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The roadmap for runaway electron-induced plasma facing component damage in tokamaks

New 3D form of carbon made in the lab

Like diamond, diamondiyne allotrope forms covalent bonds in three dimensions

Collisions between dipolar molecules ‘switch off’ at low energies

Discovery validates quantum picture of polarity and has implications for ultracold chemistry

Doubts cast on ‘superradiant neutrino laser’ proposal

Debate spans atomic and particle physics

Research headlines

Colliding molecules reveal their ‘cone of reaction’

A diagram showing lots of blue arrows coming together from different directions towards a glowing red irregularly-shaped central object

Cold radioactive molecules offer a tabletop route to new physics

Image showing a pear-shaped grid of glowing blue lines with a heatmap-type blob of red, yellow and green suspended inside it. The pear hovers over a copper-coloured box.

Interface between air and water gets a new twist

Illustration showing ball-and-stick models of water molecules near the interface between air and water. A large molecule at the centre has a squiggly-red-line signal coming out of its central red oxygen atom, representing the molecule's dipole, while a dashed line emerging from the other side, between the two angled hydrogen atoms, represents the twist angle of the molecule.

Gravitational waves could leave traces in light from cold atoms

New theoretical work suggests that the pattern of light emitted by atoms could be used to detect gravitational waves at frequencies outside the range of traditional detectors

Giant barocaloric cooling effect offers a new route to refrigeration

Environmentally friendly dissolution-based method reduces temperature of water by nearly 27 K in just 20 seconds

Shapiro steps spotted in ultracold bosonic and fermionic gases

Research could lead to a standard for chemical potential

Qubit ‘recycling’ gives neutral-atom quantum computing a boost

Reducing atom loss and re-using already-measured atoms enables more complex quantum computations

Atomic system acts like a quantum Newton’s cradle

Quantum simulator enables scientists to test laws of transport phenomena at the quantum level

Physicists use a radioactive molecule’s own electrons to probe its internal structure

Work on radium monofluoride could shed light on the asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the universe

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Explore more in atomic and molecular physics

Looking for inconsistencies in the fine structure constant

High-precision laser spectroscopy measurements on the thorium-229 nucleus could reveal new physics, say TU Wien physicists

Radioactive BEC could form a ‘superradiant neutrino laser’

Physicists plan to test idea in the lab

Graphic illustrating the condensation of atoms

Zero-point motion of atoms measured directly for the first time

Explosive technique images collective quantum fluctuations

Artist's impression of iodopyridine molecule (represented by a ball-and-stick model) being exploded by a bright purple line representing an ultrashort, high-intensity X-ray laser pulse

Making molecules with superheavy elements could shake up the periodic table

New atom-by-atom technique demonstrated for the first time with nobelium might ensure that elements at the bottom of the table are grouped correctly

A rainbow-coloured row of blocks labelled with the names of the actinide series of chemical elements. Ball-and-stick models of water molecules rain down around them.

Famous double-slit experiment gets its cleanest test yet

Single ultracold atoms act as slits, stripping away noise and emphasizing the fundamental nature of wave–particle duality

Graphic showing a red laser beam illuminating a pair of atoms. A screen behind the atoms shows red and black interference fringes

Quantum control of individual antiprotons puts the Standard Model to the test

Experiment could help reveal why there is so little antimatter in the universe

Photo of a physicist working at the BASE experiment

Physicists turn atomic motion from a nuisance to a resource

New "erasure correction cooling" method stores quantum information in atoms’ motional states

Photo of three men standing around an optical table bathed in deep blue light

New experiment uses levitated magnets to search for dark matter

Although it hasn’t detected dark matter yet, its developers say it offers an alternative path that is worth exploring

Physicists take ‘snapshots’ of quantum gases in continuous space

Innovative imaging technique reveals real space correlations between atoms in quantum systems

Conflicting measurements of helium’s charge radius may be reconciled by new calculations

Theorists move quickly to explain discrepancy

Protons take to the road

Antiprotons could be next after CERN scientists demonstrate transport of trapped particles on a truck

Photo of the BASE-STEP system being transported by overhead crane through the experimental hall of the Antimatter Factory at CERN. The system is an irregularly-shaped gray box and it's suspended from a large, bright yellow crane below the hall ceiling. A hard-hatted physicist, Marcel Leonhardt, looks on while holding a tablet displaying a dashboard of parameters.

Five-body recombination could cause significant loss from atom traps

Efimov states could be used to build molecules and achieve nuclear fusion

Plasma physics sets upper limit on the strength of ‘dark electromagnetism’

Result could force a rethink on basic models of dark matter, say researchers

Microwaves slow down chemical reactions at low temperatures

Radiation affects quantum states of carbon monoxide

Bilayer optical lattices could unravel the secret of high-temperature superconductivity

Proposal would explore macroscopic quantum phenomena in many-body systems

Optical lattice simulating a superconductor

Splitting water takes more energy than theory predicts – and now scientists know why

Flips in the orientation of water molecules explain sluggish reaction speeds

Ezra Marker, Raiden Speelman, and Franz Geiger in front of their spectrometer. They're all smiling and wearing matching navy blue long-sleeve T-shirts with the slogan "this is my laser shirt" written on the chest pocket in light blue. A Northwestern University banner hangs in the background and two monitors displaying graphs and a dashboard can also be seen.

Thermometer uses Rydberg atoms to make calibration-free measurements

New technique uses black-body radiation to make direct measurements with low uncertainty

Quantized vortices seen in a supersolid for the first time

Further research could shed light on neutron-star glitches

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