Testing Einstein's equivalence principle near a supermassive black hole

The GRAVITY Collaboration, a team of researchers at several renowned institutes including the Max Planck Institute, LESIA Paris Observatory and the European Southern Observatory, has recently tested part of the Einstein Equivalence Principle, namely the local positon invariance (LPI), near the galactic center supermassive black hole. Their study, published on Physics Review Letters (PRL), investigated the dependency of different atomic transitions on the gravitational potential in order to give an upper limit on LPI violations.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2UaduhO

Can the laws of physics untangle traffic jams, stock markets, and other complex systems?

In 1998 former tech consultant Hank Eskin launched a campaign to track dollar bills. Through the "Where's George?" initiative, dollars were stamped with messages about the currency tracking project, and people were instructed to enter their zip codes and the serial number found on the stamped bills into a database, before handing over the currency.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2U0FqnY

Dark matter experiment finds no evidence of axions

Physicists from MIT and elsewhere have performed the first run of a new experiment to detect axions—hypothetical particles that are predicted to be among the lightest particles in the universe. If they exist, axions would be virtually invisible, yet inescapable; they could make up nearly 85 percent of the mass of the universe, in the form of dark matter.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Uik98G

Physicists constrain dark matter

Researchers from Russia, Finland, and the U.S. have put a constraint on the theoretical model of dark matter particles by analyzing data from astronomical observations of active galactic nuclei. The new findings provide an added incentive for research groups around the world trying to crack the mystery of dark matter: No one is quite sure what it is made of. The paper was published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2U7Y8KI

Studying chiral exchange drag and chirality oscillations in synthetic antiferromagnets

A quasiparticle is a disturbance or excitation (e.g. spin waves, bubbles, etc.) that behaves as a particle and could therefore be regarded as one. Long-range interactions between quasiparticles can give rise to a 'drag,' which affects the fundamental properties of many systems in condensed matter physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2CFmQai

Making waves: Researchers shed light on how cilia work

Human bodies have some built-in systems to care for themselves. The cells that line our lungs, nose, brain and reproductive system have cilia, which are tiny, hair-like structures designed to sweep out fluids, cells and microbes to stay healthy. But the mechanisms behind their motion are not well understood.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2CJ4MvZ

Researchers generate ultra-short spin waves in an astoundingly simple material

Due to its potential to make computers faster and smartphones more efficient, spintronics is considered a promising concept for the future of electronics. In a collaboration including the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a team of researchers has now successfully generated so-called spin waves much more easily and efficiently than was previously deemed possible. The researchers are presenting their results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2V2vYge

Traveling-wave tubes: The unsung heroes of space exploration

What do televisions and space exploration have in common? No, we're not talking about a cheesy physics joke; rather, this is the story of an often-overlooked piece of equipment that deserves a place in the annals of telecommunication history. Some would argue that the traveling-wave tube (TWT) has not received the recognition it deserves when it comes to the history of space travel and communications—until now. A group of researchers based at the Aix-Marseille Université in France has published a review looking into the history of TWTs, recently published in The European Physical Journal H.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HSviq8

Machine learning used to understand and predict dynamics of worm behavior

Biophysicists have used an automated method to model a living system—the dynamics of a worm perceiving and escaping pain. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the results, which worked with data from experiments on the C. elegans roundworm.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HMDRDI

Autonomous weed control via smart robots

Driving across Iowa, Hendrik J. Viljoen, distinguished professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Nebraska, noticed that soybean fields were becoming increasingly infested with weeds each season. The culprit is a glyphosate-resistant weed called "palmer amaranth," which is threatening crops in the Midwest.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Fz3TGX

Waiting for neutrinos

On Feb. 24, 1987, light from a supernova that exploded 168,000 years ago in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor of the Milky Way, reached Earth. Astronomers Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile first reported the supernova, called SN 1987A (or simply 87A), which was one of the brightest in nearly four centuries.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2CIrsfM

Two letters by inventor Nikola Tesla surface in Serbia

A culture society in Serbia made public this month two letters that they say were written by late 19th- and early 20th-century inventor and electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JLzoTu

Researchers demonstrate miniaturized, laser-driven particle accelerator

Munich physicists have succeeded in demonstrating plasma wakefield acceleration of subatomic particles in a miniaturized, laser-driven model. The new system provides a broader basis for the development of the next generation of particle accelerators.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2FuT8We

Muon g-2 begins second run

Earlier this month, the Muon g-2 ("g minus two") experiment at Fermilab began its second run to search for hidden particles and forces.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2OpjmgX

Machine learning reveals rapid material classification

A research team at The University of Tokyo has developed a powerful machine learning algorithm that predicts the properties and structures of unknown samples from an electron spectrum. This process may rapidly accelerate the process of discovering and testing novel nanomachines, solar cells, and other electronic devices.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JCpaEP

Searching for missing anti-matter: A successful start to measurements with Belle II

Since March 25, 2019, the Belle II detector instrument in Japan has been measuring collisions of particles generated in the SuperKEKB accelerator. The new duo produces more than 50 times the number of collisions compared to its predecessor. The huge increase in data means that there is now a greater chance of explaining the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TEGRDO

Physicists discover new class of pentaquarks

Tomasz Skwarnicki, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, has uncovered new information about a class of particles called pentaquarks. His findings could lead to a new understanding of the structure of matter in the universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HPTgSU

Researchers measure quantum behavior at room temperature, visible to the naked eye

Since the historic finding of gravitational waves from two black holes colliding over a billion light years away was made in 2015, physicists are advancing knowledge about the limits on the precision of the measurements that will help improve the next generation of tools and technology used by gravitational wave scientists.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JCuV5r

