Category archives: Quantum physics

Few concepts in physics are as familiar, yet as enigmatic, as time. In Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is not absolute: its passage depends on motion and gravity. But when combined with quantum physics, this relativistic form of time becomes even more counterintuitive. Testing quantum superpositions of time According to quantum theory, the flow of […]

In the world of quantum materials, some of the most important discoveries come not from finding new particles, but from learning to see familiar electrons in a new way. A striking example comes from a single layer of niobium diselenide, a crystal just one layer thick, where researchers have now directly mapped a hidden pattern […]

Every time a computer processes information, electrons shuttle through circuits carrying electric charge, and much of the energy they carry is wasted as heat. Spintronics proposes a different approach: instead of relying solely on the charge of electrons, exploit another of their properties called spin, a quantum-mechanical quantity that can be thought of as a […]

Imagine taking two identical sheets of chicken wire and laying them on top of one another. If you align them perfectly, they look like a single sheet. But if you rotate the top layer by just a tiny amount, a beautiful large-scale crawling pattern emerges. In physics, we call this a Moiré pattern. When we […]

When we study solid-state physics, we usually begin with crystals. In a crystal, atoms repeat in a strict and regular pattern, much like tiles on a bathroom floor. Because every small region looks the same as every other, electrons move through a predictable landscape. This repeating order is the reason we can explain electricity, magnetism […]

If you’ve ever sat by a quiet pond and tapped the surface of the water with your finger once every second, you’d expect to see a ripple travel outward once every second. In the world of classical physics, the effect follows the cause in a predictable, rhythmic march. But imagine for a moment that you […]

One of the most fascinating ideas in physics is how we can turn heat into useful work. This is the basic principle behind all sorts of engines, like the ones that power cars or generate electricity in power plants. For over a hundred years, scientists have relied on the laws of thermodynamics to figure out […]

Authors: Peter Jacobson, Senior Lecturer in Condensed Matter Physics, The University of Queensland and Beck Wise, Lecturer in Professional Writing, The University of Queensland In 1977, an American physicist named John H. Van Vleck won the Nobel prize for his work on magnetism. In his Nobel lecture, amid a discussion of rare earth elements, one […]

In recent decades, researchers have developed advanced techniques to detect and manipulate individual photons. A particularly intriguing field examines how nanoscale light emitters, resembling artificial atoms, produce these photons. In this vein, a new study addresses a subtle question: when two such emitters release photons that are red-shifted due to energy loss, do these photons […]

In the layered kagome metal CsV₃Sb₅, researchers have observed something that, until now, seemed almost impossible: robust quantum interference in the normal, non-superconducting state, persisting over distances of several micrometers. The interference is not the fragile single-particle kind seen in ultra-clean semiconductors at millikelvin temperatures. Instead, it behaves as if the entire stack of kagome […]