Today’s internet distributes classical bits and bytes of information over global, even interstellar, distances. The quantum internet of tomorrow, on the other hand, will enable the remote connection, manipulation and storage of quantum information – through distribution of quantum entanglement using photons – across physically distant quantum nodes within metropolitan, regional and long-haul optical networks.… Continue reading QUANT-NET’s testbed innovations: reimagining the quantum network

Physics isn’t a popularity contest, but the 10 most read articles published on the Physics World website in 2023 nevertheless make an interesting collection of highlights, lowlights and every kind of light in between. If you didn’t spot these stories when they first appeared, here’s your chance to find out what the fuss was about.… Continue reading In case you missed it: the 10 most popular physics stories of 2023

Placing a superconducting electrode on top of a thin magnet makes it possible to manipulate and control so-called “spin waves” within the magnet simply by changing the electrode’s temperature. This result, from quantum physicists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, could advance the development of spintronics devices, which exploit the spin of an… Continue reading Superconducting electrode controls spin waves in a magnet

“A sight never to be forgotten.” n “Heaven became illuminated.” n “Nothing could exceed the grandeur and the beauty.” n These are just some of the phrases used by eyewitnesses to describe the remarkable aurora that danced over much of the globe for three special nights in early September 1859. Visible at unprecedented low latitude… Continue reading What would happen if communication systems broke down?

<p>As a high school student, Gosha Geogdzhayev attended Saturday science classes at Columbia University, including one called The Physics of Climate Change. “They showed us a satellite image of the Earth’s atmosphere, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is so beautiful,’” he recalls. Since then, climate science has been one of his driving interests.</p>nn<p>With the MIT… Continue reading The science and art of complex systems

n Over the past half century, laser cooling has revolutionized atomic, molecular and optical physics. Laser cooling of atoms and ions has enabled dramatic leaps in the precision of atomic clocks, allowing new tests of fundamental physics and potential improvements in clock-based navigation via the Global Positioning System. Now it is also laying the foundations… Continue reading Radiant chills: the revolutionary science of laser cooling

How entangled is it? The researchers obtained temperature profiles of their system showing that particles that interact strongly are “hot” (red) and those that interact little are “cold” (blue). Entanglement is greatest when interactions are strong. (Courtesy: Helene Hainzer) n Physicists in Austria have found a quick and efficient way of extracting information on a… Continue reading Quantum simulator visualizes large-scale entanglement in materials

Atoms are the world’s most precise timekeepers – so much so that the second is defined as exactly 9 192 631 770 ticks of a caesium-based atomic clock. Commercially-available versions of these atomically precise clocks underpin GPS, navigation, data transfer and financial markets, and they run at microwave frequencies, or billions of tick-tocks per second.… Continue reading Portable optical atomic clock makes its commercial debut

A new protocol for cloud-computing-based information storage that could combine quantum-level security with better data-storage efficiency has been proposed and demonstrated by researchers in China. The researchers claim the work, which combines existing techniques known as quantum key distribution (QKD) and Shamir’s secret sharing, could protect sensitive data such as patients’ genetic information in the… Continue reading Researchers grapple with bringing quantum security to the cloud

Quantum computers show great promise because they could, at least in principle, solve certain problems that cannot be cracked even by the most powerful conventional supercomputers. But building quantum bits, or qubits – and linking them to create practical quantum computers – is a huge challenge. In particular, quantum computers are incredibly noisy, which quickly… Continue reading Toby Cubitt: why algorithms will speed up applications of quantum computers