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Category: particle physics – Page 154

AI categorizes 700 million aurora images for better geomagnetic storm forecasting

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is known for a stunning spectacle of light in the night sky, but this near-Earth manifestation, which is caused by explosive activity on the sun and carried by the solar wind, can also interrupt vital communications and security infrastructure on Earth. Using artificial intelligence, researchers at the University of New Hampshire have categorized and labeled the largest-ever database of aurora images that could help scientists better understand and forecast the disruptive geomagnetic storms.

The research, recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Machine Learning and Computation, developed artificial intelligence and machine learning tools that were able to successfully identify and classify over 706 million images of auroral phenomena in NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) data set collected by twin spacecrafts studying the space environment around Earth. THEMIS provides images of the night sky every three seconds from sunset to sunrise from 23 different stations across North America.

“The massive dataset is a valuable resource that can help researchers understand how the interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere, the protective bubble that shields us from charged particles streaming from the sun,” said Jeremiah Johnson, associate professor of applied engineering and sciences and the study’s lead author. “But until now, its huge size limited how effectively we can use that data.”

Brightest Space Explosion Ever May Hide an Elusive Dark Matter Particle

In October 2022, scientists detected the explosive death of a star 2.4 billion light-years away that was brighter than any ever recorded.

As the star’s core collapsed down into a black hole, the gamma-ray burst emitted by the star – an event named GRB 221009A – erupted with energies of up to 18 teraelectronvolts. Gamma-ray bursts are already the brightest explosions our Universe can produce; but GRB 221009A was an absolute record-smasher, earning it the moniker “the BOAT” – Brightest Of All Time.

There is, however, something wrong with the picture, according to a team of astrophysicists led by Giorgio Galanti of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Italy. Based on cutting-edge models of the Universe, we shouldn’t be able to see photons more powerful than 10 teraelectronvolts in data from the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) that made the detection.

Mathematical methods point to possibility of particles long thought impossible

From the early days of quantum mechanics, scientists have thought that all particles can be categorized into one of two groups—bosons or fermions—based on their behavior.

However, new research by Rice University physicist Kaden Hazzard and former Rice graduate student Zhiyuan Wang shows the possibility of particles that are neither bosons nor fermions. Their study, published in Nature, mathematically demonstrates the potential existence of paraparticles that have long been thought impossible.

“We determined that new types of particles we never knew of before are possible,” said Hazzard, associate professor of physics and astronomy.

Decoding 2D material growth: White graphene insights open doors to cleaner energy and more efficient electronics

A breakthrough in decoding the growth process of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a 2D material, and its nanostructures on metal substrates could pave the way for more efficient electronics, cleaner energy solutions and greener chemical manufacturing, according to new research from the University of Surrey published in the journal Small.

Only one atom thick, hBN—often nicknamed “white graphene”—is an ultra-thin, super-resilient material that blocks electrical currents, withstands extreme temperatures and resists chemical damage. Its unique versatility makes it an invaluable component in , where it can protect delicate microchips and enable the development of faster, more efficient transistors.

Going a step further, researchers have also demonstrated the formation of nanoporous hBN, a novel material with structured voids that allows for selective absorption, advanced catalysis and enhanced functionality, vastly expanding its potential environmental applications. This includes sensing and filtering pollutants—as well as enhancing advanced energy systems, including hydrogen storage and electrochemical catalysts for fuel cells.

The LZ experiment’s first science run sets new constraints on dark matter interactions

The LUX ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter experiment is a large research effort involving over 200 scientists and engineers at 40 institutions worldwide. Its key objective is to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by analyzing data collected by the LZ detector, situated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

The LZ Collaboration recently released the results of the first experimental run of the LZ experiment. These results, published in Physical Review Letters, set new constraints on the interactions between dark matter and other particles, which could inform future searches for weakly-interacting dark matter candidates.

“There is no reason to believe that dark matter will interact with regular matter in the simplest way, so it is important to consider more ,” Sam Eriksen, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org.

Discovery of new class of particles could take quantum mechanics one step further

Amid the many mysteries of quantum physics, subatomic particles don’t always follow the rules of the physical world. They can exist in two places at once, pass through solid barriers and even communicate across vast distances instantaneously. These behaviors may seem impossible, but in the quantum realm, scientists are exploring an array of properties once thought impossible.

In a new study, physicists at Brown University have now observed a novel class of quantum particles called fractional excitons, which behave in unexpected ways and could significantly expand scientists’ understanding of the .

“Our findings point toward an entirely new class of quantum particles that carry no overall charge but follow unique quantum statistics,” said Jia Li, an associate professor of physics at Brown.

Physicists achieve simulation of non-Hermitian skin effect in 2D with ultracold fermions

A research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has achieved a groundbreaking quantum simulation of the non-Hermitian skin effect in two dimensions using ultracold fermions, marking a significant advance in quantum physics research.

Quantum mechanics, which typically considers a well-isolated system from its environment, describes ubiquitous phenomena ranging from electron behavior in solids to information processing in quantum devices. This description typically requires a real-valued observable—specifically, a Hermitian model (Hamiltonian).

The hermiticity of the model, which guarantees conserved energy with real eigenvalues, breaks down when a quantum system exchanges particles and energy with its environment. Such an open quantum system can be effectively described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, providing crucial insights into , curved space, non-trivial topological phases, and even black holes. Nevertheless, many questions about non-Hermitian quantum dynamics remain unanswered, especially in higher dimensions.

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