It highlights the importance of their synergy, from the inception of the field to the present day, and includes future opportunities for research.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045005] Published Mon Dec 15, 2025

The cosmological principle, which states that the Universe must be statistically isotropic and homogeneous on large scales, is a foundational principle of the standard model of cosmology, known as lambda cold dark matter ($\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM). The validity of this principle can be tested by assessing the compatibility of a dipole anisotropy in the large-scale distribution of matter with the dipole observed in the cosmic microwave background, interpreted in the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM model as due to our local peculiar motion. This Colloquium describes the methodology for such a test and presents its outcome based on the analysis of recent large catalogs of radio galaxies and quasars, revealing a significant inconsistency between the two dipoles. The authors review these recent findings, as well as potential biases, systematic issues, and alternate interpretations, and discuss how this anomaly could challenge the standard description of our Universe based on the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$CDM model.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 041001] Published Thu Dec 11, 2025

Dark sectors, involving new particles that couple very weakly to the standard model ones, play an important role in current model-building efforts in particle physics, as they allow, for example, for new dark matter production and interaction mechanisms. This review focuses on self-interacting dark matter scenarios, their implications on the dynamics and distribution of dark matter halos in the Universe, and the related astrophysical tests and observations, from galaxies to large-scale structures. It is embedded in the framework of the Novel Probes Project, a forum connecting observers and theorists involved in the study of astrophysical tests of dark-sector interactions.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045004] Published Mon Dec 08, 2025

Frustration in spin systems can prevent ordering even at $T=0$, creating quantum spin liquids that have been sought since Anderson’s pioneering work in 1973 and his influential 1987 paper connecting them to high-temperature superconductivity. Kitaev’s solvable spin-1/2 models on a honeycomb lattice brought renewed attention to this field, with Jackeli and Khaliullin later revealing how to engineer Kitaev interactions in real materials. This review highlights theoretical and experimental developments in Kitaev spin liquids, emphasizing leading candidate materials and their broad topological properties such as chiral edge modes. Consequently, it provides essential insights for both experimentalists and theorists working on quantum spin liquid problems.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045003] Published Wed Dec 03, 2025

Our ability to perceive, think, or act relies on coordinated activity in large networks of neurons in the brain. This review examines recent progress in connecting ideas from statistical physics, such as maximum entropy methods and the renormalization group, to quantitative experiments that record the electrical activity of thousands of neurons simultaneously. This quantitative bridge between the new data and statistical physics models uncovers new, quantitatively reproducible behaviors and makes clear that abstract theoretical principles in studies of the brain can have the level of predictive power that we expect in other areas of physics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045002] Published Thu Nov 06, 2025

Supersymmetry remains one of the leading candidates for physics beyond the standard model, offering a compelling framework to address the hierarchy of scales. Its theoretical appeal has inspired decades of intensive model building and experimental searches. Recent results have placed stringent bounds on the supersymmetric parameter space, sharpening the focus on the remaining viable models. This review surveys the current status and outlook for supersymmetry in light of experimental constraints and recent theoretical developments, and presents projections for the discovery potential of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider across multiple search channels and a variety of well-motivated scenarios.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 045001] Published Fri Oct 17, 2025

This review examines the theoretical methods used to describe the photophysical process of internal conversion in quantum systems. These models explore all facets of the nonradiative mechanism, and the review presents an outlook on how they can be incorporated in studies relevant to applications, for example, in photonics and energy harvesting.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 035003] Published Tue Sep 16, 2025

Approximately 90% of the stars in the Milky Way are on the main sequence, fusing hydrogen into helium through a network of nuclear reactions. This includes the nearest star, our Sun. A precise understanding of hydrogen burning is crucial to predicting its luminosity, neutrino production, and helioseismology. This review describes the theoretical and experimental work of the last decade that has advanced our understanding of the nuclear physics of hydrogen burning. It describes the plasma and atomic physics that influences the solar environment in which the nuclear reactions take place, as well as the diagnostics probes—including solar neutrinos and helioseismology—that allow us to test our resulting model of the solar interior.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 035002] Published Thu Sep 04, 2025

The 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. This paper is the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 030501] Published Mon Aug 25, 2025

The 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. This paper is the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 030502] Published Mon Aug 25, 2025

