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. Physicists and instrument makers in Leiden have succeeded in optimizing a spring that almost completely filters out vibrations at temperatures near absolute zero. This breakthrough opens the door to a new generation of highly sensitive experiments. The research is published in the journal Measurement Science and Technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-geometric-anti-absolute-suppressing-vibrations.html Quantum Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:20:01 EDT news701516885 Diamonds have long been coveted for their beauty. Their dazzling color and clarity make them perfect candidates for luxury jewelry. However, it's their other unique characteristics, including their hardness, thermal conductivity and chemical resistance, that make diamonds suitable for various applications in industry and advanced technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-diamond-high-quantum-materials.html General Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news701516613 From detecting the ripples of colliding black holes to imaging individual chemical bonds, mechanical transducers have repeatedly transformed our understanding of the universe. So far, however, the sensitivity of these devices has been intrinsically limited by the laws of quantum mechanics itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-sidesteps-limits-mechanical-transducers.html General Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:40:02 EDT news701516322 A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and time—can be created using everyday liquid-crystal materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-classical-space-crystals-majorana.html Soft Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:07:24 EDT news701514422 Multiferroics are materials that exhibit more than one prominent "ferroic" property, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. One of their most advantageous features is that they allow engineers to control their magnetic states with electric fields or vice versa, due to an effect known as magnetoelectric coupling. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-interlayer-doping-room-temperature-multiferroics.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:40:01 EDT news701346383 Magnetic quantum oscillations have been unexpectedly observed in insulators, where freely moving charge carriers are not expected to exist. A joint study by researchers from Tokyo University of Science, The University of Tokyo and Kobe University investigated this puzzling behavior in the Kondo insulator YbB12 using ultrasound. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-oscillations-kondo-insulator-ytterbium.html Condensed Matter Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:40:01 EDT news701445483 How could we noninvasively distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue? And how could we increase the speed of wireless communications? These two seemingly unrelated questions may share the same answer: terahertz (THz) light. Spanning frequencies between 0.3 and 20 THz, THz light interacts with matter without causing damage and allows for faster data transfer than radio waves. It is thus ideal for advancing many applications in biomedicine and telecommunications, for which simple yet sensitive and fast detectors are needed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-graphene-plasmon-cavities-enable-advanced.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:20:03 EDT news701446621 In a recent study, Manish Garg, independent group leader at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (MPI FKF), succeeded in probing the local properties of bright and dark excitons in the organic superconductor copper naphthalocyanine (CuNc). The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-packet-interferometry-captures-elusive-dark.html Condensed Matter Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:10:03 EDT news701453702 A new optical technique developed by researchers at the University of St Andrews and Adelaide University allows toxic methanol in alcoholic spirits to be detected without opening the bottle. Published in the Journal of Physics: Photonics, this new work offers a powerful new tool for tackling counterfeit alcohol and improving consumer safety worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-breakthrough-deadly-methanol-bottles.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:00:04 EDT news701439776 Researchers from the University of Sydney, working with IBM, have identified and quantified important factors limiting the performance of quantum computers and demonstrated ways to overcome their impact. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pathway-high-fidelity-quantum.html Quantum Physics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701434021 When a physics student asked baristas at the Warsaw Coffee Conference what their biggest question for scientists was, the baristas said they wanted to know how to stop channeling during brewing. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-espresso-pucks-pressures.html General Physics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 11:00:08 EDT news701347039 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have used a classic optical phenomenon known as the Poisson spot to create stable patterns of light called optical skyrmions, which are tiny, swirling configurations in the properties of light—akin to the spikes of a hedgehog. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-optical-skyrmions-century-phenomenon.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:40:05 EDT news701425623 Modern physics theories highlight the key role of horizons—boundaries beyond which information cannot reach an observer—in a variety of cosmological and gravitational phenomena. Two renowned examples of these boundaries are event horizons in black holes and the cosmological horizon of the de Sitter spacetime, a model of an expanding universe with a positive vacuum energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-horizon-edge-states-gain-finite.html General Physics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news701343470 Two cups of warm water don't make one cup of boiling water. But in the quantum world, multiple low-energy photons can combine to produce a single, higher-energy photon. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-solid-state-material-visible-high.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:00:05 EDT news701347021 Researchers at European XFEL, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Rostock University and other collaborating institutions have used high-precision experiments to demonstrate that the most widely used models for the behavior of electrons in warm dense matter are inaccurate. Warm dense matter is challenging to study, but also is of key importance for a plethora of research, including the investigation of planetary interiors, materials science and laser fusion experiments. The study is published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-upends-beliefs-electrons-dense.html Plasma Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:20:06 EDT news701359922 Researchers have demonstrated a new way to make spatially separated lasers synchronize and act as a single coherent light source—without extreme conditions or complex materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-room-temperature-device-synchronizes-distant.