New Atlas

Physics Audio available

Schrödinger's Art: Spooky physics paints microscopic artworks on "quantum canvas"

Michael Irving May 20, 2019

Researchers have produced what may very well be the first pieces of art made using non-classical matter. The team has reproduced classic artworks like the Mona Lisa and Starry Night on a “quantum canvas” as small as a human hair, by projecting light onto Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs).

The Mona Lisa, imaged on a "quantum canvas" that's only as wide as a human hair

Physics

Physicists measure quantum tunneling time to be near-instantaneous

Michael Irving March 18, 2019

If you throw a particle at a wall, there’s a chance that it will suddenly appear on the other side. This is thanks to a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling, and now a team of physicists has measured just how long that process takes.

Physicists have measured how long it takes particles to quantum tunnel through barriers, and found it ...

Quantum Computing Audio available

Physicists measure how long graphene qubits hover in "alive/dead" superposition

Michael Irving January 1, 2019

Practical quantum computers may be another step closer to reality, thanks again to graphene. The bits of information in quantum computers (qubits) can exist in two states at once, and now researchers have managed to record just how long that superposition state can last in a qubit made of graphene.

Researchers have managed to record how long graphene "qubits" can stay in a superposition state

Physics

Atomic tractor beam traps atoms for quantum memory

Michael Irving October 30, 2018

The tractor beam is a long-time staple of sci-fi, but now Australian researchers have created a real-world version. While it won’t exactly be capturing enemy spaceships anytime soon, the device can use light to pull in and trap atoms, which may be handy for quantum communications or memory systems.

Lead researcher Philip Light with the chamber in which the tractor beams were created

Physics Audio available

Quasars may prove quantum entanglement – or a 12 billion-year-old conspiracy

Michael Irving August 21, 2018

Quantum entanglement is an eerie concept that Einstein himself had trouble accepting, and yet it’s been experimentally demonstrated. To find out whether there are other variables, a new experiment provides the strongest evidence so far of quantum entanglement or a 12-billion year “conspiracy."

Light from distant quasars has been used as a cosmic "coin flip" to help provide the ...

Physics

Fastest-spinning manmade object clocks 60 billion rpm

Michael Irving July 22, 2018

The fastest-spinning manmade object has been created in a lab at Purdue University. This microscopic rotor is made up of two silica nanoparticles stuck together to form a "dumbbell," and by hitting it with laser light the team has sent it spinning at a blistering 60 billion rpm.

Using a high-powered laser, researchers at Purdue University have set a microscopic "dumbbell" spinning at 60 ...

Physics

Entanglement "on demand" sets the stage for quantum internet

Michael Irving June 13, 2018

In a quantum network, information is passed instantly between nodes that have been entangled, and are unhackable since any unauthorized observation of the data will scramble it. Delft scientists have now overcome a hurdle to that technology, by generating quantum links faster than they deteriorate.

Researchers at TU Delft have developed a new technique for generating quantum entanglement links on demand, ...

Physics

Stephen Hawking's final paper bursts the multiverse bubble with a Holographic Universe theory

Michael Irving May 2, 2018

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking passed away earlier this year, but his legacy to science will live on. His final theory on the origin of the universe has now been published, and it offers an interesting departure from earlier ideas about the nature of the “multiverse.”

A new theory on the origin of the universe, put forward in the late Stephen Hawking's ...

Physics

Scientists drum up quantum entanglement at the macro scale

Michael Irving April 26, 2018

Quantum entanglement is the idea that two distant atoms can become so entwined that changes to one can instantly affect the other. Now scientists have managed to demonstrate it on a much larger scale, which is beginning to cross over into our everyday world.

An illustration of two drumheads, measuring 15 microns wide, which are now the largest objects to ...

Physics

Photons entangled to make new form of light

Michael Irving February 15, 2018

Photons, the elementary particles that make up light, are fast, weightless and don't interact with each other. But in new experiments, physicists have now created a new form of light, demonstrating that groups of photons can be made to interact with each other, slow down and gain mass.

An MIT and Harvard team have developed a way to make photons of light interact with ...