#quantumgravity

NASA and Infleqtion Launch First Space-Based Gravity Gradiometer

Earth-quantum gravity monitoring

A historic partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and quantum technology startup Infleqtion will launch the Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder (QGGPf) mission, which will change how people observe Earth from above. This ambitious initiative will launch the first quantum sensor to detect Earth's gravitational field and gradients in low Earth orbit (LEO). With nearly $20 million in contractual mission financing, the project continues American leadership in quantum space sensing and strategic intelligence.

Subatomic Precision Science

This project uses a quantum mechanical gadget with extraordinary measuring sensitivity. This quantum gravity gradiometer uses ultracold rubidium atom clouds frozen to near absolute zero, unlike conventional sensors. Lasers regulate these atoms, making them a steady measurement reference.

It was chosen as a lab for a reason. In weightless space, atoms and lasers can interact longer. This lengthy interaction is necessary to increase measurement sensitivity to detect even the slightest gravity changes. As a “technology pathfinder,” the QGGPf will demonstrate the feasibility of cold-atom systems, enabling a new class of scientific equipment.

Planetary Change Monitoring

The QGGPf aims to monitor mass dynamics over Earth's surface in unprecedented resolution. The sensor detects tiny gravitational field changes to track water, ice, and land flow. These signals are essential for global resource management and environmental health.

This mission will offer high-resolution data on natural resource and subsurface water changes. Long-term security, economic planning, and environmental resistance require this data. Due to its worldwide orbit, the sensor can monitor melting ice sheets and remote groundwater supplies.

Strong Public-Private Partnership

The QGGPf mission proves government-private sector partnership works. JPL leads the mission, although Jemba9, Monarch Quantum, the University of Texas at Austin, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provide valuable expertise.

Infleqtion designs, develops, and integrates the quantum core, which is crucial to the hardware's success. The complex vacuum, laser, and control subsystems keep rubidium atoms ultracold as they traverse thousands of miles per hour into space.

Quantum sensing presents a new frontier for U.S. space leadership, said Infleqtion Chief Science Officer Dana Anderson, emphasizing its strategic importance. He stated, “By putting this technology in orbit, the team is setting the stage for future capabilities that will provide unprecedented insight into our planet.”

Adding to a Tradition

As the latest space-based gravity mapping, the QGGPf is not unique. It builds on the GRACE mission series, which pioneered orbital gravity measurements. The JPL-Infleqtion Cold Atom Lab (CAL) program on the International Space Station provides technological insights for the mission.

This “quantum heritage” ensures that the pathfinder mission is built on proven engineering while exploring the next frontier. In addition to environmental science, the mission's success will affect navigation, resource management, and national security, which require accuracy and independence.

Vision 2030 and Corporate Growth

The QGGPf mission announcement coincides with Infleqtion's growth.

QGGPf has a timeline: Infleqtion and NASA will finish sensor hardware development in three years. The 2030 one-year mission will launch after a flight demonstration.

Hořava Lifshitz Gravity

Theoretical physicists have attempted to reconcile Albert Einstein's General Relativity with quantum mechanics' restless, uncertain universe. A new study suggests that Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity, a modified theory of gravity, may have the potential to solve a long-standing scientific mystery: the destiny of stuff within a black hole.

Under Takamasa Kanai from Kochi College's National Institute of Technology, the research team has proposed a new explanation of the universe's fundamental equations' "ultraviolet" (UV) behavior. By studying the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation, also known as the “wave function of the universe,” the researchers found that black holes may not undergo the terrifying “annihilation” many expect.

Problem with Singularities

Classical general relativity views space and time as a four-dimensional fabric. In the center of a black hole, this model collapses, creating a singularity with infinite density and zero volume where physics breaks out. Scientists have believed that a coherent quantum gravity theory would “smooth out” these singularities, but the mathematical path to such a theory has been plagued by “infinities” that are nearly impossible to compute.

What is Hořava-Lifshitz Gravity?

Kanai and colleagues utilized Hořava-Lifshitz gravity to circumvent mathematical obstacles. Unlike General Relativity, HL gravity creates a basic “anisotropy” between space and time at high energies. At the “ultraviolet” scale, the realm of extremely short distances and strong curvatures deep inside a black hole scales differently in space and time.

This paradigm is revolutionary because it allows “renormalization,” a mathematical method that tames quantum gravity infinities. By eliminating Lorentz invariance at high energies, HL gravity simplifies geometry's quantum dynamics and achieves power-counting renormalizability.

