QMUL Centre for Experimental Physics and Quantum Technology News

CEPQT visits the UK's deepest underground laboratory

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0100

A team from the Centre for Experimental Physics and Quantum Technology recently travelled to the North East of England to visit the Boulby Underground Laboratory – one of the UK's most specialised research facilities, located more than a kilometre below ground in the nation's deepest mine – the ICL Boulby polyhalite mine. The visiting team included researchers from experimental particle physics (Marcella Bona, Seth Senz, Adrian Bevan and Dominic Howgill), quantum science themes (Jan Mol and James Thomas), and our SPCS facilities team (Atanas Tomov). During the visit, we toured the laboratory's cutting‑edge infrastructure, which supports dark‑matter searches and low‑background experiments, and held discussions on laboratory expansion and the development of a quantum‑technologies research programme that will take advantage of this unique environment. This was not only an excellent opportunity to explore new avenues for applied and curiosity‑driven particle physics research, but also has a link to Queen Mary's history–the UK's first dark‑matter experiment was housed in the Queens' Building here in the heart of East London. The visit also provided an opportunity to deploy environmental‑monitoring technology currently under development by the detector‑development team at QMUL. A system installed during the trip is already collecting valuable data, and we look forward to expanding our collaborations further.

QMUL Researchers Help Advance Practical Quantum Computing with New Low-Depth Algorithms

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0100

A new study published in Science Advances presents a major step forward in the development of quantum algorithms that are more accurate, more efficient, and better suited to the capabilities of early quantum computers. The research from Queen Mary University of London focuses on improving the way quantum computers calculate the fundamental properties of quantum systems—known as eigenstates. These calculations are essential for progress in fields such as chemistry, materials science, and physics, where understanding how particles behave at the quantum level can lead to breakthroughs ranging from new medicines to advanced materials. Traditional quantum algorithms can be highly demanding: they often require deep, complex circuits and large numbers of qubits, making them difficult to run on today's noisy or early fault‑tolerant quantum hardware. The team behind this new work addresses these challenges by designing high‑precision algorithms that significantly reduce circuit depth and minimise the number of difficult controlled operations, making them far more practical for current and near‑future machines. A key innovation explored in the study is the use of randomised linear-combination-of-unitaries technique for realising general quantum operations. This approach allows an efficient implementation of spectral filtering—a technique that allows the quantum computer to 'filter out' the information it needs with high precision. Combined with advanced quantum dynamics simulation methods, the approach lets researchers estimate properties like ground‑state or excited-state energy with near‑optimal efficiency, all while keeping hardware demands low. The work offers rigorous theoretical guarantees and detailed analysis of how these algorithms perform, demonstrating advantages over existing methods. Crucially, the work provides concrete resource estimates for both noisy quantum devices and early fault-tolerant quantum devices. This offers a realistic roadmap for quantum usefulness. With quantum technologies progressing quickly, these findings bring the scientific community a step closer to real‑world quantum simulations that could transform multiple research fields. This advancement highlights the growing impact of quantum algorithm research and its crucial role in unlocking the potential of emerging quantum hardware. This work is led by Dr Jinzhao Sun at the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary, in collaboration with academics at Imperial College, University of Cambridge, and University and Chicago. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb1622

Queen Mary to host Amplitudes 2026

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0100

The Centre for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences is delighted to announce that Queen Mary University of London will host Amplitudes 2026, the international conference on scattering amplitudes, from 29 June to 3 July 2026. Amplitudes is an annual international conference series focused on scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory, string theory, and related areas of high-energy theoretical physics. The series has become since its inception in 2009 a central meeting point for researchers developing modern analytic and geometric methods for computing amplitudes, including unitarity techniques, bootstrap approaches, on-shell methods, twistor and geometric formulations, and connections to gravity and cosmology. The conference brings together leading experts, early-career researchers, and students to share recent advances, foster collaboration, and chart new directions in the study of fundamental interactions. Queen Mary will be the first institution to host Amplitudes twice, having previously held the conference in 2010. An Amplitudes 2026 Summer School will take place the week after the conference, from 6 to 10 July 2026, at the University of Southampton. Both events are funded by SAGEX, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission. For more information, visit the conference website here.

