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Researchers stretch the limits of how far artificial intelligence can contribute to scientific discovery The post Meta-design: language models generate novel quantum experiments appeared first on Physics World.

Composed of five or more elements in nearly equal amounts, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have emerged as promising catalysts due to their compositionally complex surfaces that can accelerate chemical reactions. Until now, scientists have not been able to precisely engineer these surface structures at the nanoscale, making it difficult to study how particle shape influences catalytic performance. Now, a study led by Northwestern University professors Chad A. Mirkin and Christopher M. Wolverton has solved that problem. The research is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Today, I want to walk you through a deceptively simple innovation from the lab at Loughborough University (PI: Prof Marco Peccianti): what happens when we decorate a spintronic heterostructure with a sparse layer of plasmonic nanoparticles? This isn't just a lab curiosity—it's a step toward making terahertz sources more efficient, compact, and practical for real-world applications like high-speed communications, noninvasive imaging, and advanced spectroscopy.

Researchers from Google DeepMind in Berlin, BIFOLD, and the Technical University of Berlin have introduced a new machine learning method—Euclidean Fast Attention (EFA)—that enables global atomic interactions in chemical systems to be represented more efficiently. This could allow chemical and materials science processes to be simulated more accurately in the future, potentially accelerating the development of new drugs, more efficient batteries, and more sustainable materials.

A new theoretical study finds shorter laser pulses achieve higher quantum efficiency for photoemission from a solid surface without increasing power or intensity. Using light to knock electrons loose from a surface—known as photoemission—may soon be achievable more easily in smaller labs with smaller lasers. Shortening the length of a laser pulse can increase the emitted electrons by several orders of magnitude without increasing the laser intensity or power, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study.

A joint theoretical study by the University of Innsbruck and Zhejiang University has uncovered the microscopic origin of a striking quantum phenomenon: a periodically driven gas of ultracold atoms that simply refuses to heat up, defying classical expectations.

In a world first, the team, led by Professor Stephen Liddle, discovered a new type of aromatic molecule made entirely of metal atoms, the heaviest of its kind ever confirmed. The team stabilized an extremely rare three‑atom ring of bismuth, held between two large metal atoms (uranium or thorium) in a structure known as an "inverse‑sandwich" complex.

Superconducting qubits—bits of quantum information—have been widely considered a promising technology for moving quantum computing forward. But there's still much work to be done before they can be brought out of a near absolute zero temperature environment. The lab of Professor Hong Tang has recently published two studies that advance the technology.

Recent findings from research we have been carrying out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern in Geneva suggest that we might be closing in on signs of undiscovered physics.

Few concepts in physics are as familiar, yet as enigmatic, as time. In Einstein's theory of relativity, time is not absolute: its passage depends on motion and gravity. But when combined with quantum physics, this relativistic form of time becomes even more counterintuitive.

Two independent research teams have each demonstrated collisional quantum gates using fermionic atoms: a long-sought milestone in quantum computing where logic operations are performed through the direct physical overlap of atoms, rather than forcing them into fragile, highly excited states.

A viral video of a dog defecating on Donald Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star has become the latest symbolic jab at the US president, prompting laughter online.

Pushing against years of scepticism, an analysis suggests quantum computers may offer real advantages for running machine learning and similar algorithms in the near future

In the quirky quantum world, particles can be affected by forces that they never directly encounter. A classic example is the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect, where electrons are affected by a magnetic field, despite not passing through it. Although predicted in 1959, it took more than two decades to confirm this effect experimentally, as the specific changes to the electrons' wave properties could only be inferred indirectly, and with great difficulty. Now, physicists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with the University of Oslo and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, have used a classical fluid analog that mimics and extends the AB effect using a simple platform: a water tank.

Picture two materials sandwiched together. The boundary between them may appear flat, but, in reality, it is full of tiny bumps and dents. Suddenly, the materials are hit with a shockwave. If that wave hits a bump in the material interface, it slows down. If it hits a dent, it accelerates forward. This imbalance creates fast, narrow jets of material—called the Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability.

French mathematician Frank Merle, who won a prestigious Breakthrough Prize on Saturday, told AFP that fundamental research must be supported because it is a "foundation stone" for the future.

Astronomers have long been puzzled by a cosmic mystery: planets orbiting two stars—like Star Wars’ Tatooine—are surprisingly rare, even though they should be common. New research suggests the culprit is none other than Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

A surprising breakthrough in physics could reshape the future of computing by tapping into a strange, previously untapped property of matter. Scientists have shown that tiny atomic vibrations—called chiral phonons—can directly transfer motion to electrons, allowing them to carry information without magnets, batteries, or even electricity. This opens the door to a new field known as orbitronics, where data is processed using the orbital motion of electrons instead of traditional charge or spin.

