A new model suggests we remember stories, like that of Romeo and Juliet, by using a tree-shaped mental framework. Oh, those star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Most of us can recount their story, even if we can’t recite any specific lines from the play. A new theory by Emory Physics Professor Tankut Can and his … More How We Remember Stories
Emory physicists have teamed up to use a machine-learning method to identify surprising new twists on the non-reciprocal forces governing a many-body system. The journal PNAS published the findings by experimental and theoretical physicists at Emory University, based on a neural network model and data from laboratory experiments on dusty plasma — ionized gas containing suspended dust … More AI reveals unexpected new physics in dusty plasma
In an extensive numerical study just published in Physical Review Letters, Boettcher and Emory undergrad Honor student, Ginger E. Lau, explored the properties of ground states of a spin glass with three-body interactions. The corresponding two-body problem, known as the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model (whose solution earned Parisi the 2021 Nobel prize), is widely recognized as one … More With interacting spins, three’s company
Associate Teaching Professor Jed Brody‘s has published a new book on the joys of quantum computing! Get your copy today at your favorite book retailer! Book Synopsis An engaging and accessible presentation of the most famous algorithms and applications of quantum computing The Joy of Quantum Computing introduces quantum computing succinctly, and with minimal mathematical formalism. … More The Joy of Quantum Computing
Life emerged on Earth some 3.8 billion years ago. The “primordial soup theory” proposes that chemicals floating in pools of water, in the presence of sunlight and electrical discharge, spontaneously formed organic molecules. These building blocks of life underwent chemical reactions, likely driven by RNA, eventually leading to the formation of single cells. But what … More A New Clue to Multicellular Life
Graduate student-worker David Meer recently won the People’s Choice Award in the Gallery of Soft Matter 2025 at the American Physical Society Global Summit for his video titled “Protean Droplet Dynamics in Porous Media”. The video highlights research in progress at the Eric Weeks lab, in collaboration with the Corey O’Hern lab at Yale. Their research explores how … More Graduate student David Meer wins People’s Choice Award
Using theory as a microscope: Modeling multiprotein interactions at the actin filament barbed end Cells regulate the assembly and remodeling of actin networks with the help of numerous actin-binding proteins, many of which specifically target the barbed ends of actin filaments. Mechanistic insights into these processes have been challenging to obtain due to the difficulty … More Using theory as a microscope of the actin matrix
Graduate student Tianhong Lu and Prof. Luiz Santos from Emory Physics Department have made exciting discoveries about exotic quantum states in a special material called twisted bilayer MoTe₂. Their research, published in Physical Review Letters, explores how electrons in this material can form Fractional Chern Insulators (FCIs)—a rare type of quantum phase supporting fractional quasiparticles that … More Mapping the Physics of Moiré Quantum Materials
Emory University graduate student Ekram Towsif and Professor Shashank Shekhar have uncovered groundbreaking insights into the dynamics of actin filaments and the multifunctional actin-binding protein cyclase-associated protein (CAP). Using cutting-edge biophysical techniques, including microfluidics-assisted TIRF microscopy and multispectral single-molecule imaging, their research reveals CAP’s previously unknown role as a processive depolymerase at the barbed ends … More How to Unwind Both Ends of Actin Filaments