Eutelsat has ordered the remaining 340 satellites needed to replenish its OneWeb satellite constellation from Airbus Defence and Space.
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Belgian manufacturer to support early rollout as U.S. commercial PNT startup builds in-house production
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New calculations by physicists in the US provide deeper insights into an exotic material in which superconductivity and magnetism can coexist. Using a specialized effective field theory, Zhengyan Shi and Todadri Senthil at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology show how this coexistence can emerge from the collective states of mobile anyons in certain 2D materials.
An anyon is a quasiparticle with statistical properties that lie somewhere between those of bosons and fermions. First observed in 2D electron gases in strong magnetic fields, anyons are known for their fractional electrical charge and fractional exchange statistics, which alter the quantum state of two identical anyons when they are exchanged for each other.
Unlike ordinary electrons, anyons produced in these early experiments could not move freely, preventing them from forming complex collective states. Yet in 2023, experiments with a twisted bilayer of molybdenum ditelluride provided the first evidence for mobile anyons through observations of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) insulators. This effect appears as fractionally quantized electrical resistance in 2D electron systems at zero applied magnetic field.
Remarkably, these experiments revealed that molybdenum ditelluride can exhibit superconductivity and magnetism at the same time. Since superconductivity usually relies on electron pairing that can be disrupted by magnetism, this coexistence was previously thought impossible.
“This then raises a new set of theoretical questions,” explains Shi. “What happens when a large number of mobile anyons are assembled together? What kind of novel ‘anyonic quantum matter’ can emerge?”
In their study, Shi and Senthil explored these questions using a new effective field theory for an FQAH insulator. Effective field theories are widely used in physics to approximate complex phenomena without modelling every microscopic detail. In this case, the duo’s model captured the competition between anyon mobility, interactions, and fractional exchange statistics in a many-body system of mobile anyons.
To test their model, the researchers considered the doping of an FQAH insulator – adding mobile anyons beyond the plateau in Hall resistance, where the existing anyons were effectively locked in place. This allowed the quasiparticles to move freely and form new collective phases.
“Crucially, we recognized that the fate of the doped state depends on the energetic hierarchy of different types of anyons,” Shi explains. “This observation allowed us to develop a powerful heuristic for predicting whether the doped state becomes a superconductor without any detailed calculations.”
In their model, Shi and Senthil focused on a specific FQAH insulator called a Jain state, which hosts two types of anyon excitations. One type has electrical charge of 1/3 of an electron and the other with 2/3. In a perfectly clean system, doping the insulator with 2/3-charge anyons produced a chiral topological superconductor, a phase that is robust against disorder and features edge currents flowing in only one direction. In contrast, doping with 1/3-charge anyons produced a metal with broken translation symmetry – still conducting, but with non-uniform patterns in its electron density.
“In the presence of impurities, we showed that the chiral superconductor near the superconductor–insulator transition is a novel phase of matter dubbed the ‘anomalous vortex glass’, in which patches of swirling supercurrents are sprinkled randomly across the sample,” Shi describes. “Observing this vortex glass phase would be smoking-gun evidence for the anyonic mechanism for superconductivity.”
The results suggest that even when adding the simplest kind of anyons – like those in the Jain state – the collective behaviour of these quasiparticles can enable the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity. In future studies, the duo hopes that more advanced methods for introducing mobile anyons could reveal even more exotic phases.
“Remarkably, our theory provides a qualitative account of the phase diagram of a particular 2D material (twisted molybdenum ditelluride), although many more tests are needed to rule out other possible explanations,” Shi says. “Overall, these findings highlight the vast potential of anyonic quantum matter, suggesting a fertile ground for future discoveries.”
The research is described in PNAS.
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Portugal has become the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords outlining best practices for responsible space exploration, beating out another European country to be the 60th to join.
