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Blog – Page 31

A new study has revealed a novel effect caused by dark photons—hypothetical particles thought to make up a portion of the universe’s elusive dark matter. This discovery, made within the framework of Einstein–Cartan–Holst gravity, provides new insights into the fundamental interactions between matter and gravity.

The study was conducted by Prof. Gao Zhifu from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Dr. Luiz Carlos Garcia de Andrade from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their findings, which include the first identification of a key physical quantity known as the Barbero–Immirzi (BI) parameter induced by dark photons, are published in The European Physical Journal C.

A large portion of the universe is filled with invisible matter known as , and the dark photon is one of its leading theoretical candidates. As a hypothetical particle beyond the Standard Model, the dark photon exhibits electromagnetic-like interactions through kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon. Unlike photons, however, dark photons possess mass and interact much more weakly with charged particles.

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Resonantly tunable quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are high-performance laser light sources for a wide range of spectroscopy applications in the mid-infrared (MIR) range. Their high brilliance enables minimal measurement times for more precise and efficient characterization processes and can be used, for example, in chemical and pharmaceutical industries, medicine or security technology. Until now, however, the production of QCL modules has been relatively complex and expensive.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF has therefore developed a semi-automated process that significantly simplifies the production of QCL modules with a MOEMS (micro-opto-electro-mechanical system) grating scanner in an external optical cavity (EC), making it more cost-efficient and attractive for industry. The MOEMS-EC-QCL technology was developed by Fraunhofer IAF in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS.

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Tunneling is a peculiar quantum phenomenon with no classical counterpart. It plays an essential role for strong field phenomena in atoms and molecules interacting with intense lasers. Processes such as high-order harmonic generation are driven by electron dynamics following tunnel ionization.

While this has been widely explored, the behavior of electrons under the tunneling barrier, though equally significant, has remained obscure. The understanding of laser-induced strong field ionization distinguishes two scenarios for a given system and : the multiphoton regime at rather low intensities and tunneling at high intensities.

However, most strong-field experiments have been carried out in an intermediate situation where multiphoton signatures are observed while tunneling is still the dominant process.

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Men carrying two copies of a common genetic variant face double the risk of dementia, according to new findings from the ASPREE trial. New research has uncovered that men who carry a common genetic variant are twice as likely to develop dementia in their lifetime compared to women. The study.

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Microsoft and CrowdStrike have announced that they are teaming up to align their individual threat actor taxonomies by publishing a new joint threat actor mapping.

“By mapping where our knowledge of these actors align, we will provide security professionals with the ability to connect insights faster and make decisions with greater confidence,” Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president at Microsoft Security, said.

The initiative is seen as a way to untangle the menagerie of nicknames that private cybersecurity vendors assign to various hacking groups that are broadly categorized as a nation-state, financially motivated, influence operations, private sector offensive actors, and emerging clusters.

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