Researchers in the UC Santa Barbara Materials Department have uncovered the elusive quantum mechanism by which energetic electrons break chemical bonds inside microelectronic devices—a detrimental process that slowly degrades performance over time. The discovery, published as an Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review B, explains decades-old experimental puzzles and moves scientists closer to engineering more reliable devices.

For decades, the mathematician Frank Merle has been embracing the messy math behind lasers and fluids

Dr. Swee Lay Thein and Dr. Stuart Orkin won the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their work toward a functional cure for the deadly blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia.

Scientists have captured stunning new insights into one of the universe’s most powerful phenomena—black hole jets—by using a planet-sized network of radio telescopes. Focusing on Cygnus X-1, one of the first known black holes, they measured jets blasting out with the energy of 10,000 Suns and moving at half the speed of light. By watching these jets get pushed and bent by the fierce stellar winds of a nearby supergiant star, researchers could calculate their true power for the first time.

Researchers have shown that blending quantum computing with AI can dramatically improve predictions of complex, chaotic systems. By letting a quantum computer identify hidden patterns in data, the AI becomes more accurate and stable over time. The method outperformed standard models while using far less memory. This could have big implications for fields like climate science, energy, and medicine.

A new study published in Nature Communications has shown that in the asymptotic limit, extracting the maximum possible work from many copies of a quantum system does not require knowing exactly what state that system is in.

A joint research team led by Professor Park Kyoung-Duck and Associate Director Suh Yung Doug of the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has succeeded in realizing a high-efficiency quantum light source that emits bright lights even at room temperature. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Current findings suggest that there is a supermassive black hole at the centre of almost every large galaxy,

Author(s): Philip BallA South Pole neutrino experiment has measured radio waves induced by cosmic rays—thus demonstrating that its detection method works. [Physics 19, 58] Published Fri Apr 17, 2026

In 2014, a strange cloudy object called G2 made a close approach to Sagittarius A*, (Sag A*) the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers were pretty excited, partly because they thought it might get torn apart by Sag A*'s intense gravitational pull. That didn't happen, and the event was a cosmic fizzle. Instead, G2 skipped around the black hole. Various observations showed that it wasn't just a gas cloud. It was likely a dusty protostellar object encased in a dusty cloud. Or perhaps several merged stars. But, it survived the flyby and continued on a shortened orbit.

An AI model informed by calculations from a quantum computer can better predict the behavior of a complex physical system over the long term than current best models that use only conventional computers, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could improve models predicting how liquids and gases move and interact (fluid dynamics), used in areas ranging from climate science to transport, medicine and energy generation.

Scientists have directly observed muonic molecules in resonance states for the first time, using a high-resolution X-ray detector, a new Science Advances study reports.

Some quantum cryptographers want to find ways to keep messages secret even if the rules of quantum mechanics don’t hold. The recently rediscovered idea of quantum jamming complicates things. The post Quantum ‘Jamming’ Explores the Truly Fundamental Principles of Nature first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out The post Quiz of the week: how many galaxies and quasars are in the biggest high-res 3D map of our universe? appeared first on Physics World.

A new quantum sensing approach could dramatically improve how scientists measure low-frequency electric fields, a task that has long been limited by bulky setups and blurry resolution. Instead of relying on traditional vapor-cell methods, researchers developed a system using chains of highly sensitive Rydberg atoms that respond collectively to electric fields. As the field shifts, it subtly changes how these atoms interact, allowing both the strength and direction of the field to be decoded with remarkable precision.

European astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a recently discovered giant disk galaxy known as ADF22.1. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the formation and evolution of this galaxy.

Sivers Semiconductors is collaborating with Jabil to develop a 1.6T linear receive optical transceiver module using Sivers’ high-performance distributed feedback lasers. The pluggable module will provide highly energy efficient optical interconnect speeds to accelerate deployment for next generation hyperscale AI data centers. EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — Photon Bridge, a manufacturer o advanced low-power optical chips, has partnered with photonic packaging house PHIX to advance Photon Bridge's high-performance Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing external laser source transmit optical sub-assembly (TOSA), targeting co-packaged optics and high-density optical interconnects for AI data center infrastructure. Photon...

The work involved mapping more than 47 million galaxies and quasars over a five-year period The post Dark energy survey unveils the largest 3D map of the universe appeared first on Physics World.