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Turin, Italy — Jan. 11, 2026 — The 12U CubeSat LIDE (LIve DEmonstration) has successfully completed its first months of on-orbit operations following its launch July 23, 2025, aboard a […]
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Former House Defense Appropriations aide takes on day-to-day leadership role at U.S. spy satellite agency
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For several years, the space-based geospatial intelligence industry has been chasing a logical vision for AI: use it to make our existing systems faster and smarter. Train models to detect objects. Automate change detection. Speed up analysis. These capabilities have delivered operational benefits. But they’ve also kept us focused on a specific paradigm — collect […]
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Shortly after space week in October, investment firm JP Morgan announced a $10 billion investment plan targeting industries critical for United States national security. In addition to things like nanomaterials, autonomous robotics and solar power, the announcement also focused on funding spacecraft and space launches. JP Morgan’s emphasis on space-related “frontier” technologies is significant, because it signals an acknowledgment that space is becoming an investable sector. What remains unclear is […]
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NASA has provided a long-awaited update on plans for the Artemis 2 launch, including a Jan. 17 rollout of the launch vehicle to the pad.
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It took a year, but the Jared Isaacman era at NASA finally started. Sworn in Dec. 17, the new administrator spoke at a NASA town hall the next day to take questions about his plans for the agency. He offered few specifics about those plans, saying he had to learn about agency activities. But he […]
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The problem of overcrowding orbits and increasing space debris has never been more urgent. International organizations, policy makers, regulators, space operators and researchers are recognizing how critical this issue is and how it could impact all space services and operations, including, but not limited to, satellite broadband, global navigation satellite systems, scientific research and space […]
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India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle failed late Sunday during ascent, resulting in the loss of a primary Earth observation satellite and 15 smaller co-passenger spacecraft.
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I am intrigued by entrepreneurship. Is it something we all innately possess – or can entrepreneurship be taught to anyone (myself included) for whom it doesn’t come naturally? Could we all – with enough time, training and support – become the next Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson or Martha Lane Fox?
In my professional life as an engineer in industry, we often talk about the importance of invention and innovation. Without them, products will become dated and firms will lose their competitive edge. However, inventions don’t necessarily sell themselves, which is where entrepreneurs have a key influence.
So what’s the difference between inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs? An inventor, to me, is someone who creates a new process, application or machine. An innovator is a person who introduces something new or does something for the first time. An entrepreneur, however, is someone who sets up a business or takes on a venture, embracing financial risks with the aim of profit.
Scientists and engineers are naturally good inventors and innovators. We like to solve problems, improve how we do things, and make the world more ordered and efficient. In fact, many of the greatest inventors and innovators of all time were scientists and engineers – think James Watt, George Stephenson and Frank Whittle.
But entrepreneurship requires different, additional qualities. Many entrepreneurs come from a variety of different backgrounds – not just science and engineering – and tend to have finance in their blood. They embrace risk and have unlimited amounts of courage and business acumen – skills I’d need to pick up if wanted to be an entrepreneur myself.
Engineers are encouraged to take risks, exploring new technologies and designs; in fact, it’s critical for companies seeking to stay competitive. But we take risks in a calculated and professional manner that prioritizes safety, quality, regulations and ethics, and project success. We balance risk taking with risk management, spotting and assessing potential risks – and mitigating or removing them if they’re big.
Courage is not something I’ve always had professionally. Over time, I have learned to speak up if I feel I have something to say that’s important to the situation or contributes to our overall understanding. Still, there’s always a fear of saying something silly in front of other people or being unable to articulate a view adequately. But entrepreneurs have courage in their DNA.
So can entrepreneurship be taught? Specifically, can it be taught to people like me with a technical background – and, if so, how? Some of the most famous innovators, like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, James Dyson and Benjamin Franklin, had scientific or engineering backgrounds, so is there a formula for making more people like them?
Let’s start by listing the skills that most engineers have that could be beneficial for entrepreneurship. In no particular order, these include:
However, there are mindset differences between engineers and entrepreneurs that any training would need to overcome. These include:
Such skills may not always come naturally to engineers and scientists, but they can be incorporated into our teaching and learning. Some great examples of how to do this were covered in Physics World last year. In addition, there is a growing number of UK universities offering science and engineering degrees combined with entrepreneurship.
The message is that whilst some scientists and engineers become entrepreneurs, not all do. Simply having a science or engineering background is no guarantee of becoming an entrepreneur, nor is it a requirement. Nevertheless, the problem-solving and technical skills developed by scientists and engineers are powerful assets that, when combined with business acumen and entrepreneurial drive, can lead to business success.
