News from FZU

Radiation that travelled through space for longer than the Sun and Earth have existed has now been captured by the LST-1 and MAGIC telescopes in the Canary Islands. It was emitted by the active galactic nucleus OP 313, powered by a massive black hole. No one has yet observed a more distant active galactic nucleus in the ultra-high-energy range.

In the last week of July, scientists from around the world converged on Prague. At the 11th Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics conference (FQMT'26), they explored what quantum mechanics tells us about the world today and how to turn it into the technologies of tomorrow.

An international collaboration supported by the Physics for Future (P4F) project has delivered a new diagnostic method for more precise control of plasma deposition processes. A Czech and Swedish research team combined two original approaches to plasma diagnostics to create an experimental system that helps refine the preparation of thin vanadium dioxide (VO₂) films. The method could improve the manufacture of thermochromic coatings for smart windows, as well as semiconductor and optical thin films used, for example, in optical sensors, detectors and photonic devices.

The European Physical Society’s 2026 Europhysics Prize for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics was awarded to Libor Šmejkal, Jairo Sinova and Tomáš Jungwirth for their discovery of altermagnetism, the third fundamental class of magnetic orders. Altermagnets combine the advantages of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets while exhibiting unique properties not found in either of those classes.

The 2026 EPS Europhysics Prize for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics was awarded to Libor Šmejkal, Jair Sinov, and Tomáš Jungwirth for their discovery of altermagnetism. The prize has been awarded since 1975 (this year marks its 42nd edition) and is one of the most prestigious European awards in the field of condensed matter physics.

Inside every modern catalytic converter sits a soft, silvery metal called cerium. It absorbs and releases oxygen, helping to convert harmful exhaust gases into less dangerous ones. But this common metal has an odd trait: a small change in pressure or temperature is enough to make it suddenly lose 15% of its volume. Physicists were unable to fully explain the phenomenon for almost a hundred years.

On Sunday, July 5, 2026, Jan Hladký died at the age of 91, shy of his 92nd birthday. A physicist who devoted nearly seven decades to science, he made his mark on the international history of particle physics through his discoveries.

We invite you to our traditional HR Coffee & Talk.

We invite you to our traditional HR Coffee & Talk.

The start of full operations at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, whose development and science programme involve researchers from FZU, attracted wide attention from Czech media. Czech Television, Czech Radio and several print and online outlets covered the launch of the ten-year survey of the southern sky. Here is a selection of the most interesting coverage.

Vladislav Pokorný, a physicist from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU), is a co-author of a study that won the prestigious ACS Nano Impact Award 2026. In it, researchers managed to build a tiny memory by placing single molecules on the surface of a superconductor.