Cold atoms and matter waves is a research area focused on the quantum behavior of dilute atomic gases cooled to microkelvin or nanokelvin temperatures, where their de Broglie wavelengths become comparable to interparticle spacing and wave-like properties dominate. It encompasses the production and manipulation of Bose–Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, coherent control of atomic matter waves using optical and magnetic potentials, and exploration of many-body quantum phenomena in engineered lattices and traps. The field underpins precision metrology, quantum simulation, and interferometry by exploiting long coherence times, tunable interactions, and highly controllable external degrees of freedom of ultracold atomic ensembles.
Researchers led by Rice University's Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 14, 2026
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63
Quantum particles have a social life, of a sort. They interact and form relationships with each other, and one of the most important features of a quantum particle is whether it is an introvert—a fermion—or an extrovert—a ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 2, 2026
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176
Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, interacting very weakly with ordinary matter. These characteristics make it impossible to detect using conventional technologies used by ...
For the first time, scientists have observed the iconic Shapiro steps, a staircase-like quantum effect, in ultracold atoms.
Condensed Matter
Dec 25, 2025
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336
Researchers at the ArQuS Laboratory of the University of Trieste (Italy) and the National Institute of Optics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-INO) have achieved the first imaging of individual trapped cold atoms ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 23, 2025
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140
In the past year, two separate experiments in two different materials captured the same confounding scenario: the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. Scientists had assumed that these two quantum states are mutually ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 22, 2025
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236
Scientists have made leaps and bounds in bending atoms to their will, making them into everything from ultraprecise clocks to bits of quantum data. Translating these quantum technologies from obedient atoms to unruly molecules ...
General Physics
Dec 18, 2025
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62
Like their conventional counterparts, quantum computers can also break down. They can sometimes lose the atoms they manipulate to function, which can stop calculations dead in their tracks. But scientists at the US-based ...
The microscopic processes taking place in superconductors are difficult to observe directly. Researchers at the RPTU University of Kaiserslautern-Landau have therefore implemented a quantum simulation of the Josephson effect: ...
Superconductivity
Dec 12, 2025
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211
Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have shown that quantum sensors can remain highly accurate even in extremely noisy conditions. It's the first experimental realization of a powerful quantum sensing protocol, outperforming ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 1, 2025
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