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Scientists have found new paths to steer and optimize electrochemical processes. Optimizing electrochemical reactions is essential for the transition to renewable energies. In electrochemical reactions, electric currents and potential differences are used to binding and induce reactions. Electrochemistry is a pre-requisite for hydrogen production, and for batterie technology, and thus for sustainable chemistry.

Würzburg physicists have discovered that quantum entanglement toughens up quasiparticles against impurity scattering - even when they are subject to strong disorder. Physicists at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) have made a discovery that could boost the understanding of the role of entanglement in high-temperature copper oxide superconductors.

On May 29, 2023, the LIGO Livingston detector observed a mysterious signal, called GW230529. It originated from the merger of a neutron star with an unknown compact object, most likely an unusually light-weight black hole. With a mass of only a few times that of our Sun, the object falls into the "lower mass gap" between the heaviest neutron stars and the lightest black holes.

An international team including researchers from the University of Würzburg has succeeded in creating a special state of superconductivity. This discovery could advance the development of quantum computers. Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity without electrical resistance - making them the ideal base material for electronic components in MRI machines, magnetic levitation trains and even particle accelerators.

Experimental and theoretical physicists at the Würzburg Institute for Topological Insulators have identified an unusual quantum Hall effect in a mercury telluride device as the signature of the parity anomaly . Topological insulators are materials that can conduct electricity, but only on their surface or edges.

Research team led by Göttingen University make extremely fast, precise images for first time From solar panels on our roofs to the new OLED TV screens, many everyday electronic devices simply wouldn't work without the interaction between light and the materials that make up semiconductors. A new category of semiconductors is based on organic molecules, which largely consist of carbon, such as buckminsterfullerene.

The travelling salesman problem is considered a prime example of combinatorial optimization problems. Now a Berlin team led by theoretical physicist Jens Eisert from Freie Universität Berlin has shown that a certain class of such problems can actually be solved better and much faster using quantum computers than with conventional methods.

New study from team of quantum physicists at Freie Universität Berlin challenges traditional understanding of quantum machine learning Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science that focuses on the use of data and algorithms to allow computers to learn without explicitly being programmed.

Researchers measure heat flow: from active metabolic forces inside cell to flickering cell membrane Entropy is often associated with disorder and chaos, but in biology it is related to energy efficiency and is closely linked to metabolism, the set of chemical reactions that sustain life. This research was led by the Universities of Barcelona and Padua, with the participation of Göttingen University and the Universities Complutense and Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid.

Breakthrough in materials research: A team from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat has developed an innovative protective film for 2D quantum materials that could play a key role in shaping the future of electronics. As silicon-based computer chips approach their physical limitations in the quest for faster and smaller designs, the search for alternative materials that remain functional at atomic scales is one of science's biggest challenges.

Felix H. Schacher, Dr Purushottam Poudel, Dr Sarah Walden & Isabelle Staude (l.t.r. Combining Two Established Systems to Create Something New "Both meta-surfaces and light-switchable polymers have been known in principle for decades," explains Sarah Walden from the Institute of Solid State Physics, who now leads a research group in Australia.

Research team analyses organic material from the early Earth tracing its origin and composition To learn about the first organisms on our planet, researchers have to analyse the rocks of the early Earth. These can only be found in a few places on the surface of the Earth. The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is one of these rare sites: there are rocks there that are around 3.5 billion years old containing traces of the microorganisms that lived at that time.

The nanosensors can be used to track reactions with invisible light, saving materials and time. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS and Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have developed a process that enables a new form of signal amplification for diagnostic tests. Through the advanced use of luminescent single walled carbon nanotubes in bioanalytics, test procedures can be carried out more sensitively, quickly and cheaply.

Researchers gain insights into charge transfer at atomically thin interfaces between semiconductors. Semiconductors are ubiquitous in modern technology, working to either enable or prevent the flow of electricity. In order to understand the potential of two-dimensional semiconductors for future computer and photovoltaic technologies, researchers from the Universities of Göttingen, Marburg and Cambridge investigated the bond that builds between the electrons and holes contained in these materials.

Physicists from Heidelberg, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and the USA establish new value for the neutron skin of lead-208 Measurement data from collisions of heavy ions can provide insight into the neutron distribution in atomic nuclei, according to an international research team led by Dr Giuliano Giacalone from the Institute for Theoretical Physics of Heidelberg University.

GPT-3, the language model behind the well-known AI system ChatGPT, can also be utilised in chemistry to solve various scientific tasks. This was demonstrated by a team of researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications (HIPOLE) Jena.

Artificial intelligence using neural networks performs calculations digitally with the help of microelectronic chips. Physicists at Leipzig University have now created a type of neural network that works not with electricity but with so-called active colloidal particles. In their publication in the prestigious journal "Nature Communications", the researchers describe how these microparticles can be used as a physical system for artificial intelligence and the prediction of time series.

Artificial intelligence with neural networks performs calculations digitally with the help of microelectronic chips. Physicists at Leipzig University have now realized a form of neural network that does not work with electricity but with so-called active colloidal particles. Their publication in the renowned journal "Nature Communications" deals with the use of these microparticles as a physical system for artificial intelligence and the prediction of time series.

Researchers have developed a new way to control and manipulate optical signals by embedding a liquid crystal layer into waveguides created with direct laser writing. The new devices enable electro-optical control of polarization, which could open new possibilities for chip-based devices and complex photonic circuits based on femtosecond-written waveguides.

Researchers in the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts at Universität Hamburg and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) have developed the world's only transportable computer tomography device. Using this device, we can now read 4,000 year old cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia for the first time.