news 2023

From creating new navigation systems to remixing old experiments, here are Imperial's top five quantum moments from 2023. Throughout 2023 Imperial has had many quantum breakthroughs. From wavefunction experiments to satellite-free navigation systems, this is 2023's round-up of quantum research at Imperial and how it's making its way out of the lab.

When you uncork a bottle of champagne, complex supersonic phenomena occur. Scientists at TU Wien have now been able to calculate exactly what happens for the first time. It sounds like a simple, well-known everyday phenomenon: there is high pressure in a champagne bottle, the stopper is driven outwards by the compressed gas in the bottle and flies away with a powerful pop.

International research team models the different signatures of a kilonova explosion simultaneously for the first time Neutron stars are the end products of massive stars and gather together a large part of the original stellar mass in a super-dense star with a diameter of only around ten kilometres.

International research team succeeds for the first time in analysing different signals simultaneously A new method to study the signals associated with merging neutron stars can help researchers to collect data through multiple channels in parallel. The method was developed by an international team of scientists, including the Institute for Gravitational and Subatomic Physics (GRASP) , Utrecht University, and Nikhef.

An international research team recently demonstrated how magnetism can be actively changed by pressure. Magnetism occurs depending on how electrons behave. For example, the elementary particles can generate an electric current with their charge and thereby induce a magnetic field. However, magnetism can also arise through the collective alignment of the magnetic moments (spins) in a material.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory and Chemistry Laboratory in the journal Langmuir on November 16, 2023. News by CNRS Chemistry on December 19, 2023. Water flowing over soluble rocks can create patterns of multiple troughs bordered by sharp ridges. By combining field measurements, a numerical model and laboratory experiments, a team led by the MSC laboratory (CNRS/Université Paris Cité), in collaboration with the LPG (CNRS/Nantes Université/Université d'Angers) and the RDP (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Inrae) has shown that the appearance of these shapes results from a geometric mechanism.

Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , describes how changes in the Earth's magnetic field imprinted on iron oxide grains within ancient clay bricks, and how scientists were able to reconstruct these changes from the names of the kings inscribed on the bricks.

Geologists from Heidelberg and Frankfurt simulate thermo-mechanical behaviour of a white schist from the Alps Movements of rocks from deep in the Earth to the surface could occur under different circumstances than previously thought, challenging our current understanding of plate tectonics and mountain-building.

As industrial computing needs grow, the size and energy consumption of the relevant hardware must keep up with those demands. A solution to this dilemma could lie in superconducting materials, which reduce that energy consumption exponentially. Imagine cooling a giant data center - full of constantly running servers - down to nearly absolute zero, enabling large-scale computation with incredible energy efficiency.

Utrecht scientists, under the supervision of Marc-Etienne Moret, have discovered a new mechanism to build molecular catalysts. The new mechanism involves the earth-abundant metal nickel instead of precious metals that are often used as part of molecular catalysts. Moret: "This discovery initiates a new area of research that brings about a whole new concept for the design of more sustainable catalysts." In 2017, chemistry researcher Marc-Etienne Moret received an ERC Starting Grant  to study new catalysts with better properties.

Researchers have developed a hybrid device that significantly improves existing, ubiquitous laser technology. The team at EPFL's Photonic Systems Laboratory (PHOSL) has developed a chip-scale laser source that enhances the performance of semiconductor lasers while enabling the generation of shorter wavelengths.

As we close out the year and look ahead to the next, we take this opportunity to reflect on the groundbreaking research findings that emerged from Caltech in 2023. From furthering humanity's knowledge of and response to viruses, to refining the use of autonomous technologies, to leveraging advanced instrumentation to bring greater clarity on our universe and our place within it, Caltech continues to powerfully and meaningfully shape understanding of and interaction with the world.

New research has revealed that Rembrandt impregnated the canvas for his famous 1642 militia painting 'The Night Watch' with a lead-containing substance even before applying the first ground layer. Such lead-based impregnation has never before been observed with Rembrandt or his contemporaries. The discovery , published today in Science Advances, underlines Rembrandt's inventive way of working, in which he did not shy away from using new techniques.

A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and checked the measurements taken during the Gaia mission to study the near Universe. For most of us, the countless bright spots in the nighttime sky all seem to be stars.

Using generative AI, MIT chemists created a model that can predict the structures formed when a chemical reaction reaches its point of no return. During a chemical reaction, molecules gain energy until they reach what's known as the transition state - a point of no return from which the reaction must proceed.

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor. The advance, detailed in a paper published recently in the journal Physica Scripta , could enable more efficient compact fusion reactors that are easier to repair and maintain.

In a study that could help fill some holes in quantum theory, the team recreated a "quantum bomb tester" in a classical droplet test. In our everyday classical world, what you see is what you get. A ball is just a ball, and when lobbed through the air, its trajectory is straightforward and clear. But if that ball were shrunk to the size of an atom or smaller, its behavior would shift into a quantum, fuzzy reality.

A researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) has succeeded in simulating on an IBM quantum computer the creation of quantum entanglement by means of the gravitational field. The work, published in the journal EPJ Quantum Technology , could help in the experimental validation of gravity as a quantum force.

The High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation's Division of Physics has approved and released the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) report , which outlines recommendations for U.S. particle physics priorities for the next 20 years and funding for the next 10 years.

The one-step fabrication process rapidly produces miniature chemical reactors that could be used to detect diseases or analyze substances. MIT researchers have used 3D printing to produce self-heating microfluidic devices, demonstrating a technique which could someday be used to rapidly create cheap, yet accurate, tools to detect a host of diseases.