Recent interest in aspects common to quantum information and condensed matter has prompted a flurry of activity at the border of these disciplines that were far distant until a few years ago. Numerous interesting questions have been addressed so far. Here an important part of this field, the propert...

The theoretical and experimental issues relevant to neutrinoless double beta decay are reviewed. The impact that a direct observation of this exotic process would have on elementary particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology is profound. Now that neutrinos are known to have mass ...

In the early 1970s, Wilson developed the concept of a fully nonperturbative renormalization group transformation. When applied to the Kondo problem, this numerical renormalization group (NRG) method gave for the first time the full crossover from the high-temperature phase of a free spin to the low-...

The demand for coherent scattering data for modeling electron transport in matter has increased in recent years. While much effort has been devoted to the improvement of models describing electron transport and scattering, the updating of fundamental data sets on the basis of recent experimental res...

A review of new developments in theoretical and experimental electronic-structure investigations of half-metallic ferromagnets (HMFs) is presented. Being semiconductors for one spin projection and metals for another, these substances are promising magnetic materials for applications in spintronics (...

Quantum dots pose a problem where one must confront three obstacles: randomness, interactions, and finite size. Yet it is this confluence that allows one to make some theoretical advances by invoking three theoretical tools: random matrix theory, the renormalization group, and the 1∕N expansion....

The progress in solving problems involving nonrelativistic fast ion (atom)-atom collisions with two actively participating electrons is reviewed. Such processes involve, e.g., (i) scattering between a bare nucleus (projectile) P of charge Z_P and a heliumlike atomic system consisting of two elect...

This review provides a perspective on the use of orbital-dependent functionals, which is currently considered one of the most promising avenues in modern density-functional theory. The focus here is on four major themes: the motivation for orbital-dependent functionals in terms of limitations of sem...

Disclinations were first observed in mesomorphic phases. They were later found relevant to a number of ill-ordered condensed-matter media involving continuous symmetries or frustrated order. Disclinations also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries; but they are of limited interest ...

High-harmonic generation provides an attractive light source of coherent radiation in the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) and soft-x-ray regions of the spectrum and allows for the production of single attosecond pulses or pulse trains. This Colloquium covers the control of high-harmonic spectra by tempora...

With the continued improvement of sequencing technologies, the prospect of genome-based medicine is now at the forefront of scientific research. To realize this potential, however, a revolutionary sequencing method is needed for the cost-effective and rapid interrogation of individual genomes. This ...

Equilibrium phase transitions may be defined as nonanalytic points of thermodynamic functions, e.g., of the canonical free energy. Given a certain physical system, it is of interest to understand which properties of the system account for the presence, or the absence, of a phase transition, and an i...

This paper presents a review on the field of inclusive quasielastic electron-nucleus scattering. It discusses the approach used to measure the data and includes a compilation of data available in numerical form. The theoretical approaches used to interpret the data are presented. A number of results...

The flow of fluids in channels, pipes, or ducts, as in any other wall-bounded flow (like water along the hulls of ships or air on airplanes) is hindered by a drag, which increases manyfold when the fluid flow turns from laminar to turbulent. A major technological problem is how to reduce this drag i...

This review describes progress in the field of physisorption. Significant advances in the knowledge of microscopic structures and interactions of weakly bound adsorbates are reviewed, including the first studies for the adsorption sites of rare gases on flat metal surfaces and at surface steps, the ...

NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite mission, the COBE, laid the foundations for modern cosmology by measuring the spectrum and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation and discovering the cosmic infrared background radiation. I describe the history of the COBE project, its s...

All material bodies are surrounded by a fluctuating electromagnetic field because of the thermal and quantum fluctuations of the current density inside them. Close to the surface of planar sources (when the distance d⪡λ_T=cℏ∕k_BT ), thermal radiation can be spatially and temporally coherent if...

This Colloquium analyzes the interaction of light with two-dimensional periodic arrays of particles and holes. The enhanced optical transmission observed in the latter and the presence of surface modes in patterned metal surfaces is thoroughly discussed. A review of the most significant discoveries ...

