Magnons in a sphere squeezed to quantum limit ✎ express

Original: "Magnon squeezing in the quantum regime"
arXiv:2602.19671 · 2026-02-23 · arXiv non-exclusive · independent analysis · 1 min
Physicists have squeezed quantum noise in magnons of a visible crystal for the first time.

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There is always noise in the microworld. Even in absolute emptiness, something trembles, and these quantum fluctuations interfere with precise measurements. But noise can be "squeezed," like a balloon: if you squeeze it from the sides, one part gets thinner while the other bulges. This way, the overall uncertainty, discovered by Heisenberg, doesn't vanish but gets redistributed. That's exactly the squeezing used in detectors like LIGO, for which Rainer Weiss won the Nobel Prize.

Now physicists have squeezed not light, but magnons — collective waves in a magnetic material. A tiny sphere of yttrium iron garnet, the same material found in cell towers to clean signals, was placed in a resonant cavity and coupled with a quantum qubit. This allowed such precise control of the oscillations that on average, there wasn't even one full wave inside the sphere. A special technique (Raman scattering) showed that one side of the noise became quieter by 1 decibel — the first squeezing of magnons in a visible object.

This isn't just a lab trick. Squeezed magnons could become the basis of quantum electronics based on magnetic waves — magnonics. They already promise ultra-sensitive sensors for detecting magnetic fields, and in the future, networks of quantum processors transmitting information not with current, but with waves of magnetization.

A magnon isn't a particle but a quantum of a collective wave: trillions of spins move together, like spectators in a stadium doing the wave in sync.

\Delta x \, \Delta p \ge \frac{h}{4\pi}
Uncertainty principle: the more precisely a particle's position is measured, the greater the spread in its momentum. Squeezing reduces the blur of one parameter at the expense of the other.
Scientists
Niels BohrPascual JordanWerner HeisenbergBernhard RiemannJoseph WeberKarl Schwarzschild
Concepts
yttrium iron garnet squeezed state quantum squeezing quantum sensing ion trap qubit gaussian states squeezed light single spin manipulation cryogenic microwave measurement quark gluon plasma magnon squid magnetic state semiconductor qubits geometric confinement quantum squeezed light sensing schrodinger cat state position uncertainty