The cover illustrates the first gravitational wave signal recorded by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) on September 14, 2015. It displays the measured frequency as a function of time, and several lines tangent to that curve. These frequency and slope values, obtained directly from the observational data, are analyzed using simple physics to infer the basic properties of the gravitational wave source. These demonstrate that it is the inspiral and merger of two black holes. (Image: LIGO Scientific and VIRGO Collaborations, article number 1600209 in this issue).

The structure formation process of the two-dimensional oxide quasicrystal, which represents a new class of quasicrystalline materials, has been investigated using in situ microscopy and diffraction on the nanoscale. The long-range aperiodic ordering was found to develop from an amorphous twodimensional layer upon annealing. The figure illustrates how a twelvefold symmetric structure is assembled from equilateral triangles, squares and rhombs, of a common edge length. (Image: Stefan Förster et al.; article number 1600250 in this issue)

Recently, the first two-dimensional oxide quasicrystal in condensed matter has been discovered. The formation process of this unique structure is monitored in situ using low-energy electron microscopy on the nanoscale. The structure evolves from an amorphous wetting layer at high temperatures in UHV and can reversibly be transformed into a 3D island structure by changing the oxygen chemical potential. The full process is monitored in real time.

A model of Markovian long time evolution of the transport of electrons through a complex nano scale system in a photon cavity shows regimes of radiative and nonradiative transitions when reaching the steady state. The master equation describing the evolution is derived from a non-Markovian equation and solved exactly in Liouville space of transitions.

Picture of possible primordial inflation in the early universe. Primordial polarization coming from the Big Bang epoch and amplified by inflation is believed to have left an imprint on the CMB radiation signal.

New projects expect to be able to clearly discriminate it from dust polarization components in the near future. (Image: Credit ESA-Planck Collaboration)

Advanced LIGO made the first gravitational-wave detection on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent in the cleaned detector strain data. Those features of the signal visible in these data are analyzed, using only such concepts from Newton and general relativity as are accessible to anyone with a general physics background. This simple analysis presented here is consistent with the full published analyses, in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and merger of two black holes, and in estimating the distance from the Earth and the energy radiated in gravitational waves.

The periodicity plays an important role in the dynamics of the breather solution. The intricate relation between the soliton and breather solutions is discussed with Darboux transformation. Breathers can be converted into solitons with special eigenvalues. The collisions between breathers and solitons are shown.

Using direct stochastic simulation, the contribution of the stochastic anti-resonance phenomenon to fiber Raman amplifier gain, gain fluctuations and pump-to-signal intensity noise transfer has been found as a function of PMD parameter, fiber length and the signal input power. In addition, results reveal influence of the stochastic anti-resonance on pulse broadening and rare events in the form of low power output signals having probability heavily deviated from the Gaussian distribution.