Quantum Physics News

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Winner of Massey Contest Gets a Trip to Perimeter Institute and CERN

Here’s an opportunity to win a trip for two for a six-day, two-continent science safari to some of the world’s leading scientific centres with the Massey Contest.

9 Nov 2012

Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Materials for UBC

The University of British Columbia will be home to two more Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC), valued at $20-million over seven years, in the areas of quantum materials and devices and digital media research and innovation.

9 Nov 2012

Scholar Wins CMS Achievement Award for CERN Hadron Calorimeter Subdetector

Sudan Paramesvaran, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside, has won the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) achievement award for the Hadron Calorimeter subdetector at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

9 Nov 2012

Gold Nanospheres Generate a Quantum Kiss

Researchers from the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the Materials Physics Center in Donostia-San Sebastián (CFM) have observed for the first time, with optical methods, the quantum regime in the interaction between nano-sized spheres of gold. This quantum regime has been identified thanks to the change of colour of the gap or empty space between these particles when they are at distances of less than one nanometre. This work, published in Nature journal, enables literally “seeing” a quantum kiss between nanoparticles.

8 Nov 2012

Quantum Weirdness Observed in Computer Chip Nanoelectronics

To build the computer chips of the future, designers will need to understand how an electrical charge behaves when it is confined to metal wires only a few atom-widths in diameter.

7 Nov 2012

Swinburne Awarded ARC Grants for Discovery Projects in Quantum Physics

Swinburne University of Technology has been awarded $5.135 million under Australian Research Council (ARC) grants announced by Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans.

7 Nov 2012

Scientists Detect Brightest Flare Ever Observed from Sagittarius A* Black Hole

As black holes go, Sagittarius A* is relatively low-key. The black hole at the center of our galaxy emits very little energy for its size, giving off roughly as much energy as the sun, even though it is 4 billion times as massive.

7 Nov 2012

Rotating Vortex Beams Offer New Possibilities for Electron Microscopy

Nowadays, electron microscopes are an essential tool, especially in the field of materials science. At TU Vienna, electron beams are being created that possess an inner rotation, similarly to a tornado. These "vortex beams" cannot only be used to display objects, but to investigate material-specific properties - with precision on a nanometer scale. A new breakthrough in research now allows scientists to produce much more intense vortex beams than ever before.

6 Nov 2012

Quantum Cryptography Offers Security Protected by the Laws of Physics

Quantum cryptography is the ultimate secret message service. Research published 18 October in Physical Review Letters shows that it can counter even the ultimate paranoid scenario: when the equipment or even the operator is in the control of a malicious power.

5 Nov 2012

Carbon-Rich Asteroids Contribute to Dark Material on Giant Asteroid Vesta

Like a Hollywood starlet constantly retouching her make-up, the giant asteroid Vesta is constantly stirring its outermost layer and presenting a young face. Data from NASA's Dawn mission show that a common form of weathering, which occurs on many airless bodies in the inner solar system like the Moon, does not age Vesta’s outermost layer.

3 Nov 2012