NTHU researchers create world’s smallest quantum computer using a single photon, breaking records in quantum computing innovation…
Category: quantum physics – Page 88
Tiny Magnets, Big Potential: How Spin Waves Let Particles “Talk” in 2D Materials
Physicists have discovered that electronic excitations in 2D magnets can interact through spin waves – ripples in a material’s magnetic structure.
This breakthrough allows excitons (electron-hole pairs) to influence one another indirectly, like objects disturbing water. The interaction, demonstrated in a magnetic semiconductor called CrSBr, can be toggled on and off with magnetic fields, opening doors to revolutionary technologies like optical modulators, logic gates, and especially quantum transducers for future quantum computers and communication systems.
Discovery Unlocks Spin-Wave Mediated Interactions.
Researchers discover a new type of quantum entanglement
A study from Technion unveils a newly discovered form of quantum entanglement in the total angular momentum of photons confined in nanoscale structures. This discovery could play a key role in the future miniaturization of quantum communication and computing components.
Quantum physics sometimes leads to very unconventional predictions. This is what happened when Albert Einstein and his colleagues, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen (who later founded the Faculty of Physics at Technion), found a scenario in which knowing the state of one particle immediately affects the state of the other particle, no matter how great the distance between them. Their historic 1935 paper was nicknamed EPR after its three authors (Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen).
The idea that knowing the state of one particle will affect another particle located at a huge distance from it, without physical interaction and information transfer, seemed absurd to Einstein, who called it “spooky action at a distance.”
Einstein’s dream of a unified field theory accomplished?
During the latter part of the 20th century, string theory was put forward as a unifying theory of physics foundations. String theory has not, however, fulfilled expectations. That is why we are of the view that the scientific community needs to reconsider what comprises elementary forces and particles.
Since the early days of general relativity, leading physicists, like Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger, have tried to unify the theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. Many attempts were made during the 20th century, including by Hermann Weyl.
Finally, it seems that we have found a unified framework to accommodate the theory of electricity and magnetism within a purely geometric theory. This means that electromagnetic and gravitational forces are both manifestations of ripples and curvatures in spacetime geometry.
Simulating quantum magnetism with a digital quantum computer
Quantum computers, which process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential to outperform classical computers in some optimization and computational tasks. In addition, they could be used to simulate complex quantum systems that cannot be simulated using classical computers.
Researchers at Quantinuum and other institutes in Europe and the United States recently set out to simulate the digitized dynamics of the quantum Ising model, a framework that describes quantum magnetism in materials, using an advanced quantum computer.
Their simulations, outlined in a paper on the arXiv preprint server, led to the observation of a transient state known as Floquet prethermalization, in which systems appear locally stable before approaching full equilibrium, in regimes that are inaccessible to classical computers.
New AI tool set to speed quest for advanced superconductors
Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors.
The study was led by theorists at Emory University and experimentalists at Yale University. Senior authors include Fang Liu and Yao Wang, assistant professors in Emory’s Department of Chemistry, and Yu He, assistant professor in Yale’s Department of Applied Physics.
The team applied machine-learning techniques to detect clear spectral signals that indicate phase transitions in quantum materials—systems where electrons are strongly entangled. These materials are notoriously difficult to model with traditional physics because of their unpredictable fluctuations.
Scientists observe the first ‘quantum rain’
In the Quantum Mixtures Lab of the National Institute of Optics (Cnr-Ino), a team of researchers from Cnr, the University of Florence and the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) observed the phenomenon of capillary instability in an unconventional liquid: an ultradilute quantum gas. This result has important implications for the understanding and manipulation of new forms of matter.
The research, published in Physical Review Letters, also involved researchers from the Universities of Bologna, Padua, and the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).
In physics, it is known that the surface tension of a liquid, caused by intermolecular cohesive forces, tends to minimize the surface area. This mechanism is responsible for macroscopic phenomena such as the formation of raindrops or soap bubbles.
Scientists discover new way to keep quantum spins coherent longer
A new study shows that electron spins—tiny magnetic properties of atoms that can store information—can be protected from decohering (losing their quantum state) much more effectively than previously thought, simply by applying low magnetic fields.
Normally, these spins quickly lose coherence when they interact with other particles or absorb certain types of light, which limits their usefulness in technologies like quantum sensors or atomic clocks. But the researchers discovered that even interactions that directly relax or disrupt the spin can be significantly suppressed using weak magnetic fields.
This finding expands our understanding of how to control quantum systems and opens new possibilities for developing more stable and precise quantum devices.