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Category: particle physics – Page 98

Mining Old Data from NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries

When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first—and, so far, only—close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted scientists. The energized particles around the planet defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation, and Uranus earned a reputation as an outlier in our solar system.

Now, new research analyzing the data collected during that flyby 38 years ago has found that the source of that particular mystery is a cosmic coincidence. It turns out that in the days just before Voyager 2’s flyby, the planet had been affected by an unusual kind of space weather that squashed the planet’s magnetic field, dramatically compressing Uranus’s magnetosphere.

“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published in Nature Astronomy. “The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.”

Spin quantum battery enables energy storage without external fields

This system charges without external fields, advancing energy technology.

A research team at the University of Genova has developed the spin quantum battery, an energy storage system that uses the spin degrees of freedom of particles.

The battery utilizes the spin properties of particles for energy storage and release, with a distinctive charging method that eliminates the need for an external field.

Quantum many-body theory and non-equilibrium physics are longstanding research areas within the quantum condensed matter theory group led by Maura Sassetti at the University of Genova, according to senior author Dario Ferraro.

3D-printed particles propel themselves across the surface of a fluid

A small team of physicists at the University of Amsterdam has demonstrated the ability of 3D-printed particles to propel themselves across the surface of a fluid, given the right fuel. The group has posted a paper describing their particles on the arXiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that droplets with a surface tension lower than the of surrounding fluid will spread rather than mixing, a phenomenon known as the Marangoni effect. A drop of alcohol in a cup of water, for example, will spread across the surface rather than mix with the water and it remains until it evaporates. In this new effort, the research team used this effect to create self-propelling particles.

The particles were 3D printed into a shape like a hockey puck—each was approximately 1 centimeter in diameter. The particles were hollow, making them buoyant. The researchers described the hollow part of the puck as a into which they poured a small amount of alcohol. They also poked a tiny pinhole in the puck to allow the alcohol to slowly escape when it was placed in a cup of water. Due to the Marangoni effect, the alcohol tried to spread, carrying the puck along with it.

Space-time back and forth?

Time moving forwards and backward in plank time intervals? It is a legitimate possibility in physics since matter and anti-matter are identical in every aspect but mirror each other. Electrons, positrons, and other particles oppose each other as matter and anti-matter.

I argue that empty space-time acts as two mirror fields, causing matter to behave like anti-matter. The same matter in the opposite space-time field (reverse time) acts as anti-matter. As time progresses in a Möbius-like shape moves forward, and A 720-degree rotation needs to come back to its original state. These back-and-forth rapid flips cause all matter within our universe to be cut into quanta or packets, Showing packets and wave characters. while in the backward arrow of time, everything flips and is shown as anti-matter.

Space-time does not advance in time in 1 direction only, as its fields change backward and forward as frequently as Planck time remains constant, only changing directions rapidly between positive and negative (past and future), meaning time goes backward and forward, while matter within this space-time also mirrors itself. However, matter moves forward in our time-space universe towards the future since we can add all the Planck times in positive space-time intervals (we are sensing in our mind only the positive space-time intervals). Our universe is the sum of the positive side of space-time, while there is another parallel anti-universe with antimatter in negative space-time. These two universes never meet and move parallel to each other. We don’t notice the mirror universe in which our mirror self exists since the present time is only 1 plank time. next plank time will be the future and previous is already in the past.

New spin quantum battery can be charged without an external field

Over the past few years, some researchers have been working on alternative energy storage systems that leverage the principles of quantum mechanics. These systems, known as quantum batteries, could be more efficient and compact than conventional battery technologies, while also achieving faster charging times.

In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, a research group at University of Genova introduced a new spin quantum battery, a battery that leverages the spin degrees of freedom of particles to store and release energy. This battery is charged in a unique and advantageous way, without the need for an external field.

“Quantum many-body theory and non-equilibrium physics are traditional topics in the quantum condensed matter theory group led by Maura Sassetti at University of Genova,” Dario Ferraro, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.

