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Harnessing magnons for quantum information processing

Researchers have determined how to use magnons—collective vibrations of the magnetic spins of atoms—for next-generation information technologies, including quantum technologies with magnetic systems.

From the computer hard drives that store our data to the motors and engines that drive power plants, magnetism is central to many transformative technologies. Magnetic materials are expected to play an even larger role in new technologies on the horizon: the transmission and processing of quantum information and the development of quantum computers.

New research led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory developed an approach to control the collective magnetic properties of atoms in real time and potentially deploy them for next-generation information technologies. This discovery could aid in developing future quantum computers, which can perform tasks that would be impossible using today’s computers, as well as “on chip” technologies—with magnetic systems embedded on semiconductor chips, or “on chip.”

New class of ‘X-type’ antiferromagnets enables sublattice-selective spin transport

A research team led by Prof. Shao Dingfu from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has predicted a new class of antiferromagnetic materials with unique cross-chain structures, termed “X-type antiferromagnets.” These materials exhibit sublattice-selective spin transport and unconventional magnetic dynamics, offering new possibilities for next-generation spintronic devices.

Published in Newton, this work challenges conventional views of collective atomic behavior in solids and promises transformative applications in next-generation electronics.

Antiferromagnets (AFMs) are valued for their zero net magnetization and ultrafast dynamics, making them attractive for spintronics. However, their practical application has been hindered by mutual spin cancellation between magnetic sublattices, which limits spin current control. The newly proposed X-type AFMs, with their distinctive “X”-shaped intersecting chain geometry, overcome this limitation.

Q&A: Physics and the value of scientific disappointment

Sharing disappointing results with a world of researchers working to find what they hope will be the “discovery of the century” isn’t an easy task, but that is what Penn State theoretical physicist Zoltan Fodor and his international research group did five years ago with their extensive calculation of the strength of the magnetic field around the muon —a sub-atomic particle similar to, but heavier than, an electron. At the time, their finding was the first to close the gap between theory and experimental measurements, bringing it in line with the Standard Model, the well-tested physics theory that has guided particle physics for decades.

Earlier on the same day, after almost 20 years, a new experimental result was also published showing a strong discrepancy between the theory and the experiment. This was interpreted by most physicists as a sign of new physics, and many physicists shared some skepticism of Fodor’s results and hoped that with more research, the other groups’ result would ring true.

Why? Twenty-four years ago, in an experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, physicists detected what seemed to be a discrepancy between measurements of the muon’s “”—the strength of its magnetic field—and of what that measurement should be, raising the tantalizing possibility of undiscovered physical particles or forces. They reported that the muon was more magnetic than was predicted by the Standard Model.

New study visualizes platinum doping on ultrathin 2D material with atomic precision

A popular 2D active material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), just got a platinum upgrade at an atomic level. A study led by researchers from the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology embedded individual platinum (Pt) atoms onto an ultrathin MoS2 monolayer and, for the first time, pinpointed their exact positions within the lattice with atomic precision.

The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, achieved this feat with an innovative approach that integrates targeted defect creation in the MoS2 monolayer, controlled platinum deposition, and a high-contrast computational microscopic imaging technique—ptychography.

The researchers believe that this new strategy for ultra-precise doping and mapping offers new pathways for understanding and engineering atomic-scale features in 2D systems.

Here’s what happens when quark-gluon plasma ‘splashes’ during the most energetic particle collisions

New data from particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an “atom smasher” at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, reveals how the primordial soup generated in the most energetic particle collisions “splashes” sideways when it is hit by a jet of energetic particles.

The evidence comes from the first measurement at RHIC of reconstructed produced in collisions back-to-back with photons, particles of light. Scientists have long anticipated using measurements of photon-correlated jets to study the matter generated in these collisions. The findings, described in two papers just published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review C, offer fresh insight into this primordial soup, which is known as a (QGP)—and raise new questions about its extraordinary properties.

“Measuring reconstructed jets gives us unique views of how the strongly interacting plasma responds as the jets move through it,” said Peter Jacobs, a physicist at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and member of RHIC’s STAR Collaboration, which published these results. “Instead of focusing on what happens to the jet, we want to turn it around and see what the jet can tell us about the QGP.”

Quantum navigation device uses atoms to measure acceleration in 3D

In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists didn’t think was possible.

The device, a new type of atom “interferometer,” could one day help people navigate submarines, spacecraft, cars and other vehicles more precisely.

“Traditional atom interferometers can only measure acceleration in a single dimension, but we live within a three-dimensional world,” said Kendall Mehling, a co-author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Physics at CU Boulder. “To know where I’m going, and to know where I’ve been, I need to track my acceleration in all three dimensions.”

Charge-parity symmetry breaking revealed in Rydberg atom multibody systems

A research team has observed multibody interaction-induced EPs and hysteresis trajectories in cold Rydberg atomic gases. They revealed the phenomenon of charge-conjugation parity (CP) symmetry breaking in non-Hermitian multibody physics.

The team was led by Prof. Guo Guangcan, Prof. Shi Baosen and Prof. Ding Dongsheng from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and their study was published in Nature Communications.

CP-symmetry is an important discrete symmetry in . When certain physical processes exhibit asymmetry under CP transformation, it is referred to as the breaking of CP-symmetry, such as in the decay of neutral K mesons (K⁰) and B meson decay.

Physicists prove long-held theory light can be made from nothingness of vacuum

Scientists have demonstrated after decades of theorising how light interacts with vacuum, recreating a bizarre phenomenon predicted by quantum physics.

Oxford University physicists ran simulations to test how intense laser beams alter vacuum, a state once thought to be empty but predicted by quantum physics to be full of fleeting, temporary particle pairs.

Classical physics predicts that light beams pass through each other undisturbed. But quantum mechanics holds that even what we know as vacuum is always brimming with fleeting particles, which pop in and out of existence, causing light to be scattered.

Deciphering the behavior of heavy particles in the hottest matter in the universe

An international team of scientists has published a new report that moves toward a better understanding of the behavior of some of the heaviest particles in the universe under extreme conditions, which are similar to those just after the Big Bang.

The review article, published in the journal Physics Reports, is authored by physicists Juan M. Torres-Rincón, from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), Santosh K. Das, from the Indian Institute of Technology Goa (India), and Ralf Rapp, from Texas A&M University (United States).

The authors have published a comprehensive review that explores how particles containing (known as charm and bottom hadrons) interact in a hot, dense environment called hadronic matter. This environment is created in the last phase of high-energy collisions of atomic nuclei, such as those taking place at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).