https://phys.org/physics-news/ en-us The latest news in physics, materials science, quantum physics, optics and photonics, superconductivity science and technology. Updated Daily. Topological quantum materials combine unusual electronic states with properties such as magnetism or superconductivity, offering possibilities for future electronics and quantum technologies. Researchers at Tohoku University have now shown that changing the number of layers in a crystal can provide a systematic way to design topological magnets. The work is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-layer-based-route-topological-magnets.html Condensed Matter Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:20:02 EDT news708166549 Material properties such as sound insulation, resistance to extreme heat and thermal expansion originate from how the zillions of microscopic building blocks (nuclei and electrons) interact at equilibrium and respond to perturbations. Atoms are typically about one ten-billionth of a meter across, so there can be a lot of parts to keep track of—a task that is complicated at the quantum-mechanical level, where particles are neither here nor there until observed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physics-aware-benchmark-reveals-similar.html Condensed Matter Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:20:07 EDT news708165703 Electronic voting, the use of electronic systems to cast, record or count votes, could potentially simplify the process of electing new political leaders or other representatives. While some countries have already started using internet-connected devices or electronic voting machines at polling stations, the trustworthiness, security and anonymity of electronic voting systems are still widely debated. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-protocols-electronic-voting.html Quantum Physics Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:40:10 EDT news708080473 Helium—the lightest atom that can be laser-cooled and controlled—powers a new design for high-powered, stable quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-helium-quantum-concept-faster-tunneling.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:20:01 EDT news708100202 For decades, physicists have worked to prove the strange predictions of quantum mechanics with real experiments. As quantum computers have grown more powerful, researchers have devised increasingly sophisticated ways to test whether these machines are truly harnessing quantum effects—but every method so far has run into limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-game-quantum-advantage-provable-classical.html Quantum Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:50:01 EDT news708083342 Superfluid helium could offer a new way to tackle one of the biggest challenges in scaling up quantum computers, say researchers from the University of Surrey. The research team has introduced a conceptual design for a new type of qubit that could be much less vulnerable to errors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-superfluid-qubit-scale-quantum.html General Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:00:05 EDT news708076622 How did a photon survive a journey of more than 2 billion light-years when, according to known physics, it should have been absorbed long before reaching Earth? This is the question at the heart of a new study by Giorgio Galanti (INAF) and Marco Roncadelli (INFN), accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-photon-einstein-current-physics-earth.html General Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:40:01 EDT news708076502 Atoms in a material are rarely still. They jiggle back and forth in collective lattice vibrations known as phonons. Their motion can also carry a rotational element: In 2023, scientists at PSI experimentally proved the existence of chiral phonons, which exhibit handedness depending on which way they rotate. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-reversible-electric-persistent-chiral-phonon.html Condensed Matter Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:00:07 EDT news707998681 Physicists at the BESIII Collaboration have breathed new life into a decades-old test of one of the Standard Model's most important ideas, using a technique that had gone almost untouched by experimenters for 35 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-entangled-particles-revive-year-standard.html General Physics Mon, 07 Sep 2026 13:40:10 EDT news707992804 Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found a way to make plasma more effective for its wide-ranging uses, from antimicrobial applications to surface conditioning in the semiconductor industry. They mapped the production of atomic oxygen, a key ingredient of oxygen plasma, while a high voltage was applied across oxygen gas. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dark-plasma-regions-reveal-overlooked.html Plasma Physics Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news707996281 Tiny, soft polymer particles—known as microgels—can help to stabilize extremely thin liquid jets. How this works is the finding of a study led by researchers at TU Darmstadt, which has been published in Nature Communications. The findings could be of interest for the development of needle-free medical injection systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-polymer-particles-jets-stable.html Condensed Matter Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:08 EDT news707995381 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-phases-chromium-based-material.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:00:01 EDT news707734660 Researchers at Lund University have developed a new type of light-emitting diode based on thin, branched nanowires that could offer significantly higher efficiency and lower production costs than current technology. By controlling where in the structure the light is generated, the researchers have reduced the losses that would otherwise limit the amount of light that can be used. Their study is published in the journal Nano Research. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-significant-efficiency-gains.html Condensed Matter Fri, 04 Sep 2026 18:00:02 EDT news707748782 Researchers have completely suppressed superconductivity in magic-angle graphene by screening interactions between electrons, helping resolve a long-running debate about the origin of the phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-magic-angle-graphene-evidence-unconventional.html Superconductivity Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:20:03 EDT news707746981 A joint research team from NIMS and the University of Tokyo has developed a new composite in which three-dimensional nano-interfaces are distributed throughout the material by coating the surfaces of magnetic-insulator powders with a metal and sintering them. Using this structure, the team succeeded in observing thermoelectric conversion driven by spins in an insulator, a phenomenon previously observed only at nanoscale thin-film interfaces, in a macroscale material. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-embedded-platinum-channels-nanoscale-based.html Condensed Matter Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:40:02 EDT news707742782 Detecting radiation is key to technologies ranging from particle accelerators and scientific instruments to medical imaging and security screening. But current detectors must often make trade-offs, providing signals that are strong but slow or fast but weak. The trade-off between signal strength and speed can limit precision detection. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ultrafast-electrons-lasers-reveal-unexpectedly.html Condensed Matter Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:40:06 EDT news707738641 An international collaboration of researchers has used ANSTO's facilities to uncover new properties of one of the most fundamental everyday materials, water, and answer an important scientific question. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have practical implications for understanding water at very low temperatures. The findings are relevant to cryopreservation of biological materials, food-freezing technologies and understanding water in living cells, where it is often confined at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-soft-nanoscale-confinement-ice-exposing.html Condensed Matter Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:40:01 EDT news707669463 The BESIII Collaboration, led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has achieved the world's most precise measurement of the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the Lambda (Λ) hyperon using quantum-entangled Λ–anti-Λ pairs produced in J/ψ decays. The result improves the experimental sensitivity by about three orders of magnitude compared with the previous measurement, providing a new way to probe charge-parity (CP) violation in particles containing strange quarks. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-besiii-world-stringent-limit-lambda.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 14:00:17 EDT news707655901 A new study has demonstrated that it is possible to make a network of atoms and photons that could improve how artificial intelligence stores and recalls memories. This network, called a quantum-optical spin glass, works as an associative memory, a form of AI that enables the recall of full memories from partial information—much like how humans can recognize a person's face in a blurred photograph. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-optical-glass-ai.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 14:00:01 EDT news707657764 A new study led by surfing scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego revealed the physical relationships underlying a pattern familiar to generations of surfers. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-surf-seafloor.html Soft Matter Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news707644621 Research means asking questions of the universe. For centuries, clever minds have advanced science by devising ingenious experiments designed so their results reveal something about the laws of nature as clearly and unambiguously as possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-physics-outperform-human-setups.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:20:06 EDT news707649841 Researchers from MIT have designed a new qubit architecture that enables qubits to interact with each other much more quickly while remaining very stable. This advance could someday help scientists build practical quantum computers that can run long, complex algorithms with high accuracy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dual-purpose-qubit-quantum-errors.html Quantum Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:20:04 EDT news707646374 Heat, it turns out, has a memory. A cooling cup of coffee may not seem particularly thoughtful. At the scale of a kitchen, heat appears to follow a straightforward rule: it moves from warmer places to cooler ones. Leave the cup unattended long enough, and the disappointing result offers convincing evidence that this rule works. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-memory-theoretical-framework-track.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:00:08 EDT news707644802 The hidden world of quantum mechanics exists at scales many orders of magnitude smaller than living organisms, yet scientists have long theorized that quantum effects play an important role in biology. Birds' ability to sense magnetic fields during migration is one of the best-known mysteries in this field, with leading theories suggesting that this sensing could be achieved by exploiting quantum entanglement. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-algorithm-birds-migrate.html Quantum Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:20:07 EDT news707643721 Using an engineered metasurface that traps light, Cornell researchers have demonstrated a new way to generate strong static magnetic fields without using external magnets or magnetic materials—an approach that could advance spintronics, quantum and photonic computing, and data storage. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-generates-nanoscale-magnetization.html Condensed Matter Wed, 02 Sep 2026 18:40:01 EDT news707583061 What happens when a superconductor becomes so thin that electrons can no longer behave as if they were moving through an ordinary three-dimensional piece of metal? This question has been at the center of my recent work on quantum confinement in metallic films. Over the past few years, I have been developing this line of theory with my colleague Giovanni Ummarino at Politecnico di Torino. Our initial goal was to understand something rather concrete: Why does shrinking the thickness of a superconducting film change the temperature at which superconductivity appears? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-superconductors-thinner-accommodate-magnetic-fields.html Superconductivity Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:40:01 EDT news707392815 Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pacman-ai-framework-fusion-safely.html Plasma Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:00:08 EDT news707581261 An international team including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Sir Roger Penrose has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The result shows that a fundamental principle at the heart of Einstein's theory of gravity remains consistent with the behavior of matter in the quantum world. The study, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Ulm and the University of Oxford, was published today (Sept. 2) in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-einstein-gravity-quantum-world.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:00:13 EDT news707475782 Neutrinos are pervasive yet intangible particles that permeate the universe, streaming through whole planets, stars and our bodies by the trillions each second. The elementary particles are often described as "ghostly" for their near-zero mass and elusive nature, as they have very little interaction with normal matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-neutrino-laser-wont-physicists.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:20:04 EDT news707567701 The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is central to Einstein's general relativity. It posits that gravity must accelerate everything equally, regardless of what it is made from. For the first time, a team led by Ming-Sheng Zhan at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics has tested the principle using clouds of continuously free-falling atoms aboard an orbiting space station. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physicists-weak-equivalence-principle-orbiting.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:30:01 EDT news707556747