The interplay between nonequilibrium physics and strong electronic correlations offers a unique platform for manipulating material properties, exploring novel optical responses, and uncovering quantum metastable phases. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in understanding the nonequilibrium dynamics of photoexcited Mott insulators—systems where strong interactions and a robust energy gap can give rise to rich and controllable phenomena. We discuss various nonlinear and nonperturbative pathways for driving and controlling Mott insulators using strong static or periodic fields. Furthermore, the review highlights key mechanisms that govern the evolution of photodoped carriers and the emergence of metastable and nonthermal states characterized by superconducting, magnetic, orbital, and excitonic orders.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 035001] Published Thu Jul 31, 2025

Skyrmions are topological field configurations that were first discussed in the context of high-energy theory. In recent years, skyrmionic spin patterns in solid-state systems have received much attention, in part for their promising application potential. This Colloquium discusses quantum-mechanical aspects of such magnetic skyrmions, both for the interactions that underlie skyrmion formation and for quantum features of the skyrmions themselves.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 031001] Published Tue Jul 08, 2025

Atomic-scale details, especially those of disorder, are important for material properties, especially in semiconductors, but they are also extremely difficult to measure. Real-space methods can give direct access to this information, but typically, that access is limited. This review reports the application of three real-space techniques for measuring disorder to compound semiconductor materials: scanning tunneling microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atom-probe microscopy. Where possible, it emphasizes cases in which the probes have been combined to achieve a more complete picture of the defects.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025006] Published Thu Jun 26, 2025

This review presents a comprehensive summary of theoretical investigations and experimental searches for spin-dependent interactions beyond the standard model. These interactions may be mediated by various types of exotic bosons, and their existence and properties may, in turn, explain the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The described experiments also probe the discrete fundamental symmetries of nature.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025005] Published Tue Jun 24, 2025

Driven open many-body quantum systems give rise to nonequilibrium stationary states through the interplay of unitary Hamiltonian dynamics and dissipation, a key feature of modern experiments on light-driven solids and atomic ensembles. This review explores the different types of universal behavior that emerge in these states and their theoretical classification within nonequilibrium quantum field theory, emphasizing the role of symmetry, topology, and quantum state purity.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025004] Published Thu Jun 12, 2025

Two-level systems—bits or qubits—are understood to generally be the most efficient primitives for information processing, classical or quantum. But this is not to say that there are no roles to be played by multilevel systems. This Colloquium surveys these possible roles for the quantum case. Here we speak of qudits: $d$-level quantum systems. In one interesting example, the use of just one three-level system permits a drastic simplification of the “Toffoli gate,” the basic three-qubit primitive of reversible logic. A survey is given of various qudit-qubit embeddings, and the current state of quantum computing experiments using qudits is reviewed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 021003] Published Tue Jun 03, 2025

There are many nuclear reactions that are of central importance for stellar burning and element formation. In typical stars, these reactions take place at very low energy, and many of them have very small rates, making it difficult to measure them directly in the laboratory. On the theoretical side, the low-energy regime is governed by quantum-mechanical phenomena like tunneling, near-threshold resonances, and interference effects. This review summarizes the state of the art in the theory of low-energy nuclear reactions in stars and describes new ideas for studying these reactions on Earth.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025003] Published Tue May 27, 2025

Classical thermodynamic bounds provide constraints on values that are expected in measurements of certain physical properties. In a variety of fields, some measurements exceed these bounds. This apparent violation of thermodynamics arises because the measurements are made in ways that violate the underlying assumptions made when deriving these bounds. This Colloquium describes a wide variety of circumstances where such violations occur and which of the underlying assumptions are violated in each case. It also describes how interesting material properties can be developed using materials designed to violate these assumptions.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 021002] Published Wed May 14, 2025

This review contains the 2022 self-consistent set of values of the constants and conversion factors of physics and chemistry recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). The CODATA values are based on a least-squares adjustment that takes into account all data available up to the end of 2022. Details of the data selection and methodology are described.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025002] Published Wed Apr 30, 2025

The motion of gas bubbles in liquids plays a vital role in numerous natural, industrial, and everyday phenomena. Unlike solid particles, gas bubbles are nearly weightless and highly responsive to forces from the surrounding fluid. Their dynamics are affected by added mass acceleration and deformable surfaces, and also by interactions with turbulent flows, other bubbles, and walls, with liquid rheology and surfactants further influencing their behavior. This review examines the intricate behavior of noncondensable gas bubbles, highlighting key advances over the past 20 years. Key topics include turbulence, non-Newtonian fluids, and electrolytes, offering insights to enhance modeling and guide future research in two-phase flow systems.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 025001] Published Thu Apr 17, 2025

