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Reconstructing a Five-Star Smashup

A detailed analysis of a stellar cluster has led to a possible explanation for several fast-moving runaway stars around the cluster.

The “altercation” happened 50,000 years ago: The binary star Mel 34 was ejected from a young star cluster at a speed of 100,000 mph (46 km/s)—the result of a violent interaction that seemed buried in the cosmic past. But a group of astronomy detectives has now reconstructed part of the cluster’s history and identified a five-star smashup as the most likely cause for Mel 34’s high-speed departure [1]. This unlikely collision offers important information about the fate of young, massive stars.

The star cluster R136 is a grouping of around 60,000 stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy 160,000 light-years from Earth. The cluster is about 2 million years old, which is fairly young as clusters go. “R136 is very special because it’s the youngest and the most massive star cluster in the local group of galaxies,” says Simon Portegies Zwart from Leiden University in the Netherlands. Previous studies of R136 have identified several dozen “runaway” stars that have been kicked out of the cluster. Runaways are common around clusters, but their origins are not always clear. R136 is young, so it’s a good place to study the process that produces runaways, Portegies Zwart says.

Optimizing Diamond as a Quantum Sensor

Two independent groups optimize diamond-based quantum sensing by using more than 100 such sensors in parallel.

Diamond has long been prized for its beauty, and it holds the record as the hardest known natural material. By introducing nitrogen atoms into its crystal lattice, it can also be transformed into a remarkable quantum sensor. The associated crystal defects are known as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, and they imbue such sensors with unprecedented electromagnetic-field sensitivity and excellent spatial resolution [1]. However, experimental platforms designed to exploit these sensors have so far had limited applicability because the sensing speed and resolution are difficult to simultaneously optimize. Now two research teams—one led by Shimon Kolkowitz at the University of California, Berkeley, [2] and the other by Nathalie de Leon at Princeton University [3]—have independently developed a way of manipulating and measuring more than 100 NV centers in parallel (Fig. 1).

Quantum networks of clocks open the door to probe how quantum theory and curved space-time intertwine

Quantum networking is being rapidly developed world-wide. It is a key quantum technology that will enable a global quantum internet: the ability to deploy secure communication at scale, and to connect quantum computers globally. The race to realize this vision is in full swing, both on Earth and in space.

New research, in collaboration between Igor Pikovski at Stevens Institute of Technology, Jacob Covey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Johannes Borregaard at Harvard University, suggests that are more versatile than previously thought.

In the paper titled “Probing Curved Spacetime with a Distributed Atomic Processor Clock”, published in the journal PRX Quantum, the researchers show that this technology can probe how curved space-time affects —a first test of this kind.

World’s most precise clock achieves 19-decimal accuracy with aluminum ion technology

There’s a new record holder for the most accurate clock in the world. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have improved their atomic clock based on a trapped aluminum ion. Part of the latest wave of optical atomic clocks, it can perform timekeeping with 19 decimal places of accuracy.

Optical clocks are typically evaluated on two levels—accuracy (how close a clock comes to measuring the ideal “true” time, also known as systematic uncertainty) and stability (how efficiently a clock can measure time, related to statistical uncertainty). This new record in accuracy comes out of 20 years of continuous improvement of the aluminum ion clock.

Beyond its world-best accuracy, 41% greater than the previous record, this new clock is also 2.6 times more stable than any other ion clock. Reaching these levels has meant carefully improving every aspect of the clock, from the laser to the trap and the .

How paper planes could provide sustainable solutions to space debris

Space junk is a huge problem. The surge in satellite launches in recent years is leaving low Earth orbit (LEO) cluttered with debris such as discarded rocket bodies, broken parts and defunct satellites. Beyond the risk of debris colliding with working satellites that are vital for navigation, communication and weather forecasting, large pieces could come crashing back down to Earth.

Space junk may also be a threat to the environment. Old rockets and satellites burn up when they re-enter the atmosphere, leaving a trail of chemicals behind that could damage the ozone layer. The more we launch, the messier LEO gets, and the bigger the problems become.

