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The physical behavior of anisotropic charged colloidal particles in nematic solvents is determined by their dielectric anisotropy. Together with the experimental group of Professor Ivan Smalyukh at University of Colorado Boulder the authors Jeffrey C. Everts and Miha Ravnik from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at University of Ljubljana and the Department F5 of Jozef Stefan Institute demonstrated anisotropic electrostatic screening for charged colloidal particles in nematic electrolytes. The electrostatic potential and pair interactions decay with an anisotropic Debye screening length, contrasting constant screening length for isotropic electrolytes. Charged dumpling-shaped near-spherical colloidal particles in nematic media are used as model systems, demonstrating competing anisotropic elastic and electrostatic effective pair interactions for colloidal surface charges tunable from neutral to high, yielding particle-separated metastable states (Science Advances 2021, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd0662). The work was published in Science Advances and contributes to the understanding of electrostatic screening in nematic media.

Dr. Martin Klanjšek from the Condensed Matter Physics Department published a News & Views article entitled Singlets singled out in Nature Physics upon invitation by the editor. In this article, the author presents his view of the achievements of the article Emergence of spin singlets with inhomogeneous gaps in the kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnets Zn-barlowite and herbertsmithite published in the same journal by the research group of prof. Imai from the McMaster University in Canada. They report on the gradual formation of spin singlets in two quantum magnets with kagome lattice, which is an important step in the resolution of the ground state of this archetypal magnet. News & Views section contains short articles summarizing recently published high-impact research in a way accessible to the broader public. The authors of the News & Views articles are selected by the editor among those reviewers of the corresponding research articles that left the best impression during the review process.