Of course, entrepreneurship may not suit everybody – and that’s perfectly fine. No-one should be forced to become an entrepeneur if they don’t want to. We all need to play to our core strengths and interests and build well-rounded teams with complementary skillsets – something that every successful business needs. But surely there’s a way of teaching entrepeneurism too?
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China has submitted two filings for huge non-geostationary satellite networks to the International Telecommunication Union, indicating moves to secure options for next-generation megaconstellations.
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Shapiro steps – a series of abrupt jumps in the voltage–current characteristic of a Josephson junction that is exposed to microwave radiation – have been observed for the first time in ultracold gases by groups in Germany and Italy. Their work on atomic Josephson junctions provides new insights into the phenomenon, and could lead to a standard for chemical potential.
In 1962 Brian Josephson of the University of Cambridge calculated that, if two superconductors were separated by a thin insulating barrier, the phase difference between the wavefunctions on either side should induce quantum tunneling, leading to a current at zero potential difference.
A year later, Sidney Shapiro and colleagues at the consultants Arthur D. Little showed that inducing an alternating electric current using a microwave field causes the phase of the wavefunction on either side of a Josephson junction to evolve at different rates, leading to quantized increases in potential difference across the junction. The height of these “Shapiro steps” depends only on the applied frequency of the field and the electrical charge. This is now used as a reference standard for the volt.
Researchers have subsequently developed analogues of Josephson junctions in other systems such as liquid helium and ultracold atomic gases. In the new work, two groups have independently observed Shapiro steps in ultracold quantum gases. Instead of placing a fixed insulator in the centre and driving the system with a field, the researchers used focused laser beams to create potential barriers that divided the traps into two. Then they moved the positions of the barriers to alter the potentials of the atoms on either side.
“If we move the atoms with a constant velocity, that means there’s a constant velocity of atoms through the barrier,” says Herwig Ott of RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau in Germany, who led one of the groups. “This is how we emulate a DC current. Now for the Shapiro protocol you have to apply an AC current, and the AC current you simply get by modulating your barrier in time.”
Ott and colleagues in Kaiserslautern, in collaboration with researchers in Hamburg and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), used a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of rubidium-87 atoms. Meanwhile in Italy, Giulia Del Pace of the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy at the University of Florence and colleagues (including the same UAE collaborators) studied ultracold lithium-6 atoms, which are fermions.
Both groups observed the theoretically-predicted Shapiro steps, but Ott and Del Pace explain that these observations do not simply confirm predictions. “The message is that no matter what your microscopic mechanism is, the phenomenon of Shapiro steps is universal,” says Ott. In superconductors, the Shapiro steps are caused by the breaking of Cooper pairs; in ultracold atomic gases, vortex rings are created. Nevertheless, the same mathematics applies. “This is really quite remarkable,” says Ott.
Del Pace says it was unclear whether Shapiro steps would be seen in strongly-interacting fermions, which are “way more interacting than the electrons in superconductors”. She asks, “Is it a limitation to have strong interactions or is it something that actually helps the dynamics to happen? It turns out it’s the latter.”
Del Pace’s group applied a variable magnetic field to tune their system between a BEC of molecules, a system dominated by Cooper pairs and a unitary Fermi gas in which the particles were as strongly interacting as permitted by quantum mechanics. The size of the Shapiro steps was dependent on the strength of the interparticle interaction.
Ott and Del Pace both suggest that this effect could be used to create a reference standard for chemical potential – a measure of the strength of the atomic interaction (or equation of state) in a system.
“This equation of state is very well known for a BEC or for a strongly interacting Fermi gas…but there is a range of interaction strengths where the equation of state is completely unknown, so one can imagine taking inspiration from the way Josephson junctions are used in superconductors and using atomic Josephson junctions to study the equation of state in systems where the equation of state is not known,” explains Del Pace.
The two papers are published side by side in Science: Del Pace and Ott.
Rocío Jáuregui Renaud of the Autonomous University of Mexico is impressed, especially by the demonstration in both bosons and fermions. “The two papers are important, and they are congruent in their results, but the platform is different,” she says. “At this point, the idea is not to give more information directly about superconductivity, but to learn more about phenomena that sometimes you are not able to see in electronic systems but you would probably see in neutral atoms.”
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