Phys.org Physics

• Quantum research in two ways: From proving someone's location to simulating financial markets

  Quantum physics may sound abstract, but Ph.D. candidates Kirsten Kanneworff and David Dechant show that quantum research can also be very concrete. Together, they are investigating how quantum technology can change the world. While Kanneworff worked in the lab to study how quantum optics can be used to prove someone's location, Dechant focused on quantum computing for dynamic systems, such as the financial world. The two researchers are defending their doctoral theses this week.

• The IceCube experiment is ready to uncover more secrets of the universe

  The name "IceCube" not only serves as the title of the experiment, but also describes its appearance. Embedded in the transparent ice of the South Pole, a three-dimensional grid of more than 5,000 extremely sensitive light sensors forms a giant cube with a volume of one cubic kilometer. This unique arrangement serves as an observatory for detecting neutrinos, the most difficult elementary particles to detect.

• Hologram processing method boosts 3D image depth of focus fivefold

  Researchers from the University of Tartu Institute of Physics have developed a novel method for enhancing the quality of three-dimensional images by increasing the depth of focus in holograms fivefold after recording, using computational imaging techniques. The technology enables improved performance of 3D holographic microscopy under challenging imaging conditions and facilitates the study of complex biological structures.

• Time crystals could become accurate and efficient timekeepers

  Time crystals could one day provide a reliable foundation for ultra-precise quantum clocks, new mathematical analysis has revealed. Published in Physical Review Letters, the research was led by Ludmila Viotti at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics in Italy. The team shows that these exotic systems could, in principle, offer higher timekeeping precision than more conventional designs, which rely on external excitations to generate reliably repeating oscillations.

• IceCube upgrade adds six deep sensor strings to detect lower-energy neutrinos

  Since 2010, the IceCube Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station has been delivering groundbreaking measurements of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. It consists of many detectors embedded in a volume of Antarctic ice measuring approximately one cubic kilometer. IceCube has now been upgraded with new optical modules to enable it to measure lower-energy neutrinos as well. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) made a significant contribution to this expansion.

• X-ray platform images plasma instability for fusion energy and astrophysics

  Harnessing the power of the sun holds the promise of providing future societies with energy abundance. To make this a reality, fusion researchers need to address many technological challenges. For example, fusion reactions occur within a superheated state of matter, called plasma, which can form unstable structures that reduce the efficiency of those reactions.

• Electrically controllable 3D magnetic hopfions realized in chiral magnets

  A research team from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators from Anhui University, ShanghaiTech University, and the University of New Hampshire, has demonstrated the first electrically controllable generation of hopfions—three-dimensional topological solitons—in a solid-state magnetic system. The results are published online in Nature Materials.

• AI captures particle accelerator behavior to optimize machine performance

  Keeping high-power particle accelerators at peak performance requires advanced and precise control systems. For example, the primary research machine at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility features hundreds of fine-tuned components that accelerate electrons to 99.999% the speed of light.

• The shape of skis makes the biggest difference in maneuverability

  From the biathlon to the slopestyle to the giant slalom, raising a ski above your head after crossing the finish line is the triumphant Olympic skier's standard celebration. But why do the skis of the competitors in each event look so different?

• Cutting down on quantum-dot crosstalk: Precise measurements expose a new challenge

  Devices that can confine individual electrons are potential building blocks for quantum information systems. But the electrons must be protected from external disturbances. RIKEN researchers have now shown how quantum information encoded into a so-called quantum dot can be negatively affected by nearby quantum dots. This has implications for developing quantum information devices based on quantum dots.

• Physicists develop new protocol for building photonic graph states

  Physicists have long recognized the value of photonic graph states in quantum information processing. However, the difficulty of making these graph states has left this value largely untapped. In a step forward for the field, researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have proposed a new scheme they term "emit-then-add" for producing highly entangled states of many photons that can work with current hardware. Published in npj Quantum Information, their strategy lays the groundwork for a wide range of quantum enhanced operations including measurement-based quantum computing.

• Silicon metasurfaces boost optical image processing with passive intensity-based filtering

  Of the many feats achieved by artificial intelligence (AI), the ability to process images quickly and accurately has had an especially impressive impact on science and technology. Now, researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have found a way to improve the efficiency and capability of machine vision and AI diagnostics using optical systems instead of traditional digital algorithms.

