The European Physical Society released a new Cebr report about “The Importance of Physics for the Economies of Europe” Brussels, 4th November 2025 The European Physical Society (EPS) and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) have released the third edition of the report “The Importance of Physics to the Economies of Europe”. An update to the previous version released in 2019, this report covers the years 2016-2022 and details the impact of physics-based businesses on the economy of the EU member states, three EFTA countries and the UK. The report demonstrates that physics is not only a scientific field—it is a strategic driver of growth, productivity, and resilience. The report shows that physics-based industries had €7.07 trillion in turnover in 2022 and contributed €2.30 trillion in Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022. Physics based industries are resilient with a strong post-pandemic recovery in business creation, employment and output. Whilst Germany as the EU’s largest economy dominates in absolute terms, physics-based industries make up significant proportions of the economies of other European countries, for example more than one in six Swiss workers and over 15% of workers in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia were employed around physics-related activities in 2022. Physics based industries directly support 20.1 million jobs, and productivity of workers in these industries is 68% higher than the European average. The report highlights that the physics-based sector has increased its investment in research and development (R&D) activities by 36.5% since 2016 excluding internal investments in R&D activities which cannot be quantified. Prof. Mairi Sakellariadou, the EPS President says “the report demonstrates that investment in physics research and education translates into quantifiable benefits to the European economy. The highly skilled workforce in this sector is extremely productive, and we should support future generations to work in these industries” Owen Good, Director and Head of Economic Advisory at Cebr said “Our findings demonstrate the continued economic value that the physics community bring to the European economy. Since we last conducted similar analysis in 2018, we have found a significantly increased economic contribution, with the physics-based sector employing over 20 million people and directly contributing over €2.3 trillion to the European economy in 2022. Underpinning this contribution is a strong post-COVID recovery, with the sector rebounding well to pre-pandemic levels of economic activity.” About the EPS The European Physical Society (EPS) is a not-for-profit association whose members include 42 National Physical Societies in Europe, individuals from all fields of physics, and European research institutions and physics-based companies. As a learned society, the EPS engages in activities that strengthen ties between physicists in Europe. As a federation of National Physical Societies, the EPS advocates for issues of common interest to all European countries relating to physics research, science policy and education. Go to www.eps.org EPS Contact: anne.pawsey@eps.org About Cebr Cebr is an independent London-based economics consultancy providing economic impact assessment, forecasting and policy analysis for public and private sector clients www.cebr.com
The October issue of e-EPS is out!
Read the October 2025 issue of e-EPS here. e-EPS is the Society’s monthly newsletter.
Ireland becomes an Associate Member State of CERN
CERN welcomes Ireland as an Associate Member State Ireland has officially become an Associate Member State of CERN, following confirmation that it has taken all the necessary steps to ratify the Associate Membership Agreement and accede to the protocol on CERN’s privileges and immunities. The starting date of Ireland’s status as an Associate Member State is 22 October 2025. The ratification of the agreement, which was signed in May 2025 by the CERN Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti, and James Lawless, Ireland’s Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, marks the beginning of a new chapter in CERN’s relations with Ireland and opens up new opportunities. CERN’s collaboration with institutes from Ireland has a long history, dating back to the 1960s, when Ireland participated in bubble-chamber experiments at CERN. Since then, the country’s scientific community at CERN has made important contributions across a wide range of fields, including experimental physics, theory, medical applications and computer science. Major CERN experiments and facilities, such as ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ISOLDE, have all benefited from Ireland’s involvement, and Associate Membership will ensure that the country’s contributions can continue and expand in the years to come. Irish representatives will now participate in meetings of the CERN Council and its committees, including the Finance Committee and the Scientific Policy Committee. Nationals of Ireland are eligible to apply for limited-duration staff positions and to CERN’s graduate programmes, and Irish firms can bid for CERN contracts, increasing opportunities for industrial collaboration on advanced technologies.
