A highly unusual movement of light emitting particles in atomically-thin semiconductors was experimentally confirmed by scientists from the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat–Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter. Electronic quasiparticles, known as excitons, seemed to move in opposite directions at the same time. Professor Alexey Chernikov–newly appointed physicist at the Technische Universität Dresden–and his team were able to reveal the consequences of this quantum phenomenon by monitoring light emission from mobile excitons using ultrafast microscopy at extremely low temperatures. These…

Using the connected moments mathematical technique decreases the time and computational power needed for quantum computing simulations of chemical systems. The Science Advancing quantum computing requires models that can solve many-body problems quickly and accurately. These problems involve anywhere from three to an infinite number of particles so small they are subject to quantum mechanics. This research proposes a new algorithm for performing quantum calculations on chemical systems that reduces the effect of random “noise” on the results. The approach uses a…

Four CubeSats – CubIXSS, SunCET, DYNAGLO, and WindCube – have been selected by NASA’s Heliophysics Flight Opportunities in Research and Technology program in cooperation with NASA’s Space Weather Science Application. Together, they will comprise a first-generation testbed for space weather innovation through small satellites. CubeSats are small, cube-shaped satellites built to standardized dimensions that offer many advantages over traditional large space missions. Because they are relatively inexpensive compared to larger satellite missions, they’re usually seen as opportunities to develop new…

For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere – the corona – and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists uncover critical information…

Flaws in diamonds — atomic defects where carbon is replaced by nitrogen or another element — may offer a close-to-perfect interface for quantum computing, a proposed communications exchange that promises to be faster and more secure than current methods. There’s one major problem, though: these flaws, known as diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers, are controlled via magnetic field, which is incompatible with existing quantum devices. Imagine trying to connect an Altair, an early personal computer developed in 1974, to the internet via…

Dartmouth research predicts the existence of a previously-unimaginable particle. Nearly a century after Italian physicist Ettore Majorana laid the groundwork for the discovery that electrons could be divided into halves, researchers predict that split photons may also exist, according to a study from Dartmouth and SUNY Polytechnic Institute researchers. The finding that the building blocks of light can exist in a previously-unimaginable split form advances the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves. The theoretical discovery of the split…

Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The international team looked to the stars – a pair of extreme stars called pulsars to be precise – through seven radio telescopes across the globe. And they used them to challenge Einstein’s most famous theory with some of the most rigorous tests yet. The study, published today in the journal Physical Review X,…

QUEST researchers overcome a major hurdle on the journey towards even more accurate optical atomic clocks. Laser beams can do more than just heat things up; they can cool them down too. That is nothing new for physicists who have devoted themselves to precision spectroscopy and the development of optical atomic clocks. But what is new is the extremely low temperature that researchers at the QUEST Institute at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have been able to reach with their highly…

The innovation could be a game-changer for communication technologies, such as phones and internet connections. A team from UCF has developed the world’s first optical oscilloscope, an instrument that is able to measure the electric field of light. The device converts light oscillations into electrical signals, much like hospital monitorsconvert a patient’s heartbeat into electrical oscillation. Until now, reading the electric field of light has been a challengebecause of the high speeds at which light waves oscillates. The most advanced techniques, which power our phone and internet communications, can currently clock electric fields at up to gigahertz frequencies — covering…

New method to measure spin waves brings us one step closer to spin superfluidity. Spin waves, a change in electron spin that propagates through a material, could fundamentally change how devices store and carry information. These waves, also known as magnons, don’t scatter or couple with other particles. Under the right conditions, they can even act like a superfluid, moving through a material with zero energy loss. But the very properties that make them so powerful also make them nearly…

Standardized methods facilitate the evaluation of Raman spectra. Light-based methods are increasingly used for analytical problems in the fields of health, environment, medicine and safety. Raman spectroscopy is a suitable method in this context. The measurement data collected in this process are complex and extensive molecular fingerprints. Artificial intelligence can help in the analysis of these complex Raman spectra. There are still no established standards for the analysis, which makes it difficult to apply in medical or biological settings. A…

Physicists publish a theoretical framework to explain the recent discovery of superconductivity in trilayer graphene. A single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice makes up the promising nanomaterial called graphene. Research on a setup of three sheets of graphene stacked on top of one another so that their lattices are aligned but shifted — forming rhombohedral trilayer graphene – revealed an unexpected state of superconductivity. In this state electrical resistance vanishes due to the quantum nature of…

High-precision 3D supercomputer simulations reveal the 3D structure of theoretically predicted micron-scale megatesla magnetic fields, optimizing engineering design of laser conditions and micron-size target structures for future laser experiments. Recently, a research team at Osaka University has successfully demonstrated the generation of megatesla (MT)-order magnetic fields via three-dimensional particle simulations on laser-matter interaction. The strength of MT magnetic fields is 1-10 billion times stronger than geomagnetism (0.3-0.5 G), and these fields are expected to be observed only in the close…

Experiment finds evidence for a long-sought particle comprising four neutrons. Understanding of nuclear forces might have to be significantly changed. While all atomic nuclei except hydrogen are composed of protons and neutrons, physicists have been searching for a particle consisting of two, three or four neutrons for over half a century. Experiments by a team of physicists of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) at the accelerator laboratory on the Garching research campus now indicate that a particle comprising four…

Researchers make key steps towards generating quantum states of sound inside a microscopic device using laser light and single-photon measurements. Across the globe, researchers can now generate and control quantum states in a wide variety of different physical systems spanning individual particles of light to complex molecules comprising thousands of atoms. This control is enabling powerful new quantum technologies to be developed, such as quantum computing and quantum communications, and also offers exciting paths to test the foundations of quantum…

Halide perovskites provide a promising platform for nonlinear, low-threshold polaritonic devices that work at room temperature. Optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) have been widely applied in areas ranging from spectroscopy photonics to quantum information. While conventional OPOs typically suffer from weak nonlinearity which leads to high power consumption, exciton polaritons offer a smart alternative. Hybrid quasiparticles composed of light and matter, exciton polaritons possess a nonlinearity that is orders of magnitude stronger than traditional nonlinear photonic systems, promising significantly lower power…