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:10:01 EDT news701363941 Researchers at the University of Twente and Utrecht University have packed rigid, rod-shaped particles into soft lipid containers the size of a living cell and watched the container and its contents reshape each other. The vesicle's form determines how the rods line up; the tightly packed rods, in turn, bend the container into new shapes. This provides a minimal model for how physical coupling between a soft boundary and internal filaments can help cellular structures organize from within. The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-minimal-cell.html Soft Matter Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:00:08 EDT news701357761 As we scour and scorch the Earth for deeper wells of energy, investors and government agencies are pouring billions into nuclear fusion research. The hope is that fusion may ultimately provide a virtually limitless source of clean energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nuclear-fusion-lightning.html Plasma Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:40:06 EDT news701354339 Physicists have long suspected that a peculiar quantum state lurks inside a class of materials known as kagome metals, but proving its existence has been elusive. Now, a team led by Yeongkwan Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has performed experiments on a kagome metal that provide the strongest evidence yet for this exotic state. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-broken-reversal-symmetry-phase-kagome.html Superconductivity Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:40:10 EDT news701352617 Ask a child to draw some poo, and the shape will invariably be the same: a coil, broad at the base and pointy at the top, similar to a spiral swirl of soft-serve ice cream. In fact, the often-used poo emoji has this exact shape, as do most actual mounds of feces found in nature. Exceptions occur, though, particularly in the feces of some worms that extrude their excrement "upside down" from the ground. As it turns out, there is remarkable physics behind these differences in poo shapes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-poo-emoji-earthworm-pasta-obey.html General Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:40:02 EDT news701344983 Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical laws of physics governing the behavior of water are influenced by the atomic structure of the walls. "It's not that classical hydrodynamics breaks down, but rather that it gets mixed with the condensed matter physics of the solid walls," says Nikita Kavokine, tenure-track assistant professor and leader of the EPFL Quantum Plumbing Lab. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-molecular-plumbing-nanofluidics.html Condensed Matter Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news701338983 The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has reached a key early milestone in developing radiofrequency control systems for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC)—a next-generation research facility that will collide electrons with ions to reveal how the building blocks of matter are held together. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-electron-ion-collider-radiofrequency-real.html General Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:01 EDT news701333761 Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have examined a fundamental property of quantum mechanics in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they show that this theory does not necessarily need to be formulated with imaginary numbers—real numbers can, in fact, also be used. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-mechanics-theory-imaginary-analysis.html Quantum Physics Sun, 21 Jun 2026 18:20:01 EDT news701082298 A researcher at Kyushu University and his collaborators have shown that continuous parameters in quantum gravity may not be freely adjustable "dials" from outside the theory, but rather arise from operators within the theory itself, supporting the century-old claim by Albert Einstein about the fundamental laws of nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-gravity-links-parameters-local.html General Physics Sat, 20 Jun 2026 15:00:01 EDT news700921138 Belgian scientist Francois Englert, a particle physics specialist who won the Nobel Prize in 2013 for his work on the Higgs boson, has died at 93. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-belgian-nobel-laureate-francois-englert.html General Physics Sat, 20 Jun 2026 03:10:01 EDT news701143025 In a paper published in Science Advances, researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and Kyung Hee University have found a new way to control quantum light sources, which is one of the key elements needed before quantum technologies can be used reliably in real-world systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tiny-quantum-sources-atomically-thin.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:00:06 EDT news701077501 Superfluids are intriguing states of matter in which particles behave like a giant collective wave, allowing them to flow without any friction. When this fluid flows past a fixed obstacle at a velocity below a specific threshold, it moves around it without slowing down or exerting any drag. Above this critical velocity, however, the superfluid state starts to break down, and the energy from the flow dissipates in the form of ripples and vortices in the fluid. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tiny-superfluid.html Soft Matter Fri, 19 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701088049 Physicists in China have observed five phases in localization physics within a single quantum system. Using an advanced photonic platform, the team, led by Yucheng Wang and Jingyun Fan at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, has demonstrated that localization physics is likely far richer than physicists anticipated. Their results have been published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-phases-localization-physics-quantum.html General Physics Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:00:12 EDT news700992908 Physicists at UC Santa Cruz and other institutes across California and New Mexico have developed a detection system that will allow next-generation particle accelerators to better reveal fundamental biological and chemical processes, as well as advance critical areas such as materials science and energy research. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-diamond-based-particle-detector-captures.html General Physics Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:00:02 EDT news701015641 Researchers at the National Graphene Institute, in collaboration with the National University of Singapore, have shown that the magnetic behavior of electrons in graphene can be precisely controlled using electricity, revealing unusually large spin signals in a carefully engineered graphene system. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-electrically-tunable-polarization-graphene-path.html Condensed Matter Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:00:03 EDT news701014116