Recently, researchers in the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) and their research partners have studied for the first time the influence of spin-orbit interaction on the Kondo effect in carbon nanotube quantum dots. It is shown that the Kondo resonance splits into three peaks even at zero magnetic field and thus the SU(4) symmetry is broken due to the spinorbit interaction. As the field is applied, the Kondo resonance further splits and exhibits fine multi-peak structures from which all microscopic cotunneling processes can be uniquely identified. The researchers have also predicted a purely orbital Kondo effect. The paper was published in Phys. Rev. Lett. [Fang et al., 2008 101(24): 246805].