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CUNY Scientists Amplify Waves Using Synthetic Rotation Device

7/14/2026

Summary

Story summary

US researchers at CUNY Graduate Center demonstrated wave amplification with a synthetic-rotation device.
They built a stationary ring of resonators whose rapidly modulated properties generated a traveling pattern that mimics ultrafast rotation, enabling waves to extract energy and emerge amplified, reproducing the Penrose–Zel’dovich process.
Funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and Simons Foundation moves extreme-rotational dynamics from theory to a platform that can simulate faster-than-light motion.

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Story summary

US researchers at CUNY Graduate Center demonstrated wave amplification with a synthetic-rotation device.
They built a stationary ring of resonators whose rapidly modulated properties generated a traveling pattern that mimics ultrafast rotation, enabling waves to extract energy and emerge amplified, reproducing the Penrose–Zel’dovich process.
Funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and Simons Foundation moves extreme-rotational dynamics from theory to a platform that can simulate faster-than-light motion.