“Rival” neutrino experiments NOvA and T2K publish first joint analysis
The combined results add to physicists’ understanding and they validate the impressive collaborative effort between two competing – yet complementary – experiments PRESS RELEASE OF THE T2K AND NOvA COLLABORATIONS When the universe began, physicists expect there should have been equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But if that were so, the matter and antimatter should have perfectly canceled each other out, resulting in total annihilation. And yet, here we are. Somehow, matter won out over antimatter — but we still don’t know how or why. Physicists suspect the answer may lie in the mysterious behavior of abundant yet elusive particles called neutrinos. Specifically, learning more about a phenomenon called neutrino oscillation — in which neutrinos change types, or flavors, as they travel — could bring us closer to an answer. The international collaborations representing two neutrino experiments, T2K in Japan and NOvA in the United States of America, recently combined forces to produce their first joint results, published today in the journal Nature. This initial joint analysis provides some of the most precise neutrino-oscillation measurements in the field. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is represented in these collaborations by the members of the local T2K group, which is led by Professor Alfons Weber and Dr. Lukas Koch from the Experimental Particle and Astroparticle Physics group at the Institute of Physics. “I have been involved in both these fantastic experiments. It is great to see the two collaborations working closely together to achieve a result that we could not have done individually. We now have a more robust understanding of the nature of neutrinos, and I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in the future,”says Weber, who is also member of the cluster of excellence PRISMA+. “To me, the most exciting part of this joint result is the methodology that we developed to make it possible,” adds Koch. “It is far from trivial to combine the data of two experiments with different analysis methods, uncertainty models, and software frameworks. This great work will be the foundation for future combined results, not just from T2K and NOvA, but also from the next generation of neutrino beam experiments: Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE.” Different experiments, common goals Despite their ubiquity, neutrinos are very difficult to detect and study. Even though they were first seen in the 1950s, the ghostly particles remain deeply enigmatic. Filling in gaps in our knowledge about neutrinos and their properties may reveal fundamental truths about the universe. T2K and NOvA are both long-baseline experiments: they each shoot an intense beam of neutrinos that passes through both a near detector close to the neutrino source and a far detector hundreds of miles away. Both experiments compare data recorded in each detector to learn about neutrinos’ behavior and properties. NOvA, the NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance experiment, sends a beam of neutrinos 810 kilometers from its source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, Ill., to a 14,000-ton liquid-scintillator detector in Ash River, Minnesota. The T2K experiment’s neutrino beam travels 295 kilometers from Tokai to Kamioka — hence the name T2K. Tokai is home to the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) and Kamioka hosts the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector, an enormous tank of ultrapure water located a kilometer underground. Since the experiments have similar science goals but different baselines and different neutrino energies, physicists can learn more by combining their data. “By making a joint analysis you can get a more precise measurement than each experiment can produce alone,” says NOvA collaborator Liudmila Kolupaeva. “As a rule, experiments in high-energy physics have different designs even if they have the same science goal. Joint analyses allow us to use complementary features of these designs. “ As long-baseline experiments, NOvA and T2K are ideal for studying neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon that can provide insight into open questions like charge-parity violation and the neutrino mass ordering. Two experiments with different baselines and energies have a better chance of disentangling the two effects than one experiment alone. Interrogating neutrino oscillations The mystery of neutrino mass ordering is the question of which neutrino is the lightest. But it isn’t as simple as placing particles on a scale. Neutrinos have miniscule masses that are made up of combinations of mass states. There are three neutrino mass states, but, confusingly, they don’t map to the three neutrino flavors. In fact, each flavor is made of a mix of the three mass states, and each mass state has a different probability of acting like each flavor of neutrino. There are two possible mass orderings, called normal or inverted. Under the normal ordering, two of the mass states are relatively light and one is heavy, while the inverted ordering has two heavier mass states and one light. In the normal ordering, there is an enhanced probability that muon neutrinos will oscillate to electron neutrinos but a lower probability that muon antineutrinos will oscillate to electron antineutrinos. In the inverted ordering, the opposite happens. However, an asymmetry in the neutrinos’ and antineutrinos’ oscillations could also be explained if neutrinos violate CP symmetry — in other words, if neutrinos don’t behave the same as their antimatter counterparts. The combined results of NOvA and T2K do not favor either mass ordering. If the neutrino mass ordering is found to be normal, NOvA’s and T2K’s results are less clear on CP symmetry, requiring additional data to clarify. However, if future results show the neutrino mass ordering is inverted, the results published today provide evidence that neutrinos violate CP symmetry, potentially explaining why the universe is dominated by matter instead of antimatter. “Neutrino physics is a strange field. It is very challenging to isolate effects,” says Professor Kendall Mahn, co-spokesperson for T2K. “Combining analyses allows us to isolate one of these effects, and that’s progress.” The combined analysis does provide one of the most precise values of the difference in mass between neutrino mass states. With an uncertainty below 2%, the new value will enable physicists to make
