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Scientists from the Vaziri lab at the Vienna Biocenter (Austria), together with colleagues at the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics at the University of Chicago, have developed a method using infrared spectroscopy and atomistic modeling that would allow to better understand the mechanism behind the extreme ion selectivity and transport properties in ion channels.

In the journal Physical Review Letters, Gerhard Kirchmair's and Oriol Romero-Isart's research team has presented a new proposal for the coupling between a micro-mechanic oscillator and a superconducting quantum circuit. The experiment will soon be implemented in Innsbruck, offering new insights into the quantum properties of macroscopic mechanical systems.

A quantum network requires efficient interfaces over which information can be transferred from matter to light and back. In the current issue of Physical Review Letters, Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Tracy Northup show how this information transfer can be optimized by taking advantage of a collective quantum phenomenon.

In Innsbruck a team of physicists led by Francesca Ferlaino experimentally observed how the anisotropic properties of particles deform the Fermi surface in a quantum gas. The work published in Science provides the basis for future studies on how the geometry of particle interactions may influence the properties of a quantum system.

In Innsbruck a team of physicists led by Francesca Ferlaino experimentally observed how the anisotropic properties of particles deform the Fermi surface in a quantum gas. The work published in Science provides the basis for future studies on how the geometry of particle interactions may influence the properties of a quantum system.

In recent years, it has become possible to see directly individual atoms using electron microscopy - especially in graphene, the one-atom-thick sheet of carbon. An international collaboration between the University of Vienna and research teams from the UK and the US has shown how an electron beam can move silicon atoms through the graphene lattice without causing damage.

The research team of Annette Rompel from the Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna explore the mechanisms behind the "browning reaction" during the spoilage of mushrooms. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the enzyme responsible is already formed prior to fungal spoiling.

Researchers from the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ), and the University of Vienna have developed a fundamentally new quantum imaging technique with strikingly counterintuitive features. For the first time, an image has been obtained without ever detecting the light that was used to illuminate the imaged object, while the light revealing the image never touches the imaged object.

Can neutrons be located at a different place than their own spin? A quantum experiment, carried out by a team of researchers from the Vienna University of Technology, demonstrates a new kind of quantum paradox. The Cheshire Cat featured in Lewis Caroll's novel 'Alice in Wonderland' is a remarkable creature: it disappears, leaving its grin behind.

Vacuum fluctuations may be among the most counter-intuitive phenomena of quantum physics. Theorists from the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel) and the Vienna University of Technology propose a way to amplify their force. Vacuum is not as empty as one might think. In fact, empty space is a bubbling soup of various virtual particles popping in and out of existence ' a phenomenon called 'vacuum fluctuations'.

Quasiparticles can be used to explain physical phenomena in solid bodies even though they are not actual physical particles. Physicists in Innsbruck have now realized quasiparticles in a quantum system and observed quantum mechanical entanglement propagation in a many-body system.

Several universities have come together to construct Austria's most powerful mainframe computer. Phase VSC-3 (Vienna Scientific Cluster 3) offers not only impressive computing power, but also serious energy efficiency. Austria's scientific community has a new super computer. Comprising more than 32,000 individual processor cores, the VSC-3 cluster is now being put into operation in the Science Center at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien).

A group of physicists has developed a new technology to transfer magnetic fields to arbitrary long distances, which is comparable to transmitting and routing light in optical fibers. Oriol Romero-Isart and his colleagues have theoretically proposed and already tested this new device experimentally. In today's high-tech world, transferring electromagnetic waves is essential for many technologies.

At the Vienna University of Technology a system of coupled lasers has been created which exhibits truly paradoxical behaviour: An increase in energy supply switches the lasers off, reducing the energy can switch them on. Sound waves fade, water waves ebb, light waves are dissipated by a wall. The absorption of waves is a very common phenomenon.

In a close collaborative effort, Spanish and Austrian physicists have experimentally encoded one quantum bit (qubit) in entangled states distributed over several particles and for the first time carried out simple computations on it. The 7-qubit quantum register could be used as the main building block for a quantum computer that corrects any type of error.

The quantum tunnel effect manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. Experimental physicists in Innsbruck, Austria, have now directly observed quantum particles transmitting through a whole series of up to five potential barriers under conditions where a single particle could not do the move.

Using miniaturized laser technology, a tiny sensor has been built at the Vienna University of Technology which can test the chemical composition of liquids. They are invisible, but perfectly suited for analysing liquids and gases; infrared laser beams are absorbed differently by different molecules.

At TU Vienna, a new method was developed to utilize quantum mechanical vibrations for high precision measurements. The well-known concept of the Ramsey interferometer is applied to a complex multi particle system consisting of hundreds of atoms. Sometimes quantum particles behave like waves. This phenomenon is often used for high precision measurements, for instance in atomic clocks.

Imagine a tower builds itself into the desired structure only by choosing the appropriate bricks. Absurd - and however, in the nano world this is reality: There an unordered crowd of components can initiate the formation of an ordered structure - a process known as self-assembly. The physicists Christos Likos (University of Vienna), Emanuela Bianchi and Gerhard Kahl (both Vienna University of Technology) investigate how they can control the ordering of such self-assembling structures and found out how to switch the assembly process on and off.

Imperfections in the regular atomic arrangements in crystals determine many of the properties of a material, and their diffusion is behind many microstructural changes in solids. However, imaging non-repeating atomic arrangements is difficult in conventional materials. Now, researchers at the University of Vienna have directly imaged the diffusion of a butterfly-shaped atomic defect in graphene, the recently discovered two-dimensional wonder material, over long image sequences.