Researchers have designed a diamond-based quantum sensor that could help detect altermagnets, a newly discovered type of magnetic material with unusual properties.
Category: quantum physics
Microsoft Accelerates Post-Quantum Cryptography Shift to 2029
“Advances in quantum research and development have shifted the risk horizon,” Mark Russinovich, chief technology officer of Microsoft Azure, said. “We believe cryptographically relevant quantum computers could arrive sooner than previously expected – and the work required to prepare is significant, so organizations need to start now.”
To that end, the Windows maker is speeding up the Microsoft Quantum Safe Program (QSP) timeline with the goal of transitioning critical products and services to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by 2029. The company is also planning to incorporate PQC requirements into its Secure Future Initiative (SFI).
Some key focus areas include upgrading network cryptography by adopting TLS 1.3, building crypto-agility for stored data to facilitate the ability to change cryptography without having to redesign the underlying systems, and transitioning to PQC algorithms to secure trust chains, such as code signing, certificate issuance, key protection, and update pipelines.
Quantum computer simulates hadronization, reproducing string breaking with 104 qubits
By remotely accessing an IBM quantum computer, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has successfully simulated a key process in particle physics: hadronization. Although based on a simplified model of quantum mechanics, the project lays the groundwork for how physicists can leverage the power of quantum computers to make large scientific calculations beyond the capabilities of classical supercomputers. The research is published in the journal Physical Review D.
Hadronization occurs when two or more quarks—the subatomic building blocks of matter—bind together through the strong nuclear force to form composite particles called hadrons. The most familiar examples of hadrons are protons and neutrons, which form the nuclei of atoms. So, having a better understanding of the hadronization process means having a better understanding of the structure of matter, and—in turn—the universe.
Physical experiments have not been able to reveal every step of the process, however. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN accelerate protons to near light speeds, guide them into collisions and study the resulting debris of quarks and antiquarks. But these particles can only be indirectly measured before they immediately undergo hadronization—hence the need for computer simulations to fill in the gaps of these scientific observations.
Physicists demonstrate Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with more than 10 atoms
In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) effect with up to 12 indistinguishable neutral atoms—an effect that has been predominantly observed in photonic systems.
The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect is a quantum phenomenon rooted in particle indistinguishability. When two identical bosons meet at a 50:50 beam splitter, they always exit together through the same output port. In other words, they “bunch up.” A single particle at each output is never found, even though that is the statistically expected outcome if the beam splitter were simply distributing particles at random.
First observed with pairs of photons in 1987, the HOM effect has since become central to quantum information and quantum metrology. For two particles, the physics is well established. However, extending it to many particles is a different challenge.
Microsoft accelerates quantum-safe roadmap as risks grow
Microsoft announced today that it is accelerating its quantum-safe security roadmap, saying advances in quantum computing are bringing the need to replace today’s encryption standards sooner than previously expected.
Although today’s quantum computers cannot crack modern encryption, security researchers have warned about “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks. In these attacks, encrypted data that is stolen today is stored until future quantum computers become powerful enough to decrypt it, exposing sensitive information.
As a result, companies including Apple, Google, and Signal have begun integrating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to replace existing public-key encryption algorithms with quantum-resistant versions.
Quantum Oscillators Find a Shared Beat
The synchronization of two quantum oscillators reveals a collective rhythm encoded solely in their correlations.
When clocks share a wall, heart cells pulse in a dish, or fireflies flash in a summer field, separate rhythms can somehow become one. Physicists call this phenomenon synchronization. It is familiar in the everyday world but becomes slippery in the quantum world, where an oscillator’s phase can be smeared out by environmental fluctuations and disturbed by measurements. Now, in a trapped-ion experiment, Jiarui Liu at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have observed synchronization between two quantum oscillators [1]. Their demonstration is important not just because it realizes a long-sought quantum version of a textbook nonlinear system, but also because the shared rhythm is hidden: Each oscillator alone shows no phase preference, and the beat emerges only when the two are measured together.
The classical picture of synchronization predates quantum mechanics. A key component is a self-sustained oscillator, a system that keeps repeating the same motion on its own. Such a system continually replaces the energy it loses through damping, while also preventing its motion from growing uncontrollably. Its amplitude is fixed, but its phase remains free, allowing an interaction with another oscillator to lock the two rhythms together.
Plutonium compound unlocks rare topological quantum behavior with potential nuclear science applications
Plutonium is one of the most complex elements in the periodic table. First synthesized and isolated in 1940 by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, plutonium has been studied closely for more than eight decades. It’s most often associated with its role in nuclear security, but it’s also vital to nuclear power, where it is produced in reactors and can be recycled as fuel. Despite plutonium’s importance, some of its most fundamental behaviors remain a mystery.
Scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have made an important discovery: A compound called plutonium hexaboride (PuB₆) exhibits a one-of-a-kind quantum property known as a topological Kondo insulating state. Published in Physical Review Research, this finding marks one of only a handful of times such behavior has been observed in a plutonium material—opening a new window for research into how some of nature’s most complex elements actually work.
New superconductors identified, unlocking process that could yield thousands more
An international team of quantum researchers has shown how machine learning can be used to filter a practically infinite number of possible material combinations to identify candidates for superconductivity. Thanks to the breakthrough, new superconductors can now be found much faster, says Aalto University Professor Päivi Törmä, who leads the SuperC consortium behind the research.
Superconductors carry electric current with zero resistance, thanks to a quantum effect appearing only at extremely low temperatures. They power not only quantum computers but many other things, from neuroimaging to fusion reactors and maglev trains.
However, these unicorn materials are prohibitively hard to identify. Any endlessly variable combination of elements could be a superconductor—yet few actually are. And the ones already discovered require expensive cooling equipment to bring them to the near-absolute-zero temperatures that give them their quantum properties.