news 2025

Breakthrough in materials research: an alloy of several metals has been developed that shows practically no thermal expansion over an extremely large temperature interval. Most metals expand when their temperature rises. The Eiffel Tower, for example, is around 10 to 15 centimetres taller in summer than in winter due to its thermal expansion.

Is there a contradiction between quantum theory and thermodynamics? On the surface, yes - but at TU Wien, researchers have now shown how the two fit together perfectly. It is one of the most important laws of nature that we know: The famous second law of thermodynamics says that the world gets more and more disordered, when random chance is at play.

A research collaboration between the University of Cambridge and semiconductor physicists at the JKU has achieved a breakthrough in the field of quantum networks. This allows quantum information to be cached for longer - an essential prerequisite for the development of quantum networks for quantum communication and quantum computers.

Various methods are used to correct errors in quantum computers. Not all'operations can be implemented equally well with different correction codes. Therefore, a research team from the University of Innsbruck, together with a team from RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich, has developed a method and implemented it experimentally for the first time, with which a quantum computer can switch back and forth between two correction codes and thus perform all computing operations protected against errors.

A kind of 'umbilical cord' between different quantum states can be found in some materials. Researchers at TU Wien have now shown that this 'umbilical cord' is generic to many materials. It is a basic principle of quantum theory: sometimes certain physical quantities can only assume very specific values; all the values in between are simply not permitted by physics.

Quantum simulators are a completely new tool for research: quantum physics is studied by other kinds of quantum physics. Research teams from Innsbruck and Vienna are developing a new method that will allow this new technology to be reliably verified. Quantum physics is a very diverse field: it describes particle collisions shortly after the Big Bang as well as electrons in solid materials or atoms far out in space.

Quantum simulators are a completely new tool for research: quantum physics is studied by other kinds of quantum physics. Research teams from Innsbruck and Vienna are developing a new method that will allow this new technology to be reliably verified. Quantum physics is a very diverse field: it describes particle collisions shortly after the Big Bang as well as electrons in solid materials or atoms far out in space.