Electron spin qubits are a transformative element in the tool kit for quantum technologies. Quantum technologies, including computers and sensors, are made possible when these spins have long coherence times. This Colloquium focuses on the growing confidence with which these coherence times can be predicted using $ab$ $initio$ methods. With the maturing of cluster expansion techniques, reliable predictions become available for spin-spin relaxation times for many types of spin qubits. Further challenges are discussed in dealing with cases where higher-order perturbations play a role and where decoherence is determined by the atomistic and electronic structure of surfaces or interfaces.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 021001] Published Fri Apr 04, 2025

This Colloquium presents ways to implement fractal lattices, curved spaces, and higher dimensions in atomic, photonic, and electronic systems. The study of quantum many-body physics in these exotic geometries permits simulation of phenomena from topology in condensed matter to models of gravity and cosmology.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 011001] Published Tue Mar 25, 2025

What if active units could align–or even antialign–their orientation with their own velocity? This intriguing self-alignment property unlocks a spectrum of fascinating behaviors, from single self-propelled particles orbiting in harmonic traps to transformative collective phenomena like synchronized motion in dense or solid elastic assemblies. Unlike systems where units simply mimic their neighbors, self-alignment fundamentally reshapes how motion emerges, paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries in biology, smart materials, and robotics. This review uncovers the hidden power of self-alignment in active systems, introduces a unified mathematical and conceptual framework, explores existing models of self-alignment, and highlights its transformative impact on the study and real-world applications of active systems.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015007] Published Thu Mar 20, 2025

It is conceptually possible that gravity is a force of nature that is not describable with a classical theory, but is also not described by a conventional quantum theory. Information-theoretic approaches make it possible to address this general idea in a concrete way, with thought experiments that would constrain the scope of whatever new theory emerges. This review gives the status of these new theoretical approaches, with an emphasis on proposed experiments that look for gravitationally induced entanglement (GIE) between two probes for which quantum theory is known to be applicable. Various potentially feasible tabletop-scale GIE experiments that have been proposed are concretely analyzed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015006] Published Fri Mar 14, 2025

Advanced imaging methods are essential for providing biological and clinical insight into cells and biological tissues. Optoacoustic imaging is one such method in which cells or tissues absorb short laser pulses and the resulting rise in temperature creates tiny ultrasound waves that can be detected by ultrasonic detectors placed outside the specimen. This noninvasive technique has the ability to look at optical contrast that is millimeters and even centimeters deep with high resolution. This review discusses the basic physics, how the method impacts biological and clinical research, and the latest developments in multimodal microscopy and imaging combining optical and optoacoustic techniques.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015005] Published Tue Mar 04, 2025

The buckling of a material surface subject to compression or growth is a ubiquitous phenomenon, arising in materials science contexts such as the swelling of gels as well as in biological contexts such as morphogenesis and embryogenesis. A complete understanding of the creases and sharp cusps that commonly accompany buckling requires nonlinear elasticity theory. This review presents a modern treatment of the Biot instability, integrating many standard techniques of nonlinear physics and solid mechanics, such as bifurcation theory, conformal mapping, and $J$ and $M$ integrals.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015004] Published Mon Feb 24, 2025

The authors review theories and experimental state-of-the-art efforts to study the effects of gravity on massive quantum systems. Classical gravity is the least precisely tested natural force and may be addressed via precision quantum probes. Experiments testing whether the quantum nature of gravity causes decoherence and collapse of matter-wave functions and whether it can mediate entanglement between separate massive particles are underway, and their results will guide the theoretical description of gravity effects on a laboratory scale.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015003] Published Thu Feb 13, 2025

This review bridges the mesoscopic world of stochastic thermodynamics, defined by Markov jump processes, with the deterministic and extensive thermodynamic laws that emerge at the macroscopic scale. Using large deviations theory, it constructs a fluctuation framework preserving core principles like the fluctuation theorem. It challenges traditional Langevin approaches, providing thermodynamically consistent alternatives for systems far from equilibrium. From chemical reaction networks to electronic circuits and Potts models, this work elucidates the dynamics of rare fluctuations, attractor transitions, and entropy production principles, offering a robust theoretical foundation for understanding nonequilibrium phenomena across disciplines.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015002] Published Wed Jan 22, 2025

