Deep learning approach enables accurate electronic structure calculations at large scales. The electronic structure of a material plays a crucial role in fundamental but also applied research. However, the lack of a suitable simulation technique has long been a roadblock for the progress of these technologies. Researchers have now pioneered a machine learning-based simulation method that supersedes traditional electronic structure simulation techniques. The arrangement of electrons in matter, known as the electronic structure, plays a crucial role in fundamental but…

Have you ever been compelled to enter sensitive payment data on the website of an unknown merchant? Would you be willing to consign your credit card data or passwords to untrustworthy hands? Scientists from the University of Vienna have now designed an unconditionally secure system for shopping in such settings, combining modern cryptographic techniques with the fundamental properties of quantum light. The demonstration of such “quantum-digital payments” in a realistic environment has just been published in Nature Communications. Digital payments…

The Rydberg state is widespread in a variety of physical platforms such as atoms, molecules, and solids. In particular, Rydberg excitons are highly excited Coulomb-bound states of electron–hole pairs, first discovered in the semiconductor material Cu2O in the 1950s. In a study published in Science, Dr. XU Yang and his colleagues from the Institute of Physics (IOP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers led by Dr. YUAN Shengjun of Wuhan University, have reported observing Rydberg…

Researchers have combined research with real and robotic insects to better understand how they sense forces in their limbs while walking, providing new insights into the biomechanics and neural dynamics of insects and informing new applications for large legged robots. Campaniform sensilla (CS) are force receptors found in the limbs of insects that respond to stress and strain, providing important information for controlling locomotion. Similar force receptors exist in mammals known as Golgi tendon organs, suggesting that understanding the role…

The images shed light on how electrons form superconducting pairs that glide through materials without friction. When your laptop or smartphone heats up, it’s due to energy that’s lost in translation. The same goes for power lines that transmit electricity between cities. In fact, around 10 percent of the generated energy is lost in the transmission of electricity. That’s because the electrons that carry electric charge do so as free agents, bumping and grazing against other electrons as they move…

Targeted control of growth dynamics of finest tin layers. Nanometer-scale coatings with functional materials play an important role in many sensory, electronic and photonic applications. An international team of researchers – coordinated by Leibniz IPHT in Jena, Germany – has succeeded for the first time in observing novel growth effects of tin coatings on silicon nanometer-structured surfaces. With the knowledge gained, the chemical composition of deposited thin films can be precisely controlled and monitored in the future, opening up new…

More than two dozen researchers with ties to West Virginia University have helped unearth evidence of ripples in spacetime that have never been observed before now. Gravitational waves travel outwards from a source at light speed, stretching and squeezing the very fabric of spacetime — for instance, making the length of a ruler longer or shorter, or making time tick a little faster or slower as the wave passes. The first evidence for these ripples at very low frequencies was…

The new photonic chip enables exponentially faster and more energy-efficient artificial intelligence The data centers and high-performance computers that run artificial intelligence programs, such as large language models, aren’t limited by the sheer computational power of their individual nodes. It’s another problem — the amount of data they can transfer among the nodes — that underlies the “bandwidth bottleneck” that currently limits the performance and scaling of these systems. The nodes in these systems can be separated by more than…

Anions, negatively charged ions, are reluctant to be cooled. Physicists led by Matthias Weidemüller from Heidelberg University and Roland Wester from the University of Innsbruck have now developed a method for cooling molecular anions to below 3 Kelvin in a remarkably short time. This enables, for example, new investigations of chemical reactions in space. Cooling atoms and ions to near absolute zero is routine in many laboratories today. The particles can be very well controlled at these temperatures, and such…

HZDR researchers seek to harness muon imaging for bridges, chemical parks, and Castor containers. Earth is constantly being struck by cosmic particles. High-energy muons can easily penetrate several meters of steel or concrete. A team at the German independent research institute Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) seeks to harness the potential of this unavoidable background radiation to view the interior of industrial facilities or structures. The problem is that muon detectors used in high-energy physics at research centers such as CERN are…

Autonomous watercraft… Surveying bodies of water precisely is a challenging task. Authorities and port operators are required to provide up-to-date maps of riverbeds and port facilities. Until now, this has required the use of special mapping vessels and a great deal of manpower. It is costly and is not being carried out with the frequency and precision that will be required for future applications, such as autonomous shipping. For this reason, a team of researchers at the Fraunhofer IOSB has…

Software for virtual court proceedings. Since the coronavirus pandemic, video conferences have become an everyday occurrence across a variety of professions. Online court hearings are also becoming increasingly important around the world. In large countries such as Canada and Australia, virtual court hearings have become commonplace to avoid long journeys. A research team at Fraunhofer Austria is currently working on software to take online court cases to a new level: The aim is to develop virtual avatars that will represent…

… in making decisions and reducing costs. New perspectives for the healthcare sector: The support system for decision-making developed as part of the MED²ICIN project should increase the treatment success rate. It supports physicians in their decision-making process by pooling all of the information on an individual patient and comparing this to that of cohorts made up of similar individuals. As well as helping to select the best option for therapy, this solution reduces treatment time and costs. Seven institutes…

Scientists have made a new discovery on how small planets might form. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated the “birth environment” of planets – areas of gas and dust that swirl around a central star – known as the protoplanetary disc. They discovered a new method of planet formation in this region, not yet described in previous research. The work has been submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is showcased at the National…

In 1929, astronomers discovered that galaxies are streaming away from us and each other. They interpreted this observation that the universe is expanding. However, when they measured how fast it is expanding, they got different answers using different methods. The difference continues to be a thorn in their description of the expanding universe. A team of researchers led by Souvik Jana at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, have proposed a solution. Their paper, to be published in the…

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe accomplished a milestone on June 27, 2023 – its 16th orbit of the Sun. This included a close approach to the Sun (known as perihelion) on June 22, 2023, where the spacecraft came within 5.3 million miles of the solar surface while moving at 364,610 miles per hour. The spacecraft emerged from the solar flyby healthy and operating normally. On Aug. 21, 2023, Parker Solar Probe will swing past Venus for its sixth flyby of the planet….