News: Research Highlights

262 articles

Wed, January 26, 2022

Vibrating atoms make robust qubits, physicists find

MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit, or “qubit,” in the form of vibrating pairs of atoms known as fermions. They found that when pairs of fermions are chilled and trapped in an optical lattice, the particles can exist simultaneously in two states — a weird quantum phenomenon known as superposition. In this case, the atoms held a superposition of two vibrational states, in which the pair wobbled against each other while also swinging in sync, at the same time. The team was able to maintain this state of superposition among hundreds of vibrating pairs of fermions. In so doing, they achieved a new “quantum register,” or system of qubits, that appears to be robust over relatively long periods of time. The discovery, published today in the journal Nature, demonstrates that such wobbly qubits could be a promising foundation for future quantum computers.

News type: Research Highlights

Wed, January 12, 2022

Physicists watch as ultracold atoms form a crystal of quantum tornadoes

The new observations record a key crossover from classical to quantum behavior.

News type: CUA in the News Research Highlights

Mon, December 20, 2021

Sensor based on quantum physics could detect SARS-CoV-2 virus

A novel approach to testing for the presence of the virus that causes Covid-19 may lead to tests that are faster, less expensive, and potentially less prone to erroneous results than existing detection methods. Though the work, based on quantum effects, is still theoretical, these detectors could potentially be adapted to detect virtually any virus,...

News type: Research Highlights

Mon, November 22, 2021

How ultracold, superdense atoms become invisible

An atom’s electrons are arranged in energy shells. Like concertgoers in an arena, each electron occupies a single chair and cannot drop to a lower tier if all its chairs are occupied. This fundamental property of atomic physics is known as the Pauli exclusion principle, and it explains the shell structure of atoms, the diversity...

News type: CUA in the News Research Highlights

Fri, January 22, 2021

Unraveling The Mysteries Of Time With Scientists From MIT

Turns out you don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to understand a new breakthrough in atomic timekeeping.

News type: Research Highlights

Mon, December 21, 2020

Ultracold atoms reveal a new type of quantum magnetic behavior

The findings may help researchers design “spintronic” devices and novel magnetic materials.

News type: CUA in the News Research Highlights

Thu, December 17, 2020

New type of atomic clock keeps time even more precisely

Atomic clocks are the most precise timekeepers in the world. These exquisite instruments use lasers to measure the vibrations of atoms, which oscillate at a constant frequency, like many microscopic pendulums swinging in sync. The best atomic clocks in the world keep time with such precision that, if they had been running since the beginning...

News type: Research Highlights

Fri, December 4, 2020

Researchers observe what could be the first hints of dark bosons

Extremely light and weakly interacting particles may play a crucial role in cosmology and in the ongoing search for dark matter. Unfortunately, however, these particles have so far proved very difficult to detect using existing high-energy colliders. Researchers worldwide have thus been trying to develop alternative technologies and methods that could enable the detection of...

News type: Research Highlights

Thu, December 3, 2020

Physicists capture the sound of a “perfect” fluid

The results should help scientists study the viscosity in neutron stars, the plasma of the early universe, and other strongly interacting fluids.

News type: CUA in the News Research Highlights

Tue, November 10, 2020

New phase transition in the standard model of quantum optics

Proposed in 1954 by Robert H. Dicke, the Dicke `spin-boson’ model is among the most successful paradigms to describe the interaction of light and matter. Modeling the coupling of an ensemble of spins or atoms to a harmonic oscillator, it is thus sometimes referred to as the “standard model of quantum optics.” As discovered in...

News type: Research Highlights