Gravitational waves open a unique window on the earliest times in cosmology because the dense primordial plasma, impenetrable to light or neutrinos, is transparent to gravitational waves up to the instant of the birth of the Universe. This review discusses the possible signals from the phase transitions, topological defects, and other cosmological sources, as well as a range of strategies for detection of the stochastic gravitational waves produced by the earliest events in the history of the Universe.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015001] Published Wed Jan 08, 2025

The description of the electronic structure in terms of extended Bloch states has made it possible to understand and calculate many properties in condensed-matter physics. However, understanding and insight often require a local description, and Wannier functions provide an exact and insightful map of extended reciprocal-space Bloch states into localized real-space orbitals. Applications range far and wide, from ultra-accurate integrations to topological invariants, and their widespread uptake by the electronic-structure community has resulted in a growing and interoperable ecosystem of methods and associated software tools. This review provides a description of this ecosystem that has now become a major instrument for the electronic-structure community in its pursuit of understanding, discovering, and designing materials.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045008] Published Mon Dec 23, 2024

Plasma is usually taught to be a quasineutral gas of charged and neutral particles that exhibits collective behavior. However, satellites regularly observe solitary potential structures in space plasmas that are isolated positive or negative potential humps, called electron or ion holes. In the 1970s, laboratory observations were made of electron holes. This review presents an overview of the observation of these electrostatic structures and presents their origin and their stability, using analytic theory and simulations. The role of kinetically unstable velocity distributions is identified as a key driver.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045007] Published Tue Dec 10, 2024

Sometimes a mathematical tool emerges as uniquely useful and even a defining feature within some branch of physics such as Feynman diagrams. In quantum information theory, the semidefinite program (SDP) has emerged as such a tool. SDP is an optimization task in which a linear objective function is maximized over a set of Hermitian matrices with positive eigenvalues. This review discusses the highly efficient algorithms available for the SDP, and shows how comprehensively the SDP has been deployed in problems of entanglement characterization, quantum nonlocality, quantum channel capacities, and the bounding of ground-state energies.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045006] Published Wed Dec 04, 2024

Expansion of the Universe creates the conditions for particle production solely due to the presence of gravity. This review provides a field-theoretical description of particle creation in a time-dependent background and explores the consequences of cosmological gravitational particle production for dark matter, gravitational-wave radiation, dark radiation, and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045005] Published Mon Nov 25, 2024

Over the past 15 years, the numerical conformal bootstrap has become an indispensable tool for studying strongly coupled conformal field theories in various dimensions. Reviewed here are the main developments in the field in the five years since the publication of the previous comprehensive review […

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045004] Published Thu Nov 21, 2024

The simplicity of hard spheres as a model system is deceptive. Although the particles interact solely through volume exclusion, that nevertheless suffices for a wealth of static and dynamical phenomena to emerge, making the model an important target for achieving a comprehensive understanding of mat…

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045003] Published Tue Nov 12, 2024

It is generally assumed that a Hamiltonian for a physically acceptable quantum system (one that has a positive-definite spectrum and obeys the requirement of unitarity) must be Hermitian. However, a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian can also define a physically acceptable quantum-mechanical system even if th…

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045002] Published Mon Oct 28, 2024

Liquid argon detectors are ubiquitous in particle, astroparticle, and applied physics. They reached an unprecedented level of maturity thanks to more than 20 years of research and development and the operation of large-scale facilities at CERN, Fermilab, and the Gran Sasso laboratories. This review …

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045001] Published Mon Oct 21, 2024

Gene expression, that is, the way in which genes encoded in the genome determine a cell’s growth and biological function, is crucially influenced by growth-related processes, such as replication of the genome and the doubling of all cellular components. Historically, this interplay has been largely ignored. This Colloquium describes recent experiments designed to shed light on this important coupling and theoretical models that take it into account.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 041001] Published Fri Oct 04, 2024

Active systems defy the laws of equilibrium statistical mechanics, often enjoying long-range order in situations where dead matter cannot, as required by rigorous results. These strong, long range correlations result in a preternatural sensitivity to sample boundaries and boundary conditions. This Colloquium demonstrates this phenomena by focussing on a simple model of dry scalar active matter that demonstrates the salient effects without the additional complexity of hydrodynamics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 031003] Published Mon Sep 30, 2024

