Category Physics

A Magnetic Nanographene Butterfly poised to Advance Quantum Technologies

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a new design concept for creating next-generation carbon-based quantum materials, in the form of a tiny magnetic nanographene with a unique butterfly-shape hosting highly correlated spins. This new design has the potential to accelerate the advancement of quantum materials which are pivotal for the development of sophisticated quantum computing technologies poised to revolutionize information processing and high density storage capabilities.

The team was led by Associate Professor Lu Jiong from the NUS Department of Chemistry and Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, together with Professor Wu Jishan who is also from the NUS Department of Chemistry, and international collaborators...

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Metasurface Antenna could enable Future 6G Communications Networks

Metasurface antenna could enable future 6G communications networks
DMA prototype 1. Credit: University of Glasgow

A team led by researchers from the University of Glasgow has developed an innovative wireless communications antenna that combines the unique properties of metamaterials with sophisticated signal processing to deliver a new peak of performance.

In a paper published in the IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, titled “60 GHz Programmable Dynamic Metasurface Antenna (DMA) for Next-Generation Communication, Sensing, and Imaging Applications: From Concept to Prototype,” the researchers showcase their development of a prototype digitally coded dynamic metasurface antenna, or DMA, controlled through high-speed field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

Their DMA is the first in the world designed and demonstrated at the operating frequ...

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Engineers Recreate Star Trek’s Holodeck using ChatGPT and Video Game Assets

Penn Engineers recreate Star Trek's Holodeck using ChatGPT and video game assets
Essentially, Holodeck engages a large language model (LLM) in a conversation, building a virtual environment piece by piece. Credit: Yue Yang

In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the Holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, of preparing for missions and entertaining them, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes.

Deeply immersive and fully interactive, Holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language; the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the Holodeck.

Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a process called “Sim2...

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Physicists discover a Novel Quantum State in an Elemental Solid

Blue and purple concentric circles
A representation of data visualization of quantum states of electrons on the surface and edge of grey arsenic crystal obtained using a scanning tunneling microscope at Princeton’s physics department. Credit: Image based on STM data simulations prepared by Shafayat Hossain and the Zahid Hasan group at the Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter at Princeton University.

Physicists have observed a novel quantum effect termed “hybrid topology” in a crystalline material. This finding opens up a new range of possibilities for development of efficient materials and technologies for next-generation quantum science and engineering.

The finding, published in Nature, came when Princeton scientists discovered that an elemental solid crystal made of arsenic (As) atoms hosts a never-before-ob...

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