Subscribe to Open (S2O)

Maths - the six S2O journals will continue to publish in open access in 2023. “We are grateful to the library community for their ongoing support of the S2O model and for recognizing its value in ensuring equitable open access to mathematics research.” Anne Ruimy, EDP Sciences.

Radioprotection – has adopted the S2O model and is now online-only. It is published on behalf of the Société Française de Radioprotection (SFRP). Articles address all aspects of radiological protection, including non-ionising as well as ionising radiation.

Astronomy & Astrophysics - over the last year, the core astronomy journals have moved or are moving towards open access under various models, which is a positive step for accessibility. A&A has opted for S2O which helps to make it a cost-effective publishing option for many authors (there are no article processing charges, APCs). More information.

Société Française de Physique 150^th anniversary – 2023 events

It is our pleasure to be involved in many of the events celebrating the SFP’s anniversary throughout 2023.

In April, we are proud to sponsor the International Physicists’ Tournament 2023 down the road at the École polytechnique in Palaiseau. Billed as a “physics world cup”, we are looking forward to lively battles between the undergraduate teams.

In May, the series of five Masterclasses on “Science publishing and Open Science” begins in Nice. The last chance to catch one of these sessions will be in Marseille in October, so we hope to see you there or along the way (Lyon, Grenoble and Strasbourg are also hosting).

Don’t forget our SFP anniversary books discount code - PHYS234 - valid until the end of June 2024! We are delighted to offer a 5% discount on EDP Sciences books in the following series: Savoirs Actuels / Une introduction à / Sciences & History / Enseignement Sup Physique.

News from the European Physical Journal (EPJ)

EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee

The Scientific Advisory Committee of the EPJ is delighted to welcome Professor Quentin Glorieux, as the new representative for the French Physical Society. Professor Glorieux researches “Optics through the prism of Quantum Gases” and is a self-avowed “Quantum Physicist, Trail runner and Mountain climber.”

EPJ poster prizes at the SFP Congrès Général

We are pleased to report that the EPJ is sponsoring two poster prizes at the SFP Congrès Général in July (in addition to the two EPL prizes already announced). We look forward to Professor Jean Daillant, Director General of the SOLEIL synchrotron and the SFP representative on the EPJ Steering Committee, awarding the prizes on Thursday 6 July for two of the best posters presented by young physicists.

EPJ D Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics – call for papers

New EPJ D topical issue: “Electron and Positron Interactions and Their Applications: a tribute to Professor Michael Brunger”. The Guest Editors invite contributions from contemporary research and applications across areas such as, atmospheric modelling, materials characterisation, medical science, biological imaging and chemical processing.

EPJ Web of Conferences – conference highlights

ISRD 17 – International Symposium on Reactor Dosimetry, Lausanne, Switzerland, May 21-26, 2023 – the open access proceedings include papers on “Experimental Techniques, Measurements and Monitoring”, “Calculational Methods”, “Reactor Surveillance, Plant Life Management and Decommissioning” and “Benchmarks and Inter-comparisons”.

11th European Summer School on Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics, Catania, Italy, June 12-19, 2022 - highlight themes included primordial nucleosynthesis, indirect methods, underground laboratories, radioactive ion beams facilities as well as stellar structure and evolution. Browse the open access proceedings here.

EPJ Applied Physics – topical issues

EPJ AP is currently publishing articles in two topical issues – “Advances in Renewable Energies, Materials and Technology” and “Amorphous alloys and multiscale materials: Fundamental aspects and Energy applications”. We hope you enjoy the recent articles.

EPJ Photovoltaics – topical issue

The special issue on “WCPEC-8: State of the Art and Developments in Photovoltaics”, edited by Alessandra Scognamiglio, Robert Kenny, Shuzi Hayase and Arno Smets, is now available. It includes papers on Modelling; Semiconductor Thin Films; High Efficiency Materials and Devices - New concepts; Optics of Thin Films, TCOs; Modules and Systems; Socio-economic impact.

Last, but not least…

Acta Acustica – acousticians are invited to read “Acta Acustica: State of art and achievements after 3 years”. In this Editorial, Manfred Kaltenbacher, Editor-in-Chief, and his team summarise the latest activities and achievements of the journal (such as Audio Articles) and key statistics.

Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications – we extend a very warm welcome to Dr. Silvia Soria, IFAC-CNR Institute of Applied Physics, Italy, in her new role of co-Editor-in-Chief. She joins Sergei Popov at the helm of JEOS-RP which is widely considered to be a leading European journal in the field of optics and photonics.

2022 EPL Highlights

We are happy to inform you that the 2022 EPL Highlights are now available online. These Highlights are a selection of 38 articles published in EPL in 2022 that had a large impact on the international community, as measured by their high number of downloads or citations, or by their high Altmetric attention score. EPL, A Letters Journal Exploring the Frontiers of Physics is published under the scientific responsibility of the European Physical Society by EDP Sciences, IOP Publishing and the Società Italiana di Fisica. Find out more.