Treating cancer with ionizing radiation has been pursued for nearly a century. A key challenge has been finding the right balance between providing enough dose to kill the cancer cells while minimizing the damage to normal ones. The discovery of the so-called FLASH effect, where short radiation bursts allow for higher lethal doses to be delivered to cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue, opens up the therapeutic window and ushers in a new era for radiation therapy. In this review multidisciplinary aspects are discussed of dose delivery, the chemistry and biology behind the effect, and readiness for clinical deployment.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 035002] Published Thu Sep 19, 2024

The 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier. This paper is the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 030501] Published Wed Aug 28, 2024

The 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier. This paper is the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 030502] Published Wed Aug 28, 2024

The 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier. This paper is the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 030503] Published Wed Aug 28, 2024

The numerical treatment of quantum systems often requires large amounts of computing power and time. As a result, performing calculations repeatedly for different values of the input parameters is often not feasible. One remedy is using eigenvectors describing the system that are analytic functions that vary smoothly for real values of the input parameters. This allows one to replace computationally expensive calculations with emulators that project onto a reduced-basis set. This Colloquium explores a particular class of reduced-basis methods known as eigenvector continuation and its applications, with emphasis on nuclear physics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 031002] Published Wed Aug 14, 2024

Rayleigh-Bénard convection is the flow in a closed box heated from below and cooled from above. The ultimate regime of Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence occurs when the dimensionless temperature difference between the bottom and top plates is large. This review gives a comprehensive overview of the theoretical approaches to the ultimate regime and of the experimental and numerical results on the transition to this regime. These are reconciled by realizing that the transition is of non-normal–nonlinear nature, as typical for the laminar to turbulent transition in shear flow. The review also suggests experimental and numerical approaches to further understand the transition to the ultimate regime.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 035001] Published Tue Aug 06, 2024

Storage of energy in quantum devices is of practical relevance for applications in quantum technologies. The topic attracts attention also of a more foundational character due to the possibility that the charging power and work extraction can benefit from quantum coherence and collective effects. This Colloquium reviews theoretical concepts and experimental implementations of energy storage in quantum batteries drawing on work in quantum thermodynamics and quantum information science.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 031001] Published Tue Jul 09, 2024

A branch of quantum information is concerned with transformations that are possible given certain resources: for example, quantum teleportation moves a quantum state from one place to another, aided by entanglement and classical communication. Certain other tasks are provably impossible. But, as surveyed in this review, a surprising fact is that some tasks become possible if another quantum state is present, even if this state is returned untouched at the end of the task. This “quantum catalysis” enables a large variety of interesting tasks, with applications ranging from cryptography to thermodynamics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 025005] Published Thu Jun 27, 2024

Neutrinos can change flavors due to their nonzero masses and mixings as well as their interactions with matter and other neutrinos. In dense astrophysical environments, such as core-collapse supernovae or neutron star mergers, the problem of neutrino flavor evolution becomes very complex. Connections to other domains such as quantum information theory have been uncovered. Understanding the neutrino flavor evolution in dense environments can shed light on the dynamics of massive star explosions and the origin of heavy elements in the Universe and is important for future observations of supernova neutrinos.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 025004] Published Mon Jun 24, 2024

For centuries, human fascination with the living world motivated the development of tools for visualizing life’s events at the spatiotemporal scales beyond our visual range. While all optical microscopes use light to probe the object of interest, fluorescence microscopes can discern between the object and background at the molecular scale. At this scale, the stochastic properties of light are fundamental to interpreting fluorescence microscopy data. Accordingly quantitative methods that enable such interpretation necessitate stochastic perspective and the use of statistical concepts. The physical-optical principles governing the formation of fluorescent images and modeling tools interpreting these images while accounting for the stochasticity of light and measurements are reviewed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 025003] Published Wed Jun 05, 2024

In many solids, the spin-orbit interaction is only a small effect. However, in certain materials it leads to new phenomena. This Colloquium reviews the role of spin-orbit interaction in superconducting hybrid structures, where it can lead to exotic states such as spin-triplet pairing, topological superconductivity, and the superconducting diode effect. These are fundamental interest and importance for applications, including spintronics and quantum computing.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 021003] Published Tue May 28, 2024

