physicists tagged posts

Using ultracold atoms and laser light, researchers recreated the behavior of a Josephson junction—an essential component of quantum computers and voltage standards. The appearance of Shapiro steps in this atomic system reveals a deep universality in quantum physics and makes elusive microscopic effects visible for the first time.

Josephson junctions play a central role in modern physics and technology. They enable extremely precise measurements, define the international standard for electrical voltage, and serve as essential components inside many quantum computers...

The experiment, featuring the small red glow of a BEC trapped in infrared laser beams. Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

Physicists are putting themselves out of a job, using artificial intelligence to run a complex experiment.The experiment, developed by physicists from Australian National University and UNSW ADFA, created an extremely cold gas trapped in a laser beam, aka Bose-Einstein condensate, replicating the experiment that won the 2001 Nobel Prize. “I didn’t expect the machine could learn to do the experiment itself, from scratch, in under an hour,” said Paul Wigley, ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering.

Bose-Einstein condensates are some of the coldest places in the Universe, far colder than outer space, typically less than a billionth of a degree above 0K...