Call for Papers for Nanometa 2026: Deadline extended
Nanometa 2026: You can still submit your paper! The deadline is extended to 27th October.Visit the website of the conference to submit: https://www.nanometa.org/
News from EPL
Author: Vijala Kiruvanayagam In August, PhysicsWorld published a podcast based on an article published in EPL ‘Unveiling complexity: Statistical physics approaches to ecological communities’, Ada Altieri and Silvia De Monte. Link to the podcast: https://physicsworld.com/a/from-rabbits-and-foxes-to-the-human-gut-microbiome-physics-is-helping-us-understand-the-natural-world This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast is a conversation with two physicists, Ada Altieri and Silvia De Monte, who are using their expertise in statistical physics to understand the behaviour of ecological communities. This discussion is based on a Perspective article that Altieri (an associate professor at the Laboratory for Matter and Complex Systems at the Université Paris Cité, France) and De Monte (a senior research scientist at the Institute of Biology in the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Ploen, Germany) wrote for the journal EPL, which sponsors this episode of the podcast. To-date the podcast has been downloaded over 4400 times indicating it is in-line with PhysicsWorld’s best performing podcasts. Additional info: A century ago, pioneering scientists such as Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra showed that statistical physics techniques could explain – and even predict – patterns that ecologists observe in nature. At first, this work focused on simple ecosystems containing just one or two species (such as rabbits and foxes), which are relatively easy to model. Nowadays, though, researchers such as Altieri and De Monte are turning their attention to far more complex communities. One example is the collection of unicellular organisms known as protists that live among plankton in the ocean. Another, closer to home, is the “microbiome” in the human gut, which may contain hundreds or even thousands of species of bacteria. Modelling these highly interconnected communities is hugely challenging. But as Altieri and De Monte explain, the potential rewards – from identifying “tipping points” in fragile ecosystems to developing new treatments for gut disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease – are great. Sponsorships This summer, EPL sponsored awards for early career researchers at a number of meetings all over the world. In June, EPL sponsored the ‘Best Activity Awards’ at the 13th Young Minds Leadership Meeting which was held in Santiago de Compostela. The winning entries came from the Young Minds sections of Milan and Yerevan. In July, EPL sponsored two ‘Best Oral Presentations’ at the Workshop ‘Complex Flows and Complex Fluids‘ (https://biferale.web.roma2.infn.it/ComplexFlowsComplexFluids/) which was held in Rome, 8-11 July 2025 as a satellite meeting of StatPhys29 (https://statphys29.org/) Also in July, EPL was delighted to sponsor three ‘Best Poster Awards’ at the first ever StatPhys satellite meeting held in Africa. This event was held in Kigali, and as part of the meeting, a two-day intense school of complex systems was held to encourage students’ participation at the meeting. The poster prizes were presented by EPL Deputy Editor, Dr Rosemary Harris. Finally, in September EPL sponsored three ‘Best Poster Awards’ at the Workshop on Frontiers in Quantum Materials” (https://www.ictp-saifr.org/wfqm2025/) held in São Paulo, Brazil at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics – South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR) . More information and photos from each of these events can be found at: News – EPL (Europhysics Letters) Awards made in 2025 – Europhysics Letters – IOPscience
Macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit
Interview with Ulrich Eckern on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for Clarke, Devoret and Martinis Author: Erich Runge My accompanying opinion piece as Chair of the Condensed Matter Division emphasizes that this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics is not an early tribute to the quantum computer, but rather honours a spectacular manifestation of macroscopic quantum mechanics. I consulted an expert on this topic: Ulrich Eckern, Professor Emeritus at the University of Augsburg, Germany, has been working on various aspects of theoretical solid-state physics and mesoscopic physics for many years, including the theory of superconductivity and superfluid 3He, Josephson junctions and networks, and low-dimensional model systems. During his PhD at the University of Karlsruhe (now KIT), 1977-79, discussions with three scientists visiting his mentor, Albert Schmid, left a major mark on him, scientifically as well as personally: John Bardeen, Michael Tinkham – and John Clarke. How did you get involved into the field which is often called “dissipative quantum mechanics”? During my postdoc at Cornell University, 1980-82, a pioneering paper by Amir Caldeira and Tony Leggett was published that was devoted to quantum tunnelling in dissipative systems. Motivated by this work, Vinay Ambegaokar, Gerd Schön, and I set out to formulate the “quantum dynamics” of a Josephson junction on the basis of the accepted microscopic description, namely two tunnel-coupled superconductors (within the BCS model). We were able to confirm the Caldeira-Leggett results, but were also able to elucidate some important differences, as in ideal junctions the dissipation is related to quasiparticle excitations. Without going into details, what is or was the basic question at the time? The general question, discussed for years, was this: “Given a system that is described by the usual classical equation of motion of a particle with damping, i.e. energy dissipation – what is the correct quantum theory?” Since the classical theory can be derived from quantum theory but not vice versa, there is no general answer to this question. In the case of a Josephson junction specifically, the “particle” is the order parameter phase difference, and the classical equation of motion is called resistive-shunted junction model. The model’s parameters are the capacitance (proportional to the mass), the resistance (inversely proportional to the damping), and the Josephson coupling energy which determines the magnitude of a periodic force term. An external current slightly (as long