What is behind dark energy—and what connects it to the cosmological constant introduced by Albert Einstein? Two physicists from the University of Luxembourg point the way to answering these open questions of physics....
The second law of thermodynamics is often considered to be one of only a few physical laws that is absolutely and unquestionably true. The law states that the amount of 'entropy'—a physical property—of any closed system can never decrease. It adds an 'arrow of time' to everyday occurrences,...
When it comes to creating ever more intriguing quantum systems, a constant need is finding new ways to observe them in a wide range of physical scenarios. JILA Fellow Cindy Regal and JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey have teamed up with Oriol Romero-Isart from the University of Innsbruck and IQOQI...
Physical systems evolve at a particular speed, which depends on various factors including the system's so-called topological structure (i.e., spatial properties that are preserved over time despite any physical changes that occur). Existing methods for determining the speed at which physical systems...
For the first time since it was proposed more than 80 years ago, scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have demonstrated the phenomenon of "quantum recoil," which describes how the particle nature of light has a major impact on electrons moving through...
A class of nonvolatile memory devices, called MRAM, based on quantum magnetic materials, can offer a thousandfold performance beyond current state-of-the-art memory devices. The materials known as antiferromagnets were previously demonstrated to store stable memory states, but were difficult to read...
Using a quantum simulator, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) have observed pairs of charge carriers that may be responsible for the resistance-free transport of electric current in high-temperature superconductors. So far, the exact physical mechanisms in these complex...
Rydberg atoms and molecules are characterized by having one or more electrons in highly excited bound states. Such atoms and molecules are said to be in "Rydberg states" and are also called "hollow" atoms and molecules. Rydberg states are useful for studying various phenomena arising in intense...
By studying an exotic atom called muonium, researchers are hoping misbehaving muons will spill the beans on the Standard Model of particle physics. To make muonium, they use the most intense continuous beam of low energy muons in the world at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. The research is published in...
While quantum computers represent a revolution in computation, they can't communicate with each other the way regular computers can—over the internet. If quantum computers could be connected through a quantum network, they could facilitate perfectly secure communication between more than two parties...
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