Research Highlights

The flagship supercomputer of the CSCS, "Piz Daint", needs to be replaced. Installation of the successor computer, "Alps", is taking place in three phases and will be completed in 2023. CSCS Director Thomas Schulthess explains in an interview why the new computer is so special.

Researchers at ETH have demonstrated a new technique for carrying out sensitive quantum operations on atoms. In this technique, the control laser light is delivered directly inside a chip. This should make it possible to build large-scale quantum computers based on trapped atoms.

Researchers at ETH have managed to make an efficient material for broadband frequency doubling of light using microspheres made of disordered nanocrystals. The crucial idea for the method arose during a coffee break. In the future, the new approach could be used in lasers and other light technologies.

In a material made of two thin crystal layers that are slightly twisted with respect to each other, researchers at ETH have studied the behaviour of strongly interacting electrons. Doing so, they found a number of surprising properties.

Physicists at ETH Zurich have demonstrated a five-metre-long microwave quantum link, the longest of its kind date. It can be used both for future quantum computer networks and for experiments in basic quantum physics research.

Physicists at ETH Zurich have observed a surprising twist in a quantum system caused by the interplay between energy dissipation and coherent quantum dynamics. To explain it, they found a concrete analogy to mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is a well-established theory, but at a macroscopic level it leads to intractable contradictions. Now ETH physicists are proposing to resolve the problem with the aid of neural networks.

Metamaterials defy conventions, making rigid media flexible, soft materials transmit signals, and sound and light behave in bizarre ways. Metamaterials are engineered to possess properties not found in nature.

ETH researchers have developed a compact infrared spectrometer. It’s small enough to fit on a computer chip but can still open up interesting possibilities – in space and in everyday life.

A team of physicists and computer scientists at ETH Zurich has developed a new approach to the problem of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Using machine learning tools, they programmed computers to teach themselves how to extract the relevant information from maps of the universe.

In recent decades, NMR spectroscopy has made it possible to capture the spatial structure of chemical and biochemical molecules. Now researchers at ETH have found a way to apply this measurement principle to individual atoms.

In quantum physics the vacuum is not empty, but rather steeped in tiny fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Until recently it was impossible to study those vacuum fluctuations directly. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method that allows them to characterize the fluctuations in detail.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have used trapped calcium ions to demonstrate a new method for making quantum computers immune to errors. To do so, they created a periodic oscillatory state of an ion that circumvents the usual limits to measurement accuracy.

Light particles normally do not «feel» each other because there is no interaction acting between them. Researchers at ETH have now succeeded in manipulating photons inside a semiconductor material in such a way as to make them repel each other nevertheless.

Astrophysicists of the University of Zürich and ETH Zürich show how the icy moons of Uranus were born. Their result suggests that such potentially habitable worlds are much more abundant in the Universe than previously thought.

The theory of quantum mechanics is well supported by experiments. Now, however, a thought experiment by ETH physicists yields unexpected contradictions. These findings raise some fundamental questions – and they’re polarising experts.

To make qubits for quantum computers less susceptible to noise, the spin of an electron or some other particle is preferentially used. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed a method that makes it possible to couple such a spin qubit strongly to microwave photons.

In the photoelectric effect, a photon ejects an electron from a material. Researchers at ETH have now used attosecond laser pulses to measure the time evolution of this effect in molecules. From their results they can deduce the exact location of a photoionization event. 

In the new quantum information technologies, fragile quantum states have to be transferred between distant quantum bits. Researchers at ETH have now realized such a quantum transmission between two solid-state qubits at the push of a button.

ETH physicists have developed a quantum cascade laser that can be used to visualise weak infrared signals from space. It is now being put to use on a flight of the world’s largest airborne observatory.

Nowadays, it is accepted among physicists that Albert Einstein was wrong in his scepticism of quantum mechanics. This was also confirmed by the Big Bell Test involving over 100,000 people around the world in November 2016.

With an instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile scientists of ETH Zurich observed planet-forming disks around young stars similar to the sun 4,5 billion years ago. Surprisingly, the disks are very different. The data will help to shed more light on the formation processes of planets.

Plants can convert sunlight into chemical energy with a high degree of efficiency. How this is achieved is still not entirely clear. ETH physicists have now constructed a quantum physical model that aims to answer this question.

An international collaboration led by ETH physicists has used machine learning to teach a computer how to predict the outcomes of quantum experiments. The results could prove to be essential for testing future quantum computers.

