News / Highlights / Colloquia
EPJ B Topical Review - High critical current densities of body-centered cubic high-entropy alloy superconductors: recent research progress
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- Published on 30 April 2025
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) represent a novel paradigm in materials science. HEAs demonstrate a wide array of functionalities, including outstanding mechanical properties, superior corrosion resistance, and durable hard coatings. HEA superconductors have attracted considerable attention due to their distinctive attributes, such as robust superconductivity under extreme conditions and high critical current densities. Several body-centered cubic (bcc) HEAs have shown critical current densities comparable to those of commercial Nb-Ti superconducting alloys. HEAs possess the extraordinary capability to integrate multiple functionalities—a feature seldom observed in conventional alloys. Consequently, bcc HEA superconductors with elevated critical current densities are highly promising for practical applications in extreme environments, such as aerospace and nuclear fusion reactors, owing to the exceptional irradiation resistance characteristic of HEAs.
EPJ B Highlight - Modelling the electronic structure of single-doped perylene
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- Published on 15 April 2025
The molecule perylene has exciting applications in the fields of organic electronics and astronomy
The molecule perylene has become of great interest to scientists developing organic electronics and technology which harnesses organic molecules or polymers with electronic properties like conductivity. Perylene has uses ranging from the creation of organic semiconductors to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) to even building organic solar cells. In addition to this, perylene is of great interest to astronomers, as this molecule has been discovered in interstellar gases and nebulae, granting insights into the powerful cosmic events that forged and dispersed it.
EPJ B Highlight - Understanding speech with a new model of word recognition
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- Published on 15 April 2025
Researchers found some surprising differences in the way humans handle long and short words
A new dynamical model of speech recognition has revealed the very different ways that humans perceive short and long words in everyday speech. The authors of the research published in EPJ B, Jean-Marc Luck of the Université Paris-Saclay and Anita Mehta, formerly of the Faculty of Linguistics, Oxford and currently at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, take a radically different approach to speech perception.
EPJ B Highlight - Exploring the high-temperature performance of cadmium chalcogenides
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- Published on 13 March 2025
Through a combination of experimental and theoretical analysis, researchers have gained new insights into the thermal stability and degradation of cadmium chalcogenides at high temperatures.
Cadmium chalcogenides are an important family of materials in which cadmium (Cd) forms a chemical compound with either tellurium (Te), selenium (Se), or sulphur (S). These materials are known for their useful electronic properties, as well as their strong thermal stability and high natural abundance. Yet despite these useful properties, researchers still have much to learn about how cadmium chalcogenides perform at the high temperatures required for many practical applications
Through new analysis published in EPJ B, researchers led by Zalak Kachhia at Sarder Patel University, India, present a detailed exploration of the thermal properties of cadmium chalcogenides, revealing new insights into how these materials degrade above certain temperature limits.
EPJ B welcomes new Editor-in-Chief Philipp Hövel
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- Published on 20 January 2025
The European Physical Journal B is glad to announce that Dr. Philipp Hövel (Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany) has been appointed as Editor-in-Chief for the section on statistical physics and complex systems.
Dr. Hövel will work alongside Prof. Egger to continue guiding and developing the journal.
The journal and the Publishers, take the opportunity to thank Prof. Heiko Rieger whose work and leadership have been invaluable.
EPJ B Topical Issue - New Trends in Statistical Physics of Complex Systems: Theoretical and Experimental Approaches
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- Published on 14 January 2025
Guest Editors: Tiziana Di Matteo, Giorgio Kaniadakis, Antonio Scarfone, Gianpiero Gervino
This Topical Issue of EPJ B brings together a collection of articles on the recent progress of the theoretical aspects and application in statistical physics of complex systems.
A strong framework for comprehending the behavior of complex systems is provided by statistical physics. Complex systems have emergent properties, or global behaviors that result from local interactions but are difficult to reduce to their component parts. Numerous academic fields, including physics, biology, economics, and sociology, deal with complex systems. The brain's neural networks, ecosystems, social networks, financial markets, and even climate systems are a few examples. In this context, the main objective of statistical physics is to explain how microscopic interactions result in macroscopic properties like temperature, magnetization, or network connectivity. It accomplishes this by handling the numerous degrees of freedom present in complex systems using probabilistic techniques.
EPJ B Topical Issue - Quantum phase transitions and open quantum systems: A tribute to Prof. Amit Dutta
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- Published on 13 December 2024
Guest Editors: Uma Divakaran, Ferenc Iglói, Victor Mukherjee & Krishnendu Sengupta
Prof. Amit Dutta, a theoretical physicist working at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, passed away in the beginning of the year 2023, leaving a void in the quantum condensed matter community, and also among his friends, family and colleagues. He was well known for his works on dynamics of quantum phase transitions and for his excellent teaching abilities; more recently, he had started working on open quantum systems as well.
This special issue is a dedication to Amit, bringing together articles on the areas he worked, starting from different types of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics to open quantum systems.
All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 13 February 2025. For further information read the Editorial.EPJ B Highlight - Characterising shifts in Sicily’s seasonal rainfall
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- Published on 19 November 2024
Over the past decade, rainfall patterns on Sicily have shifted from a 4- to a 2-season cycle, reflecting similar shifts taking place worldwide.
Around the world, man-made climate change is increasing both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Seasonal patterns in rainfall are an especially important indicator of these changes: while a lack of rain can lead to more severe droughts, an excess can trigger catastrophic events such as landslides and flash flooding. To better understand the impact of these risks, it is vital for researchers to characterise these changes in as much detail as possible.
Through new research published in EPJ B, researchers led by Vera Pecorino at the University of Catania, Italy, present a highly detailed analysis of recent changes in seasonal rainfall on the Italian island of Sicily. Their results confirm that over the past decade, the island’s rainfall patterns underwent a profound shift from a 4- to a 2-season cycle.
EPJ B Highlight - How did the COVID pandemic end so abruptly?
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- Published on 21 August 2024
New analysis suggests that a dramatic drop in deaths from COVID-19 between 2022 and 2023 could be attributed to an abrupt phase transition in the molecular structure of the virus’ spike protein.
During the winter of 2020 and 2021, the US saw deaths from COVID-19 reach 250,000. The following year, this number surged by a third to 330,000. But from August 2022 to March 2023, the number of deaths related to COVID-19 deaths plummeted to just 80,000, abruptly ending the COVID pandemic. This dramatic decline couldn’t be attributed solely to vaccines, which had been already widely available since Spring 2021.
Through new research published in EPJ B Marcelo Moret of CIMATEC in Brazil, together with James Phillips at Rutgers University, New Jersey, suggest that a phase transition in the molecular structure of the COVID-19 spike protein made the virus less likely to cause severe infections. Their results offer important insights into how the pandemic ended so quickly, and could help us to prepare for future pandemics.
EPJ B Highlight - Scheduling meetings: Are the odds in your favour?
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- Published on 14 August 2024
The results of an exploration of the mathematical theory behind Doodle polls that began in jest may be applicable to many other situations that require consensus-building.
If you often schedule meetings, you are likely to know how difficult it is to pick a time that suits everyone. Furthermore, the advent of tools like Doodle can make it harder: all too often, a poll will ‘fail’ with no mutually acceptable slot found. It would surely be useful to know the probability that a poll with a given number of participants and slots will generate a suitable time.
Three US-based theoretical physicists have now generated mathematical models of this problem and published them in EPJ B. “Our study began almost as a joke, when we were irritated by the growing number of polls we had to complete”, says first author Harsh Mathur from Case Western University, Cleveland, OH. “But we found that the models we produced were mathematically sophisticated and could be useful more widely.”