Evidence for a new Higgs boson decay

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Physicists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), together with international collaborators, have found evidence of the decay of Higgs bosons to muons. Muons are particles typically found in cosmic rays and have a low mass, and because of this the Standard Model of particle physics predicts that this decay is very rare. Because of this, this new result offers a unique test of the predicted properties of the Higgs boson: so far this decay is every bit as rare as expected, but now that it has been seen the team is working toward further detailed measurements. The ultimate goal is to find discrepancies between the Higgs and predictions, which would provide clues to new theories Beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The article, "Evidence for the Dimuon Decay of the Higgs Boson in pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector" was published in Physical Review Letters, one of the most distinguished journals in the field. The significance of this evidence and the strength of the analysis earned the paper a Viewpoint selection by the journal's editors, a distinction awarded to only around 0.2% of its published articles. This recognition highlights both the scientific importance of the measurement and the impact of the collaborative contributions that made it possible.  At the Particle Physics Research Centre at QMUL, a dedicated team worked with international collaborators on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The QMUL team contributed key advances that strengthened ATLAS's sensitivity to the Higgs decay into two muons. Led by academics Dr Ulla Blumenschein and Dr Seth Zenz, together with Dr Christos Vergis and PhD student Arnav Avad, the group focused on improving analyses of Higgs production associated with W and Z bosons. The team refined the analysis through updated event selections, improved background-rejection strategies, and advanced AI techniques that enhanced the discrimination between signal and background. They developed a novel search channel in which the Higgs is produced with a Z boson that decays invisibly into neutrinos, extending ATLAS's reach into previously unexplored territory. These QMUL-driven innovations sharpened the precision of this measurement, enabling the Higgs decay to muons to be identified. For the researchers involved, the motivation behind this effort is both scientific and personal. As Dr Blumenschein notes, confirming the Higgs–fermion interaction beyond the third generation remains a central question: "So far we have confirmed the Higgs interaction with fermions only for third-generation fermions. The Higgs might still be a Beyond the Standard Model Higgs that does not interact with the first two generations. So it is very important to check whether it couples to second-generation fermions as expected from the Standard Model."  For Arnav Avad, the project has been as much about discovery as it has been about growth. Working on the Higgs to dimuon analysis exposed him to reconstruction tools, machine-learning methods and even hands-on hardware responsibilities within the ATLAS experiment. As he explains, "I enjoy exploring different methods and tools that help us identify the Higgs boson more clearly when it decays into two muons. QMUL has a close, supportive community where everyone works together to contribute to the ATLAS experiment." Reflecting on his own highlights, he adds, "Publishing a paper in PRL where I made major contributions is very fulfilling… being part of an institution that allows me to review papers and provide feedback is equally enjoyable, as it ensures that all research released to the public from ATLAS meets the highest standards."  The QMUL team is already working on further refinements and new analysis techniques, which will enable even more precise tests of the 2nd generation Higgs interactions in the Standard Model.

New Study Reveals Hidden Diversity in How Bacteria Respond to Antibiotics

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Researchers at the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology and Experimental and Applied Physics together with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London have uncovered a new mechanism that helps bacteria survive antibiotic treatment. Published in Nature Communications, their research shows that RNA repair in E. coli not only enables survival of ribosome-targeting antibiotics but also creates differences in resistance between individual cells within a population. This discovery highlights the complexity of bacterial survival strategies and opens new avenues for tackling antibiotic resistance. Hindley, H.J., Gong, Z., Moradian, S. et al. Heterogeneity in responses to ribosome-targeting antibiotics mediated by bacterial RNA repair. Nat Commun 16, 9620 (2025). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64759-3.