Quantum

Useful quantum networks are hobbled by the problem of decoherence from environmental "noise." But a new breakthrough could change that.

After netting the world's highest-paying science award, preeminent theoretical physicist Gerard 't Hooft reflects on his legacy and the future of physics

With properties of a superfluid but with a crystalline structure, supersolids have previously only been observed in ultracold condensates—until now.

Microsoft claims that building its first quantum-computing chip required that it create a new state of matter, which it is referring to as a topological state.

Physicists have created a 3D shape called the cosmohedron, which can be used to reconstruct the quantum wavefunction of the universe - and potentially do away with the idea of space-time as the underlying fabric of the universe

New research suggests holographic dark energy could stop the universe's expansion.

The particle moves at the speed of light, making it almost impossible to detect. But some scientists are trying to change that.

A recent study has made it possible to have a deeper understanding of the basic particles of antimatter by cooling them down, leading to improved control and observation of their properties.

In dim light a cat sees much better than you do, as do dogs and nocturnal animals. That's because the structure of a cat's eye has a tapetum lucidum, a mirror-like layer immediately behind the retina. Light entering the eye that is not focused by the lens onto the retina is reflected off the tapetum lucidum, where the retina gets another chance to receive the light, process it, and send impulses to the optic nerve.

Dark matter is a ghostly substance that astronomers have failed to detect for decades, yet which we know has an enormous influence on normal matter in the universe, such as stars and galaxies. Through the massive gravitational pull it exerts on galaxies, it spins them up, gives them an extra push along their orbits, or even rips them apart.

From Peter Pan to Battlestar Galactica, one of the most famous notions in all of fiction is the idea of cyclic repetition: all of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. But does that…

A groundbreaking experiment created a field so strong, it could dwarf a neutron star's grip.

Although many people struggle to name even one living scientist, practically everyone around the world knows who Einstein was. Perhaps the most famous person of the 20th century, Einstein…

A single-photon detector (SPD) is sensitive to incidence of individual quanta of light and has many applications in photonics, such as fluorescence measurements, laser ranging, optical time-domain reflectometer, and quantum optics experiments.

An international collaboration, led by Macquarie University scientists, has introduced a new quantum optics technique that can provide unprecedented access to the fundamental properties of light-matter interactions in semiconductors.

The cosmic story that gave rise to us is a story rife with creation and destruction. At the start of the hot Big Bang, energetic particles, antiparticles, and quanta of radiation were created…

A quantum state of matter comprising molecules with opposite charges at each end has been made for the first time. It could help probe our understanding of the quantum properties of exotic materials

Future batteries could charge up by relying on a quantum effect known as indefinite causal order, whereby the laws of cause and effect are scrambled and power can move through the system quicker.

The story of our cosmic history is one of an expanding and cooling Universe. As we progressed from a hot, dense, uniform state to a cold, sparse, clumpy one, a number of momentous events happened…

The electron and phonon are two fundamental particles (quasi-particles) of condensed matter and their interplay in single crystals can create many interesting physical phenomena, such as polaritons, charge density waves and up-conversion fluorescence. In laser crystal, the electronic transitions of an active ion can be manipulated by its surrounding lattice vibrations, whereby the emitting photon energy gradually…