Scientists have achieved a world first by loading a complete genome onto a quantum computer – a major

Even on a campus like the University of Washington’s — home to particle accelerators, wave tanks and countless

Author(s): Ryan WilkinsonA tunable quantum device can model the energy profiles of chemical reactions and improve physicists’ understanding of reaction dynamics. [Physics 19, s48] Published Thu Apr 16, 2026

Author(s): Sophia ChenResearchers exploit quantum entanglement to measure the interference of light signals from two distant detectors, opening a path toward quantum-enhanced astronomy. [Physics 19, 56] Published Thu Apr 16, 2026

The launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021 pushed the horizon of seeing the early universe, unveiling cosmic events just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Among the most striking discoveries are supermassive black holes—some reaching 100 million times the mass of our sun.

Serendipity and the Ig Nobel Prize — Tonight I, the American founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, was having dinner with two Dutch Ig Nobel Prize winners in an Italian Restaurant in the city of Essen, Germany (where we and another Ig winner are doing a show tomorrow). The people at the next table, French […]

The time had come to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), wasn't sure he wanted to know the secret number that lay inside. For the past 10 years, Schlamminger had spent most of his working hours trying to measure a single quantity, known as the universal gravitational constant, which determines the strength of gravity everywhere in the universe. The secret number would allow Schlamminger to unscramble his data and get his answer.

A new Bar-Ilan University study points to a major advance in quantum information processing, demonstrating a way to send, manipulate, and measure quantum information across many frequency channels simultaneously, rather than one at a time. The study was recently published in the journal Science Advances.

By directing pulses of laser light at atoms, researchers can study how radioactive elements decay in a matter of seconds. The method is described in a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, which shows that the atomic nuclei of the elements neptunium and fermium are shaped like rugby balls.

NPL, the UK's National Metrology Institute (NMI), plays a central role in providing accurate and trusted measurement across emerging technology. Within its Institute for Quantum Standards and Technology (IQST), the team is developing methods to characterize and calibrate quantum devices, particularly quantum computing.

In a galaxy 500 million light-years away, two supermassive black holes could merge, spreading gravitational waves across the universe.

Thin films might not come up in conversation every day, but they are all around us. Take the metallic plastic films of chip bags, for example, or the anti-reflective coatings on eyeglasses. Even the coatings on pills that make them easier to swallow are thin films. Depositing extremely thin layers of materials in a consistent and uniform way is also crucial to the production of semiconductors, which are the foundation of modern electronics.

According to our current understanding of the universe, quarks are fundamental, point-like particles: basic building blocks that are not made up of smaller particles. A recent paper from the CMS Collaboration describes how it probed quarks to the scale of 10-20 meters to test this premise.

A Hungarian refugee who came to the U.S. with nothing but a diploma made a breakthrough discovery in the burgeoning field of neurochemistry

A neglected force produced by neutrinos and other particles helps atomic physics measurements align with predictions of the standard model.

The spin-off company ParityQC has implemented the largest quantum Fourier transform ever reported using an IBM quantum computer, thereby setting a new milestone on the path toward the industrial application of quantum computers. The quantum Fourier transform is a cornerstone algorithm with applications in cryptography, financial modeling, and materials science.

After a 10-year effort, physicists got a value for “Big G” that does not settle the debate over one of nature’s hardest numbers to nail down.

A first-of-its-kind observation shows how jets from voracious black holes can shape the growth of galaxies

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that a laser-plasma accelerator can reliably drive a free-electron laser for more than eight hours. Published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, the result was achieved by a team led by Finn Kohrell at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in collaboration with Texas-based company Tau Systems—and could soon make the technology vastly more accessible for a broad range of applications in industry and research.

Every single tiny point on the map is a galaxy.

Architectures could support quantum-chemistry simulations The post Collisional quantum gates created using fermionic atoms appeared first on Physics World.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a close pair of quasars, which is a result of a distant massive galaxy merger. The detection of the quasar pair was detailed in a research paper published April 7 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Join the audience for a live webinar on 13 May 2026 sponsored by IOP Publishing's journal, Nano Futures The post Atomic-scale devices and quantum platforms appeared first on Physics World.

New Curtin University-led research has used a radio telescope that spans Earth to snap images that measure the immense power of jets from black holes, confirming scientists' theories of how black holes help shape the structure of the universe.

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Astronomers have accurately measured the "dancing" energy jets of the first confirmed black hole, Cygnus X-1, more than 60 years after it was first spotted.

