Effective field theory of dark energy: A review
Publication date: Available online 15 February 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Noemi Frusciante, Louis PerenonAbstractThe discovery of cosmic acceleration has triggered a consistent body of theoretical work aimed at modelling its phenomenology and understanding its fundamental physical nature. In recent years, a powerful formalism that accomplishes both these goals has been developed, the so-called effective field theory of dark energy. It can capture the behavior of a wide class of modified gravity theories and classify them according to the imprints they leave on the smooth background expansion history of the Unive...
Source: Physics Reports - February 16, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: 22 January 2020Source: Physics Reports, Volume 840Author(s): (Source: Physics Reports)
Source: Physics Reports - February 14, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: 27 January 2020Source: Physics Reports, Volume 841Author(s): (Source: Physics Reports)
Source: Physics Reports - February 14, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Flavor structures of charged fermions and massive neutrinos
Publication date: Available online 13 February 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Zhi-zhong XingAbstractMost of the free parameters in the Standard Model (SM) — a quantum field theory which has successfully elucidated the behaviors of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions of all the known fundamental particles, come from the lepton and quark flavors. The discovery of neutrino oscillations has proved that the SM is incomplete, at least in its lepton sector; and thus the door of opportunity is opened to exploring new physics beyond the SM and solving a number of flavor puzzles. In this review article we give an ...
Source: Physics Reports - February 14, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Mapping the phases of quantum chromodynamics with beam energy scan
We present the conceptual framework and discuss the observables deemed most sensitive to a phase transition, QCD critical point, and anomalous transport, focusing on fluctuation and correlation measurements. Selected experimental results for these observables together with those characterizing the global properties of the systems created in heavy ion collisions are presented. We then discuss what can be already learned from the currently available data about the QCD critical point and anomalous transport as well as what additional measurements and theoretical developments are needed in order to discover these phenomena. (S...
Source: Physics Reports - February 12, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: 21 January 2020Source: Physics Reports, Volume 839Author(s): (Source: Physics Reports)
Source: Physics Reports - February 8, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Four lectures on closed string field theory
Publication date: Available online 30 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Theodore ErlerAbstractThe following notes derive from review lectures on closed string field theory given at the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics in March 2019. (Source: Physics Reports)
Source: Physics Reports - February 1, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Frenesy: Time-symmetric dynamical activity in nonequilibria
Publication date: Available online 27 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Christian MaesAbstractWe review the concept of dynamical ensembles in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics as specified from an action functional or Lagrangian on spacetime. There, under local detailed balance, the breaking of time-reversal invariance is quantified via the entropy flux, and we revisit some of the consequences for fluctuation and response theory. Frenesy is the time-symmetric part of the path-space action with respect to a reference process. It collects the variable quiescence and dynamical activity as function of the system...
Source: Physics Reports - January 29, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Quantitative immunology for physicists
Publication date: Available online 25 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Grégoire Altan-Bonnet, Thierry Mora, Aleksandra M. WalczakAbstractThe adaptive immune system is a dynamical, self-organized multiscale system that protects vertebrates from both pathogens and internal irregularities, such as tumours. For these reason it fascinates physicists, yet the multitude of different cells, molecules and sub-systems is often also petrifying. Despite this complexity, as experiments on different scales of the adaptive immune system become more quantitative, many physicists have made both theoretical and experimental co...
Source: Physics Reports - January 25, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Editorial Board
Publication date: 18 January 2020Source: Physics Reports, Volume 838Author(s): (Source: Physics Reports)
Source: Physics Reports - January 24, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Two-dimensional MXenes: From morphological to optical, electric, and magnetic properties and applications
Publication date: Available online 22 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Xiantao Jiang, Artem V. Kuklin, Alexander Baev, Yanqi Ge, Hans Ågren, Han Zhang, Paras N. PrasadAbstractMXenes, generally referring to two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, have received tremendous attention since the first report in 2011. Extensive experimental and theoretical studies have unveiled their enormous potential for applications in optoelectronics, photonics, catalysis, and many other areas. Because of their intriguing mechanical and electronic properties, together with the richness of ele...
Source: Physics Reports - January 23, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Computational network biology: Data, models, and applications
Publication date: Available online 30 December 2019Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Chuang Liu, Yifang Ma, Jing Zhao, Ruth Nussinov, Yi-Cheng Zhang, Feixiong Cheng, Zi-Ke ZhangAbstractBiological entities are involved in intricate and complex interactions, in which uncovering the biological information from the network concepts are of great significance. Benefiting from the advances of network science and high-throughput biomedical technologies, studying the biological systems from network biology has attracted much attention in recent years, and networks have long been central to our understanding of biological systems, i...
Source: Physics Reports - January 15, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
On virus growth and form
Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Roya Zandi, Bogdan Dragnea, Alex Travesset, Rudolf PodgornikAbstractWe review approaches aimed at deciphering the physical mechanisms responsible for viral structure and assembly. We discuss the basic principles of condensed matter physics, macroscopic electrostatics and elastomechanics as they apply to nanosized two-dimensional biomolecular shells with spherical topology and icosahedral symmetry, as well as their proper extension to nonspherical structures pertinent to retroviruses. We examine the relation between the virus structure, the ...
Source: Physics Reports - January 15, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Variable-range hopping charge transport in organic thin-film transistors
Publication date: Available online 10 January 2020Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): O. Marinov, M.J. Deen, J.A. Jiménez-Tejada, C.H. ChenAbstractThe charge transport in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) is assessed in terms of variable range hopping (VRH), by numerical simulations, analytical analyses and comparisons to published experimental results. A numerical simulator, built on the fundamental relations for VRH, provides a simple key dependence that the sum of hopping energy and energy bending under bias is equal to the hopping energy in the bulk material, the latter a bias-independent function of the absolute te...
Source: Physics Reports - January 11, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research
Computational network biology: Data, model, and applications
Publication date: Available online 30 December 2019Source: Physics ReportsAuthor(s): Chuang Liu, Yifang Ma, Jing Zhao, Ruth Nussinov, Yi-Cheng Zhang, Feixiong Cheng, Zi-Ke ZhangAbstractBiological entities are involved in intricate and complex interactions, in which uncovering the biological information from the network concepts are of great significance. Benefiting from the advances of network science and high-throughput biomedical technologies, studying the biological systems from network biology has attracted much attention in recent years, and networks have long been central to our understanding of biological systems, i...
Source: Physics Reports - December 30, 2019 Category: Physics Source Type: research
