NEWSROOM

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

In the future, quantum computers are anticipated to solve problems once thought unsolvable, from predicting the course of chemical reactions to producing highly reliable weather forecasts. For now, however, they remain extremely sensitive to environmental disturbances and prone to information loss. A new study from the lab of Dr. Yuval Ronen at the Weizmann Institute of Science, published today in Nature, presents fresh evidence for the existence of non-Abelian anyons – exoti

Surprising signals can arise from the coupling of light particles.

When two black holes merge or two neutron stars collide, gravitational waves can be generated. They spread at the speed of light and cause tiny distortions in space-time. Albert Einstein predicted their existence, and the first direct experimental observation dates from 2015. Now, Prof. Ralf Schützhold, theoretical physicist at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), is going one step further. He has conceived an experiment through which gravitational waves can not o

It is something like the “Holy Grail” of physics: unifying particle physics and gravitation. The world of tiny particles is described extremely well by quantum theory, while the world of gravitation is captured by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But combining the two has not yet worked – the two leading theories of theoretical physics still do not quite fit together. There are many ideas for such a unification – with names like string theory, loop quantum gravity, ca

Princeton researchers have developed a diamond-based quantum sensor that reveals rich new information about magnetic phenomena at this minute scale. The technique uncovers fluctuations that are beyond the reach of existing instruments and provides key insight into materials such as graphene and superconductors. Superconductors have enabled today’s most advanced medical imaging tools and form the basis of hoped-for technologies like lossless powerlines and levitating trains. T