Stopping “Annihilation-to-Nothing”

The “annihilation-to-nothing” scenario was the study's biggest finding. Wave packets reflecting conflicting time directions or space geometries nearing a singularity in earlier quantum gravity models may cancel each other out, culminating in “nothingness.”

However, the Kochi College team showed that the terms that dominate the high-energy UV regime in HL gravity attenuate this annihilation behavior. A “minisuperspace” model, which simplifies the universe for precise mathematical answers, was used to study spherical, planar, and hyperbolic structures.

In each case, they found:

The wave function inside the black hole remains strong.

A “running scaling parameter” and high-order curvature terms stabilize quantum systems near the singularity and event horizon.

In the UV domain of HL gravity, wave packets are not annihilated.

A Quantum Bounce Instead of Singularity?

Significant implications follow this revelation. If the wave function survives, quantum processes may cause a “quantum bounce” or stable inner state. This solves the singularity problem that has puzzled physicists since Einstein by preventing black hole density from becoming infinite. Researchers conclude that the normal annihilation-to-nothing behavior of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity does not occur in the ultraviolet domain. This suggests that the previously anticipated “nothingness” is a mathematical trick of General Relativity that disappears with quantum principles.

The Future of Quantum Cosmology

The Wheeler-DeWitt equation is the most powerful window into the creation of the universe and the mysterious depths of black holes. This work is part of a global effort to understand it. Kanai's team has developed analytical answers based on mathematical reasoning rather than computer simulations, unlike other teams like Aalto University's.

Unlock the deepest cosmic secrets as we challenge one of the most fundamental rules of physics itself--the speed of light. Researchers at the Universitat Autönoma de Barcelona combined the measurements of very high energy gamma rays coming from distant cosmic sources to test whether photons of different energies travelled at the same speed. Maybe Einstein was wrong?

A Seoul National University-MIT physics collaboration produced a research in December 2025 that significantly changed our understanding of the early universe. Using Random Matrix Product States (RMPS), researchers Sunghoon Jung, Sungjung Kim, Jiwoo Park, and Seokhyeon Song have been able to study the universe's "initial state" when Einstein's General Relativity's smooth geometry disintegrates into a turbulent "quantum foam."

Breakthrough: Quantum Foam Mapping

This discovery centres on “gravitationally prepared states”. In quantum field theory, these states represent a closed world's quantum wave function. They are constructed by visualising a universe where gravity has boundary limitations but matter does not. These states preserve the whole history of gravitational events, which is vital for universe evolution.

Researching these states has been difficult due to their intricacy. Standard scientific methods struggle to explain “higher topologies” or “Wormhole Phase Transition,” complex spacetime geometries with many holes and bridges. Before this study, traditional semiclassical techniques were assumed to be unable to determine the contributions of these complex structures to the universe.

Understanding Gravity-Ready States

The research team solved these problems with Random Matrix Product States. The “tensor network” apparatus was designed for many-body quantum systems, including atom behaviour in crystals. The researchers added randomness to these matrices to represent quantum gravity's statistical behaviour.

The RMPS approach is unprecedentedly accurate. It can construct complex geometric configurations, including quantum entanglement "replica geometries," to all orders of approximation. With this precision, scientists may study how past gravitational history affects matter fields now.

Innovation: Random Matrix Product States Key findings include the “bra-ket wormhole phase transition” confirmation. “Bra” and “ket” are the two sides of a quantum probability computation. These two sides are connected gravitationally by a Wormhole Phase Transition.

As the universe's geometry alters fundamentally, this phase shift may be mathematically assured, the researchers found. This is guaranteed if the RMPS "transfer matrix" fits the spectral gapping property. This conclusion is essential because it provides a rigorous mathematical basis for understanding why and when wormholes dominate early cosmic physics, moving the issue from theoretical speculation to mathematics.

Bra-Ket Wormhole Phase Transition

The “off-shell” wormhole revelations were astounding. Classical physics calls configurations that follow equations of motion “on-shell” like a tossed ball. However, “off-shell” structures are quantum fluctuations and do not follow classical paths.

Because gravity models lack stable classical solutions, they often miss off-shell wormholes, whereas the RMPS model can include them. The researchers found that off-shell structures lead to nonzero long-distance correlations in gravitationally prepared states. This shows that a wormhole's quantum presence connects distant portions of the cosmos even if it isn't a fixed “bridge” and may leave quantitative evidence for researchers to locate.

