We might start to see atoms interacting with each other in ways “we have not yet seen.”
University of Birmingham researchers have demonstrated how unique vibrations, which are caused by interactions between the two stars’ tidal fields as they approach each other, affect gravitational-wave observations.
Taking these movements into account could significantly improve our understanding of the data collected by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo instruments, according to a press release published on the institute’s official website on Thursday.
The oscillations in binary neutron stars before they merge could have big implications for the insights scientists can glean from gravitational wave detection.
A team of Chinese scientists report on a new method for entangling photons that they say could make quantum networks and quantum computing more practical, according to the South China Post.
In a study published in Nature Photonics, the team from the University of Science and Technology of China said that the new way to produce entangled photons is extremely efficient. The work was led by Jian-Wei Pan, one of the world’s leading quantum researcher from the Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, the University of Science and Technology of China and CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China.
Entangled photons are needed for certain forms of quantum communication and computing. These technologies require the ability to efficiently produce large numbers of particles — in this case, photons — that can remain entangled even when separated by vast distances to process and protect information. Specifically, the technology could be used in quantum relays that are used in long-distance, attack-proof quantum communication, the newspaper reports.
The textbook description of a proton says it contains three smaller particles — two up quarks and a down quark — but a new analysis has found strong evidence that it also holds a charm quark.
A novel method for measuring nanoparticle size could have applications in industry and basic materials science research.
Nanoparticles are present in everything from paints to pharmaceutical products. While nanoparticles have many important characteristics, such as molecular composition and shape, it is their size that determines many chemical and physical properties. A new technique relying on an optical vortex—a laser beam whose wave fronts twist around a dark central region—allows researchers to characterize nanoparticle size rapidly and continuously [1]. This light-based size probe might one day find applications in numerous industrial settings and aid fundamental materials science research.
It is difficult to precisely synthesize nanoparticles with the desired dimensions, so manufacturers must often validate that their nanoparticles have the right size to comply with regulations and to ensure product quality. There are many ways of determining nanoparticle size, but one popular approach, dynamic light scattering (DLS), is based on measurements of Brownian motion, the random particle movement caused by jostling from the surrounding liquid medium. In DLS, the Brownian motion is determined by measuring fluctuations in laser light scattering from the nanoparticles. In general, the faster the Brownian motion, the smaller the particles. But current techniques are generally not capable of characterizing the largest particles and measuring them continuously.
Protons, once thought to be fundamental particles, have been known since 1968 to instead be composed of quarks. Some quarks are actually heavier than protons, but this wasn’t considered a problem because protons were thought to be made up purely of light quarks – two up and one down quark to be precise. However, new research shows protons also contain charm quarks, which are indeed heavier than protons, like a pot holding a bigger pot inside it.
“That goes against all common sense,” said Dr Juan Rojo of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in a statement. “It’s like buying a one-kilogram pack of salt, which then comes out two kilograms of sand.”
However, anyone highly attached to common sense dropped out of quantum mechanics courses in the first six weeks, so Rojo and co-authors were undeterred. In Nature they have revealed that less than one percent of the proton’s mass comes from quarks heavier than the proton.
Newly discovered magnetic interactions in the Kagome layered topological magnet TbMn6Sn6 could be the key to customizing how electrons flow through these materials. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted an in-depth investigation of TbMn6Sn6 to better understand the material and its magnetic characteristics. These results could impact future technology advancements in fields such as quantum computing, magnetic storage media, and high-precision sensors.
Kagomes are a type of material whose structure is named after a traditional Japanese basket weaving technique. The weave produces a pattern of hexagons surrounded by triangles and vice-versa. The arrangement of the atoms in Kagome metals reproduces the weaving pattern. This characteristic causes electrons within the material to behave in unique ways.
Solid materials have electronic properties controlled by the characteristics of their electronic band structure. The band structure is strongly dependent on the geometry of the atomic lattice, and sometimes bands may display special shapes such as cones. These special shapes, called topological features, are responsible for the unique ways electrons behave in these materials. The Kagome structure in particular leads to complex and potentially tunable features in the electronic bands.
A team of researchers with The NNPDF Collaboration has found new evidence to support the theory of “intrinsic” charm quarks. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they used a machine learning model to develop a proton structure and then used it to compare against results from real-world collisions in particle accelerators and what they learned by doing so. Ramona Vogt, with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team on this new effort. Nature has also published a podcast where Nick Petrić Howe and Benjamin Thompson discuss the work done by the team.
Prior research involving the use of particle accelerators has suggested that protons contain quarks that are held together by gluons. A reasonable amount of evidence has also shown that there are at least two up quarks and one down quark. There have also been theories suggesting that there is another, the so-called charm quark, but little real evidence of them exists. That might be changing, however, as the researchers on this new effort have used a new approach to “prove” that they exist.
They have found evidence of one small part (0.5%) of a proton’s momentum coming from a charm quark. The researchers found this new evidence by using a machine learning model to build a hypothetical proton structure, including different flavors of quarks, and of course the elusive charm quark. They then ran their model and compared characteristics of the model with real-world data that has been observed from over 500,000 collisions in accelerators over the last decade.
By epitaxially growing films from colloids, researchers show that they can monitor interactions and behaviors of the particles that are difficult—and sometimes impossible—to capture for similar films grown from atoms.
Is it possible that the particle physicists hard at work near Geneva, Switzerland, at the laboratory known as CERN that hosts the Large Hadron Collider, have opened a doorway or a tunnel, to, say, another dimension? Could they be accessing a far-off planet orbiting two stars in a distant galaxy populated by Jedi knights? Perhaps they have opened the doors of Europe to a fiery domain full of demons, or worse still, to central Texas in summer?
