Nature Physics magazine's cover page displays artist's representation of a quantum knot

Two significant articles produced by Docent Mikko Möttönen's research group have been published in the May edition of Nature Physics magazine, with the magazine's cover also displaying Heikka Valja's artistic representation of a quantum knot.

Mikko Möttönen considers important the visual representation of the research results, and has invested considerable time into producing graphical material based on the group's findings. The research articles on detection of quantum knots and quantum restricted heat transfer were published at the start of the year in the web edition of Nature Physics and received widespread media coverage both in Finland and internationally. In producing the graphics for both articles, Mr Möttönen worked together with doctoral candidate Heikka Valja from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

'It was possible to produce the representation of the quantum knot in an artistic manner, because the picture of the knot and the model created from it were very precise. I try to keep my physics illustrations clearly as paintings so that they don't look like normal computer models', explains Mr Valja. 'These phenomena are invisible to our eyes, so we can imagine them as any size we want. I've tried to give the artwork depth and the feeling of a large, grand phenomenon', he added.

More information:

Mikko Möttönen, Docent, Dr.
Aalto University Department of Applied Physics,
email: mikko.mottonen*at*aalto.fi
m. +358 50 594 0950

Heikka Valja
Doctoral student
Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture
[email protected]
m. +358 41 5343843