News: 0178598620

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New Work Achieves a Pure Quantum State Without the Need For Cooling (phys.org)

(Thursday August 07, 2025 @03:00AM (BeauHD) from the record-setting dept.)


[1]alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org:

> Three nano-glass spheres cling to one another. They form a tower-like cluster, similar to when you pile three scoops of ice cream on top of one another -- only much smaller. The diameter of the nano cluster is ten times smaller than that of a human hair. With the help of an optical device and laser beams, researchers at ETH Zurich have [2]succeeded in keeping such objects almost completely motionless in levitation . This is significant when it comes to the future development of quantum sensors, which, together with quantum computers, constitute the most promising applications of quantum research.

>

> As part of their levitation experiment, the researchers, led by adjunct professor of photonics Martin Frimmer, were able to eliminate the gravitational force acting on the glass spheres. However, the elongated nano object still trembled, similar to how the needle on a compass moves when settling into position. In the case of the nano cluster, the trembling motion was very fast but weak: the object made around one million deflections per second, each measuring only a few thousandths of a degree. This tiny rotational oscillation is a fundamental quantum motion exhibited by all objects, which physicists call zero-point fluctuation.

>

> To date, no one has been successful in detecting these tiny movements for an object of this size as precisely as the ETH researchers have now done. They achieved this because they were able to largely eliminate all motions that originate from the field of classical physics and obscure the observation of quantum movements. The ETH researchers attribute 92% of the cluster's movements in their experiment to quantum physics and 8% to classical physics; they therefore refer to a high level of quantum purity. And the records do not stop there: The researchers accomplished all of this at room temperature. Quantum researchers usually have to cool their objects to a temperature close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius) using special equipment. This was not required here.

The research has been [3]published in the journal Nature Physics .



[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right

[2] https://phys.org/news/2025-08-pure-quantum-state-cooling.html

[3] https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02976-9



Used to be superconductors. (Score:1)

by BuckDutter ( 10145835 )

Now it's quantum states. Can you say vaporware ?

Re: (Score:1)

by geekmux ( 1040042 )

> Now it's quantum states. Can you say vaporware ?

This.

> The ETH researchers attribute 92% of the cluster's movements in their experiment to quantum physics and 8% to classical physics; they therefore refer to a high level of quantum purity.

And if we find the researchers attributed their winnings wrongly, will they face a high level of scrutiny? Or will the funding just keep coming for silly work no matter what? Even the vaporware we never learned from didn’t have this kind of blind backing.

Re: (Score:2)

by ndsurvivor ( 891239 )

If true, it represents a new sensor, a new detector... As the article states: "The three quantum objects, stacked up in less than the width of a human hair", would be able to detect ?? I find this interesting because... sensors are almost magical to me. They are the interface between the computer and the sensory world we experience. From the article: " The development of sensors to measure tiny forces such as those of gas molecules or even elementary particles that act on the sensor is also conceiva

Re: (Score:2)

by geekmux ( 1040042 )

> If true, it represents a new sensor, a new detector... As the article states: "The three quantum objects, stacked up in less than the width of a human hair", would be able to detect ?? I find this interesting because... sensors are almost magical to me. They are the interface between the computer and the sensory world we experience. From the article: " The development of sensors to measure tiny forces such as those of gas molecules or even elementary particles that act on the sensor is also conceivable. This would be useful in the search for dark matter."........ I agree. It is in the baby stages for sure, but if I were them I would expose those little quantum babies to different forces, and molecules, and study what happens. a fundamental breakthrough... I sense (pun), is in the making here.

Its rather ironic you used dark matter to justify continued support, since I was far more worried about the if-false-what happens rather than your If true scenario filled with a magical amount of optimism.

Looking at ”dark matter” from a breakthrough point of view, it is still a term riddled with marketing bullshit created by a group of “experts” who don’t have a single fucking clue about the 95%+ of matter in the universe they study, but had to come up with a very cool name. W

What is motionless here? (Score:2)

by Cley Faye ( 1123605 )

Regardless of this accomplishment, whether it's real or not (I'm clearly now knowledgeable enough to make any claim on that), I wonder what does "motionless" mean. I usually think motion is always relative, so I assume these things weren't moving relative to the lab around them. But does it really count as motionless from a physics perspective?

That's a genuine question. I suppose there's some basic for things to qualify as motionless, but when we're talking about these kind of scales, it feels like keepin

Eliminate gravity? (Score:2)

by Viol8 ( 599362 )

"were able to eliminate the gravitational force acting on the glass spheres."

Umm, sorry? I assume they mean they negated it somehow unless they really have made a breakthrough in anti gravity physics!

Re: (Score:2)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

No, they actually changed the gravitational constant!

It was mainly the work of their new intern, Q Jr.

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