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Quantum gravity

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Never-Repeating Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information

February 23, 2024

Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction.

The Year in Physics

December 21, 2023

From the smallest scales to the largest, the physical world provided no shortage of surprises this year.

Quantum Complexity Shows How to Escape Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox

August 2, 2023

Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information.

Does Nothingness Exist?

July 26, 2023

Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost every facet of physical reality. The theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia explains to Steven Strogatz why it’s so important in modern physics to understand what a true vacuum is.

Q&A

The Physicist Who’s Challenging the Quantum Orthodoxy

July 10, 2023

For decades, physicists have struggled to develop a quantum theory of gravity. But what if gravity — and space-time — are fundamentally classical?

A New Map of the Universe, Painted With Cosmic Neutrinos

June 29, 2023

Physicists finally know where at least some of these high-energy particles come from, which helps make the neutrinos useful for exploring fundamental physics.

In New Paradox, Black Holes Appear to Evade Heat Death

June 6, 2023

The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the second law of quantum complexity.

Q&A

The Physicist Who Glues Together Universes

May 25, 2023

Renate Loll has helped pioneer a radically new approach to quantum gravity. She assumes that the fabric of space-time is a blend of all possible fabrics, and she has developed the computational tools needed to calculate the far-reaching implications of that assumption.

Wormhole Experiment Called Into Question

March 23, 2023

Last fall, a team of physicists announced that they had teleported a qubit through a holographic wormhole in a quantum computer. Now another group suggests that’s not quite what happened.

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