Just a few years ago, researchers discovered that changing the angle between two layers of graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon, also changed the material’s electronic and optical properties. They then learned that a “twist” of 1.1 degrees—dubbed the “magic” angle—could transform this metallic material into an insulator or a superconductor, a finding that ignited excitement about a possible pathway to new quantum technologies.
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Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose famously believes that the collapse of the wave-function in quantum mechanics causes consciousness. A group of physicists now tries to improve on Penroses idea in a new paper. I have some comments…
Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/6/460
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Read the paper published in our journal Symmetry:, which has been viewed many times, authored by Krzysztof Urbanowski (Uniwersytet Zielonogórski)
Estimates of the Higgs and top quark masses, mH≃125.10±0.14 [GeV] and mt≃172.76±0.30[GeV], based on the experimental result place the Standard Model in the region of the metastable vacuum. A consequence of the metastability of the Higgs vacuum is that it should induce the decay of the electroweak vacuum in the early Universe with catastrophic consequences. It may happen that certain universes were lucky enough to survive the time of canonical decay, that is the exponential decay, and live longer. This means that it is reasonable to analyze conditions allowing for that. We analyze the properties of an ensemble of universes with unstable vacua considered as an ensemble of unstable systems from the point of view of the quantum theory of unstable states. We found some symmetry relations for quantities characterizing the metastable state.
From the high-voltage wires that carry electricity over long distances, to the tungsten filaments in our incandescent lights, we may have become accustomed to thinking that electrical conductors are always made of metal. But for decades, scientists have been working on advanced materials based on carbon-based oligomer chains that can also conduct electricity. These include the organic light-emitting devices found in some modern smartphones and computers.
In quantum mechanics, electrons are not just point particles with definite positions, but rather can become ‘delocalized’ over a region. A molecule with a long stretch of alternating single-and double-bonds is said to have pi-conjugation, and conductive polymers operate by allowing delocalized electrons to hop between pi-conjugated regions – somewhat like a frog hopping between nearby puddles. However, the efficiency of this process is limited by differences in the energy levels of adjacent regions.
Fabricating oligomers and polymers with more uniform energy levels can lead to higher electrical conductivity, which is necessary for the development of new practical organic electronics, or even single-molecule wires.
Solution-processed semiconductor nanocrystals are also called colloidal quantum dots (QDs). While the concept of size-dependent quantum effects had long been known to physicists, a sculpture of the theory into real nanodimensional objects remained impossible till the discovery of QDs. The size-dependent colors of QDs are essentially naked-eye, ambient-condition visualizations of the quantum size effect.
Superconductors, known for enabling lossless electrical conductivity and even magnetic levitation, typically function only at extremely low temperatures. Recent research has identified electron pairing, a core superconductor behavior, in materials at higher-than-expected temperatures, such as an antiferromagnetic insulator.
This discovery by SLAC and Stanford researchers could lead to new ways to develop superconductors that operate closer to room temperature, potentially revolutionizing technology in many fields including quantum computing and transportation.
Exploring the Enigma of Superconductors.
There is a theory dubbed “quantum consciousness,” which stipulates that brain functions and consciousness are derived from quantum effects like the collapse of the quantum wavefunction.
This is a strange part of quantum physics, where particles go from a state of simultaneous properties to a more “normal” state where they have one defined characteristic. It has notably been popularized by the concept of Schrödinger’s cat.