The theory of unconventional superconductors continues to provide profound puzzles. The crossover between the weakly coupled Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state and the strong-pairing Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) provides a useful perspective on how to address these questions. This paper describes a self-consistent framework for thinking about the crossover regime in between these two limits. The review discusses to what extent this BCS-BEC theory applies to a range of classes of superconducting materials including the cuprates, iron pnictides, twisted bilayer graphene, and interfacial superconductivity among others.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 025002] Published Thu May 23, 2024

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 020001] Published Tue May 21, 2024

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are sensitive to magnetic fields, and a single center permits detection of electron and nuclear spins and imaging of single molecules in its vicinity. This article reviews the achievements of advanced methods to obtain spectral and spatial resolution and it points to technical problems that remain to be solved for widespread and multidisciplinary adoption of single-molecule magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 025001] Published Wed May 08, 2024

Artificially engineered mechanical systems, sometimes called metamaterials, offer many promising applications on length scales ranging from macroscopic systems to the nanoscale. A topic of particular interest is the existence of topologically protected phononic edge states in such systems that are analogous to the electronic edge states that give rise to the quantum Hall effect. This Colloquium gives an introduction to topologically protected transport in metamaterials and its applications for controlling acoustic transport.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 021002] Published Thu Apr 18, 2024

Magnetotactic bacteria have a built-in compass, in the form of a magnetosome chain made up of magnetic biominerals, that allows them to passively align along terrestrial magnetic field lines. They also sense oxygen gradients and swim using at least one flagellum. Hence, these bacteria are self-propelled active matter capable of displaying flocking behavior. This Colloquium explains the physics behind these various capabilities, as well as their interactions and biological significance.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 021001] Published Thu Apr 04, 2024

The standard model is successful at describing most of the data at the electroweak scale, but there are indications that new physics should exist at a higher energy scale. To identify, quantify, and elucidate the new physics, one can use the framework of the standard model effective field theory. This article reviews the construction and theoretical tools provided by the effective field theory for analyzing the present and future experimental data, as well as theoretical ideas for new physics.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015006] Published Tue Mar 19, 2024

Electronic devices that incorporate magnetism, called spintronic devices, can increase the functionality of electronic circuits and lead to increases in efficiency. Such devices are useful if the magnetization can be manipulated electrically rather than by magnetic fields. This review covers the materials, underlying physics, and applications involved in such manipulation, focusing on two control mechanisms. The first is control by manipulating the magnetization through its coupling to ferroelectric order and the second is control by spin-polarized currents manipulating the magnetization through the angular momentum flowing into it.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015005] Published Wed Mar 13, 2024

Recent observations of compact astrophysical objects have opened the possibility to probe the nature of gravity in its strong-field regime. Such observations could reveal deviations from general relativity or the standard model. Spontaneous scalarization, which is controlled by scalar-field couplings to gravity, leads to a behavior that resembles a phase transition: the scalar induces measurable effects in the strong-field regime while remaining undetectable in weak-field gravitational experiments. This review presents the spontaneous scalarization mechanism, several scalarization models considered in the literature, and their astrophysical implications for neutron stars and black holes. It also discusses the generalization of such models to other types of fields and instabilities.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015004] Published Thu Mar 07, 2024

Time-resolved angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy provides access to light-induced changes in the electronic band structure and interactions of solids, and to the out-of-equilibrium electron dynamics. This article reviews the history and future prospects for the development of the technique, and offers an overview of recent achievements in studying unoccupied and light-driven states, photoinduced phase transitions, electron-phonon scattering, and electron dynamics in quantum materials, including topological insulators, unconventional superconductors, traditional and novel semiconductors, excitonic insulators, and spin-textured systems.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015003] Published Tue Feb 27, 2024

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 019901] Published Wed Feb 21, 2024

Metamaterials are artificially patterned structures designed to behave as artificial materials with novel properties. A popular application is controlling electromagnetic waves with subwavelength patterning, leading to properties like negative indices of refraction. Metamaterials can also control diffusion processes, which are different from wave propagation. This review describes metamaterials in diffusive systems in terms of their underlying physics, the theory used to describe them, and their potential applications in areas such as heat management, drug transport, and particle separation.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015002] Published Wed Feb 14, 2024

Friction at highly lubric interfaces of two-dimensional materials is important yet incompletely characterized. This Colloquium discusses sliding and pinning between two-dimensional layers, using simulations of twisted graphene interfaces as a prototypical system. The resulting insights are of potential relevance for a larger category of bilayer and multilayer systems as well.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 011002] Published Wed Feb 07, 2024

