In a swap gate, neighbouring qubit states (blue and beige) are exchanged. The qubits are made of cold atoms trapped inside an artificial crystal created by laser light. (Image: Mika Blackmore-Esslinger / ETH Zurich) Quantum bits, or qubits, which are required for building quantum computers, come in different kinds. In recent years, many research institutes and companies have focused on superconducting circuits and trapped ions. However, neutral atoms trapped with laser light

An AI-generated illustration depciting the Kondo effect. Conducting electrons in a metal are shown interacting with the spin of an embedded magnetic atom impurity. Credit: AI-generated artwork by Linqing Peng 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 sim

Atomic nuclei colliding at high energy causing scattering (Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University) Researchers perform a full Glauber-theory calculation that overcomes long-standing computational challenges 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 wit

Electrons are indivisible, yet in a strong magnetic field they can move as if they carried only a fraction of their charge. Mitali Banerjee’s group at EPFL has built a bilayer-graphene antidot—a small electrically defined energy hill—that measures those fractions directly. Quasiparticles circle the hill and tunnel at regular intervals as the magnetic field or gate voltage is swept. The spacing of the resulting conductance oscillations gives the charge. The team recorded e/3 a

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have demonstrated skin mode tunability in photonic Floquet lattices. A potential applied at one boundary isolates a skin mode at the opposite boundary, turning it into a self-healing state that recovers its profile after disturbance. The approach enables control of non-Hermitian wave dynamics for mode routing and optical switching. Published in PhotoniX.

Researchers at MPSD and the University of Oxford have discovered that mechanical strain induces chirality in non-chiral crystals, a phenomenon they term the piezochiral effect. Tensile or compressive strain creates left- or right-handed structures that can be reversed on demand. The work establishes a general route to control chirality and is accompanied by an open materials database. Published in Nature.

Researchers at Fudan University have mapped the extreme fluid acceleration of quark–gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions using transport model simulations. Peak proper accelerations reach several hundred MeV, concentrated at the fireball edge. Acceleration may act as a thermodynamic control parameter influencing QCD phase structure and particle spin polarization. Published in Nuclear Science and Techniques.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo fabricated optical structures based on the “Smith hat,” the aperiodic monotile that solves the Einstein problem. Laser illumination of these nanostructures produced previously unobserved chiral diffraction patterns, revealing how aperiodicity and lack of mirror symmetry can twist light. The results open new directions for quasiperiodic optical devices. Published in Nature Communications.

JGU researcher Jairo Sinova and former Mainz-based scientist Libor Šmejkal receive the 2026 EPS Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society together with Tomas Jungwirth

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute examined around 25 billion ultracold neutrons and found no evidence of oscillation into mirror neutrons. The high-precision experiment largely rules out the hypothesis that neutrons disappear into a mirror world, a theoretical candidate for dark matter. The results set a new standard for such searches. Published in Physical Review Letters.

An international research team has observed Jahn-Teller polarons, unique quasiparticles, in cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) crystals triggered by precisely tailored laser pulses. These polarons emerge through ultrafast electron transfer and local lattice distortions, dramatically influencing the material’s structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. Using advanced pump probe spectroscopy and theoretical modeling led by physicists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Ac

Researchers from Tsinghua University and Nanyang Technological University have achieved a major breakthrough in optical skyrmions — tiny topological “knots” of light that are highly promising for future high-capacity and secure data transmission.