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Category: particle physics – Page 25

Long-lived ytterbium states could sharpen quantum computing and atomic clocks

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of New South Wales have answered a question that has been around for decades: whether ions of the metal ytterbium can enter certain long-lived, nearly stable states and, if so, for how long. The measured long-lived states may find applications in quantum computers and atomic clocks.

Many modern atomic clocks and quantum computers have so-called trapped ions at their core. Ions, electrically charged atoms, can be in many different states, all with different amounts of energy. Because of their charge, these ions can be suspended in empty space and kept in place using electromagnetic fields. The operation of the clock or computer then relies on precisely controlling which energy state an ion occupies.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of New South Wales have now discovered that the ytterbium ion (Yb⁺), a leading candidate for both technologies, can remain in previously unexplored states for surprisingly long periods.

Oxygen collisions at the LHC show new indications of extreme state of matter

All four main LHC experiments have found new signs that oxygen and neon collisions may create the extreme state of matter that existed during the first microseconds after the Big Bang.

One year after the first-ever collisions of oxygen at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the main LHC collaborations—ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb—have each reported signs of the state of matter known as quark–gluon plasma (QGP) produced in these collisions.

QGP is a state of matter that forms under intense pressure and at temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. Under these extreme conditions, composite particles break down into quarks and the gluons that ordinarily hold them together. Scientists believe this was the state of the universe in the first microseconds after the Big Bang. In the present-day universe, nearly 14 billion years later, they can recreate and study QGP with high-energy nuclear collisions at the LHC.

Physicists turn to the universe’s ‘piano notes’ to detect hidden particles

It’s been said that a finely tuned ear knows the size and shape of a piano by merely listening to the instrument’s notes. An international team of physicists has now devised an analogous approach to detect the universe’s hidden particles at high energies—opening a potential pathway for discovering new laws of physics.

The work, which will appear in the journal Physical Review Letters, outlines how effective field theory (EFT) coefficients, which quantify how new laws of physics would influence known particle interactions at low energies, can be transformed into information about the nature of these hidden particles. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the scientists note, already searches for values of EFT coefficients through its measurement of particle collisions, thereby providing ready-to-use data for this approach.

“Like deducing the shape and mechanism of a piano from the sound of its notes, this breakthrough provides the means to use collider measurements to deduce the details of hidden particles at high energies,” explains Grant Remmen, the James Arthur Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University and one of the paper’s authors. “This solves a classic open problem in particle physics in an elegant and useful way, providing powerful and sharp mathematical tools that bridge high-energy theory and particle physics experiments.”

Co-designed transversal STAR architecture

Co-designed transversal STAR architecture, published in PRX Quantum, delivers up to 250× faster execution and roughly 2× fewer physical qubits than conventional fault-tolerant approaches for structured quantum simulation — bringing the megaquop era within reach significantly sooner.

BOSTON, MA — June 1, 2026 — QuEra Computing today announced the publication in PRX Quantum of a new co-designed quantum computing architecture, developed in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, that significantly reduces the physical resources required for early fault-tolerant quantum simulation. The architecture — called transversal STAR (Space-Time Efficient Analog Rotation) — is co-designed with neutral-atom hardware and is targeted at structured quantum simulation problems in materials science, condensed matter and non-equilibrium dynamics.

From one frontier to another: The quantum revolution

Manchester’s quantum researchers are building on the Ferranti Mark I legacy, using ultra-pure silicon and single atoms to move quantum computing closer to real-world impact.

In February 1951, a machine the size of a room arrived at the University of Manchester.

The Ferranti Mark I, the world’s first commercially available general-purpose computer, came with 4,000 vacuum tubes, 100,000 soldered joints and six miles (10 kilometers) of wires. The 27 kilowatts of power it needed to operate is the equivalent of running roughly 600 midrange laptops today, yet at the time, it must have felt miraculous.

Molecular clock transitions tune out the noise in the hunt for new physics

Heavy polar molecules are some of the most sensitive tools physicists have for probing what lies beyond the Standard Model, the theory that describes the particles and forces we know about. But turning that sensitivity into precise, trustworthy measurements has long been held back by one stubborn problem: Stray electric and magnetic fields drown out the tiny signals researchers are actually looking for.

In new research published in Physical Review X, a team led by Yuiki Takahashi at the California Institute of Technology has found a way around this, engineering molecular states that can consistently tune out this electromagnetic noise.

Machine learning narrows search for additional particles in the Higgs boson family

What if the Higgs boson found in 2012 is not alone but is the only sibling we have encountered so far? Scientists at CERN discovered the particle that year, and it was a major discovery because it explained how other particles acquire mass. For a long time, scientists thought this was the final piece of the puzzle.

They have a framework called the Standard Model that describes the smallest particles in everything we see. This includes electrons in atoms and light particles called photons. However, this framework does not explain everything. It does not tell us about dark matter or why the universe has so much more matter than antimatter. It is like having a map that shows only half the world.

The discovery of the Higgs boson created new questions. Many physicists started wondering whether the Higgs we found is the only one of its kind. They began to ask whether there is a larger family of these particles hiding in the universe. If we find more members of this family, we might finally understand the parts of nature that the current framework misses.

Chocolate syrup-like fluid stores multiple interacting memories

Animals and electronic devices aren’t the only things with memory. Materials can retain memories of past deformations in their microscopic structure. A common example is a crease in a sheet of paper that has been folded then unfolded. Understanding this type of memory could benefit the design of materials that respond to changes in their environment in predictable ways.

It can also be a source of ideas about the various types of memory studied by neuroscientists, including how short-term and long-term memories interact and influence each other. Now, researchers at Penn State have shown that two different types of material memory can coexist in a simple mixture of small particles suspended in a viscous liquid. Like long-and short-term memories, these material memories interact and compete.

A paper describing the research was recently published and highlighted as an editors’ suggestion in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Shaking atoms to bring black-hole quantum chaos into the lab

Physicists have discovered a surprisingly simple way to reproduce one of the most fascinating models in modern physics—linked to black holes, quantum chaos and exotic electronic materials—using ultracold atoms trapped in light.

Instead of trying to build a highly complex system from scratch, the researchers show that gently “shaking” a standard optical lattice can transform it into an accurate simulator of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model, a theoretical model known for its extreme and unusual quantum behavior.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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