A new and powerful particle detector just passed a critical test in its goal to decipher the ingredients of the early universe. The sPHENIX detector is the newest experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and is designed to precisely measure products of high-speed particle collisions.
The notion of a phased array was initially articulated by Nobel Prize recipient K. F. Braun. Phased arrays have subsequently evolved into a formidable mechanism for wave manipulation. This assertion holds particularly true in the realm of ultrasound, wherein arrays composed of ultrasound-generating transducers are employed in various applications, including therapeutic ultrasound, tissue engineering, and particle manipulation.
Importantly, these applications—contrary to those aimed at imaging—demand high-intensity ultrasound, which complicates the electrical driving requirements, as each channel necessitates its own independently operational pulse circuitry and amplifier. Consequently, the majority of phased array transducers (PATs) are constrained to several hundred elements, thereby restricting the capability to shape intricate ultrasound beams.
To date, there exists no scalable methodology for the powering and control of phased array transducers.
The nostalgic “glow-in-the-dark” stars that twinkle on the ceilings of childhood bedrooms operate on a phenomenon called phosphorescence. Here, a material absorbs energy and later releases it in the form of light. However, recent demand for softer, phosphorescent materials has presented researchers with a unique challenge, as producing organic liquids with efficient phosphorescence at room temperature is considered difficult.
Now, researchers at the University of Osaka have attempted to tackle this problem by producing an organic liquid that phosphoresces in the ambient environment. This discovery is published in Chemical Science.
Traditional materials that can phosphoresce at room temperature contain heavy metal atoms. These phosphors are used to create the colored electronic displays we utilize every day, such as those in our smartphones. Organic materials, which contain carbon and hydrogen atoms (similar to materials found in nature), are more environmentally friendly.
A new technique allows the imaging of an atomic system in which the interatomic spacing is smaller than the optical-resolution limit.
To gain in-depth understanding of quantum matter, researchers need to probe it at the microscopic level. Ultracold atoms—ensembles of atoms cooled to near absolute zero—offer an exceptionally clean and controllable platform for exploring collective quantum phenomena. Over the past two decades, researchers have sought to take in situ “snapshots” in which every single atom is individually resolved in position and, when needed, in spin. Recent advances have brought this vision to life and have significantly accelerated our understanding of collective quantum behaviors. Yet an important challenge remains: In a number of situations, the typical spacing between particles is smaller than the resolution limit of conventional optical imaging. Now Selim Jochim and his group at Heidelberg University in Germany have introduced a method to overcome this barrier by making the system “self-magnify” before imaging [1].
Matter gets weird at the quantum scale, and among the oddities is the Efimov effect, a state in which the attractive forces between three or more atoms bind them together, even as they are excited to higher energy levels, while that same force is insufficient to bind two atoms.
At Purdue University, researchers have completed the immense quantum calculation required to represent the Efimov effect in five atoms, adding to our fragmented picture of the most fundamental nature of matter.
The calculation, which applies across a broad range of physical problems—from a group of atoms being studied in a laser trap to the gases in a neutron star—contributes to our foundational understanding of matter and may lead to more efficient methods for confining atoms for study.
Researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have been able to see the magnetic nucleus of an atom switch back and forth in real time. They read out the nuclear “spin” via the electrons in the same atom through the needle of a scanning tunneling microscope.
To their surprise, the spin remained stable for several seconds, offering prospects for enhanced control of the magnetic nucleus. The research, published in Nature Communications, is a step forward for quantum sensing at the atomic scale.
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) consists of an atomically-sharp needle that can “feel” single atoms on a surface and make images with atomic resolution. Or to be precise, STM can only feel the electrons that surround the atomic nucleus. Both the electrons and the nucleus in an atom are potentially small magnets.
An experiment carried out at CERN’s ISOLDE facility has determined the western shore of a small island of atomic nuclei, where conventional nuclear rules break down.
The atomic nucleus was discovered over a century ago, yet many questions remain about the force that keeps its constituent protons and neutrons together and the way in which these particles pack themselves together within it.
In the classic nuclear shell model, protons and neutrons arrange themselves in shells of increasing energy, and completely filled outer shells of protons or neutrons result in particularly stable “magic” nuclei. But the model only works for nuclei with the right mix of protons and neutrons. Get the wrong mix and the model breaks down.