In the past ten years it has become clear that methods and techniques based on supersymmetry provide deep insights into quantum chromodynamics and other nonsupersymmetric gauge theories at strong coupling. This review summarizes major advances in critical (Bogomol’nyi-Prasad- Sommerfield–saturat...

Almost 100   years ago, two different expressions were proposed for the energy-momentum tensor of an electromagnetic wave in a dielectric. Minkowski’s tensor predicted an increase in the linear momentum of the wave on entering a dielectric medium, whereas Abraham’s tensor predicted its de...

The canonical example of a quantum-mechanical two-level system is spin. The simplest picture of spin is a magnetic moment pointing up or down. The full quantum properties of spin become apparent in phenomena such as superpositions of spin states, entanglement among spins, and quantum measurements. M...

Superresolution, extraordinary transmission, total absorption, and localization of electromagnetic waves are currently attracting growing attention. These phenomena are related to different physical systems and are usually studied within the context of different, sometimes rather sophisticated, approaches. Remarkably, all these seemingly unrelated phenomena owe their origin to the same underlying physical mechanism - wave interaction with an open resonator. Here we show that it is possible to describe all of these effects in a unified way, mapping each system onto a simple resonator model. Such description provides a thorough understanding of the phenomena, explains all the main features of their complex behavior, and enables to control the system via the resonator parameters: eigenfrequencies, Q-factors, and coupling coefficients.

We review here the recent success in quantum annealing, i.e., optimization of the cost or energy functions of complex systems utilizing quantum fluctuations. The concept is introduced in successive steps through the studies of mapping of such computationally hard problems to the classical spin glass problems. The quantum spin glass problems arise with the introduction of quantum fluctuations, and the annealing behavior of the systems as these fluctuations are reduced slowly to zero. This provides a general framework for realizing analog quantum computation.

The physics of quantum degenerate Fermi gases in uniform as well as in harmonically trapped configurations is reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Emphasis is given to the effect of interactions which play a crucial role, bringing the gas into a superfluid phase at low temperature. In these dilute systems interactions are characterized by a single parameter, the $s$-wave scattering length, whose value can be tuned using an external magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. The BCS limit of ordinary Fermi superfluidity, the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dimers and the unitary limit of large scattering length are important regimes exhibited by interacting Fermi gases. In particular the BEC and the unitary regimes are characterized by a high value of the superfluid critical temperature, of the order of the Fermi temperature. Different physical properties are discussed, including the density profiles and the energy of the ground-state configurations, the momentum distribution, the fraction of condensed pairs, collective oscillations and pair breaking effects, the expansion of the gas, the main thermodynamic properties, the behavior in the presence of optical lattices and the signatures of superfluidity, such as the existence of quantized vortices, the quenching of the moment of inertia and the consequences of spin polarization. Various theoretical approaches are considered, ranging from the mean-field description of the BCS-BEC crossover to non-perturbative methods based on quantum Monte Carlo techniques. A major goal of the review is to compare the theoretical predictions with the available experimental results.

Nanofluidics allows transport phenomena which are not accessible at bigger length scales. Fluid flow in nanometer-sized apertures is laminar and for electrokinetic transport ion mobility values, electrical double layer thickness, zeta potential, and ion valence have to be considered. As the surface-to-volume ratio in nanochannels is big, the surface charge density dominates the transport across the pore leading to high charge selectivity. The nanochannel conductance shows a conductance plateau (on a log-log scale) at low ionic strengths because of the excess of counterions in the nanometer-sized aperture which equilibrate the surface charges. Diffusion of ions with a different net charge results in an exclusion of co-ions and an enrichment of counterions in the nanochannel at low salt concentrations. This exclusion-enrichment effect is important to describe the permselectivity of a nanochannel and can be used to separate proteins. The transport obtained with an external driving force, as an electric field or a pressure gradient, can be exploited to separate and preconcentrate biomolecules on a chip. Such charge selective features are of interest for micro total analysis systems to achieve nanofluidic devices for biomedical applications. In addition to proteins also long DNA molecules can be separated in length based on the entropic trapping of the polymeric molecules at nanometer-sized constriction zones. Separation of DNA fragments is also possible with pillar arrays using different directions of the electric field or asymmetric obstacles. The translocation of DNA molecules through a single nanopore can lead to a current increase or decrease. It has been shown that a transition from increasing to decreasing currents occurs by increasing the salt concentration of the buffer solution. For industrial applications cheap devices are demanded such as label-free DNA molecule detection methods based on nanowires.

