Physics

At the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN in Geneva, literally big plans for the future are being forged: The Future Circular Collider (FCC), with a circumference of 91 kilometres, would become the largest machine ever built by human hands. As an important member of the Swiss Institute of Particle Physics, the Paul Scherrer Institute PSIwill participate in this project. Lea Caminada, head of the High Energy Particle Physics Group at PSI, talks about the status of this undertaking.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have, for the first time, made visible how electrons form vortices in a material at room temperature. Their experiment used a quantum sensing microscope with an extremely high resolution.

By analysing images made of coloured dots created by quantum simulators, ETH researchers have studied a special kind of magnetism. In the future this method could also be used to solve other physics puzzles, for instance in superconductivity.

EPFL engineers have developed new software called Pyxu that makes it easier and faster to reconstruct images taken at any scale. Their system employs reusable, and universally applicable, bricks of algorithms.

EPFL researchers have for the first time recorded X-rays being produced at the beginning of upward positive lightning flashes; an observation that gives important insight into the origins of this rare – and particularly dangerous – form of lightning.

EPFL researchers have developed the first comprehensive model of the quantum-mechanical effects behind photoluminescence in thin gold films; a discovery that could drive the development of solar fuels and batteries.