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Archive for the ‘particle physics’ category: Page 14

Oct 16, 2024

New light-induced material shows powerful potential for quantum applications

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, solar power, sustainability

Many scientists are studying different materials for their potential use in quantum technology. One important feature of the atoms in these materials is called spin. Scientists want to control atomic spins to develop new types of materials, known as spintronics. They could be used in advanced technologies like memory devices and quantum sensors for ultraprecise measurements.

In a recent breakthrough, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Northern Illinois University discovered that they could use light to detect the in a class of materials called perovskites (specifically in this research methylammonium lead iodide, or MAPbI3). Perovskites have many potential uses, from solar panels to quantum technology.

The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Oct 15, 2024

First coherent picture of an atomic nucleus made of quarks and gluons

Posted by in category: particle physics

The atomic nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons, particles that exist through the interaction of quarks bonded by gluons. It would seem, therefore, that it should not be difficult to reproduce all the properties of atomic nuclei hitherto observed in nuclear experiments using only quarks and gluons. However, it is only now that physicists, including those from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, have succeeded in doing this.

Oct 15, 2024

Hunter’s supermoon, a comet, and Orionids meteors are sharing the sky this week

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

This week, the October sky is treating us to a brilliant display that you won’t want to miss — the Hunter’s supermoon, a rare comet, and the Orionids meteor shower.

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is a rare comet making its journey past Earth, offering a unique opportunity to witness its tail of icy particles glistening against the dark canvas of space.

In addition, this week features the biggest supermoon of the year, Hunter’s supermoon, which will illuminate the night with a breathtaking orangish glow.

Oct 15, 2024

Dual-species atomic arrays show promise for quantum error correction

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

A study in Nature Physics has realized a dual-species Rydberg array combining rubidium (Rb) and cesium (Cs) atoms to enhance quantum computing and its applications.

Oct 15, 2024

Higgs Particles And Tiny Black Holes Could Have Destroyed Our Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Although our universe may seem stable, having existed for a whopping 13.7 billion years, several experiments suggest that it is at risk—walking on the edge of a very dangerous cliff. And it’s all down to the instability of a single fundamental particle: the Higgs boson.

In new research by me and my colleagues, just accepted for publication in Physical Letters B, we show that some models of the early universe, those which involve objects called light primordial black holes, are unlikely to be right because they would have triggered the Higgs boson to end the cosmos by now.

The Higgs boson is responsible for the mass and interactions of all the particles we know of. That’s because particle masses are a consequence of elementary particles interacting with a field, dubbed the Higgs field. Because the Higgs boson exists, we know that the field exists.

Oct 14, 2024

World’s most powerful X-ray laser set for massive upgrade that will help us better understand the atomic world

Posted by in categories: chemistry, particle physics

Researchers will be able to analyze chemical compounds and atoms in greater detail than ever before using the brightest, clearest laser of its kind anywhere in the world.

Oct 14, 2024

Heavy Element Formation Limited in Failed Supernovae

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Despite its intensity, the gravitational collapse of certain massive stars does not produce an abundance of heavy elements.

About half of the elements heavier than iron are made by the r, or rapid, process. A nucleus captures neutrons so quickly that radioactive decay is forestalled until the neutron-heavy nucleus finally emits electrons and neutrinos and settles at a new, higher atomic number. Besides normal supernovae and neutron-star mergers, the r process is also suspected to occur in so-called collapsars. These are rapidly rotating massive stars that collapse without producing a regular supernova once they exhaust their fuel. However, simulations by Coleman Dean and Rodrigo Fernández of the University of Alberta, Canada, have now undermined that r-process conjecture [1].

A collapsar’s progenitor is massive enough that it forms a black hole. To shed its prodigious angular momentum, it also forms a thick, unstable accretion disk. During the collapse, nuclei in the stellar envelope break apart, and their protons combine with electrons in the envelope to produce neutrons and neutrinos in large numbers. These neutrons could turn the disk into a favorable, if fleeting, site for the r process to forge and disperse heavy elements—provided that this neutron-rich matter can be ejected.

Oct 14, 2024

Cleaning Intense Laser Pulses with Plasma

Posted by in category: particle physics

When two laser beams converge on a volume of gas, their interference creates a diffraction grating made of plasma that can divert and shape a third beam.

Once a laser pulse packs more than 1018 W/cm2 or so of power, its electric field strips electrons from atoms and accelerates them to near light speed. This effect could lead to compact and highly efficient particle accelerators (see Viewpoint: Shooting Ahead with Wakefield Acceleration). But for various reasons to do with pulse generation, the main pulse is unavoidably preceded by weaker prepulses, which can muddle an experiment’s initial conditions and frustrate anticipated results. Now Matthew Edwards of Stanford University, working at Julia Mikhailova’s lab at Princeton University, and collaborators have demonstrated a setup that can delete meddlesome prepulses with unprecedented effectiveness [1].

A key component of the researchers’ setup was demonstrated in 2009 [2]. Two pulsed beams of the same wavelength converged on a volume of gas contained in a cell, ionizing the gas where the beams constructively interfered. The difference in refractive index between the plasma and the neutral gas created an instant and switchable diffraction grating.

Oct 14, 2024

Scientists build world’s thinnest lens, measuring just 3 atoms thick

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

The world’s thinnest lens diffracts light of specific wavelengths instead of refracting it.


By arranging a special material in concentric rings, researchers have built the world’s thinnest lens at just three atoms thickness.

Oct 13, 2024

Avoided quasiparticle decay from strong quantum interactions

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Immortality particles called quasiparticles face_with_colon_three


A collective excitation behaving as a single emergent entity, known as a quasiparticle, often becomes unstable when encountering a continuum of many-body excited states. However, under certain conditions, the result can be totally different.

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