https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Quantum technologies promise secure communication networks, powerful forms of computing and new sensing tools. One of the major challenges, however, is that different quantum systems often operate at different wavelengths of light. Quantum memories, trapped ions and other quantum devices may work best in the ultraviolet or visible range, while long-distance communication over optical fibers works most efficiently at telecommunications wavelengths. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hollow-core-fiber-platform-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:00:02 EDT news706879144 Table tennis professionals are true masters at redirecting fast-moving projectiles. Putting a targeted spin on a serve can make the little white ball fly straight toward the edge of the table but then, at the last moment, take a sharp curve into the left corner. The physical phenomenon behind this sporting trick is known as the Magnus effect. It acts on balls of all sizes and has helped decide more than a few soccer matches. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-optical-magnus-effect-sharpen-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:20:04 EDT news707047501 While quantum computing could be the future, it is currently plagued by finicky hardware. To make the technology practical, researchers must demonstrate that it consistently and continuously works and performs at scale. In a new study, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Ion Storage Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, created a robust process for entangling trapped-ion qubits. The result means better building blocks for ion-based quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ramped-fields-robust-entanglement-ion.html Quantum Physics Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:20:06 EDT news706969261 For decades, light has been used to understand the molecular structures of matter. A sample is irradiated with light, and measurements determine the wavelengths at which it is absorbed. Since each molecule absorbs light at very specific wavelengths that depend on its structure, the resulting absorption spectrum acts like a molecular fingerprint. For individual molecules, however, this signal is vanishingly small and mostly indistinguishable from noise. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-molecule-photon-entanglement-imperceptible-recoil.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:00:14 EDT news706866181 Detecting short-wave infrared (SWIR) light, a region of the electromagnetic spectrum just beyond the light visible to the human eye, could be advantageous for many real-world applications. For instance, it could enable more advanced systems for capturing images at night, as well as sophisticated medical imaging, environmental monitoring and industrial inspection technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hyperdoped-silicon-photodiode-advances-short.html Condensed Matter Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:00:06 EDT news706796840 Every high-energy nuclear collision leaves behind a trail of clues about the structure of atomic nuclei. Deciphering those clues, however, depends on the accuracy of the underlying theory. Physicists at Osaka Metropolitan University have now performed a full calculation within Glauber theory, a cornerstone framework for describing high-energy nuclear collisions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-exact-sharpen-view-atomic-nuclei.html General Physics Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:40:04 EDT news706870981 A team of scientists from Caltech and Yale University has shown for the first time how to accurately quantify an important quantum phenomenon in metals, called the Kondo effect, for specific real materials. Unlike previous approaches, which for decades have relied on simplified models to qualitatively describe the effect, the new work uses the actual atomic and electronic structures of materials to solve the problem directly. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chemical-physicists-quantitatively-electron-interactions.html Condensed Matter Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:20:05 EDT news706870561 The search for materials that can power future quantum technologies is accelerating, but identifying the most promising candidates remains painfully slow. Evaluating whether a material can efficiently emit quantum light requires computationally intensive simulations, making it difficult to screen the vast number of available materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bright-ideas-quantum-emitters.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:00:02 EDT news706801202 Our everyday life is flooded with photons, the quantum building blocks of light. For cutting-edge technology, from quantum computing to deep-tissue imaging, detecting every single photon counts. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supersized-quantum-sensors-faint-photons.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:30:01 EDT news706809782 There's a new lighthouse on Long Island. But instead of shining light to guide ships through waterways, this one transmits and receives particles of light that carry quantum information. Perched atop a seven-story building at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, the "Quantum Lighthouse" is a key pillar of the free-space optical (FSO) link spanning Brookhaven Lab, the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University) and Yale University. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-free-space-optical-link-wireless.