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Papers by three ICTP scientists and one Diploma Programme
student--all affiliated with the Centre's Condensed Matter and
Statistical Physics section--have appeared recently in prominent
science journals.
A paper titled 'Structural properties and phase transitions in a
silica clathrate' (J. Chem. Phys. 134, 074506 (2011);
doi:10.1063/1.3532543) by Sandro Scandolo and collaborators was
chosen as a research highlight featured on the Journal of
Chemical Physics website home page. The paper studies the
structural properties and phase transitions in melanophlogite (a
silica polymorph).
Scandolo and his co-authors used molecular dynamic simulations to
study the behaviour of melanophlogite under high pressure and
predict that a partial crystalline and amorphous sample of the
polymorph can be obtained at a pressure of approximately 12-16 GPa.
The authors argue that their conclusions provide an alternate
interpretation of the recent experimental results obtained on
silicate.
'Nanofriction in cold ion traps', a paper by Erio Tosatti and
others that appears in Nature Communications (DOI:
10.1038/ncomms1230), focusses on understanding sliding friction
between crystal lattices by using the physics of cold ion
traps.
Bridging the two fields, Tosatti and his co-authors have used
simulations and shown that under specific conditions trapped ion
chains can be used to better understand the details of friction by
sliding.
Markus Müller, along with former ICTP Diploma Programme student
Chau Hai Nguyen, published Nguyen's diploma thesis work in the
New Journal of Physics (New J. Phys. 13 035009 doi:
10.1088/1367-2630/13/3/035009). The article, titled
'Collision-dominated spin transport in graphene and Fermi liquids',
was also chosen for IOP Select, a special collection of journal
articles chosen by the editors based on substantial advances or
significant breakthroughs, a high degree of novelty, or significant
impact on future research. The article appeared with other selected
articles under the theme 'Focus on strongly correlated quantum
fluids: from ultracold quantum gases to QCD plasmas'.
