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Category: quantum physics – Page 28

New digital state of matter could help build stable quantum computers

Scientists have taken another major step toward creating stable quantum computers. Using a specialized quantum computer chip (an essential component of a quantum computer) as a kind of tiny laboratory, a team led by Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China has created and studied a rare and complex type of matter called higher-order nonequilibrium topological phases.

This digital matter (not conventional physical material) is unique because its key behaviors are super-stable and located only at its corners. But this stability is only maintained when the material is constantly bombarded with energy pulses.

The work is a big deal because it shows that quantum computers can be used as reliable simulators to discover and test new stable forms of matter. This will be necessary if scientists are to create quantum computers that never break down (or are at least highly reliable), because super-stable corner behaviors are the kind of error-proof properties needed to build trustworthy quantum hardware.

Physicists create ‘quantum wire’ where mass and energy flow without friction or loss

In physical systems, transport takes many forms, such as electric current through a wire, heat through metal, or even water through a pipe. Each of these flows can be described by how easily the underlying quantity—charge, energy, or mass—moves through a material.

Normally, collisions and friction lead to resistance causing these flows to slow down or fade away. But in a new experiment at TU Wien, scientists have observed a system where that doesn’t happen at all.

By confining thousands of rubidium atoms to move along a single line using magnetic and optical fields, they created an ultracold quantum gas in which energy and mass move with perfect efficiency. The results, now published in the journal Science, show that even after countless collisions, the flow remains stable and undiminished, thus revealing a kind of transport that defies the rules of ordinary matter.

New Research Shows How Entanglement Amplifies Light

Researchers discovered that when atoms interact and remain entangled with light, they emit stronger, more coordinated bursts of energy.

This breakthrough could lead to faster, more efficient quantum devices and improved control over light-matter systems.

Collective light behavior in cavity systems.

Quantum Algorithm Solves Metabolic Modeling Test

A Japanese research team from Keio University demonstrated that a quantum algorithm can solve a core metabolic-modeling problem, marking one of the earliest applications of quantum computing to a biological system. The study shows quantum methods can map how cells use energy and resources.

Flux balance analysis is a method widely used in systems biology to estimate how a cell moves material through metabolic pathways. It treats the cell as a network of reactions constrained by mass balance laws, finding reaction rates that maximize biological objectives like growth or ATP production.

No. The demonstration ran on a simulator rather than physical hardware, though the model followed the structure of quantum machines expected in the first wave of fault-tolerant systems. The simulation used only six qubits.

They Built a Crystal to Trap Light — And Found a New Kind of Quantum Link

Researchers at Rice University have developed a sophisticated 3D photonic-crystal cavity that can trap and control light in unprecedented ways, unlocking powerful light-matter interactions. Their work explores how photons and electrons interact under intense conditions — revealing exotic quantum states like polaritons and entering the realm of “ultrastrong coupling.”

Physics’ Strangest Prediction: Researchers Propose Way to Finally “See” the Warmth of the Vacuum

A subtle timing flash may expose the Unruh effect. The approach ties ordinary lab tools to deep quantum physics. Researchers at Stockholm University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali have identified a practical method for detecting one of physics’ most unus

Probing the quantum nature of black holes through entropy

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, physicists have demonstrated that black holes satisfy the third law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy remains positive and vanishes at extremely low temperatures, just like ordinary quantum systems. The finding provides strong evidence that black holes possess isolated ground states, a hallmark of quantum mechanical behavior.

Understanding gravity’s quantum behavior is among the biggest open questions facing modern physics. Black holes are used as laboratories for investigating quantum gravity, particularly at low temperatures where quantum effects become visible.

Prior calculations showed that black hole entropy might become negative at low temperatures, a result that appeared physically puzzling. In this work, researchers addressed the paradox by incorporating wormhole effects in the two-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity model.

Google Quantum AI realizes three dynamic surface code implementations

Quantum computers are computing systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects. These computers rely on qubits (i.e., the quantum equivalent of bits), which can store information in a mixture of states, as opposed to binary states (0 or 1).

While quantum computers could tackle some computational and optimization problems faster and more effectively than classical computers, they are also inherently more prone to errors. This is because qubits can be easily disturbed by disturbances from their surrounding environment, also referred to as noise.

Over the past decades, quantum engineers and physicists have been trying to develop approaches to correct noise-related errors, also known as quantum error correction (QEC) techniques. While some of these codes achieved promising results in small-scale tests, reliably implementing them on real circuits is often challenging.

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