Long-distance correlations and off-shell wormholes The researchers extended their model from two-dimensional to continuous space to study de Sitter gravitationally prepared states. This is relevant to our reality because de Sitter space provides the mathematical model for accelerated expansion, like cosmic inflation.

By applying matrix models to de Sitter space, the group created a new “toolkit” for studying quantum gravity events with non-perturbative effects that are too powerful or sophisticated for step-by-step approximation. This research sheds light on quantum phenomena and spatial geometry.

Cosmological Implications: de Sitter Space and Inflation

Information theory, condensed matter physics, and high-energy physics are the key scientific fields involved. The “holographic” view of the cosmos posits that spacetime emerges from quantum entanglement rather than being a basic “fabric.” The following are key study pillars:

An anti-de Sitter space conformal field theory-gravity duality: the AdS/CFT Correspondence.

The structure of spacetime can be understood using quantum entanglement and entropy.

Information Scrambling: The “butterfly effect” suggests that qubits, quantum events like black holes, can scramble information.

Future Research Roadmap

Even without a "Theory of Everything," this RMPS framework can guide future study. Future studies will focus on:

The Nature of Time: How previous gravitational history encodes the current quantum state.

Cosmic Inflation: Investigating whether long-distance correlations explain early universe matter distribution.

Quantum Error Correction: Comparing computational quantum coding to Wormhole Phase Transition mathematically.

How 5D Geometry Reveals Superconformal Field Theories

Anomalies are more than mathematical errors in theoretical physics, where they are considered the cosmos' fingerprints. The problems of converting classical field theories into quantum reality have troubled physicists for decades. A new discovery announced today has shown a significant improvement in superconformal field theory (SCFT) computation of these anomalies by evaluating the geometry of extra dimensions.

Understanding Superconformal Field Theories' Power

Modern string theory and M-theory use complex superconformal field theories. To understand supersymmetry and conformal symmetry, one must combine them. When higher-dimensional theories are mathematically “compacted” and folded onto complex Calabi-Yau manifolds, they often emerge in lower dimensions.

5D SCFTs are crucial to theoretical physics because they help explain the “swampland,” a vast collection of theoretically viable universes that are physically contradictory due to their inability to be connected to quantum gravity. To yet, identifying the key information that defines these 5D thoughts has been a “nightmare” for scholars.

The Quantum Anomaly Mystery

Superconformal field theories have always been difficult to comprehend due to the quantum anomaly. Classical physics reveres symmetry principles that hold under certain transformations. The laws of quantum physics can sometimes break these symmetries when these theories are "quantised." Physicists call this breakdown an anomaly.

University of Pennsylvania researchers Max Hübner, Ron Donagi, Jonathan J. Heckman, and Mirjam Cvetič view anomalies as valuable information rather than mistakes. An anomaly indicates that a theory is incomplete or has a deep, non-perturbative structure that characterises its physical reality. You can understand the theory if you can compute the anomaly.

A Geometric Shortcut: Eta-Invariant Breakthrough Five-dimensional anomalies were previously analysed using a “computationally cumbersome” approach. It required “blowup” or “resolution” processes to mathematically smooth out high-dimensional spaces' “singularities” where math breaks out. Iterations might take years for even the simplest models.

The recent study reveals a “geometric shortcut” that eliminates these complex calculations. The group achieved successful anomaly retrieval from the η-invariant, a mathematical quantity.

In differential geometry, the η-invariant measures the asymmetry of a differential operator's spectrum. Researchers found that anomalous data could be read directly from the asymptotic bounds of five-dimensional geometries, specifically five-spheres (S 5 /Γ). This provides a “cheat code” for theoretical physicists to skip the hardest computations.

Versatility on “Messy” Backgrounds

This discovery is remarkable because of its versatility. Many theoretical breakthroughs are limited to “perfect” singularities with perfect maths. However, this group has shown that their approach works in complex situations like:

Complex areas with non-isolated singularities: anomalous structures interact across layers and have irregular geometry.

Abelian and non-Abelian groups: Adding simple and extremely complicated symmetry groups to mathematics.

Most surprisingly, the technique works for more realistic, “less ordered” physical systems without supersymmetry.

By linking extra-dimensional geometry to SCFT symmetry data, the researchers reduced a massive computational challenge to a geometric one.

