Category Physics

Image of a nonlinear Bessel beam. Credit: Miguel Ángel Porras

Researchers have revealed the underlying order of chaos by observing very long and intense laser light beams and ionized matter in the so-called “light filaments”. Observed for first time in solids in 1964 and in the air in 1994, the “light filamentation” phenomenon has been recently explained by researchers from the Complex Systems Group (GSC), Madrid. Thanks to the new understanding of the “light filamentation” phenomenon from the approach of complex systems and the chaos theory, new research projects will be boosted to control such “light filaments” and to improve their applications.

One of the goals of the Science of Complexity is to extract patterns of behavior where only disorder is observed, no matter if the object o...

A new strategy helps quantum bits stay on task. Credit: Image courtesy of Florida State University

Development of quantum computers may be expedited by collaboration between physicists and chemists. Quantum computer power will dwarf that of today’s machines, with huge implications for cryptography, computational chemistry and other fields. While qubits can take many different forms, the MagLab team worked with carefully designed tungsten oxide molecules that contained a single magnetic holmium ion. The magnetic electrons associated with each holmium ion circulate either clockwise or counterclockwise around the axis of the molecule. These spin states are analogous to the “0s” and “1s” of computer bits...

Superconducting currents during reading various states of the memory cell are shown. The greater current the larger arrow. Credit: Authors of the study

Golubov et al have proposed creating basic memory cells based on quantum effects in “sandwiches” of a superconductor – dielectric (or other insulating material), which were predicted in the 1960s by the British physicist Brian Josephson. The electrons in these “sandwiches” (they are called “Josephson junctions”) are able to tunnel from one layer of a superconductor to another, passing through the dielectric like balls passing through a perforated wall.

“With the operational function that we have proposed in these memory cells, there will be no need for time-consuming magnetization and demagnetization processes...

FingerIO allows you to interact with mobile devices by writing or gesturing on any nearby surface by turning a smartphone or smartwatch into an active sonar device. Credit: Dennis Wise, University of Washington

As mobile and wearable devices such as smartwatches grow smaller, it gets tougher for people to interact with screens the size of a matchbook. That could change with a new tech developed by Un of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers called FingerIO. It tracks fine-grained finger movements by turning a smartphone or smartwatch into an active sonar system using the device’s own microphones and speakers.

Because sound waves travel through fabric and do not require a line of sight, users can even interact with a phone inside a front pocket or a smartwatch hidden under...