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Category: particle physics – Page 75

This Strange Motion Keeps Appearing Everywhere — Even in High-Energy Collisions

Particles in high-energy nuclear collisions move in a way that follows a pattern known as Lévy walks, a motion found across many scientific fields.

Named after mathematician Paul Lévy, Lévy walks (or, in some cases, Lévy flights) describe a type of random movement seen in nature and various scientific processes. This pattern appears in diverse phenomena, from how predators search for food to economic fluctuations, microbiology, chemical reactions, and even climate dynamics.

Lévy walks in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Quantum Billiards: Cracking the Code of Light-Assisted Atomic Collisions

In a groundbreaking study, scientists developed new ways to control atom collisions using optical tweezers, offering insights that could advance quantum computing and molecular science. By manipulating light frequencies and atomic energy levels, they mapped out how specific atomic characteristics influence collision outcomes, paving the way for more precise quantum manipulation.

Decades-Old Chemical Puzzle Solved: Scientists Synthesize Never-Before-Seen Bismuth Molecule

KIT researchers lay the foundation for new materials and chemical processes by synthesizing an unusual molecule.

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have successfully synthesized and stabilized a Bi₅⁻ ring—a molecule composed of five bismuth atoms—within a metal complex. This achievement fills a key gap in chemical research and opens new possibilities for applications in materials science, catalysis, and electronics. The study has been published in Nature Chemistry.

“By synthesizing the Bi5–ring, we’ve answered a long-standing question of basic research. In the future, this molecule could play an important role in the development of new materials and chemical processes,” said Professor Stefanie Dehnen from KIT’s Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, where she heads the cluster-based materials research group.

Microsoft (Again) Claims Topological Quantum Computing With Majorana Zero Mode Anyons

As the fundamental flaw of today’s quantum computers, improving qubit stability remains the focus of much research in this field. One such stability attempt involves so-called topological quantum computing with the use of anyons, which are two-dimensional quasiparticles. Such an approach has been claimed by Microsoft in a recent paper in Nature. This comes a few years after an earlier claim by Microsoft for much the same feat, which was found to be based on faulty science and hence retracted.

The claimed creation of anyons here involves Majorana fermions, which differ from the much more typical Dirac fermions. These Majorana fermions are bound with other such fermions as a Majorana zero mode (MZM), forming anyons that are intertwined (braided) to form what are in effect logic gates. In the Nature paper the Microsoft researchers demonstrate a superconducting indium-arsenide (InAs) nanowire-based device featuring a read-out circuit (quantum dot interferometer) with the capacitance of one of the quantum dots said to vary in a way that suggests that the nanowire device-under-test demonstrates the presence of MZMs at either end of the wire.

Microsoft has a dedicated website to their quantum computing efforts, though it remains essential to stress that this is not a confirmation until their research is replicated by independent researchers. If confirmed, MZMs could provide a way to create more reliable quantum computing circuitry that does not have to lean so heavily on error correction to get any usable output. Other, competing efforts here include such things as hybrid mechanical qubits and antimony-based qubits that should be more stable owing to their eight spin configurations.

Chemists find greener path to making ethylene oxide, a key industrial chemical

Scientists have discovered a potentially greener way to produce a crucial industrial chemical used to make many everyday products, from plastics and textiles to antifreeze and disinfectants, according to a study published in Science and co-authored by Tulane University chemical engineer Matthew Montemore.

The breakthrough could significantly reduce from the manufacture of ethylene oxide, which has an estimated $40 billion global market. The current production process requires chlorine, which is toxic and emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

The research team, led by Montemore, as well as Tufts University chemistry professor Charles Sykes and University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) chemical engineering professor Phillip Christopher, found that adding small amounts of nickel atoms to silver catalysts can maintain while eliminating the need for chlorine in the process.

Microsoft deploys new state of matter in its first quantum computing chip

The achievement comes after the company spent nearly two decades of research in the field, but Microsoft claims that building Majorana 1 required that it create an entirely new state of matter, which it is referring to as a topological state.

Microsoft’s quantum chip employs eight topological qubits using indium arsenide, which is a semiconductor, and aluminum, which is a superconductor.

“The difficulty of developing the right materials to create the exotic particles and their associated topological state of matter is why most quantum efforts have focused on other kinds of qubits,” the company said in a blog Wednesday.

Yujin Nagasawa — What is Panpsychism?

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Panpsychism is the extreme claim that everything in the physical world—all subatomic particles-are in some sense ‘conscious’ or have a basic kind of ‘proto-consciousness’. Why are an increasing number of leading philosophers taking panpsychism seriously? Something must be up. Could it be doubt that the scientific project to explain consciousness has failed?

Yujin nagasawa is the kingfisher college chair of the philosophy of religion and ethics, and professor of philosophy at the university of oklahoma.

Watch more videos on panpsychism and consciousness: https://shorturl.at/acpR0

Bacteria on marine particles play key role in ocean nitrogen cycle

It has puzzled scientists for years whether and how bacteria, that live from dissolved organic matter in marine waters, can carry out N2 fixation. It was assumed that the high levels of oxygen combined with the low amount of dissolved organic matter in the marine water column would prevent the anaerobic and energy consuming N2 fixation.

Already in the 1980s it was suggested that aggregates, so-called “marine snow particles,” could possibly be suitable sites for N2 fixation, and this was recently confirmed. Still, it has been an open question why the carrying out this N2 fixation can be found worldwide in the ocean. Moreover, the global magnitude and the distribution of the activity have been unknown… until now.

In a new study, researchers from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany, Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Copenhagen demonstrate, by use of mechanistic mathematical models, that bacteria attached to marine snow particles can fix N2 over a wide range of temperatures in the global oceans, from the tropics to the poles, and from the surface to the abyss.

Ultrafast vortex electron diffraction: A new way to observe electrons in motion

Electrons oscillate around the nucleus of an atom on extremely short timescales, typically completing a cycle in just a few hundred attoseconds. Because of their ultrafast motions, directly observing electron behavior in molecules has been challenging. Now researchers from UC San Diego’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have suggested a new method to make visualizing electron motion a reality.

This new method describes an experimental concept called ultrafast vortex electron diffraction, which allows for direct visualization of electron movement in molecules on attosecond timescales. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The key idea behind this approach is the use of a specialized electron beam that spirals as it travels, enabling precise tracking of electron motion in both space and time. This method is especially sensitive to electronic coherence, where electrons move in a synchronized, harmonious manner.

Rare trio of weak bosons observed at Large Hadron Collider

As the carriers of the weak force, the W and Z bosons are central to the Standard Model of particle physics. Though discovered four decades ago, the W and Z bosons continue to provide physicists with new avenues for exploration.

In a new study available on the arXiv preprint server, the ATLAS collaboration analyzed its full data set from the second run of the Large Hadron Collider (recorded from 2015 to 2018) in search of a rare process in which a Z boson is produced alongside two other weak-force carriers, or vector (V) bosons, as the W and Z are known.

“The production of three vector bosons is a very rare process at the LHC,” says Fabio Cerutti, ATLAS Physics Coordinator. “Its measurement provides information on the interactions among multiple bosons, which are linked to underlying symmetries of the Standard Model. This is a powerful tool for uncovering new physics phenomena, such as new, undiscovered particles that are too heavy to be directly produced at the LHC.”

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