Toggle light / dark theme

University of Queensland researchers have made a breakthrough in muonic atom research, clearing the way for new nuclear physics experiments.

A team at the UQ School of Mathematics and Physics has combined theory and experiments to show that nuclear polarization does not limit studies of muonic atoms. The research was published in Physical Review Letters.

Co-author Dr. Odile Smits said the finding provides a clear path for using muonic atoms to better understand the magnetic structure of the .

Physicists in Germany have led experiments that show the inertia of electrons can form ‘tornadoes’ inside a quantum semimetal.

It’s almost impossible for electrons to sit still, and their motions can take on some bizarre forms. Case in point: an analysis of electron behavior in a quantum material called tantalum arsenide reveals vortices.

But the story gets weirder. These electrons aren’t spiraling in a physical place – they’re doing so in a quantum blur of possibility called momentum space. Rather than drawing a map of particles potential locations, or position space, momentum space describes their motion through their energy and direction.

Quantum gravity is the missing link between general relativity and quantum mechanics, the yet-to-be-discovered key to a unified theory capable of explaining both the infinitely large and the infinitely small. The solution to this puzzle might lie in the humble neutrino, an elementary particle with no electric charge and almost invisible, as it rarely interacts with matter, passing through everything on our planet without consequences.

For this very reason, neutrinos are difficult to detect. However, in rare cases, a neutrino can interact, for example, with water molecules at the bottom of the sea. The particles emitted in this interaction produce a “blue glow” known as Čerenkov radiation, detectable by instruments such as KM3NeT.

The KM3NeT (Kilometer Cube Neutrino Telescope) is a large underwater observatory designed to detect neutrinos through their interactions in water. It is divided into two detectors, one of which, ORCA (Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss), was used for this research. It is located off the coast of Toulon, France, at a depth of approximately 2,450 meters.

John Archibald Wheeler was one of the most daring thinkers in twentieth-century physics, famed for his deep insights into quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the nature of information. In his classic essay on “It from Bit,” Wheeler proposed that at the heart of reality lies a fundamentally informational thread. This means that rather than starting with “things” — material objects with an independent existence — one might instead begin with “bits,” the discrete units of information that become “real” only when observed. Within this sweeping vision, the observer plays a crucial role in bringing the universe into a definite existence, and information takes center stage in shaping the very character of physical phenomena.

In broad strokes, Wheeler’s idea of “It from Bit” emerges from the curious interplay between the quantum world and classical objects. At the core of quantum mechanics is the principle that measuring or observing something at the microscopic scale affects its state. According to the standard interpretation, a system in a so-called superposition will “collapse” into a particular outcome when measured. Wheeler’s bold claim was that this phenomenon illuminates a more general fact: that information, not matter, might be the building block of reality. Thus, any physical “it” — an electron, a planet, or even the entire cosmos — ultimately grows from answers to yes/no questions (bits), shaped by acts of measurement. Put more simply, Wheeler wanted us to see the world as not built out of little billiard-ball-like atoms existing in some absolute manner, but out of meaningful acts of observation that yield discrete bits of data.

Behind this elegant concept lies a deep philosophical backdrop. Wheeler urged us to ponder how the universe came to be what it is, and why. If we trace everything back to an early cosmos, we arrive at a place where only quantum possibilities existed — no fixed table of facts and objects. Gradually, so his argument goes, as the universe evolved and observers emerged, questions got asked, measurements were made, bits of information accumulated, and reality “crystallized.” This leap from quantum weirdness to classical solidity thus becomes a grand puzzle about information. Rather than letting classical physics occupy center stage from the beginning, Wheeler reversed the script: quantum possibilities plus acts of observation define and generate the classical world we experience. In this sense, the cosmic stage is incomplete without the audience, and reality only stabilizes by virtue of these repeated question-and-answer interactions.

Researchers have characterized the temperature-induced frequency shifts of a thorium-229 nuclear transition—an important step in establishing thorium clocks as next-generation frequency standards.

Atomic clocks are at the core of many scientific and technological applications, including spectroscopy, radioastronomy, and global navigation satellite systems. Today’s most precise devices—based on electronic transitions in atoms—would gain or lose less than 1 second over the age of the Universe. An even more accurate timekeeping approach has recently emerged, based on a clock ticking at the frequency of a nuclear transition of the isotope thorium-229 (229 Th) [1, 2]. Now a collaboration between the teams of Jun Ye of JILA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the University of Colorado Boulder and of Thorsten Schumm of the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology has characterized one of the main sources of the systematic uncertainties that might spoil a clock’s accuracy: temperature-induced shifts of the clock transition frequency [3].

Scientists have unlocked a new way to control ionization, the process where atoms lose electrons, using specially designed light beams

By leveraging optical vortex beams, light that carries angular momentum, they can precisely dictate how electrons break free from atoms. This discovery could reshape imaging technology, enhance particle acceleration, and open doors to advancements in quantum computing.

Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.

Michaela Leung: “Oxygen is currently difficult or impossible to detect on an Earth-like planet. However, methyl halides on Hycean worlds offer a unique opportunity for detection with existing technology.”


What can methyl halides, which are gases that consist of one carbon and three hydrogen atoms while being attached to a halogen atom, help scientists identify life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how methyl halides on exoplanets known as “Hycean” worlds could indicate the presence of life as we know it, or even as we don’t know it. Hycean exoplanets possess liquid water oceans with a hydrogen atmosphere above them, potentially enabling appropriate surface temperatures and pressures for life to exist.

For the study, the researchers discussed the potential for using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe large exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars, which are smaller and cooler than our Sun. The researchers noted that recent observations of K2-18 b and TOI-270 d, which are designated as Super-Earth and Neptune-like exoplanets, respectively, while each orbiting red dwarf stars. Additionally, such exoplanets could be ideal targets for JWST to identify methyl halides in their atmospheres. The reason Hycean exoplanets are considered ideal targets is due to the difficulty of observing Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting brighter stars.

Dark matter could be an entire dark sector of the universe, with its own particles and forces.

By Kathryn Zurek edited by Clara Moskowitz

Have you ever stood by the sea and been overwhelmed by its vastness, by how quickly it could roll in and swallow you? Evidence suggests that we are suspended in a cosmic sea of dark matter, a mysterious substance that shapes galaxies and large structures in the universe but is transparent to photons, the carriers of the electromagnetic force. Our galactic home, the Milky Way, is submerged in dark matter, but this hidden body but does not devour us, because its forces cannot touch the regular matter we’re made of.