Stephen Hawking's theory of black hole evaporation clashes with the laws of quantum mechanics. A new paper finds a way around this paradox, provided that the universe has seven dimensions.

Author(s): Danat Issa, Beverly Lowell, Jonatan Jacquemin-Ide, Matthew Liska, and Alexander TchekhovskoyLaunching jets from collapsar black holes requires strong magnetic field and rapid rotation. However, strong fields can spin down the collapsar black holes before the jet can be launched. In this work, the authors study the effect of neutrino cooling on this jet launching process. They show that neutrino cooled disks can continue to feed angular momentum to the black hole without the opposing spin-down effect that comes from general mass accretion. Thus, the spin of the black hole remains sufficient high to launch a jet from a collapsar environment to produce a long gamma-ray burst. [Phys. Rev. D 113, 083020] Published Wed Apr 15, 2026

Author(s): Daniel G. Boettger, Shane R. Keating, Michael L. Banner, Russel P. Morison, and Xavier BarthélémyWe examine an ensemble of numerically simulated breaking surface gravity waves and show that the inception of breaking can be characterized by the maximum local interface angle. In our simulations that include surface tension effects, we find that breaking inception occurs when the local interface angle exceeds 60°; a value twice that reported in previous studies without surface tension. We explore this result in the context of the commonly utilized kinematic inception parameter and show that these two indicators of breaking inception are related through the relative flux of energy into the wave crest. [Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 044803] Published Wed Apr 15, 2026

Author(s): Konrad ViebahnSnapshot measurements of cold-atom gases reveal hidden spin correlations that could force an update of some superconductivity theories. [Physics 19, 54] Published Wed Apr 15, 2026

Quantum technologies like quantum computers are built from quantum materials. These types of materials exhibit quantum properties when exposed to the right conditions. Curiously, engineers can also trigger quantum behavior by manipulating a material's structure; for example, by stacking layers of graphene on top of each other and twisting them to create a moiré pattern, which suddenly turns them into a superconductor.

Gravity, as most people understand it, is the familiar force that pulls a falling apple toward Earth. But for astronomers and theoretical physicists, it is also a vexing invisible architect that guides the shape and evolution of the largest cosmic structures across the universe.

It's obvious that Earth is a planet. It's obvious that the Sun is a star. But for substellar objects like brown dwarfs, it's not so clear. Researchers are using the JWST to find a stronger dividing line between star and planet that depends on how they formed.

How do organic solar cells work on the inside? The answer lies in structures far too small to see—and difficult to access even with advanced techniques. So far, researchers have relied mainly on X-ray methods to understand how molecules are arranged within these materials and how this order can be optimized for high efficiency. While powerful, X-rays provide only a spatially averaged picture. Electrons, in contrast, offer a local view at the nanoscale, revealing both structure and chemical composition.

A growing mystery in astronomy is the presence of gargantuan black holes—some weighing as much as a billion suns—existing less than a billion years after the Big Bang. According to the standard theory of black hole formation, these black holes simply should not have had enough time to grow so large. A study led by University of California, Riverside graduate student Yash Aggarwal shows that dark matter decays could be the key to understanding the origin of these cosmic behemoths. Published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the research shows that the energy released from dark matter decay could alter the chemistry of early galaxies enough to cause some of them to directly collapse into black holes rather than forming stars.

A pair of dwarf galaxies in the giant Virgo Cluster show what can happen when these stellar cities interact. Scientists at the University of Michigan focused the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) onto the galaxies NGC 4486B and UCD736 and found each of them sporting "overmassive" black holes at or near their hearts. Those supermassive black holes comprise a large fraction of each galaxy's mass.

Researchers from the Department of Energy's Quantum Science Center (QSC) headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating the first digital quantum simulations of how spin currents change over time in a 1-D model of a quantum spin material. The results, now published in Physical Review Letters, establish a new, programmable way to use quantum computers to study the transport of spin—a fundamental quantum variable—in materials.

Tungsten's superior performance in extreme environments makes it a leading candidate for plasma-facing components (PFCs) in fusion reactors, but the ultra-high heat can damage its microscopic structure and lead to component failure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can capture and quantify these microstructure changes, but assembling a sufficiently large dataset of SEM imagery is expensive and logistically challenging.

