Our sun has had close encounters with other stars in the past, and it’s due for a dangerously close one in the not-so-distant future.
An interdisciplinary collaboration between condensed-matter, quantum-optics and particle physicists has the potential to crack the search for low-mass dark matter. The proposed quantum detector builds on EQUS studies of elementary excitations in superfluid helium and advances in opto-mechanics.
Led by EQUS Research Fellow Dr. Chris Baker (UQ), study proposes direct detection of low-mass dark matter via its interactions with superfluid helium confined in an optomechanical cavity.
“Optomechanical dark matter instrument for direct detection” was published in Physical Review D in August 2024.
OpenAI used to say that artificial general intelligence would change everything. Not anymore.
Training tests with ChatGPT o1 and other high-end AI models showed they might try to save themselves if they think they’re in danger.
The most active volcano in Hawaii has seen the number of earthquakes at its summit double over the past week, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Scientists have achieved unprecedented control over quantum transport using a 31-qubit superconducting processor, opening new possibilities for next-generation electronics and thermal management. This approach allows researchers to observe and manipulate quantum particles with extraordinary precision, potentially revolutionizing how we develop future technologies.
The research, led by teams from Singapore and China, marks a significant advance in understanding how particles, energy, and information flow at the quantum level. This breakthrough could accelerate development of more efficient nanoelectronics and thermal management systems.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide, as part of an international team, have developed an approach that makes advanced microscopy possible through an optical fiber thinner than a human hair.
“Recent advances in optics have made it possible to controllably deliver light through extremely thin optical fibers, but delivering more complicated light patterns that are needed to perform advanced microscopy has eluded researchers until now,” said Dr. Ralf Mouthaan from the University of Adelaide’s Center of Light for Life, who undertook the project.
With a footprint far smaller than any other fiber imaging device, this will enable microscope images to be collected from previously inaccessible parts of the human body, while minimizing associated tissue damage.
Scientists using observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have discovered, for the first time, the signal from a pair of monster black holes disrupting a cloud of gas in the center of a galaxy.
“It’s a very weird event, called AT 2021hdr, that keeps recurring every few months,” said Lorena Hernández-García, an astrophysicist at the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, the Millennium Nucleus on Transversal Research and Technology to Explore Supermassive Black Holes, and University of Valparaíso in Chile. “We think that a gas cloud engulfed the black holes. As they orbit each other, the black holes interact with the cloud, perturbing and consuming its gas. This produces an oscillating pattern in the light from the system.”
A paper about AT 2021hdr, led by Hernández-García, was published Nov. 13 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs), semiconductor-based devices that emit light when an electric current flows through them, are key building blocks of numerous electronic devices. LEDs are used to light up smartphone, computer, and TV displays, as well as light sources for indoor and outdoor environments.
Past studies consistently observed a decline in the performance and efficiency of LED devices based on two-dimensional (2D) materials at high current densities. This loss of efficiency at high current densities has been linked to high levels of interaction between excitons, which cause a process known as exciton-exciton annihilation (EEA).
Essentially, the properties of some 2D materials prompt excitons to strongly interact with each other, causing excitons to “deactivate” one another. This results in a significant waste of energy that could otherwise contribute to the lighting of LEDs.
