A new way for sensitive measurements of antimatter. A team of scientists at CERN led by MPQ physicist Masaki Hori has found that a hybrid antimatter-matter atom behaves in an unexpected way when submerged in superfluid helium. The result may open a new way for antimatter to be used to study the properties of condensed matter, or to search for antimatter in cosmic rays. When taking a glimpse into the shadowy world of antimatter, researchers have to rely on elaborate…

A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of California, Irvine constructed a robot leg that, like its natural model, is very energy efficient. BirdBot benefits from a foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints. In this way, BirdBot needs fewer motors than previous legged robots and could, theoretically, scale to large size. On March 16th, the researchers will publish their work in Science Robotics. If…

Fragments of the interior of a proton have been shown by scientists from Mexico and Poland to exhibit maximum quantum entanglement. The discovery, already confronted with experimental data, allows us to suppose that in some respects the physics of the inside of a proton may have much in common not only with well-known thermodynamic phenomena, but even with the physics of… black holes. Various fragments of the inside of a proton must be maximally entangled with each other, other­wise theoretical predictions would…

Researchers have developed a new method to display highly realistic holographic images using ‘holobricks’ that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Disney Research, developed a holobrick proof-of-concept, which can tile holograms together to form a large seamless 3D image. This is the first time this technology has been demonstrated and opens the door for scalable holographic 3D displays. The results are reported in the journal Light: Science & Applications. As…

Study shows how the mechanism of photoionization can be used to gain insights into complex molecular potentials. How can researchers use the mechanism of photoionization to gain insight into complex molecular potential? This question has now been answered by a team led by Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Sansone from the Institute of Physics at the University of Freiburg. The researchers from Freiburg, the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and groups at the Universidad Autonoma in Madrid/Spain and the…

Semiconductors are the foundation of modern technology while superconductors with their zero electrical resistance could become the basis for future technologies, including quantum computers. So-called “hybrid structures” – carefully crafted sandwiches made from superconductors and semiconductors – may lead to new quantum effects. However, convincing observations have remained elusive. Now, researchers at Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) with NYU collaborators found a way to probe such “super-semi sandwiches” and to reveal what is going on. “There is an…

Quantum physical experiments exploring the motion of macroscopic or heavy bodies under gravitational forces require protection from any environmental noise and highly efficient sensing. An ideal system is a highly reflecting mirror whose motion is sensed by monochromatic light, which is photoelectrically detected with high quantum efficiency. A quantum optomechanical experiment is achieved if the quantum uncertainties of light and mirror motion influence each other, ultimately leading to the observation of entanglement between optical and motional degrees of freedom. In…

In Gerhard Kirchmair’s laboratory at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck, Austria, superconducting quantum bits are coupled to waveguides. When several of these quantum bits are incorporated into the waveguide, they interact with each other, resulting in so-called dark states. “These are entangled quantum states that are completely decoupled from the outside world,” explains Max Zanner, first author of the paper. “They are invisible, so to speak, which is…

Novel material with promising properties for quantum computers and networks discovered – KIT researchers report in nature. Quantum information will revolutionize not only research and industry, but also our everyday life. Among others, it promises enormous progress in the simulation of materials and processes, which will push the development of new medical substances, the improvement of batteries, transport planning, and secure information and communication. A quantum bit (qubit) can assume many different states between 0 and 1 at the same…

University of Amsterdam Institute of Physics and QuSoft physicists use a single trapped ion to detect ultracold molecules. When we think of ions, we usually think of single atoms that have lost or gained some electrons, but entire molecules can also become ions. In a new publication that was highlighted as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Letters this week, physicists from the University of Amsterdam, QuSoft and Stony Brook University, show that cold molecular ions can be created using…

… may help predict space weather. A West Virginia University postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has made a breakthrough in the study of magnetic reconnection, which could prevent space storms from wreaking havoc on the Earth’s satellite and power grid systems. Peiyun Shi’s research is the first-of-its-kind in the laboratory setting and is part of the PHASMAproject, a complex experiment composed of advanced diagnostics, electromagnets and lab-created plasma to reveal new details about how the universe functions. For his experiment, Shi uses…

For the first time, physicists from University of Münster have simulated the propulsion of freely orientable nanoparticles by travelling ultrasound waves. They have found answers to central questions which had previously stood in the way of acoustic propulsion of nanoparticles. Microscopically tiny nanomachines which move like submarines with their own propulsion – for example in the human body, where they transport active agents and release them at a target: What sounds like science fiction has, over the past 20 years,…

Astronomers have observed primordial material that may be giving birth to three planetary systems around a binary star in unprecedented detail. Bringing together three decades of study, an international group of scientists have observed a pair of stars orbiting each other, to reveal that these stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust. The material within the newly discovered disks could be the beginnings of new planet systems which in the future orbit the binary stars. Using the Very…

A new discovery by physicists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) could make certain components in computers and smartphones obsolete. The team has succeeded in directly converting frequencies to higher ranges in a common magnetic material without the need for additional components. Frequency multiplication is a fundamental process in modern electronics. The team reports on its research in the latest issue of “Science”. Digital technologies and devices are already responsible for about ten percent of global electricity consumption, and the…

Gamma ray observatory H.E.S.S. reveals a cosmic particle acceleration process in unprecedented detail. With the help of special telescopes, researchers have observed a cosmic particle accelerator as never before. Observations made with the gamma ray observatory H.E.S.S. in Namibia show for the first time the course of an acceleration process in a stellar process called a nova, which comprises powerful eruptions on the surface of a white dwarf. A nova creates a shock wave that tears through the surrounding medium,…

Building a complete quantum computer based on cutting-edge German technology is the goal of the QSolid collaborative project, which has just started and to which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has allocated € 76.3 million in funding for the next five years. The project centres on quantum bits – or qubits for short – of very high quality, i.e. with a low error rate. The quantum computer will be integrated into Forschungszentrum Jülich’s supercomputing infrastructure at an early…