ETH physicists have developed a silicon wafer that behaves like a topological insulator when stimulated using ultrasound. They have thereby succeeded in turning an abstract theoretical concept into a macroscopic product.

In our daily experience space has three dimensions. Recently, however, a physical phenomenon that only occurs in four spatial dimensions could be observed in two experiments. The theoretical groundwork for those experiments was laid by an ETH researcher.

When symmetries in quantum systems are spontaneously broken, the collective excitation modes change in characteristic ways. Researchers at ETH have now directly observed such Goldstone and Higgs modes for the first time.

Scanning tunnelling microscopes can make individual atoms of a material visible. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now also measured their magnetization using such a microscope. The new technology could be used in magnetic imaging as well as in magnetic information processing.

Science and the IT industry have high hopes for quantum computing, but descriptions of possible applications tend to be vague. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now come up with a concrete example that demonstrates what quantum computers will actually be able to achieve in the future.

Accurate measurements of the frequencies of weak electric or magnetic fields are important in many applications. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed a procedure whereby a quantum sensor measures the frequency of an oscillating magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy.

Gases in the environment can be spectroscopically probed fast and precisely using so-called dual frequency combs. Researchers at ETH have now developed a method by which such frequency combs can be created much more simply and cheaply than before.

Light particles do not usually react to magnetic fields. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now shown how photons can still be influenced by electric and magnetic fields. In the future that method could be used to create strong artificial magnetic fields for photons.

CERN’s CMS experiment – one of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider received a new heart today – a pixel detector much like a high-speed digital camera that snaps images up to 40 million times per second.

When matter is cooled to near absolute zero, intriguing phenomena emerge. These include supersolidity, where crystalline structure and frictionless flow occur together. ETH researchers have succeeded in realising this strange state experimentally for the first time.

Theoretical physicists from ETH Zurich deliberately misled intelligent machines, and thus refined the process of machine learning. They created a new method that allows computers to categorise data – even when humans have no idea what this categorisation might look like.

Quantum systems consisting of many particles are a major challenge for physicists, since their behaviour can be determined only with immense computational power. ETH physicists have now discovered an elegant way to simplify the problem.

Quantum mechanics can be entertaining: anyone with a few minutes to spare for a video game on 30 November can do their bit to help solve a fundamental question of physics that was once argued over by Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr. ETH Professor Andreas Wallraff explains what the Big Bell Test is all about.

Electrons in a solid can team up to form so-called quasiparticles, which lead to new phenomena. Physicists at ETH in Zurich have now studied previously unidentified quasiparticles in a new class of atomically thin semiconductors. The researchers use their results to correct a prevailing misinterpretation.

Young giant planets are born from gas and dust. Researchers of ETH Zürich and the Universities of Zürich and Bern simulated different scenarios relying on the computing power of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) to find out how they exactly form and evolve.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered a peculiar feature in oscillations similar to that of a child‘s swing. As a result, they have succeeded in outlining a novel principle for small, high-resolution sensors, and have submitted a patent application for it.

The electronic energy states allowed by quantum mechanics determine whether a solid is an insulator or whether it conducts electric current as a metal. Researchers at ETH have now theoretically predicted a novel material whose energy states exhibit a hitherto unknown peculiarity.

Electronic components have become faster and faster over the years, thus making powerful computers and other technologies possible. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now investigated how fast electrons can ultimately be controlled with electric fields. Their insights are of importance for the petahertz electronics of the future.

The deuteron — one of the simplest atomic nuclei, consisting of just one proton and one neutron — is considerably smaller than previously thought. This finding was arrived at by an international research group.

ETH researchers studying how stars are formed in distant galaxies have made an unexpected discovery: a correlation that exists today between the proportion of heavy chemical elements in a galaxy and the rate at which new stars are formed in this galaxy did not apply 10 billion years ago. This observation helps scientists understand how galaxies with their stars and planets were formed over billions of years.

For years physicists have strived to control the quantum states of atoms or molecules very accurately. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now established a record for the size of  quantum states generated with massive particles. Their technique could be used to make quantum computers faster.

In phase transitions, for instance between water and water vapour, the motional energy competes with the attractive energy between neighbouring molecules. Physicists at ETH Zurich have now studied quantum phase transitions in which distant particles also influence one another.

