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After 20 years, jet diffusion wakes detected in quark-gluon plasmas

Boats passing over smooth water form a pair of diffusion wakes behind them veering off at a certain angle. Turbulence occurs along the line directly behind the boat, but the two diffusion waves are at a theoretical angle of 19.5° from the same line, for deep, ideally smooth water.

Now physicists have for the first time measured diffusion wakes of jets passing through quark-gluon plasmas (QGP), a phenomenon first predicted 20 years ago after it was realized that QGPs are liquid not a plasma (that is, like a gas). In fact, they are the most perfect liquid in the universe. The result, obtained by the CMS Collaboration, is published in Physical Review Letters.

QGPs were the state of the universe for its first few microseconds, from about a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang to a few microseconds after. It is 200,000 times hotter than the center of the sun, and its viscosity was first inferred in 2005 in heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

New magnetic computing system could tackle complex optimization problems

When designing new computer chips, engineers need to make various decisions about how to connect their underlying components while efficiently using limited space. Planning these connections involves combinatorial optimization, or, in other words, a search for the best combination of choices under specific rules.

Ising machines, computing systems inspired by a mathematical model describing interacting magnets, could be promising for solving combinatorial optimization tasks. These systems represent choices using spins, which in this context are variables that can have one of two values. By changing these values, Ising machines can search for the best combination of options for solving specific problems.

Researchers at Beihang University, Suzhou Inston Technology Co. Ltd. and Empyrean Technology Co. Ltd. recently developed a new Ising machine based on spintronics, technologies that use the magnetic properties of materials to process or store information. The new machine, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, could solve complex combinatorial optimization tasks, including planning wiring routes and assigning connections to different wiring layers in computer chips.

3D light fields push electrons into quantum states previously beyond experimental reach

Using the same method, they were also able to excite electrons into quantum states that had previously been inaccessible in experiments.

This approach opens up new experimental avenues for identifying chiral structures, controlling interactions between light and matter and generating specific electronic quantum states, the researchers report in the journal Physical Review Research.

Zinc oxide quantum dots enable faster charge detection, laying groundwork for spin qubits

Researchers at Tohoku University, in collaboration with the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and the University of Tokyo, have taken an important step toward semiconductor quantum computing using zinc oxide (ZnO).

The team successfully demonstrated charge sensing, high-frequency reflectometry and the formation of a few-electron double quantum dot in a ZnO device—three key technologies for developing and evaluating spin qubits.

The work is published in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Physicists identify ‘octupolar’ magnetism, with implications for quantum technologies

Most magnets have two poles: north and south, or positive and negative, in a familiar arrangement called a “dipole.” But researchers are increasingly uncovering more complex forms of magnetism.

Recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed higher orders of magnetism, including an “octupolar order” in which a pattern of particles arranged in a crystalline structure within a material behaves as if it has eight magnetic poles rather than the familiar two. However, detecting and controlling these elusive magnetic states is a significant challenge.

Now, a team led by quantum physicists at the University of Toronto has established a new method for observing quantum magnetic states using light to probe the atomic vibrations produced as electrons spin. The work is a critical first step toward harnessing multipolar magnetism for practical technologies, including next-generation data storage and computing devices.

Researchers Uncover a Hidden Molecular Machine Parasites Need To Survive

Researchers have visualized two key stages of RNA processing in parasites that cause diseases such as sleeping sickness, Chagas’ disease, and leishmaniasis.

For nearly 40 years, scientists have known that trypanosomatid parasites depend on an unusual system for processing RNA. Now researchers have captured that machinery at near-atomic resolution, showing how its components assemble and operate during a reaction the parasites need to survive.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Liège and Rockefeller University, reconstructed the three-dimensional architecture of the trans-spliceosome, a massive molecular machine that prepares genetic messages for use inside trypanosomatid cells. The structures also identify features that differ from the RNA processing machinery found in humans, providing a potential starting point for developing drugs that interfere selectively with the parasites.

When Your Eyes Mislead You, the Brain Finds Common Ground

A mouse study suggests that neighboring visual areas may build agreement by sustaining shared activity patterns while mismatches fade.

A shape in the dark might briefly resemble a face, or an orange might momentarily look like an apple. To make sense of what we see, the brain must coordinate information from regions with different specialties. A study in mice now suggests how two neighboring visual areas may reach a consistent interpretation, with shared activity persisting while mismatches quickly fade.

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, examined the primary visual cortex, known as V1, and the lateromedial visual area, or LM. Both belong to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes sight. When activity patterns in the two areas agreed, they lasted longer. When the patterns disagreed, the mismatch dissipated within a fraction of a second.

Could Earth’s Magnetic Field Be Secretly Influencing How We Age?

A longer life with a physical cost

For the study, published in Aging, the team used a specially designed shielding system to reduce the magnetic field surrounding the flies to near zero. They tested healthy flies alongside flies carrying a defect in Pink1, a gene associated with inherited early-onset Parkinson’s disease in humans. Comparing the two groups allowed them to investigate how flies with impaired mitochondrial function responded to the same environmental change.

The Pink1 flies lived about 20% longer under magnetic shielding, but their physical performance declined. Healthy flies showed improved movement along with changes in their health span, or the time spent in good health. The results suggest that an animal’s metabolic state helps determine its response to magnetic field strength, with longer survival and better physical function not necessarily going together.

Could Advanced Aliens Be Living Nearby? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely

Even planets billions of years older than Earth may host only microbes if photosynthesis supplies too little energy.

Science fiction often imagines Earth’s galactic neighborhood teeming with hyper-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, but the actual cosmos near us may be far quieter.

A study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, led by Chris Doughty, a professor of ecoinformatics at Northern Arizona University, proposes that the evolution of complex life on exoplanets depends heavily on cumulative plant energy rather than just the passage of time. Although many of the planets orbiting Earth’s stellar neighbors are several billion years older than our world, worse conditions for cumulative photosynthesis mean life on those planets likely evolved much more slowly.

China to Complete Geological Map of Mars by 2028

China plans to complete a geological map of the entire planet Mars by the end of 2028. This was reported by Xinhua News Agency, a partner of TV BRICS.

Hou Zengqian, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the Tianwen-3 mission, spoke about the plans. According to him, based on the new data, experts will develop a Chinese system for the geological periodisation of Mars.

Research by the Zhurong rover has shown that around 3.5 billion years ago, an ancient ocean of continental scale existed on Mars. Scientists have also discovered evidence of a possible short-lived flood that may have occurred around 1.6 billion years ago. This data will be used in the compilation of the new map.

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