Space agencies and private companies are looking at ways to clear up the litter we leave behind, but they’re also exploring how to build more sustainable rockets and satellites, using organic polymers instead of metals. In a new study, published in Acta Astronautica, researchers turned to origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, to find a sustainable alternative.

Research shows path toward protocells on Saturn’s moon Titan

NASA research has shown that cell-like compartments called vesicles could form naturally in the lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Titan is the only world apart from Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface. However, Titan’s lakes and seas are not filled with water. Instead, they contain liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane.

On Earth, is thought to have been essential for the origin of life as we know it. Many astrobiologists have wondered whether Titan’s liquids could also provide an environment for the formation of the molecules required for life—either as we know it or perhaps as we don’t know it—to take hold there.

Neutrinos could have a secret life: Study suggests they may interact secretly during massive star collapse

Neutrinos are cosmic tricksters, paradoxically hardly there but lethal to stars significantly more massive than the sun.

These come in three known “flavors”: electron, muon and tau. Whatever the flavor, neutrinos are notoriously slippery, and much about their properties remains mysterious. It is almost impossible to collide neutrinos with each other in the lab, so it is not known if neutrinos interact with each other according to the , or if there are much-speculated “secret” interactions only among neutrinos.

Now a team of researchers from the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS), including several from UC San Diego, have shown, through theoretical calculations, how collapsing can act as a “neutrino collider.” Neutrinos steal from these stars, forcing them to contract and causing their electrons to move near light speed. This drives the stars to instability and collapse.

New theory clarifies why tunnel magnetoresistance oscillates with barrier thickness

Researchers have developed a new theory that explains why tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR)—used in magnetic memory and other technologies—oscillates with changes in the thickness of the insulating barrier within a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). This oscillation was clearly observed when NIMS recently recorded the world’s highest TMR ratio. Understanding the mechanisms behind this phenomenon is expected to significantly aid in further increasing TMR ratios.

This research is published as a letter article in Physical Review B.

The TMR effect is a phenomenon observed in thin-film structures called magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). It refers to changes in depending on the relative alignment of magnetizations in two magnetic layers (i.e., parallel or antiparallel alignment) separated by an insulating barrier. It is desirable to develop MTJs with larger TMR effects—reflected in higher TMR ratios—in order to expand their potential applications, including improvement of magnetic sensor sensitivity and expansion of capacity.

The dark side of time: Scientists develop nuclear clock method to detect dark matter using thorium-229

For nearly a century, scientists around the world have been searching for dark matter—an invisible substance believed to make up about 80% of the universe’s mass and needed to explain a variety of physical phenomena. Numerous methods have been used in attempts to detect dark matter, from trying to produce it in particle accelerators to searching for cosmic radiation that it might emit in space.

Yet even today, very little is known about this matter’s fundamental properties. Although it operates in the background, dark matter is believed to influence visible matter, but in ways so subtle that they currently cannot be directly measured.

Scientists believe that if a nuclear clock is developed—one that uses the atomic nucleus to measure time with —even the tiniest irregularities in its ticking could reveal dark matter’s influence. Last year, physicists in Germany and Colorado made a breakthrough toward building such a clock, using the radioactive element thorium-229.

Researchers demonstrate error-resistant quantum gates using exotic anyons for computation

The quantum computing revolution draws ever nearer, but the need for a computer that makes correctable errors continues to hold it back.

Through a collaboration with IBM led by Cornell, researchers have brought that revolution one step closer, achieving two major breakthroughs. First, they demonstrated an error-resistant implementation of universal quantum gates, the essential building blocks of quantum computation. Second, they showcased the power of a topological quantum computer in solving hard problems that a conventional computer couldn’t manage.

In the article “Realizing String-Net Condensation: Fibonacci Anyon Braiding for Universal Gates and Sampling Chromatic Polynomials” published in Nature Communications, an between researchers at IBM, Cornell, Harvard University and the Weizman Institute of Science demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to encode information by braiding—moving in a particular order—Fibonacci string net condensate (Fib SNC) anyons, which are exotic quasi-particles, in two dimensional space.