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Bizarre quantum phenomenon more common than anticipated, ISTA physicists show A surprising quantum phenomenon that goes against the universe's drive for increased chaos might not be all too exotic after all. So far, quantum many-body scars were thought to exist only under specific experimental conditions.

An international team led by Fabian Garmroudi has succeeded in producing new, efficient thermoelectric materials that could compete with state-of-the-art materials, offering greater stability and lower cost. Thermoelectric materials enable the direct conversion of heat into electrical energy. This makes them particularly attractive for the emerging "Internet of Things", for example for the autonomous energy supply of microsensors and other tiny electronic components.

Together with the company BRAVE Analytics, researchers at TU Graz have developed a method for detecting nanoplastics in liquids and determining their composition. Microplastics and the much smaller nanoplastics enter the human body in various ways, for example through food or the air we breathe. A large proportion is excreted, but a certain amount remains in organs, blood and other body fluids.

Quantum states can only be prepared and observed under highly controlled conditions. A research team from Innsbruck, Austria, has now succeeded in creating so-called hot Schrödinger cat states in a superconducting microwave resonator. The study, recently published in Science Advances , shows that quantum phenomena can also be observed and used in less perfect, warmer conditions.

Research into elementary particles and their interactions is of central importance for our understanding of the universe. A team from the Universities of Innsbruck and Waterloo shows how a new type of quantum computer opens a door into the world of particle physics. The standard model of particle physics provides the best description to date of the forces and particles that make up our world.

Using machine learning workflows developed in-house, the researchers were able to establish that heat conduction is much more intricate than previously thought. Findings offer potential for developing specific materials. Complex materials such as organic semiconductors or the microporous metal-organic frameworks known as MOFs are already being used for numerous applications such as OLED displays, solar cells, gas storage and water extraction.

The [X-MAT] research team from the Chair of Nonferrous Metallurgy, in collaboration with international partners, has made a significant breakthrough in the development of radiation-resistant materials for nuclear fusion reactors. Their latest study, published in Advanced Science (DOI: 10.1002/advs.202417659), challenges conventional high-entropy alloy (HEA) concept by demonstrating that reduced chemical complexity can still achieve superior radiation tolerance.

At TU Wien (Vienna), methods are being developed to extract valuable substances from biomass - and quantum cascade lasers offer some very interesting new possibilities. Much of our waste is far too valuable to simply be incinerated. If it is recycled in a carefully controlled way, not only can thermal energy be generated, but the resulting gas can also be used to produce valuable chemicals - from hydrogen to methane or methanol.

An international research team including the group led by Tracy Northup has developed the first operating system designed for quantum networks: QNodeOS . The research, published in Nature , marks a major step forward in transforming quantum networking from a theoretical concept to a practical technology that could revolutionize the future of the internet.  "The goal of our research is to bring quantum network technology to all.

Manuele Landini from the University of Innsbruck was part of an international team led by researchers at CNR Nanotec in Lecce, Italy, that has demonstrated the emergence of a supersolid phase of matter in a photonic crystal polariton condensate. This pioneering work, published in Nature , introduces a new platform for exploring supersolidity beyond traditional ultracold atomic systems.

ISTA researchers 3D print high-performance, sustainable thermoelectric materials Rapid, localized heat management is essential for electronic devices and could have applications ranging from wearable materials to burn treatment. While so-called thermoelectric materials convert temperature differences to electrical voltage and vice versa, their efficiency is often limited, and their production is costly and wasteful.

Superconducting circuits are being used at TU Wien and ISTA to create new types of quantum systems that are much easier to control and much more tunable than natural quantum systems like atoms. Many objects that we normally deal with in quantum physics are only visible with special microscopes - individual molecules or atoms, for example.

Quantum computers: ISTA physicists achieve optical readout of superconducting qubits Qubits-the fundamental units of quantum information-drive entire tech sectors. Among them, superconducting qubits could be instrumental in building a large-scale quantum computer, but they rely on electrical signals and are difficult to scale.

What happens to the human body during prolonged bed rest or weightlessness? The European Space Agency (ESA) is conducting so-called "bed rest studies" to investigate whether and what changes occur when the body is at rest for an extended period of time. These bed rest studies are carried out at various locations throughout Europe and offer researchers from a wide range of disciplines the opportunity to investigate these unusual circumstances in healthy test subjects.

A new microscopy method can identify molecules. However, the question of its resolving power proved to be a difficult puzzle. It has now been solved at TU Wien. When judging the quality of a microscope, the crucial question is: How large are the smallest structures that can just be made visible with it? How close can two objects be brought together before they can no longer be seen as two separate objects, but blur into a single image blob? With conventional light microscopes, this can be calculated using relatively simple formulas.

Quantum machine models how "false vacuum" decays into "dancing" cosmic bubbles Our Universe might be trapped in a metastable state, called a false vacuum, awaiting a cosmic transition to a more stable true vacuum. Physicists from the University of Leeds, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have modeled this transition, demonstrating how bubbles of true vacuum form and interact.

An international team of researchers, led by physicists from the University of Vienna, has achieved a breakthrough in data processing by employing an "inverse-design" approach. This method allows algorithms to configure a system based on desired functions, bypassing manual design and complex simulations.

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.