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JWST captures rare glimpse of early black hole growing inside network of young galaxies

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured one of the clearest views yet of how an early supermassive black hole may grow within a network of young galaxies. The compact active galaxy, seen just a billion years after the Big Bang, lies beside a 12,000-parsec-long filament containing multiple galaxies that are expected to merge within a few hundred million years.

The findings, posted to the arXiv preprint server on July 6, suggest astronomers may be witnessing a short-lived phase in the evolution of rapidly growing black holes while also shedding light on how the first massive galaxies assembled in the early universe.

Programmable platform enables on-demand design of plant immune receptors against crop pathogens

Crop production faces threats from plant pathogens. Traditional disease-resistance breeding relies heavily on natural plant resistance genes that encode immune receptors adapted to particular pathogens. However, rapidly evolving pathogens frequently overcome these natural defenses, and the limited diversity of naturally occurring immune receptors makes it difficult to develop crops with durable resistance.

Now, a team led by Professor Gao Caixia at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a programmable platform for the on-demand design of synthetic plant immune receptors (SPIRs) that recognize proteins from diverse plant pathogens.

The study was published online in Science on July 23.

Simple circuit brings topological insulators closer to practical electrical measurement standards

Researchers at the University of Würzburg have succeeded in detecting exceptionally robust electrical transport in a topological insulator. This could lead to new metrological applications. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Metrology is the science of measurement. Its aim is to ensure that measurement results are comparable and reliable worldwide, for example, in industry or scientific experiments. So-called fundamental constants, or unchanging physical quantities such as the speed of light or Planck’s constant, play an increasingly important role in this context.

As their values are universal, i.e., independent of place and time, they enable the definition of highly stable units and ensure highly reproducible measurement results. Since 2019, the International System of Units, SI (short for Système international d’unités), has been based entirely on these constants.

Universal structure of exceptional points revealed in nonlinear light‑based systems

Exceptional points, or EPs for short, are among the phenomena of modern physics. These are special points or locations at which the properties of matter, space or time change. In a new theoretical study, researchers from the Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS) at Paderborn University, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Arizona, have shown that exceptional points in nonlinear systems follow a universal geometric order—something that was previously unclear. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Exceptional points are points in physical systems at which not only two eigenvalues but also the corresponding states merge. Such phenomena occur in so-called non-Hermitian systems, which are characterized, for example, by amplification, loss or interactions with their environment. They are the subject of intensive research in fields including optics, lasers, quantum systems and polariton condensates.

Until now, EPs have mainly been studied in linear systems. In such systems, they can often be described as isolated points in parameter space. However, many real physical systems are nonlinear: Their properties depend on the intensity, occupation or state of the system itself.

Quantum Newton’s cradle set to level up computing

Sending quantum information through a chain of qubits, like energy through a Newton’s cradle, could be the key to faster operations and take quantum computing to the next level.

The quantum Newton’s cradle design shows how a laser can be used to give a precisely designed kick of energy to a row of trapped ions, quickly preparing them for quantum calculations known as gates.

The superpower of the new algorithm is its ability to rapidly entangle any two ions in the row without affecting the ones in between: Like a Newton’s cradle, the energy travels through the ions, leaving them untouched.

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.

Black Hole Collisions May Follow a Surprisingly Simple Rule

The size of a black hole formed by the merger of two orbiting black holes can be predicted using simple thermodynamics. Two black holes locked in orbit do not remain apart forever. As they spiral closer, they eventually collide in an extraordinarily energetic event that warps the surrounding univ

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