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Category: particle physics – Page 5

Neutrinos have always been difficult to study because their small mass and neutral charge make them especially elusive. Scientists have made a lot of headway in the field and can now detect three flavors, or oscillation states, of neutrinos. Other flavors continue to be elusive—though that could be because they don’t even exist.

Sterile neutrinos, a flavor that has been proposed to play a role in neutrino mass generation and causing the oscillations of other neutrinos, have been hinted at in previous experiments but never detected.

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, NOvA collaboration scientists did not find evidence of , but their work puts the tightest constraints on parameter space to date for where sterile neutrinos could be found.

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The quantum rules shaping molecular collisions are now coming into focus, offering fresh insights for chemistry and materials science. When molecules collide with surfaces, a complex exchange of energy takes place between the molecule and the atoms composing the surface. But beneath this dizzying complexity, quantum mechanics, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, governs the process.

Quantum interference, in particular, plays a key role. It occurs when different pathways that a molecule can take overlap, resulting in specific patterns of interaction: some pathways amplify each other, while others cancel out entirely. This “dance of waves” affects how molecules exchange energy and momentum with surfaces, and ultimately how efficiently they react.

But until now, observing in collisions with heavier molecules like methane (CH4) was nearly impossible because of the overwhelming number of pathways available for the system to take en route to the different collision outcomes. Many scientists have even wondered if all quantum effects would always “wash out” for these processes so that the simpler laws of classical physics, which apply to everyday, “macroscopic” objects, might be enough to describe them.

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A new formula that connects a material’s magnetic permeability to spin dynamics has been derived and tested 84 years after the debut of its electric counterpart.

If antiferromagnets, altermagnets, and other emerging quantum materials are to be harnessed for spintronic devices, physicists will need to better understand the spin dynamics in these materials. One possible path forward is to exploit the duality between electric and magnetic dynamics expressed by Maxwell’s equations. From this duality, one could naively expect mirror-like similarities in the behavior of electric and magnetic dipoles. However, a profound difference between the quantized lattice electric excitations—such as phonons—and spin excitations—such as paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin resonances and magnons—has now been unveiled in terms of their corresponding contributions to the static electric susceptibility and magnetic permeability. Viktor Rindert of Lund University in Sweden and his collaborators have derived and verified a formula that relates a material’s magnetic permeability to the frequencies of magnetic spin resonances [1].

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A research team led by Professor Takayuki Hoshino of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Engineering in Japan has demonstrated the world’s smallest shooting game by manipulating nanoparticles in real time, resulting in a game that is played with particles approximately 1 billionth of a meter in size.

This research is a significant step toward developing a computer interface system that seamlessly integrates virtual objects with real nanomaterials. They published their study in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics.

The game demonstrates what the researchers call “nano-mixed reality (MR),” which integrates digital technology with the physical nanoworld in real time using high-speed electron beams. These beams generate dynamic patterns of electric fields and on a display surface, allowing researchers to control the force field acting on the nanoparticles in real time to move and manipulate them.

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Laying the groundwork for quantum communication systems of the future, engineers at Caltech have demonstrated the successful operation of a quantum network of two nodes, each containing multiple quantum bits, or qubits—the fundamental information-storing building blocks of quantum computers.

To achieve this, the researchers developed a new protocol for distributing in a parallel manner, effectively creating multiple channels for sending data, or multiplexing. The work was accomplished by embedding ytterbium atoms inside crystals and coupling them to optical cavities—nanoscale structures that capture and guide light. This platform has unique properties that make it ideal for using multiple qubits to transmit quantum information-carrying photons in parallel.

“This is the first-ever demonstration of entanglement multiplexing in a quantum network of individual spin qubits,” says Andrei Faraon (BS ‘04), the William L. Valentine Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Caltech. “This method significantly boosts quantum communication rates between nodes, representing a major leap in the field.”

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Researchers at the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester have achieved a significant milestone in the field of quantum electronics with their latest study on spin injection in graphene. The paper, published recently in Communications Materials, outlines advancements in spintronics and quantum transport.

Spin electronics, or spintronics, represents a revolutionary alternative to traditional electronics by utilizing the spin of electrons rather than their charge to transfer and store information. This method promises energy-efficient and high-speed solutions that exceed the limitations of classical computation, for next generation classical and quantum computation.

The Manchester team, led by Dr. Ivan Vera-Marun, has fully encapsulated in , an insulating and atomically flat 2D material, to protect its high quality. By engineering the 2D material stack to expose only the edges of , and laying magnetic nanowire electrodes over the stack, they successfully form one-dimensional (1D) contacts.

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A new study from the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) explores the behavior of photons, the elementary particles of light, as they encounter boundaries where material properties change rapidly over time. This research uncovers remarkable quantum optical phenomena that may enhance quantum technology and paves the road for an exciting nascent field: four-dimensional quantum optics.

Four-dimensional optics is a research area investigating light scattering from structures which change in time and space. It holds immense promise for advancing microwave and optical technologies by enabling functionalities such as frequency conversion, amplification, polarization engineering and asymmetric scattering. That is why it has captured the interest of many researchers across the globe.

Previous years have seen significant strides in this area. For instance, a 2024 study published in Nature Photonics and also involving UEF highlights how incorporating optical features like resonances can drastically influence the interaction of electromagnetic fields with time-varying two-dimensional structures, opening exotic possibilities to control light.

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To develop a practical fusion power system, scientists need to fully understand how the plasma fuel interacts with its surroundings. The plasma is superheated, which means some of the atoms involved can strike the wall of the fusion vessel and become embedded. To keep the system working efficiently, it’s important to know how much fuel might be trapped.

“The less fuel is trapped in the wall, the less radioactive material builds up,” said Shota Abe, a staff research physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).

Abe is the lead researcher on a study published in Nuclear Materials and Energy. The study looks specifically at how much —thought to be one of the best fuels for —might get stuck in the boron-coated, graphite walls of a doughnut-shaped fusion vessel known as a tokamak. Boron is used in some experimental fusion systems to reduce plasma impurities. However, researchers do not fully understand how a boron coating might impact the amount of fusion fuel that leaves the plasma and becomes embedded in the vessel walls.

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