The physics of Anderson transitions between localized and metallic phases in disordered systems is reviewed. The term "Anderson transition" is understood in a broad sense, including both metal-insulator transitions and quantum-Hall-type transitions between phases with localized states. The emphasis is put on recent developments, which include: multifractality of critical wave functions, criticality in the power-law random banded matrix model, symmetry classification of disordered electronic systems, mechanisms of criticality in quasi-one-dimensional and two-dimensional systems and survey of corresponding critical theories, network models, and random Dirac Hamiltonians. Analytical approaches are complemented by advanced numerical simulations.

We review experimental results for confined \hefour\ that are relevant to correlation-length scaling near the superfluid transition. Data are discussed for which the uniform confinement represents dimensionality crossover from three dimensions (3D) to 2D, 1D, and 0D. In addition, data for the onset of superfluidity are discussed representing 2D to 1D crossover. Collectively, these data for the specific heat, superfluid density, and thermal conductivity, yield, in some cases, excellent agreement with expectations of correlation-length scaling and, in others, surprising disagreements. This is especially true in the case of 3D to 2D crossover where data are most plentiful. Here, there is a clear distinction between scaling when the confined helium is normal and the lack of scaling when helium becomes superfluid. By far the most problematic result is the lack of scaling for the superfluid density for 3D to 2D crossover and, to some extent, for 3D to 1D crossover. We point out that connectivity and proximity effects can be identified with some data. These might explain some experimental results and present opportunities for further studies of weakly coupled superfluid regions. Measurements to test the universality of finite-size effects along the superfluid transition lines as function of pressure and \hethree\ concentration are also discussed. In the case of the specific heat, data indicate that the non-universal behavior of the critical exponent $\alpha$, obtained from bulk measurements, is responsible for the observation of a distinct scaling locus for confined pure \hefour\ versus that of the confined mixtures.

Topological quantum computation has recently emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles known as Non-Abelian anyons, meaning that they obey non-Abelian braiding statistics. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate operations which are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by braiding quasiparticles, and then measuring the multi-quasiparticle states. The fault-tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the non-local encoding of the states of the quasiparticles, which makes them immune to errors caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most prominently the n = 5/2 state, although several other prospective candidates have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices and thin film superconductors. In this review article, we describe current research in this field, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological quantum computer. We address both the mathematical underpinnings of topological quantum computation and the physics of the subject using the n = 5/2 fractional quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation.

This article reviews recent experimental and theoretical progress on many-body phenomena in dilute, ultracold gases. Its focus are effects beyond standard weak-coupling descriptions, like the Mott-Hubbard-transition in optical lattices, strongly interacting gases in one and two dimensions or lowest Landau level physics in quasi two-dimensional gases in fast rotation. Strong correlations in fermionic gases are discussed in optical lattices or near Feshbach resonances in the BCS-BEC crossover.

Valuable data on quarkonia (the bound states of a heavy quark Q=c,b and the corresponding antiquark) have recently been provided by a variety of sources, mainly e+ e- collisions, but also hadronic interactions. This permits a thorough updating of the experimental and theoretical status of electromagnetic and strong transitions in quarkonia. We discuss Q [`Q] transitions to other Q [`Q] states, with some reference to processes involving Q [`Q] annihilation.

It has been thirty years since the discovery of the Unruh effect. It has played a crucial role in our understanding that the particle content of a field theory is observer dependent. This effect is important in its own right and as a way to understand the phenomenon of particle emission from black holes and cosmological horizons. Here, we review the Unruh effect with particular emphasis to its applications. We also comment on a number of recent developments and discuss some controversies. Effort is also made to clarify what seems to be common misconceptions.