Entanglement between distant quantum objects is an important ingredient for future information technologies. Researchers at the ETH have now developed a method with which such states can be created a thousand times faster than before.

Studying peculiar properties of a long known metallic material researchers have chanced upon a new particle. It is related to the so-called Weyl fermions that the mathematician Hermann Weyl predicted almost ninety years ago. Weyl had overlooked the particle, which could have interesting applications in electronics.

Resonators are an important tool in physics. The curved mirrors inside the resonators usually focus light waves that act, for instance, on atoms. Physicists at ETH Zurich have now managed to build a resonator for electrons and to direct the standing waves thus created onto an artificial atom.

A research team has observed structures racing out from the centre of a young star's debris disk at high speeds. It is still unclear what causes the phenomenon.

Black holes can be found at the centres of most galaxies. Most have little mass compared with their host galaxy. ETH researchers, however, have discovered a particularly massive black hole, which clearly grew so quickly that the host galaxy was not able to keep pace. This calls into question previous thinking on the co-evolution of galaxies and their central black holes.

Sebastian Huber and his colleagues show that the road from abstract theory to practical applications needn’t always be very long. Their mechanical implementation of a quantum mechanical phenomenon could soon be used for soundproofing purposes.

Astronomers at ETH Zurich have confirmed the existence of a young giant gas planet still embedded in the midst of the disk of gas and dust surrounding its parent star. For the first time, scientists are able to directly study the formation of a planet at a very early stage.

Active galactic nuclei are the brightest objects in the universe. They are not lit up permanently, but rather ‘flicker’ extremely slowly. This insight helps ETH researchers better understand the influence these nuclei and black holes have on their host galaxy.

Two years ago, an international research collaboration set out to investigate the mysterious dark matter and dark energy in our universe. Now an ETH postdoctoral researcher has co-led a publication presenting the exciting first results. ETH professor Alexandre Refregier explains why this publication will have a high impact and whether it proves Albert Einstein wrong.

Jonathan Home’s laboratory has a room full of equipment that traps tiny ions and places them in special quantum states – perhaps the first step towards building a quantum computer.

In experiments using ultracold atoms and laser light, ETH researchers have measured a stepwise change in conductivity as the atoms pass through tiny structures. This is the first time that this quantum effect has been observed for electrically neutral particles.

With a combination of solid-state physics and quantum optics, ETH researchers observe new multiparticle states that so far defied a complete theoretical description. The experiments might be the first step towards developing quantum computers based on photons.

Strong solar flares can bring down communications and power grids on Earth. By demonstrating how these gigantic eruptions are caused, ETH physicists are laying the foundations for future predictions.

In experiments using the wonder material graphene, ETH researchers have been able to demonstrate a phenomenon predicted by a Russian physicist more than 50 years ago. They analysed a layer structure that experts believe may hold unimagined promise.

Google and American defence company Lockheed Martin paid more than USD 10 million for a quantum computer, although its exact capabilities are unknown. A team headed by ETH professor Matthias Troyer examined the question of how to properly test such devices, creating quite a stir in the process.

A new and innovative computing machine is currently attracting a great deal of attention in specialist circles. A team under the leadership of Matthias Troyer, a professor at ETH Zurich, has now confirmed that the machine uses quantum effects. However, it is not any faster than a traditional computer.

Scientists from ETH Zurich and PSI have found evidence that the magnetic properties of particular materials can be modified extremely quickly. This offers a glimmer of hope that it will be possible to produce ultra-fast computer hard drives from such materials in the future.

A new instrument at the Paranal Observatory in Chile produces detailed, colour-spectrum images of celestial objects. Scientists expect that the instrument, called MUSE, will provide evidence of a network of gas filament structures that has been postulated to exist in space.

The decryption of secret information using quantum physics is currently causing a stir in the media. But not enough attention is paid to the fact that quantum physics is also revolutionising the encryption of data, says ETH professor Renato Renner in an interview with ETH News.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed an algorithm that simulates high-temperature superconductivity much faster.

Converting heat directly into power with so-called thermoelectric materials could be a major source of renewable energy. Physicists now precisely simulated the behavior of such materials – in an experiment with cold atoms trapped by lasers.

As many expected, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to British scientist Peter Higgs and Belgian scientist François Englert for their work developing the theory that lead to the discovery of the Higgs-Boson. The awarding of this prize indirectly recognises the work of CERN and many ETH researchers.