The “Swampland” and Future Reality

More than just high-dimensional arithmetic, this finding affects our understanding of the universe's bounds. Anomalies guard the Swampland Conjecture. Quantum theories with uncancelled anomalies are bound to the “Swampland”—a mathematical phantasm that cannot exist in a gravity-filled universe.

The study team simplified the computation of anomalies to map the limits of the "Landscape"—all physically viable universes—better. This helps researchers determine which theoretical physics models best represent reality.

From String Theory to Materials Science

The discovery is based on M-theory's abstract 5D geometry, but the researchers hope it will impact material science and condensed matter physics. Practical materials like topological insulators are increasingly linked to high-energy theories.

Researchers may find the blueprints for next-generation quantum gadgets by understanding five-dimensional oddities. Understanding how basic symmetries break may lead to new ways to protect quantum information or produce materials with previously unheard-of electrical capabilities.

Exponentially Faster Quantum Algorithm Estimates Ollivier Ricci Curvature on Graph Inputs

A group of academics developed a quantum algorithm that estimates the complex Ollivier-Ricci curvature (ORC) on graph inputs exponentially faster than conventional methods, bridging abstract mathematics and quantum physics. This advances computational geometry and allows beneficial applications previously limited by processing costs.

Despite its wide range of applications, Ollivier-Ricci curvature, a critical shape measure in networks and spaces, is computationally demanding. This metric is essential for quantifying discrete spaces' “shape” and local geometric properties, such as complex networks and graphs. Unlike classical geometry's smooth curvatures, this discrete metric measures graph "fragility" or connectivity between nodes.

Network analysis, theoretical physics, and machine learning require accurate curvature computation. ORC helps predict financial stability by highlighting fragility in financial networks where localised shocks could spread swiftly if curvature is low or negative.

However, larger curvature suggests a stronger, more stable network structure. New theoretical physics frameworks like combinatorial quantum gravity model space-time as a discrete graph using the idea. Geometrical data analysis, especially point cloud data, requires exact curvature determination to understand the fundamental structure of complex datasets, where segmentation and clustering depend on detecting geometric correlations.

Classic Bottleneck

Current classical algorithms struggle to compute ORC, despite its importance. The Earth Mover's Distance (EMD), also known as the Optimal Transport Cost, must be calculated between nodes to estimate Ollivier-Ricci curvature. Each edge in large graphs is optimised using a linear program. This stringent need bottlenecked deep geometric analysis to smaller or simpler systems, resulting in computing complexity that increases rapidly with network size.

Quantum Earth Mover Distance Estimation

In collaboration with Tzu-Chieh Wei and Trung V. Phan, Nhat A. Nghiem from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Linh Nguyen from Florida A and M University, and Tuan K. Do described their unique method that overcomes these constraints. In place of diffusion-based methods, the researchers developed a quantum method for calculating Ollivier-Ricci curvature using an optimal-transport estimator.

This invention aims to speed up Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) calculations between graph node data distributions. The EMD calculation determines the Optimal Transport Cost by finding the shortest geodesic distances between graph nodes. This process "transports" data distribution from one node to a nearby node in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

The researchers optimised efficiency by customising their technique to suit two input conditions based on data attributes. The essential innovation is representing the complex graph structure as a quantum system with vertices representing quantum states and edges specifying their interactions. Quantum operations predict the curvature at every vertex without the tedious sequential linear programming of ordinary computers, simulating the perfect transport mechanism.

The Exponential Speedup Engine

Its unprecedented efficiency comes from its ability to recast the optimal transport problem as a computational effort suitable for quantum mechanics finding the smallest eigenvalue of a matrix.

Researchers mathematically minimised geodesic distances over all network data points to determine Ollivier-Ricci curvature. They generated a diagonal matrix with the sum of squared geodesic distances and showed that the smallest eigenvalue of the matrix is mathematically identical to the minimum value of this sum.

Quantum computers are more efficient at linear algebraic operations on exponentially large matrices, therefore this reformulation takes use of it. The group developed an enhanced block-encoding method for the geodesic distance matrix and diagonal matrices. Block-encoding is a powerful approach for quantum operations that encodes a large, structured classical matrix in a few qubits.

The program uses advanced quantum techniques like Quantum Singular Value Transformation to effectively find this minimal eigenvalue. This quantum simulation solves the fundamental optimisation problem defining the curvature, and its computational efficiency is exponentially higher than the best conventional techniques for certain problem classes.