Researchers at The University of Osaka, in collaboration with ULVAC, Inc. and Ritsumeikan University, have developed a new LED structure that generates circularly polarized light from a single chip. By combining a semipolar InGaN light-emitting structure with a stripe-shaped silicon nitride metasurface, the team created a compact light source that reduces energy-conversion loss and operates at room temperature.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have investigated the giant exoplanet 29 Cygni b — work that could clarify the line between planets and stars.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has finished the most detailed survey of the universe to date, and the resulting map will help researchers understand an apparent weakening of dark energy

Want to make the most of the long spring and summer days? Take to the air with 25% off this Potensic Atom 2 drone, complete with three batteries for an hour-and-a-half of flight time.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument has completed its five-year mission to build the most comprehensive 3D map of the universe to date — but its exploration of the universe continues.

Using observations gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers have revealed that one supermassive black hole in the early universe must have formed before a galaxy developed around it. Publishing their results in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team led by Roberto Maiolino at the University of Cambridge hope their results could lead to a better understanding of the origins of these immense objects.

A special class of sensors leverages quantum properties to measure tiny signals at levels that would be impossible using classical sensors alone. Such quantum sensors are currently being used to study the inner workings of cells and the outer depths of our universe.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have observed a giant exoplanet known as HATS-75 b. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv pre-print server, yield important information on the atmosphere of this planet.

The electrons that power our society flow left and right through the circuitry in our electronics, back and

New research from the Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Institut de Physique de Nice, shows how Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) become turbulent when driven out-of-equilibrium at small scales The post What happens when a Bose–Einstein condensate becomes turbulent? appeared first on Physics World.

Quantum computing advances are improving stability and error correction, bringing practical machines closer and raising future impacts for security and science.

In 1937, Ettore Majorana asked a question nobody else was even thinking about: does a particle have to have a distinct antiparticle? For neutrinos — which carry no charge — the answer might be no. They might be their own antiparticles. Deep underground right now, experiments are watching atoms decay, waiting for the signal that would prove it. So far: nothing. But the case is not closed.

Author(s): Charles DayA free-falling video camera enabled researchers to observe a falling cloud of particles and infer the particles’ charges. [Physics 19, s47] Published Tue Apr 14, 2026

Author(s): Michael SchirberA wire-sharing protocol can minimize the number of wires in a quantum processor without significantly reducing speed, a new theoretical study shows. [Physics 19, 55] Published Tue Apr 14, 2026

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rank among the most powerful explosions in the universe, releasing immense energy in intense flashes of gamma rays. The most distant GRBs originate from the era when the first stars and galaxies formed. Detecting them allows astronomers to probe the early universe and understand how the first heavy elements formed and how the earliest stellar populations lived and died. Missions like HiZ-GUNDAM, a satellite planned for launch in the 2030s by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aim to detect these distant explosions in real time.

Alena Tensor is a relatively new mathematical approach that allows for arbitrary curving and straightening of analyzed spacetimes. As it turns out, generalizing this model to all known fields and fully describing matter, spontaneously gives rise to the phenomena known from research on dark matter and dark energy.

The University of Wyoming's Lauren Kim has solved a persistent problem in the cutting-edge field of high-entropy alloys, a class of materials with great potential in modern engineering, electronics and energy applications—such as jet engines, nuclear reactors, chemical processing systems, batteries and supercapacitors—along with cryogenics systems.

A major obstacle in the development of powerful quantum computers is the growing number of cables required to control a computer as the number of qubits increases. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now demonstrated that several qubits can share the same cable—without significantly increasing computation time. Their study is the most comprehensive of its kind and could become an important piece of the puzzle in developing quantum computers. These computers have the potential to revolutionize such areas as drug development and logistics.

The use of artificial intelligence has enabled researchers at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) to gain a greater understanding of two-dimensional (2D) materials that can be useful for energy storage, water purification, and advanced electronics.

They are the most abundant particles in the universe, yet we barely know they exist. Neutrinos stream through everything, through walls, through planets and even through you…. in their billions every second, leaving no trace. We've known for decades that they have mass, but pinning down exactly how much has defeated physicists for years. Now, the most sensitive experiment ever built has pushed our knowledge to a new frontier, and what it found raises a profound question about why these ghostly particles are so extraordinarily light.

Beginning in the 1950s, silicon transformed the electronics industry by enabling smaller and faster devices that could be reliably manufactured at scale. More than six decades later, silicon-based semiconductors remain at the heart of many modern technologies, including so-called "classical" computers.

Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe. They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun and sit at the centers of most large galaxies. At the heart of the Milky Way lies Sagittarius A*, our galaxy's supermassive black hole, with a mass of about four million suns. But these black holes do not emit light, so astronomers can only detect them indirectly through their effects on nearby stars and gas.