In view of future plans for accurate measurements of the theoretically clean branching ratios Br(\kpn) and Br(\klpn), that should take place in the next decade, we collect the relevant formulae for quantities of interest and analyze their theoretical and parametric uncertainties. We point out that in addition to the angle b in the unitarity triangle (UT) also the angle g can in principle be determined from these decays with respectable precision and emphasize in this context the importance of the recent NNLO QCD calculation of the charm contribution to \kpn and of the improved estimate of the long distance contribution by means of chiral perturbation theory. In addition to known expressions we present several new ones that should allow transparent tests of the Standard Model (SM) and of its extensions. While our presentation is centered around the SM, we also discuss models with minimal flavour violation and scenarios with new complex phases in decay amplitudes and meson mixing. We give a brief review of existing results within specific extensions of the SM, in particular the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity, Z¢ models, the MSSM and a model with one universal extra dimension. We derive a new "golden" relation between B and K systems that involves (b,g) and Br(\klpn) and investigate the virtues of (Rt,b), (Rb,g), (b,g) and ([`(h)],g) strategies for the UT in the context of K®pn[`(n)] decays with the goal of testing the SM and its extensions.

A review of CP violation from the Standard Model to strings is given which includes a broad landscape of particle physics models, encompassing the non-supersymmetric 4D extensions of the standard model, and models based on supersymmetry, on extra dimensions, on strings and on branes. The supersymmetric models discussed include complex mSUGRA and its extensions, while the models based on extra dimensions include 5D models including models based on warped geometry. CP violation beyond the standard model is central to achieving the desired amount of baryon asymmetry in the universe via baryogenesis and leptogenesis. They also affect a variety of particle physics phenomena: electric dipole moments, g-2, relic density and detection rates for neutralino dark matter in supersymmetric theories, Yukawa unification in grand unified and string based models, and sparticle production cross sections, and their decays patterns and signatures at hadron colliders. Additionally CP violations can generate CP even-CP odd Higgs mixings, affect the neutral Higgs spectrum and lead to phenomena detectable at colliders. Prominent among these are the CP violation effects in decays of neutral and charged Higgs bosons. Neutrino masses introduce new sources of CP violation which may be explored in neutrino factories in the future. Such phases can also enter in proton stability in unified models of particle interactions. The current experimental status of CP violation is discussed and possibilities for the future outlined.

This review deals with the structure of hadrons, strongly interacting many-body systems consisting of quarks and gluons. These systems have a size of about 1 fm, which shows up in scattering experiments at low momentum transfers Q in the GeV region. At this scale the running coupling constant of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the established theory of the strong interactions, becomes divergent. It is therefore highly intriguing to explore this theory in the realm of its strong interaction regime. However, the quarks and gluons can not be resolved at the GeV scale but have to be studied through their manifestations in the bound many-body systems, for instance pions, nucleons and their resonances. The review starts with a short overview of QCD at low momentum transfer and a summary of the theoretical apparatus describing the interaction of hadrons with electrons and photons. In the following sections we present the experimental results for the most significant observables studied with the electromagnetic probe: form factors, polarizabilities, excitation spectra, and sum rules. These experimental findings are compared and interpreted with various theoretical approaches to QCD, such as phenomenological models with quarks and pions, dispersion relations as a means to connect observables from different experiments, and, directly based on the QCD lagrangian, chiral perturbation theory and lattice gauge theory.

This paper gives the 2006 self-consistent set of values of the basic constants and conversion factors of physics and chemistry recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) for international use. Further, it describes in detail the adjustment of the values of the constants, including the selection of the final set of input data based on the results of least-squares analyses. The 2006 adjustment takes into account the data considered in the 2002 adjustment as well as the data that became available between 31 December 2002, the closing date of that adjustment, and 31 December 2006, the closing date of the new adjustment. The new data have led to a significant reduction in the uncertainties of many recommended values. The 2006 set replaces the previously recommended 2002 CODATA set and may also be found on the World Wide Web at physics.nist.gov/constants.