Article archives

Parity-time symmetry for faster and stronger optical signal processing

Parity-time symmetry for faster and stronger optical signal processing

Condensed matterQuantum physics

By César Tomé

In the era of big data, signal processing faces significant challenges in terms of capacity and energy consumption due to the torrent of data to process. With over 90% of data transmitted through light, optical signal processing may offer unprecedented speed and energy efficiency compared to its electronic counterparts, as it operates without the need […]

<i>A. sudhausi</i>, the superworm

A. sudhausi, the superworm

Biology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Ramón Muñoz-Chápuli has been Professor of Animal Biology in the University of Málaga until his retirement. He has investigated for forty years in the fields of developmental biology and animal evolution. Nematode worms may not be very popular, but what we know about their abundance is astonishing. After arthropods, chordates, and molluscs, they constitute […]

MI weekly selection #559

MI weekly selection #559

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Underground blobs may have triggered plate tectonics Giant blobs deep underground, left by Earth’s collision with the planet Theia 4.5 billion years ago, led to Earth’s first subduction about 200 million years later, which in turn triggered surface breaks that became tectonic-plate borders, according to computer modeling. Seismologists and geologists used existing data on the […]

How to calculate entanglement entropy using a Monte Carlo method

How to calculate entanglement entropy using a Monte Carlo method

DIPC Quantum Systems

By DIPC

Entanglement entropy is a measure of the degree of quantum entanglement between two subsystems constituting a two-part composite quantum system. But entanglement entropy also quantifies the information shared between a subsystem and its environment in a quantum many-body wavefunction. Interestingly, the finite-size scaling form of entanglement entropy has contributions that depend uniquely on universal physical […]

MI weekly selection #558

MI weekly selection #558

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

High level of invisible auroras on Mars due to solar cycle The sun’s solar maximum, which happens once in its approximately 11-year cycle, has caused unprecedented global auroras on Mars, according to data from NASA. The proton auroras on Mars aren’t visible to the naked eye, but NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft have […]

Vortices and skyrmions in water surfaces

Vortices and skyrmions in water surfaces

DIPC Quantum SystemsPhysics

By DIPC

Numerous physical systems—from classical electromagnetic fields to quantum particle fields—exhibit oscillating wave behavior. Specific settings exist, both in nature and in artificial systems, where these waves form patterns with holes, loops, and other distinct topological characteristics, often referred to as topological wave structures. Now, a team of researchers describes how these structures, which have previously […]