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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

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.