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:43:00 EDT news706783326 Electron microscopes are used wherever particularly small details need to be imaged. But from a strictly physical point of view, every electron in a conventional electron microscope represents a missed opportunity: If all you do is count electrons, any additional quantum information they carry remains unused. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-quantum-microscope-significantly-electron-microscopy.html Quantum Physics Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news706276299 Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world, ranking second only to sulfuric acid in the total volume produced each year. It is used mostly to make fertilizer, which is essential to feeding the world's population. Yet its production accounts for up to 2% of the world's energy consumption and about 1.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, so the search has been underway for ways to produce ammonia more sustainably. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-catalysts-fossil-fueled-ammonia-production.html Analytical Chemistry Sat, 22 Aug 2026 17:00:04 EDT news706462942 Long polymer chains are everywhere: in synthetic materials, soft matter, biological systems such as chromosomes, and mathematical models of filaments and knots. When many such chains are densely packed, they form what physicists call a polymer melt. In this crowded environment, each chain is constrained by the others around it. These entanglements are central to the behavior of polymeric materials, but they also make the systems extremely difficult to simulate. As chain length increases, the time needed to obtain a new independent configuration grows very rapidly. For very large systems, conventional simulations can therefore become computationally prohibitive. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-monte-carlo-method-simulations-densely.html Polymers Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:40:04 EDT news706536061 Researchers from the MPIK in Heidelberg used an atomic gas as a time-dependent lens to shape and spectrally manipulate intense high-frequency laser pulses. This gas-based optical element could pave the way toward better XUV- and X-ray pulse control for applications such as chemical reaction steering, quantum computing, and advanced spectroscopy methods for fundamental science. The paper is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-intense-bent-ultrafast-lenses-gas.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:50:02 EDT news706464781 Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, headquartered at Florida State University, have designed a new quantum computing architecture that uses magnetic levitation to smooth over design flaws in the intricate components necessary to run a quantum computer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetically-levitated-quantum-bit-flaws.html Quantum Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:20:04 EDT news706449722 Is the universe as stable as we think it is? That's one of the big questions that particle physicists worldwide are preparing to answer with the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC—the world's most powerful particle accelerator—when its upgrade is completed in about four years. In the meantime, researchers, including a cohort at the University of Michigan, are working to sharpen their analytical tools and techniques to make the most of the LHC's current and future data. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-boosts-sensitivity-higgs-signatures.html General Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:10:01 EDT news706463461 Self-assembling, anthracene-based supramolecular nanofibers can enable excitons to migrate hundreds of nanometers, according to a new experimental finding by researchers at Science Tokyo. Coupling these nanofibers with a plasmonic gold nanohole substrate further doubles exciton diffusivity. By mitigating the limited diffusivity of singlet excitons in organic semiconductors, this approach offers a new strategy for improving optoelectronic technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supramolecular-nanofibers-paired-nanohole-substrate.html Nanophysics Wed, 19 Aug 2026 19:40:01 EDT news706378622 When different materials transition from one phase to another, such as water coming to a boil or a magnet losing its ability to attract metals, something remarkable can happen: They begin to behave identically, following the same mathematical rules. "Physicists call this trait universality—the messy, microscopic details wash out and only a few essential features survive," explains Jason Alicea, William K. Davis Professor of Theoretical Physics. The math underlying these universal traits is commonly described by a theoretical framework called conformal field theory. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-universal-pattern-revealed-quantum.html General Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news706363021 Quantum computers hold great promise for applications from drug discovery to cybersecurity. Yet figuring out what would give quantum computers their edge over everyday "classical" computers is a subtle problem. A new theoretical study led by researchers at the Cavendish Laboratory shows that quantum computers are harder to make powerful than previously assumed while offering the clearest picture yet of what actually makes them work. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bit-magic-secret-quantum-negativity.html Quantum Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2026 16:40:04 EDT news706361343 In the coming years, increasingly larger and more powerful quantum systems are expected to tackle problems that are difficult or impossible to solve using conventional computers. However, the more powerful quantum simulations become, the more difficult it is to independently verify their results. Where classical simulation is still feasible, results can be cross-checked directly; beyond that regime, other methods are needed. