Lifeboat Foundation

The standard model of fundamental particles and interactions has now been in place for about a half-century. It has successfully passed experimental test after experimental test at particle accelerators. However, many of the model’s features are poorly understood, and it is now clear that standard-model particles only compose about 5% of the observed energy density of the Universe. This situation naturally encourages researchers to look for new particles and interactions that fall outside this model. One way to perform this search is to prepare a gas of polarized atoms and to look for changes in this polarization that might come from new physics. Haowen Su from the University of Science and Technology of China and colleagues have used two separated samples of polarized xenon gas to probe spin-dependent interactions [1] (Fig. 1). The results place constraints on axions—a candidate for dark matter—in a theoretically favored mass range called the axion window.

Searches for new spin-dependent interactions have exploded over the past decade. Special relativity and quantum mechanics tightly constrain the mathematical form for such interactions, with the main adjustable parameters being the coupling strength and the spatial range. Since the form of these interactions is generic across many models, it is possible to conduct experimental searches for new interaction signatures, even in the absence of a specific theory for beyond-standard-model physics.

Imperial researchers have proposed a new way to directly probe quantum entanglement, the effect that led to the puzzling concept of “spooky action at a distance,” where previously grouped particles’ quantum states cannot be described independently of each other. The research has been accepted for publication in Physical Review X.

Radio frequency (RF) and microwave power measurements are widely used to support applications across space, defense, and communication. These precise measurements enable engineers to accurately characterize waveforms, components, circuits, and systems.

Science can be difficult to explain to the public. In fact, any subfield of science can be difficult to explain to another scientist who studies in a different area. Explaining a theoretical science concept to high school students requires a new way of thinking altogether.

Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team led by Innsbruck physicist Francesca Ferlaino has now demonstrated a missing hallmark of superfluidity, namely the existence of quantized vortices as a system’s response to rotation. They have observed tiny quantum vortices in the supersolid, which also behave differently than previously assumed.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has, for the first time in the world, generated and controlled skyrmions at room temperature in two-dimensional (2D) materials. This achievement reduces power consumption compared to traditional three-dimensional (3D) systems while maximizing quantum effects, making it a core technology for the development of room-temperature quantum computers and AI semiconductors.

Using muon spin rotation at the Swiss Muon Source SmS, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have discovered that a quantum phenomenon known as time-reversal symmetry breaking occurs at the surface of the Kagome superconductor RbV3Sb5 at temperatures as high as 175 K. This sets a new record for the temperature at which time-reversal symmetry breaking is observed among Kagome systems.

Scientists on Wednesday said that they have successfully stirred a strange matter called a “supersolid” – which is both rigid and fluid – for the first time, providing direct proof of the dual nature of this quantum oddity.

In everyday life, there are four states of matter – solid, liquid, gas, and the rarer plasma.

But physicists have long been investigating what are known as “exotic” states of matter, which are created at incredibly high energy levels or temperatures so cold they approach absolute zero (−273.15 degrees Celsius or-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit).

Under the right circumstances, electrons can actually “freeze” into a bizarre solid form. Now, physicists at Berkeley Lab have created and taken the first ever direct images of this structure.

At low temperatures and densities, groups of electrons can crystallize into a solid form known as a Wigner crystal, named after theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner who first predicted their existence in the 1930s. It was only a few years ago that scientists first directly detected and imaged them.

Now, a team has for the first time imaged a new quantum phase of electrons – a related structure called a Wigner molecular crystal. Basically, it’s the same solid electron phase, except that groups of electrons settle in each place on a lattice instead of single electrons.