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Optics, the study of light, is one of the oldest fields in physics and has never ceased to surprise researchers. Although the classical description of light as a wave phenomenon is rarely questioned, the physical origins of some optical effects are. A team of researchers at Tampere University have brought the discussion on one fundamental wave effect, the debate around the anomalous behavior of focused light waves, to the quantum domain.

The researchers have been able to show that quantum waves behave significantly differently from their classical counterparts and can be used to increase the precision of distance measurements. Their findings also add to the discussion on physical origin of the anomalous focusing behavior. The results are now published in Nature Photonics.

“Interestingly, we started with an idea based on our earlier results and set out to structure quantum light for enhanced measurement precision. However, we then realized that the underlying physics of this application also contributes to the long debate about the origins of the Gouy phase anomaly of focused light fields,” explains Robert Fickler, group leader of the Experimental Quantum Optics group at Tampere University.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics honors research on the foundations of quantum mechanics, which opened up the quantum information frontier.

7 October 2022: We have replaced our initial one-paragraph announcement with a full-length Focus story.

The Nobel Prize in Physics this year recognizes efforts to take quantum weirdness out of philosophy discussions and to place it on experimental display for all to see. The award is shared by Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger, all of whom showed a mastery of entanglement—a quantum relationship between two particles that can exist over long distances. Using entangled photons, Clauser and Aspect performed some of the first “Bell tests,” which confirmed quantum mechanics predictions while putting to bed certain alternative theories based on classical physics. Zeilinger used some of those Bell-test techniques to demonstrate entanglement control methods that can be applied to quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and other quantum information technologies.

Meta security team has identified more than 400 malicious Android and iOS apps that have stolen users’ Facebook login credentials.

As part of another BYOVD attack, BlackByte ransomware exploits a flaw in a legitimate Windows driver to bypass security software.

This might be gettin out of hand.

Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky has said that he believed Moscow was laying the groundwork for a possible nuclear attack.

“They begin to prepare their society. That’s very dangerous,” he told the BBC.

Continue reading “Putin laying groundwork for possible nuclear attack, Zelensky says” »

An undergraduate and his supervisor ran the numbers and found paradox-free time travel to be mathematically consistent.

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Research into dopamine-producing cells and rogue proteins among efforts to find far-reaching treatment.