Researchers have identified a new low-temperature emission effect in nanocrystals. Related to zero-point motion, the effect could prove useful in cooling nanocrystals to lower temperatures than previously possible.

Helimagnets’ spin phase—a parameter describing the spin direction at one end of the helical pattern—could be used to store information. That prospect could be closer now that researchers have reported a new way to measure spin phase.

The cancelling spins of antiferromagnets bestow resistance to stray magnetic fields but they also make the materials hard to probe or control. Now researchers have shown that light provides a powerful new way to image antiferromagnetic domains and even to manipulate them.

Current quantum processors have profound physical limitations, mostly related to noise. New research shows that the possibility of noisy quantum computers outdoing classical computers may be restricted to a “Goldilocks zone” between too few and too many qubits.

Coaxing tiny, self-propelled particles into cohesive structures provides one route to making micromachines. Taking a step in that direction, researchers have measured and analyzed the mechanical properties of materials assembled from active particles.

Spider webs often feature zigzagging layers of tough silk whose purpose has puzzled biologists. Now physicists have a solution. The structures spread prey-induced vibrations out through the web, helping spiders to locate their trapped victims.

Two groups of researchers have independently devised a new recipe for quickly driving a generic quantum system into a desired ground state. Compared with previous recipes, it doesn't require as much detailed knowledge of the system.

Push together a small number of mutually repelling particles and they’ll adopt configurations that depend on the specifics of the interaction and the container. Researchers have now shown that a wide range of particle types can be coaxed into the same set of configurations.

In 2012 engineers discovered that nanoparticles, such as extracellular vesicles, can be trapped by acoustic fields provided they are mixed into a liquid suspension of microparticles. Now physicists have explained the puzzling phenomenon.

Researchers have demonstrated that nanofluidic memristors, based on membranes containing conical nanopores, can be organized into functional circuits. What’s more, they showed that their devices can represent brain-like properties.

Researchers have unveiled a quantum algorithm that could lead to quantum advantage. Using a time-reversal procedure, the algorithm calculated how quantum information spreads through a many-particle system. A classical supercomputer would take 13,000 times longer.

For quantum key distribution to be practical and affordable on a large scale, it needs to run on optical-fiber networks that already carry classical information. Researchers have now done that over a distance of 120 km using continuous-variable quantum key distribution.

Surface tension causes the mucus coating the tubes in our lungs to form thickened regions called collars. Researchers have now identified the conditions under which a collar remains stable as it drains downward. The results could lead to drugs for lung diseases like cystic fibrosis.

Researchers have demonstrated an algorithm that characterizes quantum systems of any size with optimal efficiency and precision without needing prior information or assumptions about the system’s structure. The new algorithm could be used to analyze arbitrary devices and phenomena.

To stay in place, flapping insects and hummingbirds constantly sense their position and adjust their flapping—without taxing their limited CPUs. Researchers have now figured out how the creatures might do it.

When a growing crystal encounters an obstacle, atoms adjust by creating defects. That’s not the case for quasicrystals. Researchers have found that the quasicrystalline lattice, which is orderly but not periodic, can accommodate obstacles without sacrificing its order.

Quantum memory is crucial for quantum communication and computing. Until now, unruly noise forced quantum memories into a trade-off between efficiency and fidelity. The trade-off is resolved, potentially enabling advances in high-speed quantum technologies.

Several spectroscopic technologies rely on optical frequency combs, which produce equally spaced lines. The combs’ speed and precision are limited by light’s inherent quantum fluctuations. Now researchers have shown that this noise can be suppressed by another quantum phenomenon: entanglement.

Researchers have designed a simple topological mechanical metamaterial. According to their analysis, the structure could prevent vibrations from spreading to delicate payloads in civil- and aerospace-engineering applications.

A quantum effect called many-body dynamical localization freezes a cloud of cold atoms in a state that stops absorbing momentum from external kicks.

If the two sheets of a graphene bilayer are aligned, they’ll stick together. But for certain twist angles, one sheet can move freely over the other. Researchers have now found that this friction-free state is remarkably robust.

Researchers have figured out how future gravitational-wave measurements could enable researchers to extract information about the internal structure of neutron stars.

Adding polymers to a liquid speeds up its flow through a pipe by reducing the frictional drag at the pipe’s inner surface. Now researchers have found that the polymers also suppress eddy formation and thus reduce the loss of flow energy to heat.

How much does a layer of graphene screen van der Waals forces emanating from the material below? Researchers now have a clear answer.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument has created a cosmic map of unprecedented scale. Its newly published findings, combined with those from other observations, suggest that dark energy changes over time.

