Physicists at the University of Oxford have successfully simulated how light interacts with empty space – a phenomenon once thought to belong purely to the realm of science fiction. The simulations recreated a bizarre phenomenon predicted by quantum physics, where light appears to be generated from darkness. The findings pave the way for real-world laser facilities to experimentally confirm bizarre quantum phenomena. The results have been published in Communications Physics.

Using advanced computational modelling, a research team led by the University of Oxford, working in partnership with the Instituto Superior Técnico in the University of Lisbon, has achieved the first-ever real-time, three-dimensional simulations of how intense laser beams alter the ‘quantum vacuum’ – a state once assumed to be empty, but which quantum physics predicts is full of virtual electron-positron pairs.

Excitingly, these simulations recreate a bizarre phenomenon predicted by quantum physics, known as vacuum four-wave mixing. This states that the combined electromagnetic field of three focused laser pulses can polarise the virtual electron-positron pairs of a vacuum, causing photons to bounce off each other like billiard balls – generating a fourth laser beam in a ‘light from darkness’ process. These events could act as a probe of new physics at extremely high intensities.

Technology veteran IBM on Tuesday laid out a plan to have a “practical” quantum computer tackling big problems before the end of this decade.

Current quantum computers are still experimental and face significant challenges, including high error rates. Companies like IBM, Google, and others are working to build more stable and scalable quantum systems.

Real-world innovations that quantum computing has the potential to tackle include developing better fuels, materials, pharmaceuticals, or even new elements. However, delivering on that promise has always seemed some way off.

The quantum computer, called Starling, will use 200 logical qubits — and IBM plans to follow this up with a 2,000-logical-qubit machine in 2033

Xanadu has achieved a significant milestone in the development of scalable quantum hardware by generating error-resistant photonic qubits on an integrated chip platform. A foundational result in Xanadu’s roadmap, this first-ever demonstration of such qubits on a chip is published in Nature.

This advance builds on Xanadu’s recent announcement of the Aurora system, which demonstrated—for the first time—all key components required to build a modular, networked, and scalable photonic quantum computer. With this latest demonstration of robust qubit generation using silicon-based photonic chips, Xanadu further strengthens the scalability pillar of its architecture.

The quantum states produced in this experiment, known as Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill (GKP) states, consist of superpositions of many photons to encode information in an error-resistant manner—an essential requirement for future fault-tolerant quantum computers. These states allow logic operations to be performed using deterministic, room-temperature-compatible techniques, and they are uniquely well-suited for networking across chips using standard fiber connections.