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Category: particle physics

Physicists at Columbia University have taken molecules to a new ultracold limit and created a state of matter where quantum mechanics reigns.

There’s a hot new BEC in town that has nothing to do with bacon, egg, and cheese. You won’t find it at your local bodega, but in the coldest place in New York: the lab of Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose experimental group specializes in pushing atoms and molecules to temperatures just fractions of a degree above absolute zero.

Writing in Nature, the Will lab, supported by theoretical collaborator Tijs Karman at Radboud University in the Netherlands, has successfully created a unique quantum state of matter called a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) out of molecules.

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It’s possible that our universe is the antimatter counterpart of an antimatter universe that existed earlier in time than the Big Bang. So claim physicists in Canada, who have devised a new cosmological model positing the existence of a “antiuniverse” which, paired to our own, preserves a fundamental rule of physics called CPT symmetry. Though many details in their theory still need to be worked out, the researchers claim that it naturally explains the existence of dark matter.

According to standard cosmological models, the universe—which consists of space, time, and mass/energy—exploded into being about 14 billion years ago. Since then, it has expanded and cooled, causing subatomic particles, atoms, stars, and planets to gradually form.

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Quantum simulators are now addressing complex physics problems, such as the dynamics of 1D quantum magnets and their potential similarities to classical phenomena like snow accumulation. Recent research confirms some aspects of this theory, but also highlights challenges in fully validating the KPZ universality class in quantum systems. Credit: Google LLC

Quantum simulators are advancing quickly and can now tackle issues previously confined to theoretical physics and numerical simulation. Researchers at Google Quantum AI and their collaborators demonstrated this new potential by exploring dynamics in one-dimensional quantum magnets, specifically focusing on chains of spin-1/2 particles.

They investigated a statistical mechanics problem that has been the focus of attention in recent years: Could such a 1D quantum magnet be described by the same equations as snow falling and clumping together? It seems strange that the two systems would be connected, but in 2019, researchers at the University of Ljubljana found striking numerical evidence that led them to conjecture that the spin dynamics in the spin-1⁄2 Heisenberg model are in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class, based on the scaling of the infinite-temperature spin-spin correlation function.

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A team of New York University researchers has created a new way to visualize crystals by peering inside their structures, akin to having X-ray vision. Their new technique—which they aptly named “Crystal Clear”—combines the use of transparent particles and microscopes with lasers that allow scientists to see each unit that makes up the crystal and to create dynamic three-dimensional models.

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Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), and their collaborators have uncovered new details of the reversible assembly and disassembly of a platinum catalyst. The new understanding may offer clues to the catalyst’s stability and recyclability.

The work, described in a paper published in the journal Nanoscale (“Unravelling the origin of reaction-driven aggregation and fragmentation of atomically dispersed Pt catalyst on ceria support”), reveals how single platinum atoms on a cerium oxide support aggregate under reaction conditions to form active catalytic nanoparticles — and then, surprisingly, fragment once the reaction is stopped.

Fragmentation may sound shattering, but the scientists say it could be a plus.

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Explore the fascinating world of quantum teleportation. Discover its principles, applications, and the profound impact it could have on our future.

Introduction to Quantum Teleportation

Quantum teleportation, a term that sounds like it’s straight out of science fiction, is a very real and advancing field in quantum physics. This groundbreaking technology is not about transporting matter from one place to another but rather involves the transfer of information between quantum particles. This article delves into the science behind quantum teleportation, its potential applications, and the impact it could have on various aspects of our lives.

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There’s a hot new BEC in town that has nothing to do with bacon, egg, and cheese. You won’t find it at your local bodega, but in the coldest place in New York: the lab of Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose experimental group specializes in pushing atoms and molecules to temperatures just fractions of a degree above absolute zero.

Read more | >

In May 2022, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU), launched its precision measurement program. Staff from FRIB’s Low Energy Beam and Ion Trap (LEBIT) facility take high-energy, rare-isotope beams generated at FRIB and cool them to a lower energy state. Afterward, the researchers measure specific particles’ masses at high precision.

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