Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 22, 2021

A student's physics project could make quantum computers twice as reliable

A student's tweak in quantum computing code could double its ability to catch errors, piquing the interest of Amazon's quantum computing program. The new code could be used to build quantum computers that live up to the promises of lightning-fast processing time and the ability to solve more complex problems...

May 3, 2021

World's 1st multinode quantum network is a breakthrough for the quantum internet

Scientists have gotten one step closer to a quantum internet by creating the world's first multinode quantum network. Researchers at the QuTech research center in the Netherlands created the system, which is made up of three quantum nodes entangled by the spooky laws of quantum mechanics that govern subatomic particles....

May 26, 2021

What is quantum entanglement?

Quantum entanglement is one of the uber-bizarre phenomena seen when things get itty-bitty, or inside the quantum realm. When two or more particles link up in a certain way, no matter how far apart they are in space, their states remain linked. That means they share a common, unified quantum...

Jun 10, 2021

Physicists link 'quantum memories' in early step toward quantum internet

When the precursor to today's internet carried its first message in 1969, clunky but functional classical computers had already been around for decades. Now, physicists are designing the embryonic threads of a whole new internet for moving and manipulating a radically different type of information: the quantum bit, or qubit....

Jun 29, 2021

Largest objects ever get cooled down to their ‘quantum limit’

Physicists working at the world’s largest gravitational wave observatory have cooled their apparatus to near absolute zero in a bid to explore the so-called quantum limit, or the point at which the rules that govern subatomic particles break down. The purpose of this, according to the researchers, is not to...

Jul 14, 2021

AI designs quantum physics experiments beyond what any human has conceived

Quantum physicist Mario Krenn remembers sitting in a café in Vienna in early 2016, poring over computer printouts, trying to make sense of what MELVIN had found. MELVIN was a machine-learning algorithm Krenn had built, a kind of artificial intelligence. Its job was to mix and match the building blocks...

Sep 14, 2021

Otherworldly 'time crystal' made inside Google quantum computer could change physics forever

Researchers working in partnership with Google may have just used the tech giant's quantum computer to create a completely new phase of matter — a time crystal. With the ability to forever cycle between two states without ever losing energy, time crystals dodge one of the most important laws of...

Nov 19, 2021

Weird quantum effect that can turn matter invisible finally demonstrated

A weird quantum effect that was predicted decades ago has finally been demonstrated — if you make a cloud of gas cold and dense enough, you can make it invisible. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used lasers to squeeze and cool lithium gas to densities and temperatures...

Dec 14, 2021

Physicists create new state of matter from quantum soup of magnetically weird particles

Scientists have spotted a long hypothesized, never-seen-before state of matter in the laboratory for the first time. By firing lasers at an ultracold lattice of rubidium atoms, scientists have prodded the atoms into a messy soup of quantum uncertainty known as a quantum spin liquid. The atoms in this quantum...

Dec 15, 2021

Weird quantum objects known as Q balls could explain why we exist

One of the biggest cosmological mysteries is why the universe is made up of way more matter than antimatter, essentially why we exist. Now, a team of theoretical physicists says they know how to find the answer. All they need to do is detect the gravitational waves produced by bizarre...

Mar 1, 2022

Physicists create bizarre quantum 'domain walls' in new experiment

Scientists can now reliably create a strange quantum object called a domain wall. The discovery could lead to new quantum technology and to a better understanding of quantum particles in general. Domain walls form when groups of atoms at very low temperatures segregate into different clumps, or domains. Between those...

Mar 4, 2022

What is quantum mechanics?

Quantum mechanics is a subfield of physics that describes the behavior of particles — atoms, electrons, photons and almost everything in the molecular and submolecular realm. Developed during the first half of the 20th century, the results of quantum mechanics are often extremely strange and counterintuitive. How is quantum mechanics...

Mar 18, 2022

Quantum computing: Definition, facts & uses

Quantum computing is a new generation of technology that involves a type of computer 158 million times faster than the most sophisticated supercomputer we have in the world today. It is a device so powerful that it could do in four minutes what it would take a traditional supercomputer 10,000...

Mar 21, 2022

Weird quantum boomerang predicted 60 years ago spotted for the first time

For the first time, physicists have confirmed a weird quantum phenomenon in which tiny particles, when nudged out of place, will snap right back to where they came from. The strange behavior, called the quantum boomerang effect, had been predicted for more than 60 years. Now, a new experiment published...

Mar 21, 2022

Black holes may grow quantum 'hair'

What falls into a black hole, stays in a black hole, at least according to the laws of general relativity. But now, new research suggests that the material inside the black hole may leave a quantum imprint on the gravitational field outside of it. If true, this finding would resolve...