Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine a thread so thin it’s invisible to the naked eye but packed with the mass of thousands of stars. This isn’t science fiction—it’s the theoretical description of cosmic strings, structures that may hold answers to the Universe’s greatest mysteries. If confirmed, researchers believe these theoretical strings could unlock the key to time travel.

Cosmic strings, if they exist, are thought to be incredibly slender. Some say they’d be long tubes, either stretching infinitely or looping back on themselves. Despite their thinness, a cosmic string’s mass could rival tens of thousands of stars, and it would gradually shrink over time, radiating gravitational waves as it “wiggles.”

Physicists have proposed two types of cosmic strings thus far. The first, “cosmic superstrings,” stems from string theory, a framework suggesting the Universe’s fundamental particles are vibrating strings. Superstrings could be stretched across the cosmos, providing clues about the fabric of reality and possibly holding the key to time travel, too.

Researchers propose that time is a result of quantum entanglement, the mysterious connection between particles separated by vast distances. Their findings, published in the journal Physical Review A, could offer a clue to solving the problem of time.

“There exists a way to introduce time which is consistent with both classical laws and quantum laws, and is a manifestation of entanglement,” explained Alessandro Coppo, a physicist at the National Research Council of Italy and the study’s lead author. “The correlation between the clock and the system creates the emergence of time, a fundamental ingredient in our lives.”

In quantum mechanics, time is a fixed phenomenon, an unchanging flow from past to present. It remains external to the ever-changing quantum systems it measures and can only be observed through changes in external entities, like the hands of a clock.

New research from the University of Kent has demonstrated that quantum information could eventually be used to coordinate the actions of devices that can move, such as drones or autonomous vehicles. This could lead to more efficient logistics, which could make deliveries cheaper, and better use of limited bandwidth for the likes of self-driving cars.

By carrying out “real world” experiments on a quantum computer, the team of quantum physicists (led by Ph.D. student Josh Tucker in the University of Kent’s School of Physics and Astronomy), found that if the two devices share a pair of quantum coins (qubits), the devices can continue to influence each other even after they have been separated and can no longer communicate.

The experiments simulated the phenomenon using real qubits inside a quantum computer developed by IBM. The qubits are made of superconducting material and kept at temperatures colder than the interstellar void. This allows them to behave according to the laws of quantum physics that defy common sense—including the ability to influence each other without coming into contact and without sending signals.

New work provides a good view of where the field currently stands.

Physicist Matthias Kling studies photons and the things science can do with ultrafast pulses of X-rays. These pulses last just attoseconds – a billionth of a billionth of a second, Kling says. He uses them to create slo-mo “movies” of electrons moving through materials like those used in batteries and solar cells. The gained knowledge could reshape fields like materials science, ultrafast and quantum computers, AI, and medical diagnostics, Kling tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

A new theory that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single photon.

Research at the University of Birmingham, published in Physical Review Letters, explores the nature of photons (individual particles of light) in unprecedented detail to show how they are emitted by atoms or molecules and shaped by their environment.

The nature of this interaction leads to infinite possibilities for light to exist and propagate, or travel, through its surrounding environment. This limitless possibility, however, makes the interactions exceptionally hard to model, and is a challenge that quantum physicists have been working to address for several decades.

The weird thermodynamics found in time crystals could be harnessed to store energy in a quantum battery-like device.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich have developed the first-ever fully functional mechanical qubit. This incredible quantum innovation is a two-in-one system combining the abilities of a mechanical oscillator and a superconducting qubit.

Compared to the traditional virtual qubits that are created using multiple physical qubits and error-correcting codes to protect quantum information, mechanical qubits are real, physical systems that don’t need this extra layer of protection.

Nvidia Corp., the chipmaker at the center of a boom in artificial intelligence use, is teaming up with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pursue another technology once relegated to science fiction: quantum computing.