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Category: quantum physics – Page 34

Soundwaves settle debate about elusive quantum particle

It was a head-spinning discovery. In 2018, researchers in Japan claimed to find concrete evidence of an elusive particle, a Majorana fermion, in a quantum spin liquid called ruthenium trichloride. Majoranas are highly sought-after by quantum materials scientists because when a pair are localized, or trapped, they can securely encode information and form a stable qubit—the building block of quantum computing.

Some researchers heralded the finding and used it to launch their own studies, while others believed the breakthrough—which was made by measuring what’s called the thermal Hall effect—was actually a mirage caused by defects in the material sample.

Cornell researchers have now waded into the debate and their findings, published in Nature, show both camps were wrong. By measuring the movement of sound waves rather than the flow of heat, the team discovered the thermal Hall effect was caused by rotating lattice vibrations called chiral phonons.

Why does life prefer one ‘hand’ over the other? New study points to electron spin

A team of scientists has identified a new physical mechanism that could help explain one of the most persistent mysteries in science: why life consistently uses one “handed” version of its molecules and not the other. In a new study led by Prof. Yossi Paltiel of the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Hebrew University and Prof. Ron Naaman of the Weizmann Institute, researchers show that electron spin, a fundamental quantum property, can cause mirror-image molecules to behave differently during dynamic processes, even though they are otherwise identical. The work appears in Science Advances.

Many molecules essential to life come in two mirror-image forms, known as enantiomers. Chemically, these forms are nearly indistinguishable. Yet in living systems, only one version is typically used: amino acids are almost exclusively one type, while sugars follow the opposite pattern.

This phenomenon, known as homochirality, has puzzled scientists for more than a century. Existing explanations have struggled to account for why one specific version was selected globally.

Kyber ransomware gang toys with post-quantum encryption on Windows

A new Kyber ransomware operation is targeting Windows systems and VMware ESXi endpoints in recent attacks, with one variant implementing Kyber1024 post-quantum encryption.

Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 retrieved and analyzed two distinct Kyber variants in March 2026 during an incident response. Both variants were deployed on the same network, with one targeting VMware ESXi and the other focusing on Windows file servers.

“The ESXi variant is specifically built for VMware environments, with capabilities for datastore encryption, optional virtual machine termination, and defacement of management interfaces,” explains Rapid7.

Tim Maudlin | Bell’s Theorem and Beyond: Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics | The Cartesian Cafe

Tim Maudlin is a philosopher of science specializing in the foundations of physics, metaphysics, and logic. He is a professor at New York University, a member of the Foundational Questions Institute, and the founder and director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics.

#quantum #physics #philosophy #determinism.

Patreon (bonus materials + video chat):
/ timothynguyen.

In this very in-depth discussion, Tim and I probe the foundations of science through the avenues of locality and determinism as arising from the Einstein-Poldosky-Rosen (EPR) paradox and Bell’s Theorem. These issues are so intricate that even the Nobel Prize committee incorrectly described the significance of Bell’s work in their press release for the 2022 prize in physics. Viewers motivated enough to think deeply about these ideas will be rewarded with a conceptually proper understanding of the nonlocal nature of physics and its manifestation in quantum theory.

I. Introduction.
00:25 : Biography.
05:26 : Interdisciplinary work.
11:45 : Physicists working on the wrong things.
16:47 : Bell’s Theorem soft overview.
24:14: Common misunderstanding of \.

Alternating atomic layers enable rare electron pairing mechanism in new unconventional superconductor

Superconductors, materials that can conduct electricity with a resistance of zero, have proved to be highly promising for the development of quantum technologies, medical imaging devices, particle accelerators and other advanced technologies. These materials can be divided into two broad categories: conventional and unconventional superconductors.

In conventional superconductors, the formation of electron pairs (i.e., Cooper pairs) that underpin superconductivity occurs at low temperatures, prompted by interactions between electrons and lattice vibrations. Unconventional superconductors, on the other hand, typically enter the superconducting phase at higher temperatures.

In unconventional superconductors, the formation of cooper pairs is prompted by other physical phenomena beyond electron-phonon interactions, such as magnetic fluctuations, interactions between electrons or other unknown mechanisms. Electrons in most superconductors form so-called spin-singlet pairs, pairs of electrons with an opposite intrinsic angular momentum (i.e., spin), which have a total spin of zero.

Put a nanodiamond under intense pressure and it becomes flexible

Diamond is among the hardest naturally occurring substances on Earth, but if you shrink it down to the nanoscale, it is surprisingly elastic. And that could be useful for a host of applications such as quantum computing. In a paper published in the journal Physical Review X, Chongxin Shan at Zhengzhou University in China and colleagues studied diamonds as small as four nanometers across to see how they respond to pressure.

Scientists already know that nanodiamonds, which are thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, can survive being stretched or squeezed in ways that destroy a regular diamond. But nobody knew how.

So the team placed individual nanodiamonds (ranging from 4 to 13 nanometers across) inside a transmission electron microscope between two diamond indenters and compressed them. These were connected to a sensor that measured how strongly each nanodiamond resisted being squeezed while a high-resolution camera imaged diamond atoms as they moved. The researchers backed up their observations with computer simulations.

Pressure-tuned quantum spin liquid-like behavior observed in material Y-kapellasite

A quantum spin liquid is a phase of matter in which the magnetic moments in a material do not align or freeze, even at temperatures close to absolute zero (i.e., at 0 K). The experimental realization of this highly dynamic state could have important implications for the development of quantum computers and other technologies that operate leveraging quantum mechanical effects.

Previous studies have collected evidence that a quantum spin liquid phase emerges in various materials, including herbertsmithite, α-RuCl3, and EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2. However, so far none of these materials have been conclusively confirmed to host this state.

Researchers at University Paris-Saclay-CNRS, University of Stuttgart and other institutes in Europe gathered evidence of quantum spin liquid-like behavior in a recently discovered material called Y-kapellasite. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, shows that this material is a promising experimental platform for studying exotic states of matter, particularly those driven by quantum magnetism.

Spacetime does not exist

Einstein’s picture of spacetime, a four-dimensional fabric uniting space and time, breaks down at the smallest scales, where quantum mechanics takes over. For decades, physicists have searched for an account of how spacetime “emerges” from this deeper quantum reality. But philosopher Sam Baron argues that the whole idea of spacetime “emerging” from something else makes no sense. All our accounts of how things “emerge” from something more fundamental presuppose spacetime, so the idea that spacetime itself emerges is circular. His radical conclusion is that we must abandon the project of reconciling spacetime and quantum mechanics, and accept that spacetime, at least as Einstein described it, does not exist.

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