Within every cell is a molecular motor, adenosine triphosphate synthase, which churns out energy-rich molecules for fueling the cell’s activity. By artificially cranking the motor, researchers have discovered that maintaining a fixed rotation rate minimizes energy loss.

Launching surface plasma waves (SPWs) in a metal foil used to require the patterning of a nanoscopic diffraction grating, which can be costly to make and lead to energy losses. Now researchers have demonstrated SPW generation without the need for gratings or other components.

For the XENONnT Collaboration, the most significant dark-matter-impostor (background) events come from decays of tiny amounts of radioactive radon. Using a whiskey-still-like system, the team has now reduced the amount of radon so much that its effect is comparable to that of solar neutrinos.

Parity violation in the infant universe could show up billions of years later in the distribution of galaxy rotations across the sky, researchers predict.

Researchers have discovered why contact electrification—commonly known as static electricity—is poorly understood: The charge dynamics are too fast for some previous studies to be meaningful.

Theory predicts that at large densities and moderately high temperatures a critical point exists where a clear distinction between gas-like hadrons and liquid-like quark–gluon soup vanishes. Hints of this critical point appear in new data from RHIC.

Components for continuous-variable quantum communication based on optical light have already made their debuts. Now researchers have extended those demonstrations to microwave radiation. This work could help long-distance quantum communication and scalable quantum computing.

When stressed, amorphous materials undergo plastic transformations aided by low-frequency vibrational modes. Now researchers have found the same association in an entirely separate class of materials: active matter.

In 1954, physicist Robert Dicke predicted that a group of atoms could collectively emit an intense burst of radiation. Does the effect involve quantum entanglement? New work has confirmed previous suggestions that the answer is no.

Researchers have shown that adding nanoparticles to plexiglass can increase both strength and toughness. The nanoparticles also decrease the melt viscosity, opening a path to easier manufacturing of a wide class of improved polymer materials.

The origin of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos is one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics. Now theorists have shown that these particles could have been produced in the explosive deaths of primordial black holes.

Theorists have analyzed the case of a small emitter subjected to a periodic light field. Under the right circumstances, the emitter produces negative radiated power, a counterintuitive effect that defies the traditional concept of light emission.

How do you prevent cacio e pepe sauce from congealing? A thoroughly researched answer earned its authors a prize!

Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses radar data to predict wave motion in rough seas a few minutes in advance. The problem is challenging because big nearby waves block the view and because big waves are nonlinear.

A new study combining data from two dark-matter experiments has failed to find variability on the scale of Earth’s orbital period, casting doubt on a previous experiment that attributed annual variability to the presence of dark matter.

The electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene can be tailored by adjusting the angle between the two layers. Now researchers have shown they can achieve similar results by sliding one sheet over the other without rotation.

A new experiment that flipped iceberg analogues in the lab suggests that changes in shape due to melting determine if and how an iceberg tips over. The results could help improve climate models by providing a better picture of ice dynamics in the oceans.

Thanks to spatial light modulators (SLMs), any and all of thousands of optically trapped atoms can be moved back and forth in less than a millisecond. Now Researchers have demonstrated an SLM that works in the UV range.

A new LIGO observation of merging black holes has confirmed a theorem formulated in 1971 by Stephen Hawking, which asserts that the total surface area of black hole horizons cannot decrease in time.

Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation. The process, which ends in the black hole exploding, is so slow that lightweight primordial black holes could be dying only now. Beyond-standard-model physics could hasten the process, boosting our chances of seeing a black hole explosion.

Researchers have shown how defects called nitrogen vacancy centers can generate a spin-dependent force that is strong enough to bend a cantilever. The force might offer insights into the interplay between quantum physics and classical physics.

Researchers propose that a “neutrino laser” could be built from a Bose-Einstein condensate of radioactive atoms. The scheme would generate an intense, coherent beam of neutrinos that could be a transformative tool for neutrino studies and, consequently, for fundamental physics.

Researchers have identified a physical process that’s been missing in models of how sea ice changes as it ages. Salt expelled from young ice decreases the ice's porosity over time, which, in turn, affects fluid flow, heat transfer, and other processes.

Once thought merely interesting, antiferromagnets are promising materials for applications—provided researchers can figure out how to toggle their magnetization.

Some proposed tests for the quantumness of gravity could potentially give the same results as classical Newtonian gravity. Now researchers have devised a more definitive test.