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Category: particle physics – Page 39

Scientists Capture First-Ever Image of Plasma’s Spaghetti-Like Instability

A recent study published in Physical Review Letters

<em> Physical Review Letters (PRL)</em> is a prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. Launched in 1958, it is renowned for its swift publication of short reports on significant fundamental research in all fields of physics. PRL serves as a venue for researchers to quickly share groundbreaking and innovative findings that can potentially shift or enhance understanding in areas such as particle physics, quantum mechanics, relativity, and condensed matter physics. The journal is highly regarded in the scientific community for its rigorous peer review process and its focus on high-impact papers that often provide foundational insights within the field of physics.

Scientists merge two ‘impossible’ materials into new artificial structure

An international team led by Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers has merged two lab-synthesized materials into a synthetic quantum structure once thought impossible to exist and produced an exotic structure expected to provide insights that could lead to new materials at the core of quantum computing.

The work, described in a cover story in the journal Nano Letters, explains how four years of continuous experimentation led to a novel method to design and build a unique, tiny sandwich composed of distinct atomic layers.

One slice of the microscopic structure is made of dysprosium titanate, an inorganic compound used in nuclear reactors to trap and contain elusive magnetic monopole particles, while the other is composed of pyrochlore iridate, a new magnetic semimetal mainly used in today’s experimental research due to its distinctive electronic, topological and magnetic properties.

Supersonic speed limit for strong metal bonding revealed

Faster isn’t always better when it comes to high-speed materials science, according to new Cornell research showing that tiny metal particles bond best at a precise supersonic speed.

In industrial processes like cold spray coating and , tiny metal particles travel at extreme speeds and slam into a surface with such force that they fuse together, forming strong metallic bonds. This rapid, high-energy collision builds up layers of material, creating durable, high-performance components. Understanding how and why these bonds form, and sometimes fail, can help optimize manufacturing techniques and lead to stronger materials.

In a study published March 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cornell scientists launched , each about 20 micrometers in diameter, onto an aluminum surface at speeds of up to 1,337 meters per second—well beyond the speed of sound—and used high-speed cameras to record the impacts.

Scientists develop ultraprecise, efficient and flexible technique for counting and analyzing nanoplastics

While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an average human hair), are far more reactive, far more mobile and vastly more capable of crossing biological membranes. Yet, because they are so tiny and so mobile, researchers don’t yet have an accurate understanding of just how toxic these particles are.

The first step to understanding the toxicology of nanoplastics is to build a reliable, efficient and flexible tool that can not only quantify their concentration in a given sample, but also analyze which specific plastics that sample contains.

An international team of scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst reports in Nature Water on the development of a new tool, known as the OM-SERS setup, which can do all of these things and can furthermore be used to detect particular nanoplastic concentrations and polymer types in solid samples, such as soils, body tissues and plants.

Europe’s plans for an even bigger particle collider, explained

Europe’s physics lab CERN is planning to build a particle-smasher even bigger than its Large Hadron Collider to continue searching for answers to some of the universe’s tiniest yet most profound mysteries.

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) has not yet received a political green light or funding. Even if approved, the vast project would not start operations until the 2040s—or be completed until the end of the century.

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which famously discovered the “God particle” Higgs boson and is currently the world’s powerful particle accelerator, is expected to have run its course by the 2040s.

Quantum Computers Take a Leap Toward Accurate Nuclear Simulations

A newly developed framework for quantifying uncertainties enhances the predictive power of analog quantum simulations. Simulating quantum many-body systems is a major objective in nuclear and high-energy physics. These systems involve large numbers of interacting particles governed by the laws of

World’s largest atom smasher makes 1st-of-its-kind ‘beauty’ particle discovery that could unlock new physics

Why matter dominates over antimatter in our universe has long been a major cosmic mystery to physicists. A new finding by the world’s largest particle collider has revealed a clue.

Researchers propose a simple magnetic switch using altermagnets

Controlling magnetism in a device is not easy; unusually large magnetic fields or lots of electricity are needed, which are bulky, slow, expensive and/or waste energy. But that looks soon to change, thanks to the recent discovery of altermagnets. Now scientists are putting forth ideas for efficient switches to manage magnetism in devices.

Magnetism has traditionally come in two varieties: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism, based on the alignment (or not) of in a material. Early last year, physicists announced experimental evidence for a third variety of magnetism: altermagnetism, a different combination of spins and crystal symmetries. Researchers are now learning how to tune altermagnets, bringing science closer towards practical applications.

We’re all familiar with ferromagnetism (FM), like a refrigerator magnet or compass needle, where magnetic moments in atoms lined up in parallel in a crystal. A second class was added about a hundred years ago called antiferromagnetism (AFM), where magnetic moments in a crystal align regularly in alternate directions on differing sublattices, so the crystal has no net magnetization, but usually does at low temperatures.

A quantum superhighway for ultrafast NOON states

Until now, creating quantum superpositions of ultra-cold atoms has been a real headache, too slow to be realistic in the laboratory. Researchers at the University of Liège have now developed an innovative new approach combining geometry and “quantum control,” which drastically speeds up the process, paving the way for practical applications in quantum technologies.

The paper is published in the journal Physical Review A.

Imagine being in a supermarket with a cart filled to the brim. The challenge: get to the checkout before the others, without dropping your products on the corners. The solution? Choose a route with as few corners as possible to go faster without slowing down. That’s exactly what Simon Dengis, a doctoral student at the University of Liège, has managed to do, but in the world of quantum physics.

CERN Creates Top Quarks for the First Time, Revolutionizing Physics

In a remarkable leap forward for science, researchers at CERN have successfully created and observed top quarks—one of nature’s most elusive and unstable particles—inside a lab for the very first time. This breakthrough, announced by the ATLAS team at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), promises to reshape our understanding of the early Universe and the fundamental makeup of matter.