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Quantum gas resists heating under periodic kicks, revealing many-body localization mechanism

A joint theoretical study by the University of Innsbruck and Zhejiang University has uncovered the microscopic origin of a striking quantum phenomenon: a periodically driven gas of ultracold atoms that simply refuses to heat up, defying classical expectations.

Push a swing repeatedly in rhythm, and it swings higher and higher, absorbing more and more energy. A quantum gas, however, can behave very differently. Under periodic kicks, quantum interference can freeze energy absorption entirely, a phenomenon known as dynamical localization. Whether this survives when particles interact with each other has been a long-standing open question. A 2025 experiment by the research group of Hanns-Christoph Nägerl at the Department of Experimental Physics confirmed that it can. But the microscopic reasons remained until now unclear.

A new theoretical study by Prof. Lei Ying’s team at Zhejiang University, in collaboration with Prof. Hanns-Christoph Nägerl’s group at the University of Innsbruck, published in Physical Review Letters, provides the missing explanation. The team developed a mathematical framework that transforms the complex-driven many-body problem into a tractable lattice model. This reveals that interactions introduce a universal power-law structure that reshapes localization—and ultimately drives its breakdown at intermediate interaction strengths.

LHC decay anomaly reveals possible crack in the Standard Model

Recent findings from research we have been carrying out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern in Geneva suggest that we might be closing in on signs of undiscovered physics.

If confirmed, these hints would overturn the theory, called the Standard Model, that has dominated particle physics for 50 years. The findings suggest the way that specific sub-atomic particles behave in the LHC disagrees with the Standard Model.

Fundamental particles are the most basic building blocks of matter—sub-atomic particles that cannot be divided into smaller units. The four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force and the strong force—govern how these particles interact.

Hypertriton appears more tightly bound than expected, sharpening the picture of nuclear forces

An international research team of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has succeeded in determining the binding energy of the hypertriton with unprecedented precision. This experiment provides crucial new insights into the interaction between hyperons and nucleons—an aspect of the strong nuclear force that has so far remained insufficiently understood. The results show that the hypertriton is significantly more strongly bound than many earlier experiments suggested. The journal Physical Review Letters has recently published the study.

The hypertriton is the lightest known hypernucleus. It is an artificially produced hydrogen isotope that, in addition to a proton and a neutron, contains a so-called Lambda hyperon. Although hypernuclei exist for only a few hundred trillionths of a second, they provide unique insights into the strong interaction—the fundamental force that binds atomic nuclei and underlies the structure of matter in the universe. The hypertriton plays a key role in this context: consisting of only three particles, it is ideally suited for precise tests of theoretical models of the hyperon-nucleon interaction.

“Precisely because the hypertriton has such a simple structure, its properties are highly sensitive to the underlying nuclear forces,” explained Prof. Dr. Patrick Achenbach from the Institute for Nuclear Physics at JGU. “Our new measurement clearly shows that this interaction is stronger than long assumed—an important step toward resolving a puzzle that has persisted for many years.”

Single mathematical model helps solve a decades-old puzzle involving ultrafast lasers

A team of international researchers, including an Aston University researcher, has cracked the code on how “breather” laser pulses work, creating a single mathematical model that explains two completely different laser behaviors for the first time. Ultrafast lasers emit extremely short pulses of light, lasting only picoseconds or femtoseconds, making them essential for applications ranging from eye surgery and biomedical imaging to precision materials processing and advanced manufacturing.

The work is published in the journal Physical Review Letters. By understanding laser behaviors better, scientists will be able to control them, making lasers more reliable and better suited to specific applications.

An ultrafast laser produces pulses of light that circulate within the laser cavity, where they can evolve into stable structures called solitons. Solitons tend to maintain their shape as they travel, unlike conventional light pulses which spread out. Usually, these solitons are identical and regular, like a heartbeat, known as steady-state emission. In a “breather” laser, the solitons change over time and successive cavity round trips, growing and shrinking before repeating the cycle, like a breathing pattern. This is an example of a non-equilibrium state, where the laser output does not remain constant but keeps evolving over time.

Two paths to scalable quantum computing: Optical links between fridges and higher-temperature qubits

Superconducting qubits—bits of quantum information—have been widely considered a promising technology for moving quantum computing forward. But there’s still much work to be done before they can be brought out of a near absolute zero temperature environment. The lab of Professor Hong Tang has recently published two studies that advance the technology.

To solve practical problems, quantum processors need a lot of qubits—up to thousands to millions. Such a large number of qubits requires significantly complex wiring and a way to store them at a temperature colder than deep space. This is complicated by the physical size of the cryogenic devices, known as dilution refrigerators, that maintain qubits at a temperature just above absolute zero. In a study published in Nature Photonics, Tang’s research team has found a way around this obstacle.

A flexible and cost-effective solution is to build a quantum network by connecting qubits inside separate refrigerators. Connecting qubits with standard coaxial cables, however, wouldn’t work if those cables were kept in a room temperature environment. And storing them all in one very cold room would be near impossible. Even under an optimistic assumption of 1,000 qubits per refrigerator, scaling to 1 million qubits would require linking 1,000 refrigerators—an arrangement that is physically impractical within a single room.