This article reviews recent literature and presents new calculations of the Lamb shift in light muonic atoms. Point-nucleus QED and nuclear structure effects are treated consistently among all muonic and electronic atoms to allow for improved determination of nuclear charge radii and fundamental constants.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 015001] Published Wed Jan 24, 2024

Fractons are exotic excitations originally conceived as platforms for reliable quantum memories. They are characterized by highly restricted mobilities. In the continuum, they are described by tensor fields with higher gauge symmetries. In this Colloquium, the focus is on a class of duality mappings between fracton models and elasticity theory, building the reader’s intuition and understanding in a more familiar setting.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 011001] Published Fri Jan 05, 2024

Probing of electromagnetic fields in high-energy-density experiments is key to understanding questions in fusion processes such as how the fields are compressed, diffuse through the plasma, and can seed instabilities. Many kinetic processes studied, including collisionless shocks, filamentary instabilities, jets, magnetic reconnection, and turbulence, all depend on the field structure. In this review, an overview of experimental techniques and the underpinning theoretical principles and modeling of proton-based imaging is presented, followed by a review of experiments and an outlook for future frontiers in the technique.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045007] Published Thu Dec 28, 2023

The gravitational form factors encode fundamental particle properties including mass, spin, and $D$-term. Their physical interpretation promises, for composed particles, insights on spatial distributions of energy, angular momentum, and internal forces. This Colloquium reviews the theoretical and recent experimental advances in this field with focus on the quark-gluon structure of the proton in QCD.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 041002] Published Fri Dec 22, 2023

The flight of the bumblebee has long been a source of fascination, in part because the lift requirements cannot be explained by conventional steady fluid dynamics, and unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms must be invoked. In addition, viscous effects are important for the majority of flying insects, which are an order of magnitude smaller than bumblebees. This leads to different wingbeat patterns and aerodynamic mechanisms. In this Colloquium, recent advances in the study of the mechanics of flight in these miniature insects are reviewed.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 041001] Published Thu Dec 21, 2023

Quantum technology is now at a point where practical work can begin on creating the quantum internet. However, numerous challenges must be overcome before this vision becomes a reality. A global-scale quantum internet requires the development of the quantum repeater, a device that stores and manipulates qubits while interacting with or emitting entangled photons. This review examines different approaches to quantum repeaters and networks, covering their conceptual frameworks, architectures, and current progress in experimental implementation.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045006] Published Wed Dec 20, 2023

In most of physics it is normal to obtain information by analysis of noisy data. The paradigm of quantum computing has been a simplified version of this – one measurement of a two-level system gives one bit of reliable information about the result of a computation. But real-world quantum computers do not work this way: the noisiness of quantum evolution also requires good strategies for extracting information. This review covers many error-mitigation strategies used in present-day quantum processors. These strategies make it much more feasible to obtain useful results before fault tolerance is achieved.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045005] Published Wed Dec 13, 2023

Kinematic variables are important tools for analyzing collider experiments. This article reviews a variety of such tools, which were designed primarily for the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, but which have potential uses in other experiments. The article also discusses the interconnection and mutual complementarity of kinematic variables and modern machine-learning techniques.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045004] Published Tue Nov 21, 2023

The study of optics in correlated disordered media combines wave physics, complex media, and nanophotonics. Investigations have shown how subwavelength structural correlations control light scattering, transport, and localization. This article reviews the formalism behind light scattering in disordered media, experimental techniques, and achievements in studying light interaction with correlated disorder. It explores phenomena like optical transparency, superdiffusive transport, and photonic gaps, offering new perspectives for applications. The research covers systems from photonic liquids to hyperuniform disordered photonic materials, and addresses mesoscopic phenomena and disorder engineering for light-energy management.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045003] Published Wed Nov 15, 2023

Atmospheric nanoparticles can serve as nuclei for cloud droplets, thereby inducing significant but uncertain effects on the radiative forcing of the climate system. This article focuses on the physicochemical processes that govern the growth of these particles from formation of molecular clusters until the particles reach sizes where they can act as cloud condensation nuclei. The review describes the latest developments in measurement and modeling of these processes and connects these domains to the large-scale simulations such as Earth system models. The authors recommend closer coordination among laboratory studies, atmospheric measurements, and large-scale modeling to understand the importance of nanoparticles in the climate system.

[Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 045002] Published Thu Nov 09, 2023