Arun Kumar

Quantum computers require magical states — special helper particles for error-free operation. Previously, they were obtained through repeated purification, akin to endless distillation of alcohol: each step added энтропию (disorder), like weeds in a garden, and consumed resources.

Quantum particles in a strongly disordered environment behave like dancers executing steps in sync: each knows its own move and never collides with others. This kind of coordinated, frictionless flow, superfluidity, unexpectedly emerged in an experiment on a superconducting quantum chip.

Ice cubes in a glass melt, and the water mixes on its own. Many quantum systems behave this way: particles exchange energy, and after a while, order disappears. But if you add a spoonful of honey to the glass, mixing slows down, and in intense cold, the water freezes into glass — without a crystal lattice, but also without flow.

A stone falls into a well, and a second later, a splash. A star falls into a black hole, and disappears beyond the horizon, leaving only a ripple in space. But what if the bottom of the well is not a dead end but a passage? In the usual picture, matter compresses into a point of infinite density — a singularity.

Gravitational waves from a tiny body falling into a black hole work like an X-ray image. Only instead of a bone, they illuminate the curved spacetime itself.

Every battery or supercapacitor has an unassuming player — the polymer glue. It binds the active material particles together and helps them stick to the current collector. Previously, it was considered just inert mass: it's there, as long as it doesn't get in the way. But in this work, the glue takes center stage.