Could the mathematical ‘shape’ of the universe solve the cosmological constant problem?

The cosmological constant is the mathematical description of the energy that drives the ever-accelerating expansion of the cosmos. It’s also the source of one of the most enduring and confounding problems in modern physics.

The constant’s observed value is fundamentally at odds with quantum field theory (QFT), the leading theory describing the elementary particles and forces that make up the universe. QFT predicts that quantum fluctuations in the vacuum of space should make the value of the constant enormous—practically infinite. But its observed value is a tiny fraction of that prediction.

Researchers at Brown University have proposed a provocative new answer for why that is.

Why ultrashort laser pulses could make low-power electron sources far more practical

A new theoretical study finds shorter laser pulses achieve higher quantum efficiency for photoemission from a solid surface without increasing power or intensity. Using light to knock electrons loose from a surface—known as photoemission—may soon be achievable more easily in smaller labs with smaller lasers. Shortening the length of a laser pulse can increase the emitted electrons by several orders of magnitude without increasing the laser intensity or power, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study.

The study is published in Physical Review Research.

Efficient, low-power photoemission could make particle acceleration and high-resolution imaging techniques to visualize cells and atoms more accessible. It could also help researchers develop lightwave electronics, which use light to move charge carriers, for ultrafast computing.

Millimeter-scale resolution in fiber-optic sensing: Single-ended technique advances infrastructure monitoring

Distributed fiber-optic sensors are widely used to monitor temperature and strain in infrastructure, but their spatial resolution has long been limited. In a new study, researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology and Yokohama National University, Japan, have demonstrated that operating near a previously avoided frequency regime and suppressing signal distortions allows reflection-based sensing to achieve a world-record spatial resolution of 6 mm among single-end-access configurations. This enables precise monitoring of temperature and strain in infrastructure.

Distributed fiber-optic sensing technologies play a crucial role in monitoring temperature and strain across large structures such as bridges, tunnels, pipelines, and buildings. Unlike conventional point sensors, distributed fiber-optic sensors provide continuous measurements along their entire length, allowing early detection of damage or abnormal conditions. However, one persistent challenge has been spatial resolution—the ability to pinpoint exactly where a change occurs. Improving resolution without complicating system design has remained a central goal in fiber-optic sensing research.

One promising technique, known as Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry (BOCDR), enables distributed sensing using light injected from only one end of the fiber. This reflection-based configuration simplifies installation and allows measurements even if the fiber is damaged. BOCDR also offers higher spatial resolution than many other Brillouin-based methods. Yet, its performance has been constrained by a widely accepted assumption: operating near or beyond the Brillouin bandwidth, a frequency range intrinsic to the fiber, was believed to cause unstable signals and unreliable measurements. As a result, this operating regime has largely been avoided, limiting achievable resolution.

Sprinkling nanoparticles on spintronics

Today, I want to walk you through a deceptively simple innovation from the lab at Loughborough University (PI: Prof Marco Peccianti): what happens when we decorate a spintronic heterostructure with a sparse layer of plasmonic nanoparticles? This isn’t just a lab curiosity—it’s a step toward making terahertz sources more efficient, compact, and practical for real-world applications like high-speed communications, noninvasive imaging, and advanced spectroscopy.

Spintronic terahertz emitters rely on a thin, multilayer stack—typically heavy metal like tungsten (W), a ferromagnetic layer such as iron (Fe), and a platinum (Pt) cap. A femtosecond laser pulse strikes the structure, rapidly heating electrons and generating a pure spin current through spin-orbit torque effects.

This spin current converts into broadband terahertz radiation at the interfaces, bypassing the need for cumbersome phase-matching crystals used in traditional optical rectification. It’s elegant and scalable, but most laser light reflects off or transmits through without effectively coupling to the magnetic layer, limiting spin injection and THz output power.

Water simulation of famous quantum effect reveals unexpected wave patterns

In the quirky quantum world, particles can be affected by forces that they never directly encounter. A classic example is the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect, where electrons are affected by a magnetic field, despite not passing through it. Although predicted in 1959, it took more than two decades to confirm this effect experimentally, as the specific changes to the electrons’ wave properties could only be inferred indirectly, and with great difficulty. Now, physicists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with the University of Oslo and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, have used a classical fluid analog that mimics and extends the AB effect using a simple platform: a water tank.

In work published in Communications Physics, researchers have revealed that when water waves are sent towards a swirling vortex from opposite directions, it causes a striking pattern, with one or more lines of momentarily still water radiating outward and rotating in an almost hypnotic way.

“This was something new and unexpected,” says Aditya Singh, a Ph.D. student in the Nonlinear and Non-equilibrium Physics Unit and co-first author of the study. “That’s what makes this fluid analog system so valuable. It reveals topological effects—wave behaviors that occur across the whole system—that can’t be seen in quantum experiments.”

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