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. Researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed the first magnetic multipole-based micromagnetic model for antiferromagnets. Published in Applied Physics Reviews, their generalized framework provides a theoretical and computational foundation for designing future spintronic devices made with antiferromagnetic materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-octupole-captures-domain-wall.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:20:09 EDT news702658045 A team of scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Clinic and IBM has calculated nine molecular configurations of a promising material to produce fuel for fusion energy—the first known instance of such computations on quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-fusion-fuel-material-configurations.html Quantum Physics Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:40:01 EDT news702654741 Superconductors have long been considered a promising technology for the energy systems of the future. They can conduct electricity without resistance, thus eliminating both conduction losses and waste heat. Up to now, however, superconductors have only been applied in special cases, as in the immensely powerful magnet coils of particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This is because superconductors must be well cooled, down to extremely low temperatures for some materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-pressure-3d-superconductivity-tantalum-disulfide.html Superconductivity Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news702646997 It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from Earth's surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several universities used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to recreate the extreme temperature and pressure conditions of Earth's inner core. This enabled the first-ever simultaneous measurement of iron's dynamic strength at relevant temperatures and pressures. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-iron-motion-earth-core-conditions.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:30:03 EDT news702648393 Researchers from the Quantum Hardware group at CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with the British company Quantum Motion, have demonstrated an advanced readout sensor for spin qubits that, while being more compact than previous designs, can reach the level of readout precision needed to implement quantum error correction protocols. The study has been published in the journal Nature Sensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ultra-compact-sensor-paves-powerful.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:20:01 EDT news702639003 Researchers have created a special flat lens that shapes light into an optical needle—a thin beam that stays tightly focused over a long distance. Combining this lens, which is about 7 microns thick, with optical coherence tomography (OCT) could allow imaging that reaches deeper into tissue while maintaining a sharp focus. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ultrathin-lens-focuses-optical-needle.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:44:03 EDT news702646976 Electrons, negatively charged particles, sometimes coordinate their movements in ways that produce certain collective excitations referred to as quasiparticles. One case in which this occurs is the quantum Hall effect, a phenomenon that emerges when electrons are confined to a very thin layer, cooled to temperatures around 0 kelvin and exposed to a very strong magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-evidence-elusive-high-energy-gravitons.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:00:08 EDT news702543513 Physicists have long puzzled over a strange contradiction inside a family of minerals called rutile oxides. These materials all share the same crystal structure—but while some of them, like titanium dioxide, are firmly insulating, others, like ruthenium dioxide, conduct electricity like a metal. So far, physicists have had little idea of why this happens. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-metallic-rutile-oxides-cooling.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:00:09 EDT news702627994 Normally, a material absorbs and emits heat in a linked way: A surface that absorbs heat well at a certain wavelength and direction will also emit heat in the same way. This fundamental relationship, known as reciprocity, limits the ability to independently control heat absorption and heat emission. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fundamental-concept.html General Physics Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:00:03 EDT news702627819 Ferromagnetism has long been studied in a wide range of periodic crystals and amorphous materials. In quasicrystals (QCs), which possess long-range quasiperiodic order and unconventional rotational symmetries, such as 10-fold symmetry, ferromagnetism remained elusive until recently, when it was finally realized in gold (Au)-based icosahedral QCs. These discoveries establish QCs as a third platform for magnetism beyond periodic crystals and amorphous materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bulk-ferromagnetic-quasicrystals-emerge-rapid.html Condensed Matter Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:00:01 EDT news702571031 The rise of AI has created an almost insatiable appetite for computing power. Training and running AI systems requires vast numbers of transistors, and engineers are now racing to pack more of them onto every chip. With their existing designs, however, silicon transistors are rapidly running up against physical limits on how small they can get. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-smallest-contacts-future-chips.html General Physics Tue, 07 Jul 2026 05:40:02 EDT news702562568 Neutron sources can be directly identified from measured spectra rather than proxies using inference tools adapted from cosmology, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study published in Physical Review Applied. The method can improve nuclear security by helping intercept materials at ports or borders or guide first responders during emergency response. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-neutron-sources-inference-tools-cosmology.html General Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:40:04 EDT news702562752 Viscosity is one of the most fundamental physical properties used to describe how materials flow. It governs the movement of liquids, molten rocks and even slowly deforming regions deep inside the Earth. While scientists have long studied materials with low or moderate viscosities, a simple but important question has remained largely unexplored: Is there a physically meaningful upper limit to viscosity? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earth-deepest-upper-limit-viscosity.html General Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:20:07 EDT news702543714 The shape of biological structures, ranging from flower petals to the limbs or organs of animals, is often naturally best suited for performing specific functions. Biological structures also often present curved surfaces with specific functional advantages, such as facilitating the drainage of water, increasing a structure's strength or aerodynamic efficiency, or supporting heavy loads. