Motion is everywhere in living systems and is necessary for mechanical functions in artificial systems, such as robots and machines. Functional mechanical structures that can change volume and shape in response to external stimuli (such as light, heat, electricity, humidity, and chemistry) have a...

If one particle accelerator alone is not enough to achieve the desired result, why not combine two accelerators? An international team led by physicists at the Center for Advanced Laser Applications (CALA) at LMU Munich has implemented this idea. It combined two plasma-based acceleration methods for...

Few of us realize that listening to music on Spotify or watching Netflix or YouTube releases CO2 in the process. Online services use data stored on servers in data centers, and they guzzle energy. Physicist Remko Fermin researched methods to make the memory in data centers more energy efficient....

The ability to achieve quantum-limited amplification of optical signals contained in optical fibers is arguably among the most important technological advances that are underlying our modern information society. In optical telecommunications, the choice of 1550 nm wavelength band is motivated not...

What laws govern how chemicals pass through filters? How do droplets of oil move through layers of stone? How do blood cells travel through a living organism? A team of researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization...

The Kibble-Zurek (KZ) mechanism, confirmed experimentally only for equilibrium phase transitions, is also applicable for non-equilibrium phase transitions, as is now shown by Tokyo Tech researchers in a new study. The KZ mechanism is characterized by the formation of topological defects during...

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...

Circular polycatenanes are chains that can move and change shape: they twist, stretch and wrap around themselves. Three physicists of the European Eutopia Cost network, coordinated by UniTrento, have dedicated themselves to the study of these structures....

Recently, a team led by Prof. Guo Guangcan achieved long-lived storage of high-dimensional orbital angular momentum (OAM) quantum states of photons based on cold atomic ensembles, using a guiding magnetic field combined with clock state preparation. Their work was published in Physical Review...

Superconductors lose their electrical resistance when cooled below a certain threshold temperature. With their promising application future as well as glamorous physical mechanisms, superconductors appeal to numerous scientists dedicated to this field....