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-quantum-simulators-gain-quantitative-error.html General Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:45:31 EDT news706351469 To commercialize quantum computing, manufacturers need high-quality superconducting materials for microchips, but they also require a reliable, sustainable nanofabrication process. Tantalum is a corrosion-resistant metal that meets the first criterion but not the second. That's because it has to be deposited on a substrate at temperatures that typically exceed 400°C (752°F)—too hot for many semiconductor foundries' current tools. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-krypton-gas-emerges-ingredient-quantum.html Superconductivity Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:40:06 EDT news706277341 Optical fibers are already the backbone of global communication systems. Recently, however, physicists have started to explore how their functionality could be boosted further by conveying information via entangled quantum particles—potentially enabling instantaneous exchanges of information across vast distances. Such a system could eventually be the basis of a future 'quantum internet,' offering a level of security and computing power beyond anything possible today. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists-entangle-quantum-memories-km.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:30:01 EDT news706284107 Physicists at the University of Twente have improved the standard test for the quality of individual particles of light. By letting three photons interfere at the same time instead of two, they draw more information from every measurement. Their experiment outperforms even a perfect, noise-free run of the old method. The work appeared in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-photons-standard-photon.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:00:05 EDT news706188421 Researchers at Monash University have predicted a new type of quantum matter that challenges decades of thinking about how ultracold particles behave. The paper, "Quantum droplets in a resonant Bose-Fermi mixture," is published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists-quantum.html Condensed Matter Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:20:03 EDT news706186441 An electron is supposed to be indivisible. It carries one fundamental unit of electric charge, and every electron is exactly the same. But under extreme conditions, large numbers of electrons act together and give rise to new quantum objects called quasiparticles. These act as if they carry only a fraction of an electron's charge, making them one of the strangest phenomena in modern physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-graphene-device-fractional-electric-quantum.html Condensed Matter Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:40:10 EDT news706185841 Latin squares are arrangements of symbols in a grid in which every symbol appears exactly once in each row and column. These symbol arrangements, which were first studied more than three centuries ago, are now widely used to optimize experimental designs and develop secure cryptographic systems, puzzles or other complex combinatorial structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-quantum-latin-squares-euler-officers.html Mathematics Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:00:02 EDT news705745989 Scientists from the University of Manchester's Department of Chemistry, Centre for Radiochemistry Research and Photon Science Institute, led by Professor Steve Liddle, have uncovered why a rare class of metal clusters appears to behave differently in experiments and theoretical calculations, resolving a debate about the nature of chemical aromaticity and revealing a previously overlooked type of magnetic response. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetic-mystery-thorium-clusters.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:40:05 EDT news705843396 Diamond is more than a dazzling gem—the extremely hard form of carbon makes up the pellet that encases fuel for inertial confinement fusion, and scientists believe it rains down deep inside ice giant planets like Neptune and Uranus. In both cases, the material experiences enormous pressures. Until now, experiments and simulations have disagreed about how it actually behaves under those conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-diamond-triple-fusion-gain-secrets.html General Physics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:40:05 EDT news705836281 A new joint study from Constructor University and Princeton University in the Journal of the American Chemical Society focuses on PC645, a protein complex that contributes to cryptophyte algae's ability to photosynthesize efficiently using specialized light-harvesting pigments that can capture energy from dim, blue-green underwater light. During photosynthesis, the pH inside the algae can fluctuate significantly, affecting how they manage light energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nature-dimmer-algae-photosynthesis-ph.html Biochemistry Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:20:03 EDT news705831782 Rice University researchers have shown that tiny wrinkles in graphene can change the material's electrical properties, providing evidence for flexoelectricity, a phenomenon in which a material generates an electric charge when it bends unevenly. The findings are published in Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-graphene-nanowrinkles-reshape-electricity-future.html Nanophysics Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news705773341