An expanded arsenal of immune systems that protect bacteria from phages.

Bacterial anti-phage systems are frequently clustered in microbial genomes, forming defense islands. This property enabled the recent discovery of multiple defense systems based on their genomic co-localization with known systems, but the full arsenal of anti-phage mechanisms remains unknown. We report the discovery of 21 defense systems that protect bacteria from phages, based on computational genomic analyses and phage-infection experiments.

Photon-Mediated Stroboscopic Quantum Simulation of a Z_{2} Lattice Gauge Theory.

Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories, aiming at tackling nonperturbative particle and condensed matter physics, has recently received a lot of interest and attention, resulting in many theoretical proposals as well as several experimental implementations. One of the current challenges is to go beyond 1+1 dimensions, where four-body (plaquette) interactions, not contained naturally in quantum simulating devices, appear. In this Letter, we propose a method to obtain them based on a combination of stroboscopic optical atomic control and the nonlocal photon-mediated interactions appearing in nanophotonic or cavity QED setups.

Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories in more than one space dimension-requirements, challenges and methods.

Over recent years, the relatively young field of quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories, aiming at implementing simulators of gauge theories with quantum platforms, has gone through a rapid development process. Nowadays, it is not only of interest to the quantum information and technology communities. It is also seen as a valid tool for tackling hard, non-perturbative gauge theory problems by particle and nuclear physicists.

Cold atoms meet lattice gauge theory.

The central idea of this review is to consider quantum field theory models relevant for particle physics and replace the fermionic matter in these models by a bosonic one. This is mostly motivated by the fact that bosons are more 'accessible' and easier to manipulate for experimentalists, but this 'substitution' also leads to new physics and novel phenomena. It allows us to gain new information about among other things confinement and the dynamics of the deconfinement transition.

Short-range quorum sensing controls horizontal gene transfer at micron scale in bacterial communities.

In bacterial communities, cells often communicate by the release and detection of small diffusible molecules, a process termed quorum-sensing. Signal molecules are thought to broadly diffuse in space; however, they often regulate traits such as conjugative transfer that strictly depend on the local community composition. This raises the question how nearby cells within the community can be detected.

Widespread Utilization of Peptide Communication in Phages Infecting Soil and Pathogenic Bacteria.

Temperate phages can adopt either a lytic or lysogenic lifestyle within their host bacteria. It was recently shown that Bacillus-subtilis-infecting phages of the SPbeta group utilize a peptide-based communication system called arbitrium to coordinate the lysogeny decision. The occurrence of peptide-based communication systems among phages more broadly remains to be explored.

Digital Quantum Simulation of Z_{2} Lattice Gauge Theories with Dynamical Fermionic Matter.

We propose a scheme for digital quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions. Using a layered optical lattice with ancilla atoms that can move and interact with the other atoms (simulating the physical degrees of freedom), we obtain a stroboscopic dynamics which yields the four-body plaquette interactions, arising in models with (2+1) and higher dimensions, without the use of perturbation theory. As an example we show how to simulate a Z_{2} model in (2+1) dimensions.

Communication between viruses guides lysis-lysogeny decisions.

Temperate viruses can become dormant in their host cells, a process called lysogeny. In every infection, such viruses decide between the lytic and the lysogenic cycles, that is, whether to replicate and lyse their host or to lysogenize and keep the host viable. Here we show that viruses (phages) of the SPbeta group use a small-molecule communication system to coordinate lysis-lysogeny decisions.

Quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories using ultracold atoms in optical lattices.

Can high-energy physics be simulated by low-energy, non-relativistic, many-body systems such as ultracold atoms? Such ultracold atomic systems lack the type of symmetries and dynamical properties of high energy physics models: in particular, they manifest neither local gauge invariance nor Lorentz invariance, which are crucial properties of the quantum field theories which are the building blocks of the standard model of elementary particles. However, it turns out, surprisingly, that there are ways to configure an atomic system to manifest both local gauge invariance and Lorentz invariance. In particular, local gauge invariance can arise either as an effective low-energy symmetry, or as an exact symmetry, following from the conservation laws in atomic interactions.

Peroxisomes are juxtaposed to strategic sites on mitochondria.

Peroxisomes are ubiquitous and dynamic organelles that house many important pathways of cellular metabolism. In recent years it has been demonstrated that mitochondria are tightly connected with peroxisomes and are defective in several peroxisomal diseases. Indeed, these two organelles share metabolic routes as well as resident proteins and, at least in mammals, are connected via a vesicular transport pathway.

Cold-atom quantum simulator for SU(2) Yang-Mills lattice gauge theory.

Non-Abelian gauge theories play an important role in the standard model of particle physics, and unfold a partially unexplored world of exciting physical phenomena. In this Letter, we suggest a realization of a non-Abelian lattice gauge theory-SU(2) Yang-Mills in (1 + 1) dimensions, using ultracold atoms. Remarkably, and in contrast to previous proposals, in our model gauge invariance is a direct consequence of angular momentum conservation and thus is fundamental and robust.

Simulating (2+1)-dimensional lattice QED with dynamical matter using ultracold atoms.

We suggest a method to simulate compact quantum electrodynamics using ultracold atoms in optical lattices, which includes dynamical Dirac fermions in 2+1 dimensions. This allows us to test the dynamical effects of confinement as well as the deformations and breaking of two-dimensional flux loops, and to observe the Wilson-loop area law.

Simulating compact quantum electrodynamics with ultracold atoms: probing confinement and nonperturbative effects.

Recently, there has been much interest in simulating quantum field theory effects of matter and gauge fields. In a recent work, a method for simulating compact quantum electrodynamics (CQED) using Bose-Einstein condensates has been suggested. We suggest an alternative approach, which relies on single atoms in an optical lattice, carrying 2l + 1 internal levels, which converges rapidly to CQED as l increases.

Confinement and lattice quantum-electrodynamic electric flux tubes simulated with ultracold atoms.

We propose a method for simulating (2+1)D compact lattice quantum-electrodynamics, using ultracold atoms in optical lattices. In our model local Bose-Einstein condensates' (BECs) phases correspond to the electromagnetic vector potential, and the local number operators represent the conjugate electric field. The well-known gauge-invariant Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian is obtained as an effective low-energy theory.