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Uniaxial strain reveals new way to tune electron flow in altermagnet material

Altermagnetism is a new, third type of magnetism of great interest for spin-transport applications like computer memory. If properly harnessed, it could combine the benefits of the two existing types of magnetism, ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism, ultimately reducing or eliminating heat during information transfer and increasing the ability to miniaturize next-generation technologies. Rice University’s Pengcheng Dai recently published a paper in Physical Review X describing the first successful efforts to put a proposed altermagnetic material into a single magnetic-domain state, allowing the research team to characterize the material’s intrinsic magnetic structure.

“Altermagnets like hexagonal manganese telluride typically form multidomain structures where the magnetic forces divide into separate equivalent domains that spin in different directions to satisfy the underlying threefold rotational symmetry of the hexagonal lattice,” said Dai, the Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy.

“The signals from these coexisting domains could overlap, making it hard to know what the underlying magnetic structure actually is. Here, we were able to apply a uniaxial strain, which resulted in a single magnetic domain we could clearly resolve into the underlying magnetic structure.”

Muon g-2 experiment places new constraints on a forbidden property of muons

A year after its final muon magnetic anomaly announcement, the Muon g-2 collaboration reports a new measurement of a different property of the muon: its electric dipole moment. The work is published on the arXiv preprint server.

Based on an analysis of 25% of Fermilab’s experimental data, this is the most sensitive direct search for a muon EDM ever accomplished. It is the first direct search for the muon EDM conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and only the third search worldwide in the past 50 years.

Searches for EDMs play a vital role in particle physics; detecting an EDM could be key to better understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry required to explain the universe we see around us. This new result shows that if a muon EDM exists, it must be smaller than what the Muon g-2 experiment can currently detect.

Theoretical framework expands directional light control beyond ordered crystal structures

A research team has developed a new theoretical framework that can suppress light scattering in certain directions while enhancing it in others, even in irregularly arranged materials. The work extends research on controlling light scattering, which has traditionally centered on ordered crystal structures, into the realm of disordered systems.

Scattering—the process by which light is dispersed in multiple directions when it encounters matter—plays a critical role in determining the performance of a wide range of optical technologies, including anti-reflective coatings for eyeglasses and camera lenses, display diffusers, LiDAR sensors for autonomous vehicles, and optical communication components. Ultimately, the ability to precisely control scattering is a key determinant of competitiveness in optical technologies.

The researchers, led by Professors Sunkyu Yu and Namkyoo Park of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University College of Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Xianji Piao of the University of Seoul, proposed a theory they call “Non-Hermitian Statistical Crystallography,” which considers not only refractive properties but also absorption and amplification.

Why brain imaging struggles to identify psychiatric disorder signatures

For decades, neuroscientists have been trying to determine whether different neuropsychiatric conditions are linked to specific variations in brain structure and neural connections. While past studies identified possible signatures of various conditions, most findings have been inconsistent and do not conclusively delineate brain structural patterns associated with specific mental health disorders.

Researchers at Monash University in Australia and other institutions analyzed thousands of brain scans collected in earlier studies to better understand the reasons for these observed inconsistencies. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that many widely used experimental designs and tools might fail to reliably capture the subtle differences in brain structure linked with distinct psychiatric disorders.

“Mental illnesses account for one-third of the world’s leading causes of disability and affect nearly half the adult population,” Trang Cao, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress.

Brain cancer cells exploit normal nerve signaling to multiply and invade, new study finds

Gliomas are malignant brain tumors that originate from glial cells, which do not produce electrical impulses like neurons but instead support neurons by maintaining their structure and function. They are the most common form of brain cancer in adults and hijack normal neuronal signaling, especially the protein neuroligin-3 (NLGN3), released by active nerve cells, to fuel their own growth and spread into healthy brain tissue. Researchers wanted to uncover how NLGN3 interacts with glioma cells and healthy OPCs, and the role it normally plays in healthy brain cells.

The researchers isolated the outer membranes of brain cancer cells from pediatric and adult patients, extracted their proteins and passed them through a laboratory column containing purified NLGN3 to see which proteins stuck to it.

They discovered that NLGN3 binds directly to a cell-surface receptor protein called CSPG4 (also known as NG2) on both brain cancer cells and healthy oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), which eventually develop into oligodendrocytes that produce the fatty myelin sheath insulating nerve fibers.

Astronomers Caught a Star Exploding Almost the Instant It Began

Astronomers witnessed a star’s death almost from the instant it began, catching an extraordinarily rare X-ray flash as a supernova erupted 500 million light-years away.

Astronomers rarely get to watch a star die from the beginning. Usually, a supernova is discovered only after the explosion is already well underway.

SN 2026gzf was different.

Humanity May Soon Have the Technology To Reach Other Star Systems

Tiny spacecraft riding beams of light could put humanity within reach of another star system in a single lifetime.

The recent confirmation of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet called LHS 1140b has created a wave of interest within the astronomy community. The planet orbits within the habitable zone around its parent star—a red dwarf located some 48 light-years from Earth.

The habitable zone is the region around the star where temperatures are just right for water to remain liquid at a planet’s surface. Astronomers detected helium being lost from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140b. But heavier chemical compounds, such as water, which is a key ingredient for life, could exist lower in its atmosphere.

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