Physicists Tackle a Classic Quantum Problem With a Powerful New Computational Method
An AI-generated illustration depicting the Kondo effect. Conducting electrons in a metal are shown interacting with the spin…
Einstein’s Gravity Just Passed a Strange New Quantum Test
A new experiment found that a falling quantum wave behaves just as Einstein’s equivalence principle predicts. The result…
Mysterious Gamma Rays Reveal Hidden Magnetism Inside Atomic Nuclei
New results from an experiment at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams answer a fundamental question about the…
Quantum interference offers a radically different way to measure time
A new “quantum watch” uses changing interference patterns inside excited helium atoms to determine how much time has…
Quantum Simulators Put a 40-Year-Old Physics Theory to the Test
This AI image shows a chain of strontium atoms (orange), each held in an optical tweezer (blue cones).…
New Quantum Sensor Opens a Window Into the Invisible Universe
A breakthrough quantum sensor has shown it can uncover hidden signals through overwhelming noise, paving the way for…
Physicists Create a New Kind of Schrödinger’s Cat State From Exotic Quantum Building Blocks
Reconstructed Wigner function of a superposition of two trisqueezed states. Its sixfold rotational symmetry and regions of Wigner…
Physicists Observe Strange Quantum Rotation Effect That Defies Intuition
Like on a Ferris wheel, a powerful terahertz laser drives the atoms of a crystal along precise circular…
Researchers reveal nuclear ‘island’ where magic numbers break down
Atomic nuclei are often described as orderly systems. Certain numbers of protons or neutrons, called magic numbers, usually…
Scientists Watch an Atom’s Nucleus Flip in Real Time for the First Time
Artist’s impression, based on actual measurement data, of the nuclear spin of an atom flipping between distinct quantum…
Record-Breaking “Watermelon” Nucleus Could Rewrite Atomic Science
The study is part of Henna Kokkonen’s doctoral thesis. Credit: Tommi Sassi After more than 30 years, physicists…