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Video showing the blinking quantum dots from the experiment. The researchers turned a laser field on and off to drive them far from equilibrium and modulate their blinking. | Shen, Y., Chen, C., Ma, H., et al. "Non-equilibrium entropy production and information dissipation in a non-Markovian quantum dot." Nat. Phys. (2026), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03177-8 In order to build the computers and devices of tomorrow, we have to understand how they use energy today. That’

© EPFL “The concept of time has troubled philosophers and physicists for thousands of years, and the advent of quantum mechanics has not simplified the problem,” says Professor Hugo Dil, a physicist at EPFL. “The central problem is the general role of time in quantum mechanics, and especially the timescale associated with a quantum transition.” Quantum events, like tunnelling, or an electron changing its state by absorbing a photon, happen at mind‑bending speeds. Some take on

Can a small lump of metal be in a quantum state that extends over distant locations? A research team at the University of Vienna answers this question with a resounding yes. In the journal Nature, physicists from the University of Vienna and the University of Duisburg-Essen show that even massive nanoparticles consisting of thousands of sodium atoms follow the rules of quantum mechanics. The experiment is currently one of the best tests of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic s

Quantum spins interacting collectively create unique behaviors impossible for individual particles. The Kondo effect—where localized spins interact with conduction electrons—is central to understanding these phenomena, but in real materials, additional electron behaviors obscure the pure spin interactions. For nearly 50 years, physicists sought to realize the Kondo necklace model, which isolates spin interactions by removing this complexity. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan

What if you could create new materials just by shining a light at them? To most, this sounds like science fiction or alchemy, but to physicists investigating the burgeoning field of Floquet engineering, this is the goal. With a periodic drive, like light, scientists can ‘dress up’ the electronic structure of any material, altering its fundamental properties – such as turning a simple semiconductor into a superconductor.

For about a decade, researchers have been trapping atoms with what are known as optical tweezer arrays. In essence, a single “optical tweezer” is a tightly focused laser beam that holds an individual atom at its focal point. Tweezer arrays are made up of many individual tweezers, typically generated via spatial light modulators (SLMs) or acousto-optic deflectors (AODs). Using these techniques, a team at Caltech recently achieved arrays with 6,100 trapped atoms and demonstrate