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Category: particle physics – Page 44

Rare B meson decays tighten search for hidden particles and dark matter links

A University of Melbourne researcher has placed the strongest constraints yet on certain rare decays of subatomic particles, narrowing the window for where new “hidden” particles could be lurking.

In research published in Physical Review Letters, Dr. Daniel Marcantonio analyzed data from the Belle experiment to search for “feebly interacting particles” (FIPs)—a broad class of hypothetical particles that interact extremely rarely with ordinary matter.

FIPs are predicted by many theories that extend our current understanding of particle physics, and some could serve as candidates for dark matter or as messengers between ordinary matter and a hypothetical “dark sector.”

High degree of quantum entanglement detected for first time in centimeter-sized crystal of strange metal

Many quantum effects can be observed only when a small number of particles is studied—individual atoms, molecules or photons, for example, carefully shielded from the rest of the world. But what about macroscopic objects, consisting of an unimaginably large number of particles? Can they, too, display effects that provide a direct glimpse into the quantum world?

Experimentalists at TU Wien have now shown that this is possible: A centimeter-sized crystal of a so-called strange metal was investigated, and a high degree of quantum entanglement was detected. This was made possible by a clearly defined method from quantum information theory: the quantum Fisher information.

It establishes a new bridge between solid-state physics and quantum physics: Quantum entanglement can be directly quantified in a macroscopic strange-metal material. The paper is published in the journal Nature Physics.

Enhancing the Quantum Oscillation Toolbox

A new experiment probes the quantum geometry of electronic wave functions involved in a nonlinear Hall response.

The transport properties of quantum materials often vary periodically with the strength of an applied magnetic field. These quantum oscillations have long provided physicists with an indispensable tool for extracting subtle, otherwise-inaccessible information on electronic phases of matter [1]. Now an experiment by Jinrui Zhong of the Beijing Institute of Technology and his colleagues has revealed a novel kind of quantum oscillation in moiré systems [2]. These are materials made from stacked monolayers that are twisted with respect to each other to create, in effect, atomic lattices with much wider unit cells. The experiment pointed to a special mechanism for facilitating the novel periodic fluctuations: the emergence of so-called Brown-Zak fermions.

Quasi-1D material unlocks electric control of charge waves beyond standard limits

The ability to control the movement of negatively charged particles (i.e., electrons) is central to the functioning of all modern electronic devices. This control is typically attained using a gate, an electrode via which an applied electric field alters a material’s electrical properties.

In many electronic devices, the effectiveness of electrical gating depends on a device’s capacitance (i.e., a measure of how much electric charge can be induced or stored for a given voltage). Recently, however, electronics engineers have been exploring the potential of new materials that exhibit unusual collective electron behaviors, which could be leveraged to surpass the gating performance of contemporary electronics.

Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of California, Riverside (UCR) recently demonstrated the potential of a new quasi-one-dimensional (1D) quantum material, showing that it can dramatically enhance the electrical control of collective electronic states known as charge density waves (CDWs).

Most precise measurement of the force that binds nuclear matter achieved

Trinity’s Prof. Stefan Sint, along with collaborators from Germany, Spain and Italy, has published the most precise determination to date of the strong coupling constant. This parameter governs the interactions between quarks and gluons, the fundamental components of nuclear matter. The new result halves the error of all previous experimental measurements combined, setting a new benchmark for the Standard Model, which summarizes our current knowledge of elementary particle physics.

This advance will improve our understanding of how quarks and gluons behave inside protons and enable high-precision measurements of the Higgs boson and its properties. More generally, improved quantitative control of the strong interactions increases the likelihood of discovering effects of yet unknown physics at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Prof. Sint from Trinity’s School of Mathematics was one of the researchers whose landmark results were published in Nature.

Supercomputer illuminates subatomic particle that helps hold matter together

A team of researchers has leveraged a supercomputer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory to reveal the internal structure of a pion in unprecedented detail. The findings are published in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

Pions are subatomic particles that help bind matter at some of the smallest scales in nature. They are closely connected to the strong nuclear force, the fundamental force that holds protons and neutrons together inside atomic nuclei. Understanding how pions work can help scientists explain how matter forms at its most fundamental level.

“Pions mediate the strong force that binds nucleons—that is, the protons and neutrons that account for an atom’s mass,” said Yong Zhao, an Argonne physicist and principal investigator on the project.

Fusion reactors could be monitored for covert plutonium production

In the next few decades, many physicists are hopeful that nuclear fusion could become a realistic source of practically limitless energy. But before this can happen, it will be critical to ensure that reactors cannot be covertly misused to produce materials for nuclear weapons.

Through new analysis published in Physical Review Applied, a team led by Patrick Huber at Virginia Tech has shown that an existing type of particle detector could be used to flag any such misuse.