Looking Ahead

Beyond theory, this study improves computing efficiency for particular problem categories, bringing the industry closer to a “quantum advantage” in high-impact problem solutions. Because Ollivier-Ricci curvature computing is efficient, researchers may analyse geometrical data on datasets of hitherto unthinkable scale and complexity.

Analysts and regulators could quickly identify weak places in international economic networks by constructing more sensitive and trustworthy financial instability forecasting models. This strategy may improve manifold learning and graph neural networks in machine learning, where understanding data geometry aids dimensionality reduction and classification.

String geometry theory: The breakthrough that eliminates math errors and maps the universe's destiny

Physicists have struggled for decades to resolve the mathematical consistency issue at all energy scales. String Geometry Theory (SGT) is a radical new theoretical framework that could provide a comprehensive, fundamental account of string geometry theory. Researchers Koichi Nagasaki, Matsuo Sato, and Gota Tanaka have unveiled SGT's fundamental design, proving its stability and presenting a detailed map of the string landscape, a precise depiction of the universe's potential configurations

This theory defines string physics without the mathematical errors that plagued prior attempts to unify gravity and quantum mechanics; it is not a piecemeal update.

Reality's Stringiness

String Geometry Theory is driven by a fundamental quantum gravity definition error. Conventional approaches assume spacetime is made of point-like particles, however this definition always leads to limitless and uncontrollable mathematical inconsistencies, called ultraviolet divergences, when defining how gravity works at extremely small scales.

SGT overcomes this fundamental problem by stating spacetime is strings. Assuming a point in space is a string suppresses these mathematical divergences.

The framework is defined by a sophisticated fundamental quantum tool over “string manifolds” infinite-dimensional spaces that characterise all potential strings and their interactions. Trajectories across these spaces, recorded in a specialised “string geometry time,” reflect the mathematical structure and physics of interacting strings at all complexity levels. This means SGT has all the information needed to characterise string geometry theory.

The End of Mathematical Inconsistency

The non-renormalization theorem is the strongest SGT consistency argument.

Complex mathematical changes called “loop corrections” are often needed to keep quantum theory calculations theoretically sound. The non-renormalization theorem of SGT shows that the quantum parameter of the theory has no corrections. This lack of complex corrections resolves the mathematical discrepancy (non-renormalizability) that has plagued various quantum gravity formulations.

Due to its strong definition, SGT's fundamental quantum definition is simplified. The complex calculations needed to characterise perturbative strings can be derived from SGT's first “tree-level” (or “classical”) computations.

The classical action, or fundamental equation, of SGT is strongly constrained by T-symmetry, a recently found organising principle. Many perturbative string geometry theory iterations share this symmetry, which is assumed to be a universal extension of T-duality.

Assurance of Universe Stability

SGT needed to reproduce string theory physics to be a valid fundamental description. Researchers did this by discovering the theory's perturbative vacua. Every universal string backdrop known in bosonic closed string geometry theory is in the specified set of vacua, stable configurations or backgrounds that represent known physics.

By studying the tiny “ripples” or fluctuations around these stable backdrops, the researchers were able to establish the typical path-integrals used in perturbative string theory up to any order of complexity. This proved that the theory's fundamental configurations accurately represent the universe's stable states. This consistency study also confirmed the need for string geometry theory in a critical number of dimensions.

Cosmological Mapping

The most promising aspect of SGT is its ability to map string geometry theory.

Due to the non-renormalization theorem and lack of complex modifications, the “classical potential” in SGT may reflect this entire landscape. The landscape is a huge theoretical area with every stable vacuum the cosmos might have.

Importantly, the exact set of physical laws and constants we witness is assumed to be the universe's vacuum at the lowest point of this potential energy map.

Of course, the idea also explains how the universe got here. Non-perturbative instantons characterise steady or semi-stable configuration transitions. A generic initial state can roll or tunnel down the potential energy surface to the global minimum using quantum tunnelling, as defined by these instantons.

While 'low-energy effective potentials' cannot determine the vacuum's true nature, the SGT potential is a simple, first-principles construction, making this a major achievement.

Searching for True Vacuum

Next study aims to find this global minimum. To identify this minimum, the geometric structure and properties of the internal, compactified dimensions, such as the six-dimensional internal space and its fields (“fluxes”), must be determined.

For this quest, researchers will use analytical and numerical methods. Analytical methods focus on mathematical structures that yield stable vacua, such as Calabi-Yau manifolds. Their overall aim is to digitally minimise potential by dividing it down into manageable chunks utilising numerical methods like Regge calculus.