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Unusual quantum states in six-layer graphene offer clues to superconductivity

Graphene, a material consisting of a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, has proved promising for various technological applications. Materials in which several layers of graphene are stacked together can exhibit different advantageous properties.

Researchers at Cornell University in the U.S., the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Germany investigated the properties of rhombohedral hexalayer graphene, which includes six graphene layers shifted sideways in a repeating pattern.

Their paper, published in Nature Physics, reports various quantum states in this material under different conditions.

JWST reveals a distant galaxy that may let most of its ionizing radiation escape

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have found evidence that a distant, exceptionally blue galaxy may allow most of its ionizing radiation to escape into space. Known as EBG-1, the gravitationally lensed galaxy is seen at a redshift of 9.244, about 530 million years after the Big Bang. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 16.

Scientists estimate that cosmic reionization happened roughly between 600 million and a billion years (around redshifts 6 to 8) after the Big Bang and was complete by redshift 5.5. During this epoch, ionizing ultraviolet radiation from early stars and galaxies converted the universe’s neutral hydrogen gas into the ionized state we see today.

The ultraviolet radiation driving this transition is mainly made up of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons with wavelengths less than 912 Å. Much of this light is absorbed by gas and dust inside a galaxy, so the fraction that escapes into intergalactic space, called the escape fraction, is key to estimating how much a galaxy contributed.

UTe₂ reveals two flavors of superconductivity under extreme pressure

Quantum researchers are searching for a topological superconductor—a material that, if discovered, would allow major advances in quantum computing by combining two distinct “flavors” of superconductivity.

This material remains elusive, but Cornell researchers have demonstrated that uranium ditelluride can exhibit both flavors at once, setting it apart as the leading candidate.

“No one has yet convincingly demonstrated a topological superconductor, but now we know that uranium ditelluride at least has the right ingredients to make it happen,” said Brad Ramshaw, associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.

Figuring out where cosmic neutrinos come from is tricky—radio telescopes could help find ‘ghost particles’ origin

Neutrinos are funny little particles that weigh almost nothing, making them one of the universe’s most elusive building blocks. They can come from objects as mundane as bananas and as exotic as supernovas —the exploding death throes of massive stars. Most neutrinos stream through space and pass through the Earth without interacting with anything.

An experiment called IceCube, built to detect these “ghost particles” emitted from astrophysical events, just won a Nobel Prize. As a physicist, I’m interested in figuring out where the neutrinos IceCube detects come from. A study that my colleagues and I published in October 2026 suggests that we could potentially use radio telescopes to answer this question. The study is published in The Open Journal of Astrophysics.

Even though these telescopes can’t see neutrinos, we can use their data to match up IceCube’s detections with their potential sources out in space. Knowing which types of objects produce neutrinos can tell astronomers about the physics occurring within those objects.