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Archive for the ‘particle physics’ category: Page 343

Oct 24, 2020

World record resolution in cryo-electron microscopy

Posted by in category: particle physics

A novel technique developed by Max Planck researchers in Göttingen, Germany, can visualise individual atoms in a protein with cryo-electron microscopy for the first time.

Oct 24, 2020

Precision metrology closes in on dark matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Optical clocks are so accurate that it would take an estimated 20 billion years—longer than the age of the universe—to lose or gain a second. Now, researchers in the U.S. led by Jun Ye’s group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado have exploited the precision and accuracy of their optical clock and the unprecedented stability of their crystalline silicon optical cavity to tighten the constraints on any possible coupling between particles and fields in the standard model of physics and the so-far elusive components of dark matter.

The existence of dark matter is indirectly evident from gravitational effects at galactic and cosmological scales, but beyond that, little is known of its nature. One of the effects that falls out of theoretical analysis of dark matter coupling to particles in the standard model of physics is a resulting oscillation in . Ye and collaborators figured that if their world-class metrology equipment could not detect these oscillations, then this apparently null result would be useful confirmation that the strength of dark matter interactions with particles in the standard model of physics must be even lower than dictated by the constraints so far on record.

Oct 24, 2020

Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation

Posted by in category: particle physics

If the Higgs boson really is decaying into pairs of muons in the Large Hadron Collider, that’s a big deal for particle physics.

Oct 24, 2020

By coming together, 3,000 scientists changed the course of physics forever

Posted by in category: particle physics

On July 4, 2012, the most elusive particle was finally discovered. Here’s how researchers found the “God particle” and opened paths to new physics.

Oct 21, 2020

RHIC Collider Creates Quark-Gluon Plasma at 4,000,000,000,000 Degrees Celsius

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Circa 2010


Until the LHC finally gets up to full speed, Brookhaven National Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) remains the world’s most powerful heavy ion smasher. And on Monday, they showed off some of that power by announcing that a recent collision resulted in the hottest matter ever recorded. Coming in at a scorching 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit, the plasma not only recreated the environment of the Big Bang, but might have also resulted in the temporary formation of a bubble within which some normal laws of physics did not apply.

Oct 21, 2020

‘Quark Fusion’ Could Outperform Nuclear Fusion

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics

Circa 2017


In a few decades, we might get all our power from nuclear fusion. Researchers have been working to build functional nuclear fusion reactors, which mimic the fusion reactions that occur in the sun to generate power. Once we figure out fusion power, we could use these generators to power our lives for decades.

Oct 21, 2020

Rippling graphene harvests thermal energy

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

New technology could deliver “clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices”.


The rippling thermal motion of a tiny piece of graphene has been harnessed by a special circuit that delivers low-voltage electrical energy. The system was created by researchers in US and Spain, who say that if it could be duplicated enough times on a chip, it could deliver “clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices”.

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Oct 21, 2020

The new heavy isotope mendelevium-244 and a puzzling short-lived fission activity

Posted by in categories: chemistry, particle physics

Gaining a better understanding of the limiting factors for the existence of stable, superheavy elements is a decade-old quest of chemistry and physics. Superheavy elements, as are called the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 103, do not occur in nature and are produced artificially with particle accelerators. They vanish within seconds.

A team of scientists from GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the University of Jyvaeskylae, Finland, led by Dr. Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar from GSI and HIM, has provided new insights into the processes in those exotic and for this, has produced the hitherto unknown nucleus mendelevium-244. The experiments were part of “FAIR Phase 0,” the first stage of the FAIR experimental program. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Heavy and superheavy nuclei are increasingly unstable against the fission process, in which the nucleus splits into two lighter fragments. This is due to the ever-stronger Coulomb repulsion between the large number of positively charged protons in such nuclei, and is one of the main limitations for the existence of stable superheavy nuclei.

Oct 21, 2020

Does Consciousness Create Reality? Double Slit Experiment may show the Answer

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

The double slit experiment — Does consciousness create reality? Quantum mechanics shows us that particles are in superposition, meaning they can exist in different states and even multiple places at the same time. They are nothing more than waves of probabilities, until the moment that they are measured. One interpretation of this phenomenon is that the measurement being made requires a measurer, or a conscious observer. If this is correct, then it implies that consciousness has to be is an integral part of creating the world that we observe. Could this consciousness then be required for creating reality? Does this mean that there would be no reality without consciousness?

Experiments can show that what we think of as particles behave like waves. Waves of probabilities. This is the foundation of Quantum mechanics. The famous double slit experiment illustrates this. What is bizarre is that when you try to find out what’s going on at the slits by placing a detector at the two slits to try to figure out which slit the individual atoms are going through – the “WHICH WAY” information, they all of a sudden stop behaving like waves, and behave like particles.

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Oct 20, 2020

Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Recent experiments show that particles should be able to go faster than light when they quantum mechanically “tunnel” through walls.