Next-Gen Quantum Computing: The Fusion of Atoms and Photonic Innovation

Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a new method for enhancing quantum information systems by integrating trapped atom arrays with photonic devices.

This innovation allows for scalable quantum computing and networking by overcoming previous technological incompatibilities. The design features a semi-open chip that minimizes interference and enhances atom connectivity, promising significant advances in computational speed and interconnectivity for larger quantum systems.

Merging technologies for enhanced quantum computing.

Ryugu asteroid samples indicate damage from microscopic meteoroid bombardment

Asteroids are remnants of the formation of our solar system, and while many can be found within the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, some cannot. One such object is asteroid (162173) Ryugu, a 1 km-wide near-Earth asteroid believed to have originated in the asteroid belt. However, it has since moved to cross Earth’s orbit, located 300 million km from our planet.

The asteroid is constantly bombarded by debris in space and new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, has suggested that even can have damaging effects.

Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa2 spacecraft to conduct and sample collection on the asteroid in 2018 and 2019. Laboratory work on these samples identified a distinct pattern of dehydration of phyllosilicates (sheet-like silicate minerals, such as magnesium-rich serpentine and saponite), whereby the bonds between the included oxygen and hydrogen atoms are broken.

Higher-density storage technique could allow diamond disk to store equivalent of 2,000 Blu-ray discs

A team of engineers at the University of Science and Technology of China has developed a new way to code data onto a diamond with higher density than prior methods. In their paper published in the journal Nature Photonics, the group notes that such optical discs could hold data safely at room temperature for millions of years.

Prior research has shown that it is possible to code data onto a diamond, allowing for much longer data than any other known method. But such efforts have produced low-density storage. In this new effort, the research team developed a new method for etching data onto a diamond that allows for much denser data storage, and thus for storing more information onto a single diamond.

In their work, the researchers used diamond pieces just a few millimeters in length—they were pursuing a proof of concept, not a true storage medium. Future versions, they note, could be the size of a Blu-ray disc. The new method involved the use of a to remove single carbon atoms from the surface of the diamond, leaving a tiny cavity. The cavity, the researchers note, exhibits a certain level of brightness when another laser is shone on it.

Researchers uncover link between quantum information theory and particle and condensed matter physics

Theoretical physicists have established a close connection between the two rapidly developing fields in theoretical physics, quantum information theory and non-invertible symmetries in particle and condensed matter theories, after proving that any non-invertible symmetry operation in theoretical physics is a quantum operation. The study was published in Physical Review Letters as an Editors’ Suggestion on November 6.

In physics, symmetry provides an important clue to the properties of a theory. For example, if the N-poles in a are replaced by the S-poles, and the S-poles by the N-poles all at once, the forces on objects and the energy stored in the magnetic field remain the same, even though the direction of the magnetic field has now become reversed. This is because the equations describing the magnetic field are symmetric with respect to the operation of swapping the N and S poles.

Over the past few years, the concept of symmetries has received generalization in various directions in the theoretical study of particle physics and condensed matter physics, becoming an active area of research. One such generalization is non-invertible symmetry. The operation of conventional symmetries is always invertible. There exists a reverse operation to undo it. Non-invertible symmetry, on the other hand, allows certain non-invertibility in such symmetry operations.

A nuclear fusion startup just reached a milestone in its bid to commercialize unlimited clean energy

In a commercial warehouse overlooking the ocean in New Zealand’s capital Wellington, a startup is trying to recreate the power of a star on Earth using an unconventional “inside out” reactor with a powerful levitating magnet at its core.

Its aim is to produce nuclear fusion, a near-limitless form of clean energy generated by the exact opposite reaction the world’s current nuclear energy is based on — instead of splitting atoms, nuclear fusion sets out to fuse them together, resulting in a powerful burst of energy that can be achieved using the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen.

Earlier this month, OpenStar Technologies announced it had managed to create superheated plasma at temperatures of around 300,000 degrees Celsius, or 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit — one necessary step on a long path toward producing fusion energy.