20+ hour, 8+ min ago   (1157+ words) Quantum computers face a race against time every time they perform a calculation. Their quantum states are so fragile that even tiny disturbances from electrical noise, heating, radiation or imperfect hardware can push a computation away from its intended result....

2+ day, 20+ hour ago   (828+ words) Electronic voting promises convenience, speed and easier participation, but it carries a fundamental problem: someone or something normally has to be trusted with the ballots. Two independent physics experiments have now demonstrated another possibility. Instead of trusting a central server…...

6+ day, 24+ min ago   (1235+ words) A new framework shows how the arrow of time can emerge from interacting systems, with pairs of retinal neurons providing most irreversibility. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / AI-Generated / CC BY-SA 4.0) A shattered glass can fall apart, but its pieces do not spontaneously leap…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (741+ words) A quantum computer can do more than calculate an answer. It can also become a laboratory for reading the behavior of quantum systems that are difficult to probe with conventional methods. The work was led on the theoretical side by…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (1183+ words) A new interferometer directly measured the quantum phase of free fall, matching a prediction tied to Einstein’s equivalence principle. (CREDIT: Or Dobkowski / AI-enhanced) A cloud of ultracold atoms has provided a new experimental connection between two theories that physicists still…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (899+ words) Information fills hard drives, crosses computer networks and describes the properties of physical systems. One physicist argues it may also have something far more surprising: measurable mass. Dr. Melvin Vopson of the University of Portsmouth has proposed an experiment designed…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (745+ words) A compact magnetic platform creates paired radio-frequency waves without bulky cryogenic equipment. (CREDIT: AI-generated image / The Brighter Side of News) Two radio-frequency signals can look random on their own but reveal order when matched together. MIT researchers have now produced…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (819+ words) Quantum signals have now survived a rough ride through fiber-optic cable strung above Maryland streets. The achievement marks a serious step toward quantum networks that could someday link computers, sensors and communication systems in powerful new ways. The study shows…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (690+ words) Helium X-ray high-harmonic generation reaches 280 eV as correlated electrons appear to break the conventional energy cutoff. (CREDIT: U Wien) The result challenges the standard picture of high-order harmonic generation, or HHG, a process that converts laser light into coherent extreme-ultraviolet…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (959+ words) An atom in a cavity between two mirrors (left) acts as a heat engine in a driven-dissipative quantum system in which energy is continuously added and lost to the environment. The fluctuations in the escaping light (centre) are reduced (right)…...