Société Française de Physique 150^th anniversary – books news and discount code

Ahead of the Congrès Général in July, we hope to meet you at the Festival Double·Science in Paris from 26-28 May. The festival is dedicated to the popularisation of science and will certainly attract many scientists, including physicists, children, students, retired people and science fans from all walks of life. The EDP Sciences books team will be there (with special guests - more details to follow) and hopes to see you in the festival bookshop!

In celebration of the SFP’s 150^th anniversary, and the ‘Year of Physics’ starting later in 2023, we are delighted to offer a 5% discount on EDP Sciences books in the following series: Savoirs Actuels / Une introduction à / Sciences & History / Enseignement Sup Physique. The discount code is PHYS234, and it is valid from now until the end of June 2024.

News from the European Physical Journal (EPJ)

EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee

The Scientific Advisory Committee is delighted to welcome Dr. Sara Pirrone as the new representative for the Italian Physical Society and Dr. Zsolt Fülöp as the new representative for the Roland Eötvös Physical Society (Hungary). They bring a wealth of experience and expertise in experimental Nuclear Physics and nuclear astrophysics respectively.

EPJ 25^th anniversary – Young Researcher Meeting Grants

Are you a young researcher or do you know a young researcher? To mark the 25^th anniversary of the European Physical Journal, EPJ is making available a number of grants to support meetings for young researchers throughout 2023. Find out more and apply here.

We’ll also be celebrating this wonderful anniversary at the SFP Congrès Général in July – look out for the special logo!

EPJ D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics

Quantum Optics of Light and Matter: Honouring Alain Aspect, a special issue in celebration of Professor Alain Aspect, is now complete. Find out more about this very special issue in the EPJ D Highlight – “Alain Aspect: The physicist who made entanglement an experimental reality.”

EPJ E - Soft Matter and Biological Physics

With artificial intelligence very much the subject du jour, you may like to take a look at the EPJ E Highlight – “Machine learning could help kites and gliders to harvest wind energy”. “Using trial-and-error, machine learning algorithms could enable flying wind harvesters to dynamically adjust their orientations, allowing them to account for unpredictable turbulence and improve their performances.”

Until next time, we send our best wishes,

EDP Sciences

Author: EDP Sciences

We hope you enjoyed the holidays and are looking forward to new projects and adventures in the coming year. Since we last wrote, a number of exciting things have happened…

UN SDG Publishers Compact
We are proud to have become a member of the SDG Publishers Compact and to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Open access models such as Diamond and Subscribe to Open, which are free to readers and authors thanks to the support of libraries and organisations, contribute to open science and the SDGs by offering prospective authors a level playing field and encouraging a diversity of submissions.

Subscribe to Open – Astronomy & Astrophysics Transparency Report and subscriber benefits
In December, the A&A S2O 2022 Transparency Report was published bringing A&A’s first year in full open access to a fitting end. As advocates of open science, we support the principle of transparency, including financial transparency. Last year, several new subscriber benefits for 2023 were also announced in response to community feedback.

 “Together, EDP Sciences and A&A are committed to keep reviewing and adapting the A&A Subscribe to Open model to respond and adapt to the demands of the librarian community.” (A&A 2022 Transparency Report)

German National APC agreement
Looking beyond L'Hexagone, EDP Sciences and TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology have renewed their longstanding Open Access Agreement for another year, benefitting authors affiliated with academic institutions across Germany. The agreement continues to offer a 20% discount on Article Processing Charges (APCs) in 2023.

Congratulations to the Société Française de Physique – celebrating 150 years
Like many others, we are looking forward to a year of celebrations marking 150 years of the SFP. We are getting involved by facilitating Science Publishing Masterclasses in Strasbourg, Grenoble, Lyon, Marseille and Nice. Europhysics Letters (EPL), co-published by EDP Sciences, is also sponsoring two prizes for the best posters presented by young physicists at the Congrès Général in July. We hope to see you there!

Reflets de la physique – the journal of the Société Française de Physique
Speaking of the SFP, a reminder that Reflets de la physique is available for all to browse and read. The journal aims to contribute to the development and operation of the SFP and, more broadly, to improve the image of physics. It is also supported by the CNRS.

Science Publishing Masterclasses update
Our most recent Science Publishing Masterclasses were an online series for researchers and students in China. The four sessions related to scientific writing and journals publishing, and addressed issues such as publishing strategy, ethics, peer review and promotion to give a comprehensive overview of scientific publishing. In total, over 75,000 livestream views were registered.

News from the EPJ series of peer-reviewed journals

EPJ N - Nuclear Sciences & Technologies:
Hot off the press, we are delighted to announce that EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies has been accepted for Scopus.

