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Category: particle physics – Page 9

Protons are the basis of bioenergetics. The ability to move them through biological systems is essential for life. A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows for the first time that proton transfer is directly influenced by the spin of electrons when measured in chiral biological environments such as proteins. In other words, proton movement in living systems is not purely chemical; it is also a quantum process involving electron spin and molecular chirality.

The quantum process directly affects the small movements of the biological environment that support . This discovery suggests that energy and information transfer in life is more controlled, selective, and potentially tunable than previously believed, bridging with biological chemistry and opening new doors for understanding life at its deepest level—and for designing technologies that can mimic or control biological processes.

The work, led by a team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem collaborating with Prof. Ron Naaman from Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Nurit Ashkenasy from Ben Gurion University, reveals a surprising connection between the movement of electrons and protons in biological systems.

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Abundant, low-cost, clean energy—the envisioned result if scientists and engineers can successfully produce a reliable method of generating and sustaining fusion energy—has taken one step closer to reality, as a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Type One Energy Group has solved a longstanding problem in the field.

One of the big challenges holding back has been the ability to contain inside fusion reactors. When high-energy alpha particles leak from a reactor, that prevents the plasma from getting hot and dense enough to sustain the fusion reaction. To prevent them from leaking, engineers design elaborate magnetic confinement systems, but there are often holes in the , and a tremendous amount of computational time is required to predict their locations and eliminate them.

In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, the research team describes having discovered a shortcut that can help engineers design leak-proof magnetic confinement systems 10 times as fast as the gold standard method, without sacrificing accuracy. While several other big challenges remain for all magnetic fusion designs, this advance addresses the biggest challenge that’s specific to a type of fusion reactor first proposed in the 1950s, called a stellarator.

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At long last, a unified theory combining gravity with the other fundamental forces—electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces—is within reach. Bringing gravity into the fold has been the goal of generations of physicists, who have struggled to reconcile the incompatibility of two cornerstones of modern physics: quantum field theory and Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Researchers at Aalto University have developed a new quantum theory of which describes gravity in a way that’s compatible with the standard model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved understanding of how the universe began.

While the world of theoretical physics may seem remote from applicable tech, the findings are remarkable. Modern technology is built on such fundamental advances—for example, the GPS in your smartphone works thanks to Einstein’s theory of gravity.

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Laser-cooled atomic gases, gases of atoms chilled to temperatures around absolute zero using laser technologies, have proved to be versatile physical platforms to study and control quantum phenomena. When these atomic gases interact with light inside an optical cavity (i.e., a structure designed to trap and enhance light), they can give rise to effects that can be leveraged to realize quantum sensing or simulate complex quantum systems.

Using loaded in optical cavities, physicists have observed various intriguing effects, including self-organization phase transitions, characterized by the spontaneous arrangement of the gas atoms into ordered patterns, lasing and the preservation of quantum coherence. Generally, however, these effects are only observed for short times, as new atoms need to be reloaded in the cavity for them to be produced again.

Researchers at JILA, a joint research institute of the University of Colorado-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, recently demonstrated continuous lasing that lasted hours using laser-cooled strontium-88 (88 Sr) atoms loaded into a ring (i.e., circular) . Their paper, published in Nature Physics, could open new possibilities for the development of ultra-quiet lasers, as well as quantum computers and sensing technologies.

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Solar cells based on perovskites, materials with a characteristic crystal structure first unveiled in the mineral calcium titanate (CaTiO3), have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional silicon-based photovoltaics. A key advantage of these materials is that they could yield high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), yet their production costs could be lower.

Perovskite films can exist in different structural forms, also referred to as phases. One is the so-called α-phase (i.e., a photoactive black phase), which is the most desirable phase for the efficient absorption of light and the transport of charge carriers. The δ-phase, on the other hand, is an intermediate phase characterized by a different atom arrangement and reduced photoactivity.

Researchers at the University of Toledo, Northwestern University, Cornell University and other institutes recently introduced a new strategy to control the crystallization process in -based , stabilizing the δ-phase while facilitating their transition to the α-phase. Their proposed approach, outlined in a paper in Nature Energy, enables the formation of Lewis bases on perovskites on demand to optimize crystallization, which can enhance the efficiency and stability of solar cells.

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Altermagnets, which exhibit momentum-dependent spin splitting without spin–orbit coupling (SOC) or net magnetization, have recently attracted significant international attention.

A team led by Prof. Liu Junwei from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), along with their experimental collaborators, published their latest research findings in Nature Physics, which unveiled the first experimental observation of a two-dimensional layered altermagnet, validating the in Nature Communications made by Prof. Liu in 2021.

The realization and control of spin-polarized electronic states in solids are crucial for spintronics for encoding and processing information. Spin polarization is typically generated by coupling an electron’s spin to other degrees of freedom, such as orbital or .

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are tackling one of the most complex challenges in the world of quantum information—how to create reliable, scalable networks that can connect quantum systems over distances.

Their work has resulted in two publications in Physical Review Letters and Science Advances, bringing us one step closer to realizing large-scale networked , or even the quantum internet.

The research team, which includes faculty members from the RPI Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, and the Department of Computer Science, is led by Assistant Professor Xiangyi Meng, Ph.D. Their research focuses on designing that use entanglement—a phenomenon where quantum particles become mysteriously correlated.

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A theoretical study by RIKEN physicists, published in Physics Letters B, has accurately determined the interaction between a charmonium and a proton or neutron for the first time.

From two galaxies colliding to an electron jettisoned from a nucleus, all interactions in the universe can be described in terms of just four fundamental forces.

Gravity and the are the two we are familiar with in everyday life, while the weak and strong forces operate over minuscule distances—roughly the size of an atomic nucleus or smaller.

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The quantum black hole with (almost) no equations by Professor Gerard ‘t Hooft.

How to reconcile Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics is a notorious problem. Special relativity, on the other hand, was united completely with quantum mechanics when the Standard Model, including Higgs mechanism, was formulated as a relativistic quantum field theory.

Since Stephen Hawking shed new light on quantum mechanical effects in black holes, it was hoped that black holes may be used to obtain a more complete picture of Nature’s laws in that domain, but he arrived at claims that are difficult to use in this respect. Was he right? What happens with information sent into a black hole?

The discussion is not over; in this lecture it is shown that a mild conical singularity at the black hole horizon may be inevitable, while it doubles the temperature of quantum radiation emitted by a black hole, we illustrate the situation with only few equations.

About the Higgs Lecture.

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences is delighted to present the Annual Higgs Lecture. The inaugural Annual Higgs Lecture was delivered in December 2012 by its name bearer, Professor Peter Higgs, who returned to King’s after graduating in 1950 with a first-class honours degree in Physics, and who famously predicted the Higgs Boson particle.

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