Physics Magazine

@physicsmagazine.aps.org

Exploring the people, ideas, and stories behind physics research.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 9, 2026, 4:21 PM

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes the vision behind the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which turned a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice into the world’s largest neutrino detector.

Read about how it launched the field of neutrino astronomy: https://go.aps.org/3TTL6Ae

Artist’s illustration of the IceCube Lab sitting atop Antarctic ice at night. A cross section of the ice is visible in the foreground, making the strands of small, black sensors buried in the ice visible. A bright light source shines down from the sky in the top right corner.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 8, 2026, 10:57 AM

Using bright squeezed vacuum to knock electrons out of xenon atoms, researchers found the light’s photon-number fluctuations were imprinted onto the electrons — offering a tool to probe and control electron motion.

See what the researchers found: https://go.aps.org/4zilnkb

A 3D illustration of an optical setup on a white surface. A red laser beam passes through a lens and two transparent plates, turns orange after a copper-colored block, and continues past a black cube and a glass prism. A curved mirror reflects the orange beam onto a thin, light-blue jet surrounded by small blue spheres representing xenon atoms. A wavy blue line, representing an emitted electron, curves from the jet down to a round black detector.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 7, 2026, 7:39 PM

Pairing superconducting qubits with microwave cavities could reduce the hardware requirements for quantum simulations of fundamental physics.

See how this hybrid approach works: https://go.aps.org/3UbRkvC

Illustration of a hybrid quantum computer. On the left, a wavy cyan line representing a boson and a yellow sphere representing a fermion meet at a central point and scatter apart, with arrows marking their path. On the upper right is a large circuit diagram representing the large numbers of qubits and gates. Below it, a much smaller circuit links one thick cyan boson line and one yellow fermion line with a few gates, representing the cavity modes.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 5, 2026, 6:56 PM

“There’s just as much wow on the inside.”

@mit.edu researchers Julian Klein and Frances Ross used electron beams to reposition atoms inside a chromium sulfur bromide crystal with picometer-scale precision.

Learn more about their work: https://go.aps.org/3W8Wd9a

A star-shaped atomic pattern inside a chromium sulfur bromide crystal.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 5, 2026, 4:43 PM

A simplified model of the heart’s mitral valve shows that flow fluctuations — which are often treated as unwanted noise — can help a soft valve close with about 10% of the pressure needed under a steady flow.

🔗 https://go.aps.org/4jGouxH

Eight black and white high-speed images showing a soft conical valve oscillating, buckling, folding shut, and turning inside out as fluid pressure increases.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 4, 2026, 3:00 PM

Our snapshot series features stunning images from across #physics — like this one of gold nanostructures. These structures change shape depending on how they are imaged.

Learn more: https://go.aps.org/4j2SbJ3

An electron-microscope image of a nanosized cube (red) wrapped in a gold layer against a dark background.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 3, 2026, 2:00 PM

A new technique for spinning — the process of generating solid fibers from a liquid jet — makes it easier to model and control than current methods. Learn more about how the method could reduce trial and error in industrial manufacturing: https://go.aps.org/4hCKuqv

Seven streams of freefalling liquid, shown horizontally. A purple band, representing ultraviolet light, extends across six of the streams. Those streams narrow as they extend from the light, showing their transformation into soft solid filaments.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 2, 2026, 1:24 PM

Why does nanoconfined water have strong dielectric anisotropy and enhanced in-plane proton conductivity? A proposed microscopic mechanism could be the answer. Learn more about it: https://go.aps.org/4yrOPE9

An illustration of water molecules — represented by red and white spheres — constrained between two parallel surfaces — represented by gray spheres — that are a few nanometers apart. In the center is a row of four white spheres with white arrows between them pointing right, representing charge transport.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Oct 1, 2026, 4:03 PM

By placing rubidium atoms in a 1D optical lattice and tuning the lattice’s potential energy, researchers simulated false vacuum decay.

See what they observed: https://go.aps.org/4z3Agqj

Diagram of a 1D optical lattice with sinusoidal potential energy wells. Blue spheres represent rubidium atoms. They occupy the wells, showing a transition from doubly occupied sites to adjacent single-occupancy sites to mimic false-vacuum decay and particle-pair creation.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 30, 2026, 6:15 PM

The 2025 discovery of a phonon thermal Hall effect in common semiconductors upended long-held assumptions in condensed matter #physics. Now, scientists are trying to understand its origins.

