Physics

Sep 1st, 2025 - UK photonics researchers have developed a new kind of hollow-core optical fibre that can transmit light signals about 45% further than current telecom fibres before needing a boost. The scientists from Microsoft Azure Fiber and the University of Southampton have called this a "breakthrough result" which paves the way for a potential revolution in optical communications. With further advancements, the new fibre could enable more energy-efficient optical networks with unprecedented data ... [Read More]

Sep 1st, 2025 - For many industrial applications one needs synthesis gas, also known as "syngas," a mixture of hydrogen (H 2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO). In addition to the established production method via steam reforming, synthesis gas can alternatively—and even more energy‑efficiently—be produced from methane (CH 4 ) and oxygen. However, in this process, the total oxidation (combustion) of methane to CO 2 and H 2 O must be avoided, which is why there is extensive research on syngas ... [Read More]

Aug 31st, 2025 - Quantum networking may be one step closer to commercial use with engineers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US designing a 'Q-chip' that can transport quantum data onto modern internet networks. The experiment, published in Science , brought quantum networking out of the lab, where it has traditionally been studied, and into the fibre-optic cables used in commercial settings for everyday online connections. The researchers hope that this design will set the stage for the potentially ... [Read More]

Aug 31st, 2025 - By Share SLAC scientists created gold hydride in extreme lab conditions. The work sheds light on dense hydrogen and fusion processes. By chance and for the first time, an international team of researchers led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory succeeded in creating solid binary gold hydride—a compound composed solely of gold and hydrogen atoms. The team had originally set out to investigate how hydrocarbons, molecules made of carbon and ... [Read More]

Aug 29th, 2025 - By The University of Osaka Share Discovery of Planckian time limit offers new opportunities for quantum technologies. A collaborative team of researchers in Japan has identified "heavy fermions"—electrons with greatly increased effective mass—that display quantum entanglement controlled by Planckian time, the fundamental unit of time in quantum mechanics. This breakthrough suggests new possibilities for using these effects in solid-state materials to advance the development of ... [Read More]

Aug 29th, 2025 - by Zhao Weiwei, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences A research team led by Prof. Shao Dingfu at the Institute of Solid State Physics, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has unveiled a new mechanism for achieving strong spin polarization using antiferromagnetic metal interfaces. Their findings, in Newton recently, propose a third prototype of antiferromagnetic tunnel junction (AFMTJ), paving the way for faster and denser ... [Read More]

Aug 29th, 2025 - By University of Innsbruck Share Scientists have discovered a clever new way to control the light emitted by quantum dots — tiny crystals that can release individual photons. The advance could lead to faster, cheaper, and more practical quantum technologies, from ultra-secure communication systems to experiments that explore the strange foundations of quantum physics. The Challenge of Single-Photon Sources Quantum dots are tiny semiconductor structures capable of releasing single photons ... [Read More]

Aug 29th, 2025 - This story originally appeared in the Cosmos Print Magazine, March 2025. Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism are legendary. Every time we turn on a light, every time we use a computer, a mobile phone, and just about all our other electrical tech, these famous equations are somewhere there at the heart of it. In their modern vector form, they are also perhaps the most beautiful equations in all of physics. But there's another legend surrounding these elegant equations: the claim that Maxwell ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - By Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe Share Scientists uncovered universal laws of entanglement in any dimension. The results strengthen links between particle physics, quantum theory, and gravity. A group of theoretical physicists has shown that quantum entanglement obeys universal principles in every dimension by applying thermal effective theory. Their findings were recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters , where the paper was selected as an ... [Read More]

Aug 21st, 2025 - A team of researchers has discovered how a little-known type of symmetry in quantum materials, called nonsymmorphic symmetry, governs the way these materials interact with intense laser light. The work is in Physical Review Applied as a Letter. The findings reveal surprising effects—including the suppression of even-order response and striking polarization-dependent responses—that could enable the design of next-generation lightwave-based electronics and quantum devices . When ... [Read More]

Aug 20th, 2025 - Whether in solar cells or in the human eye, whenever certain molecules absorb light, the electrons within them shift from their ground state into a higher-energy, excited state. This results in the transport of energy and charge, leading to charge separation and eventually to the generation of electricity. An international team of scientists led by Dr. Antonietta De Sio and Prof. Dr. Christoph Lienau from the Ultrafast Nano-Optics research group at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has now ... [Read More]

Aug 17th, 2025 - , Phys.org Topological quantum systems are physical systems exhibiting properties that depend on the overall connectivity of their underlying lattice, as opposed to local interactions and their microscopic structure. Predicting the evolution of these systems over time and their long-range quantum correlations is often challenging, as their behavior is not defined by magnetization or other parameters linked to local interactions. Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale ... [Read More]

Aug 16th, 2025 - Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the work of human physicists, although the humans are still "doing a lot of baby-sitting." The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine . There are precision measurements, and then there's the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. In each of LIGO's twin gravitational wave detectors (one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana), laser beams bounce ... [Read More]

Aug 16th, 2025 - , Phys.org Topological spin textures, spatially organized patterns linked to the intrinsic angular momentum of particles, have proved to be highly advantageous for the development of spintronics and quantum technologies. One of the most studied among these textures are skyrmionic textures, which are two-dimensional and stable patterns of spin orientation. Recently, the study of skyrmionic textures has gained significant attention in the field of optics and photonics, revealing novel physical ... [Read More]

Aug 6th, 2025 - What is dark matter? Physicists have been trying to answer this question since the first observations of distant galaxies suggested that only a fifth of all the "stuff" in the universe is the visible matter with which we interact every day. The other 80% is the enigmatic dark matter which has so far eluded direct observation. Dark matter's existence would account for the gravitational forces behind how galaxies bind together and rotate. There are hundreds of experiments around the world trying ... [Read More]

Aug 4th, 2025 - What occurs during the melting process in two-dimensional systems at the microscopic level? Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have explored this phenomenon in thin magnetic layers. "By utilizing skyrmions, i.e., miniature magnetic vortices, we were able to directly observe, for the first time, the transition of a two-dimensional ordered lattice structure into a disordered state at the microscopic level in real time," explained Raphael Gruber, who conducted the research ... [Read More]