Accreting wormholes likely form “plasma tornadoes” in its throat while firing matter at one-fifth the speed of light.
Category: physics – Page 88
Complete Stellar Collapse: Unusual Star System Proves that Stars can Die Quietly
University of Copenhagen astrophysicists help explain a mysterious phenomenon, whereby stars suddenly vanish from the night sky. Their study of an unusual binary star system has resulted in convincing evidence that massive stars can completely collapse and become black holes without a supernova explosion.
One day, the star at the center of our own solar system, the Sun, will begin to expand until it engulfs Earth. It will then become increasingly unstable until it eventually contracts into a small and dense object known as a white dwarf.
However, if the Sun were of a weight class roughly eight times greater or more, it would probably go out with a huge bang — as a supernova. Its collapse would culminate into an explosion, ejecting energy and mass into space with enormous force, prior to leaving behind a neutron star or a black hole in its wake.
Switching nanomagnets using infrared lasers
When molecules are irradiated with infrared light, they begin to vibrate due to the energy supply. For Andreas Hauser from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), this well-known phenomenon was the starting point for considering whether these oscillations could also be used to generate magnetic fields.
Thermoelectric effect between two liquid materials observed for the first time
A trio of physicists at Sorbonne Université, in France, has observed a thermoelectric effect between two liquid materials for the first time. In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Marlone Vernet, Stephan Fauve and Christophe Gissinger put two types of liquid metals together at room temperature and subjected them to a heat gradient.
Scientists Achieve Million-Fold Energy Enhancement in Diamond Optical Antennas
Theory has become practice as new work from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering taps diamond defects’ remarkable ability to concentrate optical energy.
Researchers have developed atomic antennas using germanium vacancy centers in diamonds, achieving a million-fold optical energy enhancement. This advancement allows the study of fundamental physics and opens new research avenues. The collaboration between theoretical and experimental teams was essential to this breakthrough.
Atomic antennas: harnessing light for powerful signals.
Curvature propulsion and the future of intergalactic space travel
If you are a fan of reading or watching science fiction, you have definitely encountered the concept of curvature propulsion — one of the most fascinating and speculative frontiers in theoretical physics and advanced space travel.
Rooted in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, it proposes innovative methods to manipulate spacetime itself to achieve faster-than-light travel without violating the laws of physics.
General relativity, formulated by Albert Einstein, provides the theoretical foundation for curvature propulsion. This theory describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy.
New study reveals brain’s fractal-like structure near phase transition, a finding that may be universal across species
While researchers have long studied brain dynamics using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalograms (EEG), advances in neuroscience have only recently provided massive datasets for the brain’s cellular structure. These data opened possibilities for Kovács and his team to apply statistical physics techniques to measure the physical structure of neurons.
For the new study, Kovács and Ansell analyzed publicly available data of 3D brain reconstructions from humans, fruit flies and mice. By examining the brain at nanoscale resolution, the researchers found the samples showcased hallmarks of physical properties associated with criticality.
One such property is the well-known, fractal-like structure of neurons. This nontrivial fractal-dimension is an example of a set of observables, called “critical exponents,” that emerge when a system is close to a phase transition.
New insights on the role of nucleon exchange in nuclear fusion
A recent study has explored the influence on low-energy fusion processes of isospin composition. This is a key nuclear property that differentiates protons from neutrons. The researchers used computational techniques and theoretical modeling to investigate the fusion of different nuclei with varying isospin configurations. The results show that the isospin composition of the nuclei in a fusion reaction plays a crucial role in understanding the reaction. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review C.
In this study, researchers at Fisk University and Vanderbilt University used high-performance computational and theoretical modeling techniques to conduct a detailed many-body method study of how the dynamics of isospin influence nuclear fusion at low energies across a series of isotopes. The study also examined how the shape of the nuclei involved affect these dynamics. In systems where the nuclei are not symmetrical, the dynamics of isospin become particularly important, often leading to a lowered fusion barrier, especially in systems rich in neutrons. This phenomenon can be explored using facilities that specialize in the generation of beams composed of exotic, unstable nuclei.
The findings provide critical knowledge regarding the fundamental nuclear processes governing these reactions, which have broad implications for fields such as nuclear physics, astrophysics, and, perhaps someday, fusion-based energy.
How does light interact with matter at extreme intensities, near the Schwinger limit?
The experimental generation of increasingly intense light beams could help to unveil new physical regimes occurring in the presence of very strong electromagnetic fields. While some progress has been made towards this goal, physicists are yet to develop a reliable strategy to achieve extreme light intensities.