as the current is well below the critical current) tilts the potential. Thus, classically, the “particle” sits in one of the potential minima, and it can “escape” via thermal fluctuations only. But how does the escape mechanism evolve with decreasing temperature, when the thermal energy becomes small compared to charging and Josephson energy? Will escape happen via quantum tunnelling through the barrier? And how is the latter modified by damping (dissipation)? Why did John Clarke impress you so much? When I met him in Karlsruhe during my PhD, John Clarke was still at an early stage of his career. He impressed me not only by his apparent extraordinary skills in designing and carrying through difficult experiments, but also by his strong desire to grasp the relevant theoretical concepts — in other words, to understand the heart of the matter. I believe these two characteristics led him directly to undertaking the two seminal studies* which are now honoured. What was the significance of the 1985 papers* by the 2025 Nobel Prize winners? While there was mostly agreement with respect to the theoretical description, namely that dissipation would decrease the tunnelling rate out of a metastable state, the experiments offered the ultimate confirmation: the theoretical concepts worked! The results included a detailed comparison of theory and experiment with respect to the temperature dependence of the tunnelling rate. So in fact, the very concept of “macroscopic quantum tunnelling” was confirmed – and later also the concept of “macroscopic quantum coherence”, which is relevant for some of today’s quantum computer concepts. The notion of “macroscopic”, by the way, refers to the fact that during a tunnel event close to a million electrons tunnel coherently through the barrier. What were the experimental challenges? The crossover between classical escape and quantum tunnelling in the experiments occurs around 30 mK, so I can imagine that an excellent temperature control is needed. You have to exclude as many external effects as possible which might lead to dissipation. For a large charging energy, a capacitance of just a few pF is needed, which implies rather small junctions, even though they are macroscopic compared to the atomic scale. What about macroscopic quantum coherence? When Josephson junctions are included in a ring geometry and a suitable magnetic field is applied, a double-well potential can be realised, implying a quantum mechanical two-level system at sufficiently low temperatures. As Sudip Chakravarty realised early on, dissipation will have a profound effect at a certain ‘critical’ value, abruptly and completely suppressing quantum coherence. A similar delocalisation-localisation transition has been predicted theoretically for a periodic potential — i.e. a Josephson junction in the zero-current case. This transition is now known as the Schmid–Bulgadaev dissipative phase transition, and is still the subject of ongoing research. The questions were asked by Erich Runge, Chair of the Condensed Matter Division of EPS, member of the Executive Board of the German Physical Society and professor of theoretical physics at the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany. * References 1. Measurements of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling out of the Zero-Voltage State of a Current-Biased Josephson JunctionMichel H. Devoret, John M. Martinis, and John Clarke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1908 – Published 28 October, 1985, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1908 2. Energy-Level Quantization in the Zero-Voltage State of a Current-Biased Josephson JunctionJohn M. Martinis, Michel H. Devoret, and John Clarke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1543 – Published 7 October, 1985, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1543
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics and the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology
Author: Erich Runge When the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis ‘for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit’ my first three thoughts were (i) ‘Oh, a Nobel Prize for quantum computing and the superconducting transmon’, (ii) ‘How fitting for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology’, and (iii) ‘Another two Europeans doing wonderful work in the US.’ Addressing thought (ii) is easy: Yes, it fits perfectly. If the 2022 Nobel Prize celebrated the so called ‘Second Quantum Revolution,’ superconductivity-based circuit quantum electrodynamics is at least ‘Quantum Revolution 1.5’: Macroscopic quantum physics with tremendous economic impact. Point (iii) leaves me with mixed feelings. I am delighted that an Englishman educated in Cambridge and a Frenchman who received an excellent education in Paris collaborated with a young American in Berkeley to produce this groundbreaking work. Both maintained their connections to their homeland, Clarke as Honorary Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Devoret through appointments at the Orme des Merisiers Laboratory of CEA Saclay and at the Collège de France. Nevertheless, this award also reminds us of our obligation to create similarly inspiring conditions at European universities. I was wrong about (i): The Nobel Prize for Quantum Computing and/or quantum sensing is still to come. Macroscopic quantum tunnelling in Josephson junctions by itself is mind-blowing, and I remember very well when I first encountered circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). I thought I was being taken for a ride, that it should be possible to simply quantize a normal circuit with capacitors and so on. How incredible these ideas must have been when they were first conceived! I took this as an opportunity to ask Ulrich Eckern, an expert in mesoscopic physics, about his memories of that time. You can find the interview as a supplement to this short opinion piece here. Erich Runge is Chair of the Condensed Matter Division of EPS, member of the Executive Board of the German Physical Society and professor of theoretical physics at the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
7 October 2025 – The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 to “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit” Read the press release of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences here.
The latest issue of e-EPS is out!
Read the September 2025 issue of e-EPS here. e-EPS is the Society’s monthly newsletter.