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Sketch of the quantum Maxwell demon experiment: (A) after preparation (step 1) in a thermal or quantum state by a pulse at frequency fs, the system S (superconducting qubit) state is recorded (step 2) into the demon’s quantum memory D (microwave cavity); a pulse incoming toward port a at fD populates the cavity mode with a state ραin only if the qubit is in the ground state |g>s; this information is used to extract work W (step 3) which charges a battery B (a microwave pulse at frequency fs on port b) with one extra photon; importantly, the system emits this photon only when the demon’s cavity is empty; the work is determined by amplifying and measuring the average output power at fs on bout; the memory reset (step 4) is performed by cavity relaxation. (B) when the system starts in a quantum superposition of |g>s and |e>s, the demon and system are entangled after step 2. Image credit: Cottet et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704827114.

Physicists See Maxwell’s Demon at Work

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research led by Paris Diderot University offers a view into the inner workings of the ‘mind’ of Maxwell’s demon, a famous thought experiment...

$Gravitational waves observed by Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) twin detectors were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. Image credit: T. Pyle / LIGO.$

Signatures of Universe’s Extra Dimensions Could Be Hiding in Gravitational Waves

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (arXiv.org preprint), German physicists investigate the effects due to Universe’s...

A rendering of how changes in an electron’s motion (bottom view) alter the scattering of light (top view), as measured in a new experiment that scattered more than 500 photons of light from a single electron. Image credit: Extreme Light Laboratory, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ultra-High Intensity Laser Sparks New Behavior in Light

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

By focusing laser light to brightness one billion times greater than the surface of the Sun, a team of physicists from the United States and China has...

An artist’s impression of the two forms of ultra-viscous liquid water with different density; on the background is depicted the X-ray speckle pattern taken from actual data of high-density amorphous ice, which is produced by pressurizing water at very low temperatures. Image credit: Mattias Karlén.

Physicists Discover Two Low-Temperature Forms of Liquid Water

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

A Stockholm University-led team of physicists has discovered two low-temperature phases of liquid water with large differences in structure and density. An...

Yin et al realized the satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs over 747 miles. Image credit: U.S. Army.

World’s First Quantum-Enabled Satellite Sets Distance Record for Quantum Entanglement

Jun 16, 2017 by News Staff

Chinese researchers have successfully demonstrated satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs to two locations separated by 747.5 miles (1,203...

Schematic of the organic microcavity used to observe superfluid flow. Image credit: Polytechnique Montreal.

Superfluid Motion of Light Observed at Room Temperature

Jun 9, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has experimentally demonstrated that superfluid motion of light is possible under ambient conditions. Until now, this...

LIGO’s gravitational wave detections. Image credit: LIGO Scientific Collaboration / ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves for Third Time

Jun 2, 2017 by News Staff

Scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration have made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric...

In this illustration, an ultra-intense X-ray laser pulse from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source knocks so many electrons out of a molecule’s iodine atom (right) that the iodine starts pulling in electrons from the rest of the molecule (lower left), like an electromagnetic version of a black hole. Many of the stolen electrons are also knocked out by the laser pulse; then the molecule explodes. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Researchers Create Molecular Version of Black Hole

Jun 2, 2017 by News Staff

When a team of physicists focused the full intensity of SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument — the world’s...

A simulated black hole of 10 solar masses as seen from a distance of 370 miles. Image credit: Ute Kraus, Universität Hildesheim / Axel Mellinger / CC BY-SA 2.5.

Naked Singularities Can Form in ‘Saddle-Shaped’ Universe, Physicists Say

May 23, 2017 by News Staff

A team of theoretical physicists at the University of Cambridge, UK, has used computer simulations to predict the existence of a so-called naked singularity,...

This is an artistic view of the decay of a quantum-mechanical monopole into a Dirac monopole. Image credit: Heikka Valja.

Physicists Experimentally Observe Decay of Quantum Monopole

May 18, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of physicists from Finland and the United States has made the first experimental observations of the dynamics of isolated monopoles...

Hubble view of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory / H. Ford, JHU.

Space-Time is Constantly Moving, Physicists Say

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Canada, has tackled the question ‘what causes...

Quantitative measurements of the C═O***H–C bond: (A) schematic drawing of the hydrogen bonding measurement on trifluorantheno[3.3.3]propellane with a CO-functionalized tip; right shows the AFM image. Scale bar - 300 pm; (B) 2D frequency shift map; (C) calculated force and (D) potentials. Inset shows the same area with a wider contrast. The z origin was set at the position of the hydrogen atom. Measurement parameters: A = 60 pm and V = 0 mV. Image credit: Kawai et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1603258.

Physicists Directly Observe Hydrogen Bonds in Single Molecule

May 15, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, physicists have succeeded in observing and studying in detail the hydrogen bonds in a single molecule. Quantitative measurements of...

Photo of the centimeter-sized silicon chip, which has two parallel superconducting oscillators and the quantum-circuit refrigerators connected to them. Image credit: Kuan Yen Tan / Aalto University.

Researchers Invent Nanoscale ‘Refrigerator’ for Quantum Computers

May 9, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University in Finland has invented a quantum-circuit refrigerator, which can reduce...

Researchers Manipulate Liquids Using Only Visible Light

Apr 25, 2017 by News Staff

A novel system developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) could make it possible to control the way a liquid moves over...

Physicists Create Fluid with ‘Negative Mass’

Apr 18, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of physicists from the United States, Japan, and China has created a fluid with negative mass, which is exactly what it sounds like....

In this illustration, one photon (purple) carries a million times the energy of another (yellow). Image credit: NASA / Sonoma State University / Aurore Simonnet.

Research Challenges Our Understanding of Quantum Theory

Mar 29, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, has discovered a new mechanism involved in the generation of paired photons. In this...

Entanglement across a spherical boundary: a container of superfluid helium-4 is bipartitioned into a sphere of helium atoms A (green) and its complement A- (blue). The entanglement between A and A- is dominated by an area law, scaling with area of the bounding surface. Image credit: C.M. Herdman et al, doi: 10.1038/nphys4075.

Sphere of Superfluid Helium Behaves Like Black Hole, Physicists Say

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the Universities of Vermont and Waterloo has discovered that a sphere of cold helium atoms follows a bizarre law of physics —...

An experiment proposed by Dr. Donald Chang aims at resolving divergence between special relativity and standard model of cosmology. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, NRC Herzberg, DAO / H. Ford, JHU.

Is There a Resting Frame in Universe?

Mar 23, 2017 by News Staff

Physics is sometimes closer to philosophy when it comes to understanding the Universe. Dr. Donald Chang, a physicist at the Hong Kong University of Science...

The magnetism of the holmium atom can be changed or read by flowing current through the STM tip. Image credit: Fabian D. Natterer et al.

Researchers Make Single-Atom Memory from Holmium

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

According to a research team led by scientists from IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, and the Institute of Basic Science in Seoul, South...