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. By superimposing two ultrashort laser pulses that converge from different directions, a team of physicists at the University of Oldenburg has succeeded in generating three-dimensional light fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-3d-fields-electrons-quantum-states.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:40:26 EDT news709983422 Researchers at Tohoku University, in collaboration with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and the University of Tokyo, have taken an important step toward semiconductor quantum computing using zinc oxide (ZnO). https://phys.org/news/2026-09-zinc-oxide-quantum-dots-enable.html Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:20:11 EDT news709981741 Most magnets have two poles: north and south, or positive and negative, in a familiar arrangement called a "dipole." But researchers are increasingly uncovering more complex forms of magnetism. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physicists-octupolar-magnetism-implications-quantum.html Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:40:25 EDT news709975981 Muons are constantly being created as cosmic rays collide with molecules in Earth's upper atmosphere. With their ability to penetrate far into dense, solid materials, these cosmic muons are often used to image the insides of objects that are otherwise hidden from view. However, the flow of these natural particles is far too slow for the technique to become both fast and reliable in practical settings. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-laser-muons-images-dense.html General Physics Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:20:01 EDT news709897836 Boats passing over smooth water form a pair of diffusion wakes behind them veering off at a certain angle. Turbulence occurs along the line directly behind the boat, but the two diffusion waves are at a theoretical angle of 19.5° from the same line, for deep, ideally smooth water. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-years-jet-diffusion-quark-gluon.html General Physics Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:40:07 EDT news709805374 In materials chemistry, identifying common parameters that can organize magnetic ground states across complex intermetallic compounds remains a central challenge. Researchers have long used chemically tunable parameters to control magnetic properties. One is valence-electron concentration, commonly discussed as the electron-per-atom (e/a) ratio. The e/a ratio has been widely used to classify magnetic ground states in metallic systems such as Heusler alloys and approximant crystals. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-crystal-spacing-magnetic-states-complex.html Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:02 EDT news709895521 Researchers at AIST have developed a device that measures the absolute surface profile of curved optical elements with high precision without touching them. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-device-mirrors-absolute-nanometers.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:40:12 EDT news709915141 An international team of physicists has developed a new method for determining the precise color of laser light using an image that rotates as the laser's frequency shifts. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rotating-pattern-reveals-laser-frequency.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:40:10 EDT news709897261 Scientists have confirmed the existence of a predicted room temperature superconductor, while explaining the microscopic mechanism that distinguishes it from a similar one discovered several years ago. The work, published in the journal Physical Review B, offers "a theoretical blueprint for the future design of superior superconductor hydrides" the physicists write. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scandium-electrons-room-temperature-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:30:05 EDT news709897818 To build the ultrafast computers of the future, scientists are looking beyond the electrical charge of electrons to another property: their spin. While conventional hardware relies on the movement of charge to process data, tapping into this intrinsic quantum property could enable researchers to reinvent how information travels through a circuit. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-experimental-evidence-altermagnetism-layered-material.html Condensed Matter Mon, 28 Sep 2026 18:10:01 EDT news709834861 Quantum batteries are an emerging area of research, with progress coming from theoretical studies and proof-of-principle experiments in small quantum systems. Unlike conventional chemical batteries used in everyday life, they use quantum systems to store and transfer energy. Researchers are exploring them as potential future energy sources for quantum processors and other quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-batteries-high-power-stable.html Quantum Physics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:20:10 EDT news709823941 There's big news from the quantum world. A quantum computer has been used in space for the first time. The device was aboard a spacecraft in low Earth orbit and demonstrated technology that could eventually help solve a problem that has been bugging satellites for years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-boldly-space.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:40:01 EDT news709820802 A tiny device that can be reprogrammed using a laser could lead to adaptable devices for computing, imaging and telecommunications. Most devices are built to perform a particular job. If you want them to do something different, you generally need to replace a component, rewire the system or manufacture a new one. For example, every time you ask a large language model like ChatGPT or Claude a question, many electrical signals race through computer chips, carrying information and performing calculations. This takes energy, and lots of it. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-laser-temporarily-reprograms-ultrathin-optical.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:00:13 EDT news709812601 Researchers at the DarkSide collaboration have unveiled results from a seven-year experiment that tested whether dark matter particles could exist as composites of smaller, elementary particles. While the search turned up no direct evidence of this "ultraheavy nuclear" dark matter, results from the DarkSide-50 detector could lay the groundwork for future experiments, helping physicists work out whether dark matter has an internal structure. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-darkside-detector-nuclear-dark.html General Physics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:30:01 EDT news709811061 A new graph-theoretic framework provides a unified description of atom-light interactions across regimes ranging from weak to deep-strong coupling. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-atom-interaction-uncovers-unbounded-network.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:40:10 EDT news709805821 In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers have shown that magnetic order can survive weak quantum fluctuations in disordered magnets that lack an energy gap. The work establishes robust ferromagnetism in the two-dimensional random-bond quantum Ising model, confirming a longstanding conjecture in quantum statistical mechanics. