Physical Review Letters

Academic journal in physics

Academic journal

Physical Review LettersDiscipline| Physics

|

Language| English
Edited by|

* Hugues Chaté
* Robert Garisto
* Samindranath Mitra

Publication details
History| 1958–present
Publisher|

American Physical Society (United States)

Frequency| Weekly

Open access

| partial

Impact factor

| 8.6 (2022)
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4 (alt) * Bluebook (alt)
NLM (alt) * MathSciNet (alt )
ISO 4| Phys. Rev. Lett.
Indexing
CODEN (alt * alt2) * JSTOR (alt) * LCCN (alt)
MIAR * NLM (alt) * Scopus
CODEN| PRLTAO
ISSN| 0031-9007 (print)
1079-7114 (web)

LCCN| 59037543
OCLC no.| 1715834

CD-ROM issue

ISSN| 1092-0145

Links

* Journal homepage
* Archives

Physical Review Letters (PRL), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. The journal is considered one of the most prestigious in the field of physics. Over a quarter of Physics Nobel Prize-winning papers between 1995 and 2017 were published in it.[1]

PRL is published both online and as a print journal. Its focus is on short articles ("letters") intended for quick publication. The Lead Editor is Hugues Chaté. The Managing Editor is Robert Garisto.[2][3]

## History

[edit]

The journal was created in 1958. Samuel Goudsmit, who was then the editor of Physical Review, the American Physical Society's flagship journal, organized and published Letters to the Editor of Physical Review into a new standalone journal, which became Physical Review Letters. It was the first journal intended for the rapid publication of short articles, a format that eventually became popular in many other fields.[4]

### Notable articles

[edit]

* 1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers
* First report of a functional scanning tunneling microscope (1982)[5]
* Invention of the atomic force microscope (1986)[6]
* First observation of gravitational waves (2016)[7]

## Scope

[edit]

PRL covers all areas of physics. The journal is divided into the following sections:[2][8][9]

* General Physics: Statistical and Quantum mechanics, Quantum information, etc.
* Gravitation and astrophysics
* Elementary particles and fields
* Nuclear physics
* Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
* Nonlinear dynamics, Fluid dynamics, Classical optics, etc.
* Plasma and beam physics
* Condensed matter: Structure, etc.
* Condensed Matter: Semiconductor-Electronic properties, etc.
* Polymer, Soft matter, Biological, and Interdisciplinary physics

A section before the table of contents highlights a small number of particularly notable articles in each edition.[8][9]

## Abstracting, indexing, and impact factor

[edit]

Physical Review Letters is indexed in the following bibliographic databases:[2]

* Chemical Abstracts
* Computer & Control Abstracts
* Current Physics Index
* Electrical & Electronics Index
* Energy Research Abstracts
* GeoRef
* INSPEC
* International Aerospace Abstracts
* Mathematical Reviews
* Medline
* Metals Abstracts
* Nuclear Science Abstracts
* Physics Abstracts
* PubSCIENCE
* SPIN
* World Aluminum Abstracts

## See also

[edit]

* American Journal of Physics
* Annales Henri Poincaré
* CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Conroy, Gemma (2020-01-16). "These four journals publish the most Nobel Prize-winning papers in physics". Nature Index. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
2. ^ a b c "About Physical Review Letters". American Physical Society. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
3. ^ "Physical Review Letters Staff". American Physical Society. 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
4. ^ Bederson, Benjamin (2008). Samuel Abraham Goudsmit: a Biographical Memoir (PDF). National Academy of Sciences.
5. ^ Binnig, G.; Rohrer, H.; Gerber, Ch.; Weibel, E. (1982-07-05). "Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy". Physical Review Letters. 49 (1): 57–61. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57. ISSN 0031-9007.
6. ^ Binnig, G.; Quate, C. F.; Gerber, Ch. (1986-03-03). "Atomic Force Microscope". Physical Review Letters. 56 (9): 930–933. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930. ISSN 0031-9007.
7. ^ Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T.; Addesso, P.; Adhikari, R. X.; Adya, V. B.; Affeldt, C.; Agathos, M.; Agatsuma, K.; Aggarwal, N. (2016-02-11). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Physical Review Letters. 116 (6). arXiv:1602.03837. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. ISSN 0031-9007.
8. ^ a b "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters. 102 (17). 1 May 2009.
9. ^ a b "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters. 105 (1). 2 July 2010.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* All Volumes and Issues
* Collections of articles
* 50th Anniversary Milestone Papers
* "Physics"

* v
* t
* e

American Physical Society

Membership|

* Fellows (1921–1971)
* Fellows (1972–1997)
* Fellows (1998–2010)
* Fellows (2011–present)

Awards|

* Full list of awards
* Abraham Pais Prize
* Andrei Sakharov Prize
* Aneesur Rahman Prize
* Arthur L. Schawlow Prize
* Dannie Heinemann Prize
* David Adler Lectureship Award
* Davisson–Germer Prize
* Earle K. Plyler Prize
* Einstein Prize
* Fluid Dynamics Prize
* Francis M. Pipkin Award
* Frank Isakson Prize
* George E. Pake Prize
* Hans A. Bethe Prize
* Herbert P. Broida Prize
* Herman Feshbach Prize
* I. I. Rabi Prize
* Irving Langmuir Award
* James C. McGroddy Prize
* James Clerk Maxwell Prize
* John H. Dillon Medal
* Joseph F. Keithley Award
* Lars Onsager Prize
* Leo P. Kadanoff Prize
* Leo Szilard Lectureship Award
* LeRoy Apker Award
* Lilienfeld Prize
* Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award
* Max Delbruck Prize
* Norman F. Ramsey Prize
* Oliver E. Buckley Prize
* Panofsky Prize
* Robert R. Wilson Prize
* Sakurai Prize
* Tom W. Bonner Prize

Publications|

* Physics Today
* Physics Magazine

Journals|

* Physical Review
* Letters
* A
* B
* C
* D
* E
* X
* Accelerators and Beams
* Applied
* Fluids
* Materials
* Physics Education Research
* Research
* Reviews of Modern Physics

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