Lifeboat Foundation

New software simulates complex wave scattering for metamaterial design. Could invisibility cloaks become a reality? New research brings this science fiction concept a step closer, with a breakthrough software package that simulates how waves interact with complex materials.

A new software package developed by researchers at Macquarie University can accurately model the way waves — sound, water or light — are scattered when they meet complex configurations of particles.

This will vastly improve the ability to rapidly design metamaterials — exciting artificial materials used to amplify, block or deflect waves.

Researchers have captured the signal of neutrinos from a nuclear reactor using a water-filled neutrino detector, a first for such a device.

Microwaves can control and stabilize diamond qubits, addressing their main challenge:

Researchers from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have devised a method to precisely control diamond qubits using microwaves.

Continue reading “Microwaves unlock power of uncontrollable diamond qubits in quantum leap” »

Discovering quark behavior: investigating the critical point in quantum chromodynamics.

Solar storms, characterized by sudden explosions of particles, energy, and magnetic fields from the Sun, can create disruptions in Earth’s magnetosphere. As told to NDTV, Dr. Annapurni Subramanian, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, stated, “The (solar) flare which occurred a few days ago is similar in terms of strength to the one which occurred in May.” These flares are known to produce geomagnetic storms that can result in radio blackouts and power outages on Earth.

Recent NDTV reports highlight a series of powerful solar flares emitted by the Sun, including an X7.1 flare on October 1 and an even stronger X9.0 flare on October 3. NASA captured these flares using its Solar Dynamics Observatory, emphasizing their potential to disrupt communication systems. NOAA classified the X9.0 flare as an R3-strength flare, indicating a “strong” potential for radio blackouts.

The hunt for dark matter has long been one of the most compelling challenges in physics, with new candidates emerging from cutting-edge research in cosmic-ray propagation and particle detection.

Two new studies highlight the enigmatic nature of antimatter, revealing its potential role in both understanding the universe’s origins and unlocking the secrets of particle physics.

Scientists are using advanced simulations to explore the aftermath of neutron star collisions, where remnants might form and avoid collapsing into black holes.

This research not only sheds light on the dynamics and cooling of these remnants through neutrino emissions but also provides crucial insights into the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions. The findings contribute to our understanding of astronomical events and the conditions that may or may not lead to black hole formation.

Mysterious aftermath of neutron star collisions.

The foundation of this simulation, as described by the team, is a well-known cosmological model that describes the universe as expanding uniformly over time. The researchers modeled how a quantum field, initially in a vacuum state (meaning no particles are present), responds to this expansion. As spacetime stretches, the field’s oscillations mix in a process that can create particles where none previously existed. This phenomenon is captured by a transformation that relates the field’s behavior before and after the universe expands, showing how vibrations at different momenta become entangled, leading to particle creation.

To understand how many particles are generated, the researchers used a mathematical tool called the Bogoliubov transformation. This approach describes how the field’s vacuum state evolves into a state where particles can be detected. As the expansion rate increases, more particles are produced, aligning with predictions from quantum field theory. By running this simulation on IBM quantum computers, the team was able to estimate the number of particles created and observe how the quantum field behaves during the universe’s expansion, offering a new way to explore complex cosmological phenomena.

According to the team, the most notable result of the study was the ability to estimate the number of particles created as a function of the expansion rate of the universe. By running their quantum circuit on both simulators and IBM’s 127-qubit Eagle quantum processor, the researchers demonstrated that they could successfully simulate particle creation in a cosmological context. While the results were noisy—particularly for low expansion rates—the error mitigation techniques used helped bring the outcomes closer to theoretical predictions.

A new toolkit helps monitor and improve the efficiency of superconducting radiofrequency cavities in particle accelerators by ensuring smoother inner surfaces and analyzing impurities in niobium cavities.

Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are essential to the function of advanced particle accelerators. They are a key part of the systems that power the electromagnetic fields that accelerate subatomic particles. The efficiency of these cavities is influenced by the cleanliness, shape, and smoothness of their inner surfaces.

Enhancing SRF Cavities with New Toolkits.