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bioinspired-strategy-complex-3d-shrinkage.html General Physics Mon, 06 Jul 2026 07:20:07 EDT news702118964 Magnetic storage devices, like a computer's hard disk drive, utilize magnets to represent binary data. However, as these devices are downsized, stray magnetic fields generated by individual magnetic components can interact with neighboring elements to cause operational malfunctions, limiting how much data we can densely pack into memory devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-chirality-memory.html Condensed Matter Sun, 05 Jul 2026 06:40:02 EDT news702292237 A German-Japanese research team involving the University of Augsburg has made a significant breakthrough in the use of antiferromagnets. For the first time, the team has succeeded in writing magnetic information using only ultrashort laser pulses—without the need for electric currents or magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-optical-antiferromagnets-storage-devices-energy.html Condensed Matter Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news702223904 Werner Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle describes one of the most intriguing features of quantum physics: certain pairs of physical quantities describing a particle, such as position and momentum, cannot simultaneously be determined with arbitrary precision—not because of imprecise measuring instruments, but because nature forbids it. Between position and time, however, there is no Heisenberg uncertainty principle. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ultrafast-scanning-tunneling-microscopy-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 03 Jul 2026 12:00:06 EDT news702290288 Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method that uses a single ion to detect electromagnetic fields above a surface and to create a three-dimensional map of them. In the future, this approach can be used to improve chips for quantum computers and quantum sensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ion-3d-electromagnetic-fields-chips.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:20:04 EDT news702223023 Researchers from the Molecular Physics and Physical Chemistry departments of the Fritz Haber Institute have shown how two highly synchronized infrared (IR) laser beams can control molecules as they switch between different structural conformations. Their study provides a new window into how molecules rearrange themselves during chemical reactions, offering fundamental insights into the microscopic processes that govern chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-synchronized-infrared-lasers-molecular-expose.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:10:01 EDT news702230341 The transmission of optical information through random scattering media is a major challenge in optics, biomedical imaging, telecommunications and remote sensing. When light passes through a turbid or diffusive medium, such as biological tissue or a randomly structured optical material, the original image information can be severely distorted, making reliable recovery difficult. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-diffractive-networks-enable-optical-random.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:20:01 EDT news702222722 Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are the first to directly utilize orbital currents without the need for conversion of the orbital current into a spin current. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-orbitronics-key-hurdle-orbital-currents.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:10:01 EDT news702229681 Quantum materials, materials exhibiting physical behavior governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, have proved promising for the development of numerous advanced technologies, including quantum technologies, memory devices and solar panels. In some of these materials, electrons can collectively arrange themselves in unusual patterns, giving rise to states that cannot be explained by classical physics theories. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spontaneous-current-loops-kagome-metal.html Condensed Matter Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:20:07 EDT news702218355 Quantum properties of light are extremely delicate. When researchers attempt to measure them, even small losses on the way to a detector can make them invisible, limiting their use outside carefully controlled environments. A collaborative team of researchers involving scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) has shown a new way to measure several quantum channels of light at the same time and reveal their entanglement, even when almost all of the light is lost before reaching the detector. The results, recently published in Nature Communications, open new possibilities for scalable quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-properties-multimode-extreme-losses.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:20:04 EDT news702215161 Everything around us, from atoms and molecules to planets and galaxies, is governed by two extraordinarily successful theories of physics: quantum mechanics and gravity. Quantum mechanics explains the behavior of the microscopic world, while Einstein's theory of gravity describes the motion of stars, black holes and the expansion of the universe. Yet despite their successes, physicists are still searching for a theory of "quantum gravity" that would unite them into a single description of nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-gravity-ordinary-spacetime-superposition.html General Physics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:20:08 EDT news702208921 Dark matter accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe, but scientists still do not know what it is made of. A study, published in Physical Review Letters, by Rice University researchers proposes a detector design that could help search for axions, hypothetical particles that many physicists think could make up dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-semiconductor-dark.html General Physics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 10:00:03 EDT news702203102 Hawking radiation is a form of radiation emitted by black holes, as theoretically predicted by Stephen Hawking. It suggests that black holes do not merely swallow matter—as had previously been assumed—but also emit very faint radiation themselves. This radiation has not yet been observed in space; instead, researchers use models in the laboratory that mimic the behavior of black holes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-analog-gravity-advance-insights-hawking.html General Physics Thu, 02 Jul 2026 09:40:03 EDT news702202982 By remotely accessing an IBM quantum computer, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has successfully simulated a key process in particle physics: hadronization. Although based on a simplified model of quantum mechanics, the project lays the groundwork for how physicists can leverage the power of quantum computers to make large scientific calculations beyond the capabilities of classical supercomputers. The research is published in the journal Physical Review D. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-simulates-hadronization-qubits.html General Physics Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:40:01 EDT news702058201 In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) effect with up to 12 indistinguishable neutral atoms—an effect that has been predominantly observed in photonic systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-physicists-hongoumandel-atoms.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:00:01 EDT news702035661 Plutonium is one of the most complex elements in the periodic table. First synthesized and isolated in 1940 by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, plutonium has been studied closely for more than eight decades. It's most often associated with its role in nuclear security, but it's also vital to nuclear power, where it is produced in reactors and can be recycled as fuel. Despite plutonium's importance, some of its most fundamental behaviors remain a mystery. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-plutonium-compound-rare-topological-quantum.html General Physics Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:30:01 EDT news701969521 When a high-intensity laser interacts with plasma, the charged particles typically oscillate back and forth like waves on the ocean. But what if the laser itself could twist like a whirlpool? Researchers have now demonstrated a rotating, spring-shaped laser pulse, opening new possibilities for fusion energy, particle acceleration, astrophysics and beyond. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-kind-laser-avenues-plasma.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:00:07 EDT news701962082