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Toward quantum enhanced coherent Ising machines

The Graduate School of Information Science (GSIS) at Tohoku University, together with the Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab at NTT Research, Inc., have jointly published a paper in the journal Quantum Science and Technology. The study involved studying a combinatorial clustering problem, a representative task in unsupervised machine learning.

Together, the two institutions are researching methods to bring to life a large-scale CIM simulation platform using conventional high-performance computing (HPC). This large-scale CIM will be critical to enabling cyber CIMs that will be widely accessible for solving hard NP, NP-complete and NP-hard problems.

The collaboration kicked off in 2023 with Hiroaki Kobayashi, Professor at the GSIS at Tohoku University, acting as the principal investigator for the joint research agreement (JRA), with PHI Lab Director Yoshihisa Yamamoto joining as the NTT Research counterpart to Kobayashi.

How a triatomic molecule works off excess energy

A resonance effect can significantly affect how a three-atom molecule cools down when excited, RIKEN physicists have found. The study, published in Physical Review A, highlights the complexity of the relaxation dynamics of even simple molecules.

Small, energetic molecules in a vacuum—such as those in the upper atmosphere or —can either break apart or cool down by releasing their energy through emitting light.

“The energy-dissipation mechanism of molecules via is crucial to understanding the stability of hot, excited molecules,” says Toshiyuki Azuma of the RIKEN Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics Laboratory. “It’s essential in in dilute environments such as Earth’s .”

Tunneling magnetoresistance in altermagnetic RuO₂-based magnetic tunnel junctions

A research team affiliated with UNIST announced the successful development of a novel semiconductor device that uses a new class of materials, known as altermagnetism. This breakthrough is expected to significantly advance the development of ultra-fast, energy-efficient AI semiconductor chips.

Jointly led by Professor Jung-Woo Yoo from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Changhee Sohn from the Department of Physics at UNIST, the team succeeded in fabricating (MTJs) using altermagnetic ruthenium oxide (RuO2). They also measured a practical level of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in these devices, demonstrating their potential for spintronic applications.

The research was led by Seunghyun Noh from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Kyuhyun Kim from the Department of Physics at UNIST. The findings were published in Physical Review Letters on June 20, 2025.

New microscopy technique achieves 1-nanometer resolution for atomic-scale imaging

Understanding the interaction between light and matter at the smallest scales (angstrom scale) is essential for advancing technology and materials science. Atomic-scale structures, such as defects in diamonds or molecules in electronic devices, can significantly influence a material’s optical properties and functionality. To explore these tiny structures, we need to extend the capabilities of optical microscopy.

Researchers at the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck Society, Germany, and their international collaborators at Institute for Molecular Science/SOKENDAI, Japan and CIC nanoGUNE, Spain have developed an approach to scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) that achieves a spatial resolution of 1 nanometer. This technique, termed as ultralow tip oscillation amplitude s-SNOM (ULA-SNOM), combines advanced microscopy methods to visualize materials at the atomic level.

The work is published in the journal Science Advances.

Cosmic Heavyweights Collide — LIGO Detects Largest, Fastest-Spinning Black Holes Yet

In addition to their high masses, the black holes are also rapidly spinning.

“This is the most massive black hole binary we’ve observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,” says Mark Hannam of Cardiff University and a member of the LVK Collaboration. “Black holes this massive are forbidden through standard stellar evolution models. One possibility is that the two black holes in this binary formed through earlier mergers of smaller black holes.”

Breaking: Major Antimatter Discovery May Help Solve Mystery of Existence

We’re now a step closer to understanding how the Universe avoided an antimatter apocalypse. CERN scientists have discovered tantalizing clues of a fundamental difference in the way physics handles matter and antimatter.

Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have verified an asymmetry between matter and antimatter forms of a particle called a baryon.

Known as a charge-parity (CP) violation, the effect has only previously been detected in another class of particles, called mesons. But experimental evidence in baryons, which make up the bulk of the Universe’s matter, is something physicists have been long hunting for.