Earth’s radiation can send some molecules spinning or vibrating, which is what makes them greenhouse gases. This infographic explains how relatively few heat-trapping molecules can have a planetary ...

Quantum mechanics is our most successful physical theory. Created to account for atomic phenomena, it has a vast range of applications extending well beyond the atomic realm, from predicting the ...

Matter gets weird at the quantum scale, and among the oddities is the Efimov effect, a state in which the attractive forces between three or more atoms bind them together, even as they are excited to ...

Why do some elements decay in minutes, while others last billions of years? Certain "magic numbers" of nuclear particles may ...

A new calculation shows how five atoms interact in the Efimov effect. It marks a major leap in quantum physics. Matter behaves weirdly at the quantum scale, one of the strangest examples being the ...

As a result of the tetrahedral symmetry of the lattice, a diamond crystal typically contains NV centers in four orientations.

Recent progress in both analog and digital quantum simulations heralds a future in which quantum computers could simulate — and thereby illuminate — physical phenomena that are far too complex for ...

Irish physicist William Rowan Hamilton’s pioneering work contained hints of the enigmatic wave–particle duality that governs the universe.

The neutral atom array architecture for quantum computing has been rapidly advancing over the last several years, and a ...

A micrograph showing the operation of a ‘conveyor belt’ of atom arrays. At each step, a fresh array is created at the bottom, ...

Catalysts are indispensable for the large-scale production of many chemicals, as they accelerate chemical reactions. Some of them contain metal atoms such as iron as key building blocks. The electrons ...