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-magnetic-survives-weak-quantum-fluctuations.html Condensed Matter Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:20:01 EDT news709547682 When light or sound bounces around inside an oddly shaped room, its reflections can quickly become difficult to predict. But new research led by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) shows that waves can behave very differently when they travel through a special class of materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-chaos-oddly-cavity.html General Physics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news709561441 Quantum photonics could be a pivotal part of future quantum technology if the right materials can be created, a new review paper has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ultrathin-materials-quantum-circuits-programmable.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:40:01 EDT news709554121 We are continuously sending information to each other, transmitting zeros and ones through a giant network of connected computers and devices. Scientists are now trying to extend this familiar concept of the internet to the quantum realm, looking for an efficient way to exchange quantum rather than classical information: qubits instead of bits. The motivation is not just scientific curiosity. Qubits can be a 0, a 1 or any superposition of the two. They can also become entangled, showing a degree of correlation that is out of reach for classical bits. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rephasing-quantum-memories-photon-states.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:10:01 EDT news709556304 A Husker research team's latest research could open the door to broader use of a class of materials whose electrical properties may someday power next-generation electronics, high-density energy storage, improved computer memory and new strategies for cooling. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-discovery-rare-switchable-electrical-property.html Condensed Matter Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news709550161 An electron's charge is normally fixed, like a coin you can't break into pieces. But if electrons are cooled close to absolute zero and trapped in a two-dimensional layer under a powerful magnetic field, they organize into a collective state of "quasiparticles" that seem to hold only a fraction of an electron's charge. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rare-quantum-state-reveals-particles.html General Physics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:00:08 EDT news709544881 Classical computers can temporarily store the information required to perform specific tasks in a short-term memory component known as RAM (random access memory). This component allows computer processors to retrieve information from a chosen location without searching through all stored data. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-random-access-quantum-memory-processor.html Quantum Physics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:01 EDT news709464005 A simplified cosmological model suggests that decoherence can suppress quantum tunneling, effectively locking fields into the vacuum state they have reached. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cosmic-lockdown-environment-isolate-quantum.html General Physics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:01 EDT news709483741 Strike a bell, and it rings with a pitch and a fading that tell you about the bell: its size, its shape, the metal it is made of. Black holes ring too. When two merge, the newborn black hole shivers and sheds gravitational waves in a brief, dying chord, and since 2015, gravitational-wave detectors have been listening. The notes of that chord, which physicists call quasinormal modes, depend only on the black hole's mass and spin and on the law of gravity itself. Change the law, and the chord changes. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-higher-dimensional-black-holes-exact.html General Physics Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:20:04 EDT news709463984 Superconductors can carry electrical current without resistance, but only up to a maximum value known as the critical current. The critical current is a crucial figure of merit for applications, and materials science has long been focused on increasing this limit. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have now shown that, in type-II superconductors, this conventional limit can be exceeded when the current is applied for only a few picoseconds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-picosecond-pulses-superconductors-critical-current.html Superconductivity Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:00:01 EDT news709467061 Quantum materials do things ordinary materials cannot. They carry current without any loss, or conduct only along their outer edge while the inside insulates. Future quantum computers and quantum sensors will run on materials like these. To improve them, researchers need to see exactly where currents and magnetic fields run at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-vertical-quantum-sensor-reveal-nanoscale.html Superconductivity Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:20:06 EDT news709464484 Behind every secure online transaction or encrypted message lies a string of completely unpredictable numbers. A team of physicists has now proposed a theoretical way around a long-standing roadblock, opening the door to next-generation security chips that protect everyday data without slowing performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physicists-material-blueprint-generation-microchip.html General Physics Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:10:01 EDT news709479661 Researchers at the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), a center within Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), discovered that atomic-scale steps can guide superconducting vortices in an ultrathin superconductor. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-atom-high-rails-superconducting-vortices.html Condensed Matter Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:00:01 EDT news709464377 Twistronics has become a new alchemy of materials. By choosing atomically thin layers, stacking them and changing their relative angle, researchers can create electronic behavior absent from the original ingredients. Twisted graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides have already yielded superconductivity and fractional Chern insulators, states with fractionally charged excitations. One of physics' most active frontiers now has a moonshot ambition: to design entirely new forms of quantum matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-possibilities-atomically-thin-materials.html Condensed Matter Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:00:06 EDT news709397881 When water drains from a bathtub, a whirlpool often forms above the drain, and its narrow core can start to wobble and twist. For almost 150 years, physicists have predicted that these wobbles can become turbulent, passing energy from large ripples down to ever smaller ones. Until now, however, this "Kelvin-wave turbulence" had never been seen directly in an experiment. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-whirlpool-tank-reveals-turbulence.html General Physics Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:20:09 EDT news709460308