Mit Physics News Today

MIT astronomers observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe. The findings may shed light on how the earliest supermassive black holes became so massive despite having a relatively short amount of cosmic time in which to grow.

MIT physicists developed a technique to arrange atoms in much closer proximity than previously possible, down to 50 nanometers. The group plans to use the method to manipulate atoms into configurations that could generate the first purely magnetic quantum gate — a key building block for a new type of quantum computer.

MIT senior Olivia Rosenstein's cross-country participation provides momentum to her studies as an experimental physicist working with 2D materials, optics, and computational cosmology.

One of the biggest revelations from the MIT physicist Netta Engelhardt’s work is that information that falls into a black hole isn’t necessarily lost forever. She is now tackling other questions about gravity, hoping to fill the last, largest gaps in physicists’ understanding of the universe at the most fundamental scales.

A previously quiet black hole at the center of a distant galaxy has suddenly erupted, giving off plumes of gas every 8.5 days. These “hiccups” suggest black hole accretion disks may be more varied than previously thought, possibly containing other black holes, and even entire stars.

MIT political science and physics major Leela Fredlund wants to ensure fairness and justice prevail in humanity’s leap to space.

For the first time, MIT physicists have captured direct images of “second sound,” the movement of heat sloshing back and forth within a superfluid. The results will expand scientists’ understanding of heat flow in superconductors and neutron stars.

MIT physicists discovered stars near the edge of the Milky Way travel more slowly than those closer to its center — a surprise suggesting our galaxy’s gravitational core may have less dark matter than previously thought.

MIT physicists have trapped electrons in a pure crystal, marking the first achievement of an electronic flat band in a three-dimensional material. The results provide a new way for scientists to explore rare electronic states in 3D materials.

MIT professors Leonid Mirny, Davesh Maulik, Aram Harrow, Virginia Vassilevska Williams, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan have been selected to receive the 2023 Simons Investigator Awards from the Simons Foundation in support of their work on fundamental theoretical questions of math, physics, and computer science.