ArticleNature communications2021
Non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation uncovers inherent instability of large clusters.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quantum computing predicts particle trajectories in optical tweezers.Light, science & applications · 2025Article
- Solving non-Hermitian physics for optical manipulation on a quantum computer.Light, science & applications · 2025Article
- Non-Hermitian non-equipartition theory for trapped particles.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Back-propagation-assisted inverse design of structured light fields for given profiles of optical force.Nanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · 2023Article
- Observation of high-order imaginary Poynting momentum optomechanics in structured light.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- A Critical Review on the Sensing, Control, and Manipulation of Single Molecules on Optofluidic Devices.Micromachines · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Intense light traps and binds small particles, offering unique control to the microscopic world. With incoming illumination and radiative losses, optical forces are inherently nonconservative, thus non-Hermitian. Contrary to conventional systems, the operator governing time evolution is real and asymmetric (i.e., non-Hermitian), which inevitably yield complex eigenvalues when driven beyond the exceptional points, where light pumps in energy that eventually "melts" the light-bound structures. Surprisingly, unstable complex eigenvalues are prevalent for clusters with ~10 or more particles, and in the many-particle limit, their presence is inevitable. As such, optical forces alone fail to bind a large cluster. Our conclusion does not contradict with the observation of large optically-bound cluster in a fluid, where the ambient damping can take away the excess energy and restore the stability. The non-Hermitian theory overturns the understanding of optical trapping and binding, and unveils the critical role played by non-Hermiticity and exceptional points, paving the way for large-scale manipulation.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.