• Photonic integrated circuits enable programmable non-Abelian 'braiding' of light states

  A research team has successfully implemented a programmable spinor lattice on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). This platform enables the realization of non-Abelian physics, in which the outcome of operations depends on their sequence, within an integrated photonic system.

• Nanolaser on a chip could cut computer energy use in half

  Researchers at DTU have developed a nanolaser that could be the key to much faster and much more energy-efficient computers, phones, and data centers. The technology offers the prospect of thousands of the new lasers being placed on a single microchip, thus opening a digital future where data is no longer transmitted using electrical signals, but using light particles, photons. The invention has been published in the journal Science Advances.

• A new turbulence equation for eddy interactions: AI and physics team up to tackle notoriously difficult question

  The currents of the oceans, the roiling surface of the sun, and the clouds of smoke billowing off a forest fire—all are governed by the same laws of physics and give rise to a complex phenomenon known as turbulence. But precisely modeling this chaotic motion of fluids, encompassing many scales of time and space, has remained out of reach of scientists for more than a century.

• Rolling out the carpet for spin qubits with new chip architecture

  Researchers at QuTech in Delft, The Netherlands, have developed a new chip architecture that could make it easier to test and scale up quantum processors based on semiconductor spin qubits. The platform, called QARPET (Qubit-Array Research Platform for Engineering and Testing) and reported in Nature Electronics, allows hundreds of qubits to be characterized within the same test-chip under the same operating conditions used in quantum computing experiments.

• Rocket science? 3D printing soft matter in zero gravity

  What happens to soft matter when gravity disappears? To answer this, UvA physicists launched a fluid dynamics experiment on a sounding rocket. The suborbital rocket reached an altitude of 267 km before falling back to Earth, providing six minutes of weightlessness.

• AI method accelerates liquid simulations by learning fundamental physical relationships

  Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have developed a method using artificial intelligence that can significantly speed up the calculation of liquid properties. The AI approach predicts the chemical potential—an indispensable quantity for describing liquids in thermodynamic equilibrium. The researchers present their findings in a new study published in Physical Review Letters.

• A familiar magnet gets stranger: Why cobalt's topological states could matter for spintronics

  The element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic structure. Spin-resolved measurements of the band structure (spin-ARPES) at BESSY II revealed entangled energy bands that cross each other along extended paths in specific crystallographic directions, even at room temperature. As a result, cobalt can be considered as a highly tunable and unexpectedly rich topological platform, opening new perspectives for exploiting magnetic topological states in future information technologies.

• Parabolic mirror-enhanced Raman spectroscopy enables high-sensitivity trace gas detection

  A research team led by Prof. Fang Yonghua from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed and systematically optimized a novel parabolic mirror cavity-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (PMCERS) technique, achieving a marked improvement in gas detection sensitivity through the integration of advanced optical design and signal processing methods. These results were published in Optics & Laser Technology.

• Majorana qubits become readable as quantum capacitance detects even-odd states

  The race to build reliable quantum computers is fraught with obstacles, and one of the most difficult to overcome is related to the promising but elusive Majorana qubits. Now, an international team has read the information stored in these quantum bits. The findings are published in the journal Nature.

• The origin of magic numbers: Why some atomic nuclei are unusually stable

  For the first time, physicists have developed a model that explains the origins of unusually stable magic nuclei based directly on the interactions between their protons and neutrons. Published in Physical Review Letters, the research could help scientists better understand the exotic properties of heavy atomic nuclei and the fundamental forces that hold them together.

• NOvA maps neutrino oscillations over 500 miles with 10 years of data

  Neutrinos are very small, neutral subatomic particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter and are thus sometimes referred to as ghost particles. There are three known types (i.e., flavors) of neutrinos, dubbed muon, electron and tau neutrinos.

• Anomalous magnetoresistance emerges in antiferromagnetic kagome semimetal

  Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Semiconductors of CAS, revealed anomalous oscillatory magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnetic kagome semimetal heterostructure and directly identified its corresponding topological magnetic structures. The results are published in Advanced Functional Materials.

• Five ways quantum technology could shape everyday life

  The unveiling by IBM of two new quantum supercomputers and Denmark's plans to develop "the world's most powerful commercial quantum computer" mark just two of the latest developments in quantum technology's increasingly rapid transition from experimental breakthroughs to practical applications.