See how these efforts might revive other scientific cold cases: https://go.aps.org/4juux8r

Two scientific figures side-by-side. Left: Labeled “Electron gas,” the figure shows charged particles moving along straight paths when no magnetic field is present, and moving along arched trajectories when a magnetic field is applied. Right: Labeled “Molecular gas,” shows neutral particles traveling in straight lines between inter-particle collisions, where an applied magnetic field alters scattering angles and collision probabilities rather than bending individual trajectories.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 30, 2026, 4:08 PM

Intense lasers can damage delicate molecular samples and complicate measurements. A new approach uses pairs of entangled photons instead to gently probe how a molecule’s environment impacts its ultrafast dynamics.

Read the synopsis: https://go.aps.org/4ABfhwF

Artistic illustration of molecules — represented by blue and turquoise atomic spheres — surrounded by translucent light-blue solvents. The background is a gradient of cyan.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 29, 2026, 3:24 PM

A new study in @physrevx.aps.org reveals vortex-like skyrmions hiding in 2D quasicrystalline wave patterns. Read the synopsis for more: https://go.aps.org/4xRj4DA

Two scientific figures side-by-side show the measured amplitude and phase of out-of-plane displacement fields of water waves. The left panel shows a symmetrical lattice in grayscale, representing the measured absolute wave amplitude. The right panel shows the corresponding wave phase in red, yellow, green, and blue.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 28, 2026, 5:04 PM

New research suggests that a common method for predicting the behavior of systems with multiscale dynamics — like climate and ecosystems — might be misleading.

Read the viewpoint to learn how: https://go.aps.org/4AAO9On

Diagram of a fast-slow dynamical system's phase space, with the fast variable on the vertical axis and the slow variable on the horizontal axis. A shaded pink region labeled 'Basin of A' contains stable state A near the origin, while an unshaded region labeled 'Basin of C' contains stable state C at high values of both variables. An unstable state B sits at their boundary. A thin pink tongue, labeled 'singular funnel,' extends from B along the bottom of the diagram to arbitrarily large slow-variable values, illustrated alongside a funnel/hourglass icon.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 24, 2026, 6:39 PM

New research suggests the gallium anomaly, a decades-old mismatch between neutrino experiments and theory, could be solved not by new physics, but by a more rigorous approach to calculate the electron-neutrino capture rate.

Read the Synopsis: https://go.aps.org/3T2BFhN

An illustration with a black background depicts the process of electron-neutrino capture by a gallium atomic nucleus. A horizontal arrow on the left shows an orange particle, an electron neutrino, directed into the nucleus, which is composed of many red and blue spheres representing protons and neutrons and is surrounded by a blurry turquoise halo representing the electron cloud. A bright blue particle to the right is directed outward at an angle, representing an outgoing electron as gallium transforms into germanium.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 23, 2026, 5:33 PM

Scientists reveal the first known observation of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the type-I superconductor ytterbium diantimonide. Learn more about the discovery and what it could mean for topological superconductivity: https://go.aps.org/46Kw5DR

Scientific illustration of a type-I superconducting YbSb2 crystal exhibiting time reversal symmetry breaking. Purple magnetic field lines approach the crystal from the left and bend around the wireframe unit cell, illustrating magnetic field expulsion due to the Meissner effect. The unit cell contains two Yb atoms coordinated by surrounding Sb atoms. Inside the crystal, a red arrow indicates the presence of a spontaneous magnetic field in the superconducting state probed by muons, while translucent Dirac cone structures represent topological electronic states. The background is pale yellow.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 23, 2026, 11:03 AM

How do you confirm your excitons formed a real Bose-Einstein condensate, and not just a crowd that looks like one? A synopsis covers a proposed test that could finally tell the difference: https://go.aps.org/4xDOHAg

Diagram of a two-layer device: a blue upper layer labeled e⁻ contains circulating electrons, and a red lower layer labeled h⁺ contains circulating holes, connected by dashed oval lines indicating electron-hole pairing between the layers. Each layer is wired into its own circuit loop, one containing a battery and the other containing an ammeter, with arrows showing current direction in each loop.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 22, 2026, 8:33 PM

Using a crystal made out of organic magnetic molecules to explore the S = 1 Haldane chain’s unusual properties, physicists have mapped its phase diagram for the first time, confirming decades-old theoretical predictions.

Read the synopsis: https://go.aps.org/4AtoTtc

3D molecular structure of the organic magnetic compound BoNO, showing a ring of gray carbon and white hydrogen atoms with two green-and-red nitroxide groups on either side, and a yellow sphere with an upward arrow at the center representing the molecule's S = 1 electron-pair spin.

@physicsmagazine.aps.org Sep 21, 2026, 3:28 PM

🌀 A tabletop experiment that uses a classical water vortex provides the first direct observation of Kelvin-wave turbulence, confirming a decades-old theory of how turbulence decays in quantum fluids.