EPJ Photovoltaics:
EPJ PV is once again an official publishing partner of EU PVSEC 2023 which will take place in Lisbon.

EPJ Web of Conferences:
We are pleased to share recent highlights from last year’s EOS Annual Meeting EOSAM 2022 (we also publish the Journal of the European Optical Society-Rapid Publications), 10th EPS-QEOD Europhoton Conference on Solid-State, Fibre, and Waveguide Coherent Light Sources Europhoton 2022, Multi-line Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium and last, but not least, XVth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference Conf XV. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you are interested in fast, open access publication of your proceedings.

EPJ D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics:
Quantum Optics of Light and Matter: Honouring Alain Aspect, a special issue in celebration of Professor Alain Aspect, is nearing completion.

Congratulations EPJ – 25 years young:
To mark this anniversary, and in keeping with the long-held EPJ tradition of supporting early career researchers, EPJ is making available a number of grants to support meetings for young researchers throughout 2023. Find out more and apply here.

For bibliophiles and book worms - Radiometry of wet surfaces
We recently mentioned our new collection, produced in partnership with the Institut d'Optique Graduate School (Université Paris-Saclay), intended for engineering students and researchers in optics. The second book in the series, Radiometry of wet surfaces, is coordinated by Lionel Simonot. When a material gets wet, is it possible to predict the changes in its appearance for a given type of surface, and for a given humidity level? Find out from 2 February (print or eBook).

With our best wishes for 2023
EDP Sciences

It’s looking beautifully autumnal in and around our HQ in Les Ulis, south-west of Paris… and 2022 is passing quickly! Here are our autumn highlights…

Félicitations to Alain Aspect, Université Paris-Saclay, Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

Congratulations to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their award of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022. Alain Aspect is a longstanding colleague and has published extensively with EDP Sciences.

For many years, Professor Aspect was Editor-in-Chief of the Annales de Physique which forms an important part of our physics archives collection together with the prestigious Journal de Physique. He joins fellow laureates and Journal de Physique authors ranging from Marie Curie to Giorgio Parisi.

Find out more about our long association with Alain Aspect including free access articles here. You may enjoy “Magnetically assisted Sisyphus effect” which he co-authored with a group of colleagues including the renowned French physicist and fellow Nobel Prize laureate, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.

EPJ Applied Physics – Special issue on ‘EELS - Review over the last 50 years by Christian Colliex’

Earlier this year, EPJ AP was honoured to publish “From early to present and future achievements of EELS in the TEM” by its former co-Editor-in-Chief, Christian Colliex. The long-form article represents a major, new review of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) over the last 50 years and the current Editors-in-Chief feel it “will undoubtably become a major reference for researchers in the electron microscopy and materials science community.”

“…EELS fifty years after its first recognition as a useful actor in the development and promotion of the analytical microscopy, has nowadays become an essential tool for the acquisition of many physical parameters with ultimate resolution, thus opening new routes in nanophysics to be explored.”

The European Physical Journal (EPJ) series of peer-reviewed journals

As co-publishers of the EPJ journals, we are pleased to share a round-up of interesting items, starting with perfect Nobel Prize timing from EPJ D…

EPJ D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics, is currently publishing “Quantum Optics of Light and Matter Honouring Alain Aspect”, a special issue in celebration of Professor Aspect.

EPJ B - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, has completed publication of a special issue on “Evolutionary Game Theory” with several open access papers.

Open calls for papers include EPJ ST Special Issue: “Molecular and Cellular Mechanics” and EPJ E Topical Issue: “Novel Molecular Materials and Devices from Functional Soft Matter”. Calls for papers are available on the EPJ portal as are three videos: ‘About EPJ’, ‘Why publish in EPJ?’ and ‘How EPJ disseminates your work’.

All these journals are “EPS Recognised journals”: “EPS Recognised Journals meet the established quality criteria that guarantee unbiased peer review based on scientific merit.”

For bibliophiles and book worms – books news

“Collection IOGS - Institut d'Optique Graduate School”

This new collection, produced in partnership with the Institut d'Optique Graduate School (Université Paris-Saclay), is intended for engineering students and researchers in the field of optics. The first book in the series, ‘Optical models for material appearance’ by Mathieu Hébert, is now available in print or as an eBook.

“The objective of this book is precisely to introduce the fundamental notions of optics allowing the readers to understand the radiometric quantities measured with common devices, to learn how to analyze them, and to review some classical optics-based predictive models for various types of materials and structures.

“Einstein aujourd’hui” by Alain Aspect et al.

“Einstein aujourd’hui” considers how Einstein continues to inspire science in the 21st century. It was co-authored by Alain Aspect with a group of notable colleagues which, again, included Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.

