Closing the ‘free will’ loophole
In a paper published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, MIT researchers propose an experiment that may close the last major loophole of Bell’s inequality — a 50-year-old theorem that, if...
View ArticleFluid mechanics suggests alternative to quantum orthodoxy
The central mystery of quantum mechanics is that small chunks of matter sometimes seem to behave like particles, sometimes like waves. For most of the past century, the prevailing explanation of this...
View ArticleMIT team creates ultracold molecules
The air around us is a chaotic superhighway of molecules whizzing through space and constantly colliding with each other at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. Such erratic molecular behavior is...
View ArticleQuantum physics meets genetic engineering
Researchers use engineered viruses to provide quantum-based enhancement of energy transport.
View ArticleQuantum materials: A new paradigm for computing?
Moore’s Law enabled smaller, cheaper, faster electronic devices for five decades, but it will take a new paradigm like quantum materials to make the next technological leap, Materials Processing Center...
View ArticleScientists detect a quantum crystal of electrons and “watch” it melt
For the first time, MIT physicists have observed a highly ordered crystal of electrons in a semiconducting material and documented its melting, much like ice thawing into water. The observations...
View ArticleFaculty highlight: Senthil Todadri
Mother nature is like a restless child who fidgets even when at rest, because electrons are never completely at rest, even at the coldest temperatures, says Professor Senthil Todadri, a theoretician in...
View ArticleStars align in test supporting “spooky action at a distance”
Quantum entanglement may appear to be closer to science fiction than anything in our physical reality. But according to the laws of quantum mechanics — a branch of physics that describes the world at...
View ArticleElectrons go superballistic
A new finding by physicists at MIT and in Israel shows that under certain specialized conditions, electrons can speed through a narrow opening in a piece of metal more easily than traditional theory...
View ArticleMapping the effects of crystal defects
New research offers insights into how crystal dislocations — a common type of defect in materials — can affect electrical and heat transport through crystals, at a microscopic, quantum mechanical...
View ArticleExperiments confirm theory of “superballistic” electron flow
When many people try to squeeze through a passageway at the same time, it creates a bottleneck that slows everyone down. It turns out the reverse is true for electrons, which can move through small...
View ArticleA new window into electron behavior
For the first time, physicists have developed a technique that can peer deep beneath the surface of a material to identify the energies and momenta of electrons there.The energy and momentum of these...
View ArticleLight from ancient quasars helps confirm quantum entanglement
Last year, physicists at MIT, the University of Vienna, and elsewhere provided strong support for quantum entanglement, the seemingly far-out idea that two particles, no matter how distant from each...
View ArticleQuantum dots can spit out clone-like photons
In the global quest to develop practical computing and communications devices based on the principles of quantum physics, one potentially useful component has proved elusive: a source of individual...
View ArticleScientists discover fractal patterns in a quantum material
A fractal is any geometric pattern that occurs again and again, at different sizes and scales, within the same object. This “self-similarity” can be seen throughout nature, for example in a snowflake’s...
View ArticleChemists observe “spooky” quantum tunneling
A molecule of ammonia, NH3, typically exists as an umbrella shape, with three hydrogen atoms fanned out in a nonplanar arrangement around a central nitrogen atom. This umbrella structure is very stable...
View ArticleMIT researchers realize “ideal” kagome metal electronic structure
Since 2016, a team of MIT researchers consisting of graduate students Linda Ye and Min Gu Kang, associate professor of physics Joseph G. Checkelsky, and Class of 1947 Career Development Assistant...
View ArticleHow growth of the scientific enterprise influenced a century of quantum physics
Austrian quantum theorist Erwin Schrödinger first used the term “entanglement,” in 1935, to describe the mind-bending phenomenon in which the actions of two distant particles are bound up with each...
View ArticleExploring new paths to future quantum electronics
When ultrathin layered materials are coupled with other quantum materials having different properties, the resulting interface could produce a new quantum phenomenon — and new properties of the hybrid...
View ArticleNewly observed phenomenon could lead to new quantum devices
An exotic physical phenomenon known as a Kohn anomaly has been found for the first time in an unexpected type of material by researchers at MIT and elsewhere. They say the finding could provide new...
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