We are always pleased when we are kindly invited to share our news and updates with readers of e-EPS. We hope you enjoy reading our news as much as we enjoy writing it!

Best wishes

EDP Sciences

An international research team, led by DIPC and Princeton University, discovered that almost all materials in nature exhibit at least one topological state, contradicting the 40-year-old assumption that topological materials are rare and esoteric. In a paper published this week in Science, the team also introduces the new concept of “supertopological” to the theory of band topology.

For the past century, students of chemistry, materials science, and physics have been taught to model solid-state materials by considering their chemical composition, the number and location of their electrons, and lastly, the role of more complicated interactions. However, an international team of scientists from the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Princeton University, the University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the Max Planck Institute, l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, the CNRS, and MIT has recently discovered that an additional ingredient must also be equally considered - the notion of topology for every electronic band.

First codified in the 1980s by Michael Berry, Joshua Zak, and S. Pancharatnam, band topology is a physical property of some materials distinguished by unusually robust states, making the electronic properties of their exposed surfaces and edges insensitive to local perturbation. Topological phases of matter in 3D materials were first discovered 15 years ago by researchers including Andrei Bernevig, a member of the research team. Topological materials have been proposed as venues for observing and engineering exotic effects, including the interconversion of electrical current and electron spin, the tabletop simulating exotic theories from high-energy physics, and even, under the right conditions, the storage and manipulation of quantum information. Though a handful of topological materials have been uncovered through chemical intuition, topological electronic states in solid-state materials were generally considered to be rare and esoteric.

However, using high-throughput computational modeling, the team discovered that over half of the known 3D materials in nature are topological. As reported today in Science, the team performed complete high-throughput first-principles calculations searching for topological states throughout the electronic structures of all of the 96,196 recorded crystals in the Inorganic Crystal Structural Database, an established international repository for reporting experimentally studied materials. As stressed by Nicolas Regnault, from Princeton University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris, CNRS, “this was a daunting task that took more than 25 million hours of computing time.”

Through a combined chemical and topological analysis, the team grouped the electronic structures into roughly 38,000 unique materials. The team’s data have been made freely available through a massive overhaul of the publicly accessible Topological Materials Database (https://www.topologicalquantumchemistry.com), representing a culmination of the team’s efforts over the past 6 years developing the modern position-space theory of band topology known as “Topological Quantum Chemistry.”

The team also surprisingly discovered that almost all materials - nearly 90% - host topological electronic states away from their intrinsic numbers of electrons, known as the Fermi level. Even though these states lie dormant in many experimental probes, they are still straightforwardly accessible through techniques including chemical doping, electrostatic gating, hydrostatic pressure, and photoexcitation spectroscopy. 

Supertopological materials

Perhaps more surprising than finding topological properties in almost every material, was the discovery of some extreme cases of topology across the entire energy spectrum. “Looking at our data, we amazingly saw materials with topological properties everywhere!,” exclaimed Maia Garcia-Vergniory from the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. The team found that 2% of known materials are “supertopological,” in that every electronic band above the tightly-bound core electrons was topological. Among the materials with overlooked supertopology was bismuth, one of the most historically well-studied solid-state materials. “Our results indicate that topology is a fundamental property of matter thus far overlooked,” concluded García-Vergniory.

The ubiquity of topological features observed in numerical simulations lead to a natural question: if the results were to be believed, experimental signatures of topological states should have already been observed in earlier investigations of many materials. Combing through data from earlier photoemission experiments, the team indeed discovered this to be the case. For example, in experimental studies of Bi₂Mg₃ performed 4 years ago, the authors observed unexplained “surface resonances,” which were recognized in the current study to be overlooked topological surface states away from the Fermi level. “The evidence had always been there. We now have a concrete key towards decoding all of the surface features in spectroscopic material experiments,” noted Benjamin Wieder, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT.  “Our database is such a powerful and convenient tool,” added Claudia Felser from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. “If I am interested in a topological property, the database instantly tells me the best candidates. Then I just grow the samples in my lab, no more guesswork,” explains Felser.

“Revisiting previous experiments with a new perspective is an amazing first step,” says Andrei Bernevig from Princeton University and an Ikerbasque visiting professor at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). “But we can look to an even more exciting future, in which materials with advanced functionality are designed through a marriage of human intuition and artificial intelligence, built on the foundation of the Topological Materials Database and Topological Quantum Chemistry,” concludes Bernevig.

An artistic interpretation of “Topology is everywhere”. Mobius strips are visible from all angles of the cube above,
representing the ubiquity of topological phases in solid-state materials. © C. Pouss.

Publication reference

All topological bands of all nonmagnetic stoichiometric materials

M. G. Vergniory, B. J. Wieder, L. Elcoro, S. S. P. Parkin, C. Felser, B. A. Bernevig, and N. Regnault

Science 376, eabg9094 (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abg9094