Coffee-based colloids for direct solar absorption

Solar energy is one of the most promising resources to help reduce fossil fuel consumption and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to power a sustainable future. Devices presently in use to convert solar energy into thermal energy mostly rely on the indirect absorption of sunlight, where the efficiency is generally limited as a result of major convective heat losses into the surrounding environment. A promising alternative is the direct absorption of sunlight, where a fluid can serve as both solar energy absorber and heat carrier. The advantage of the technique is based on reduced convective and radiative heat losses, since temperature peak shifts from the absorbent surface (indirect absorption) to the bulk region of the carrier fluid (direct absorption). In a recent study, Matteo Alberghini and co-workers at the Departments of Energy, Applied Science and Technology, and the National Institute of Optics in Italy, investigated a sustainable, stable and inexpensive colloid based on coffee solutions to implement direct solar absorption. Results of their work are now published on Scientific Reports.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TYBun7

How spin dances with dipole

The key physical property of multiferroic materials is the existence of a coupling between magnetism and polarization. The origin and manifestations of magnetoelectricity can be very different in the available multiferroic systems, with multiple possible mechanisms hidden behind the phenomena. In a new review, researchers have described the fundamental physics that causes magnetoelectricity from a theoretical viewpoint.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Jxd3ZX

ATLAS experiment finds evidence of three massive vector boson productions

The ATLAS Experiment at CERN has just released evidence for the simultaneous production of three W or Z bosons in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The W and Z bosons are the mediator particles of the weak force – one of the four known fundamental forces – which is responsible for the phenomenon of radioactivity as well as an essential ingredient to our Sun's thermonuclear process.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2OnUFS4

Engineers demonstrate metamaterials that can solve equations

The field of metamaterials involves designing complicated, composite structures, some of which can manipulate electromagnetic waves in ways that are impossible in naturally occurring materials.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Fr7dFc

Physicists reveal why matter dominates universe

Physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University have confirmed that matter and antimatter decay differently for elementary particles containing charmed quarks.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HJy7K5

CERN: Study sheds light on one of physics' biggest mysteries – why there's more matter than antimatter

Why do we exist? This is arguably the most profound question there is and one that may seem completely outside the scope of particle physics. But our new experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider has taken us a step closer to figuring it out.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2W9yPEg

The best topological conductor yet: Spiraling crystal is the key to exotic discovery

The realization of so-called topological materials—which exhibit exotic, defect-resistant properties and are expected to have applications in electronics, optics, quantum computing, and other fields—has opened up a new realm in materials discovery.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ujgc56

Project aims to tame noise from supersonic military jets with 'swirl' technology

It's cliché to describe something very noisy as "louder than a jet engine." But supersonic jet engines, like those powering fighters flown by the U.S. military, are so much louder than regular jet engines that scientists have a special term for their sound—"broadband shock-associated noise."

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Cwxd0e

The subterranean ballet of ALICE

The experiment caverns of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are staging a dazzling performance during Long Shutdown 2 (LS2). The resplendent sub-detectors, released from their underground homes, are performing a fascinating ballet. At the end of February, ALICE removed the two trackers, the inner tracker system and the time projection chamber, from the detector. At the very start of the long shutdown, on 3 December 2018, the teams began disconnecting the dozens of sub-detectors. And finally, on 25 February, the two trackers were ready to be removed.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2CEqL7x

ATLAS experiment observes light scattering off light

Light-by-light scattering is a very rare phenomenon in which two photons interact, producing another pair of photons. This process was among the earliest predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the quantum theory of electromagnetism, and is forbidden by classical physics theories (such as Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics). 

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JrrMWl

Researchers use muon detector to measure electric potential in a thunderstorm

A team of researchers from several institutions in India and Japan has found that it is possible to use a muon detector to measure electric potential in thunderstorms. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters. The researchers explain that they noticed muon detection levels drop during thunderstorms, and used that information to calculate electric potential in thunderstorms.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ujXdXT

How heavy elements come about in the universe

Heavy elements are produced during stellar explosion or on the surfaces of neutron stars through the capture of hydrogen nuclei (protons). This occurs at extremely high temperatures, but at relatively low energies. An international research team headed by Goethe University has now succeeded in investigating the capture of protons at the storage ring of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TN5mDH

Dalian Coherent Light Source reveals hydroxyl super rotors from water photochemistry

Scientists at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently revealed hydroxyl super rotors from water photochemistry by using the Dalian Coherent Light Source (DCLS). The researchers, under the direction of Prof. Yuan Kaijun and Prof. Yang Xueming, published their findings in Nature Communications.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TLAAL7

Trembling aspen leaves could save future Mars rovers

Researchers at the University of Warwick have been inspired by the unique movement of trembling aspen leaves, to devise an energy harvesting mechanism that could power weather sensors in hostile environments and could even be a back-up energy supply that could save and extend the life of future Mars rovers.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HtRTKp

Fermilab, partners break ground on particle accelerator to study ghostly particles, new forces

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory officially broke ground March 15 on a major new particle accelerator project that will power cutting-edge physics experiments for many decades to come.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TI4dNG

Quantum sensing method measures minuscule magnetic fields

A new way of measuring atomic-scale magnetic fields with great precision, not only up and down but sideways as well, has been developed by researchers at MIT. The new tool could be useful in applications as diverse as mapping the electrical impulses inside a firing neuron, characterizing new magnetic materials, and probing exotic quantum physical phenomena.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TEnShl

Exploring the behavior of a gas as it transitions between quantum and classical states

A team of researchers from the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms has developed a way to study and measure gases as they transition between quantum and classical states due to changes in temperature. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes experiments they carried out with clouds of lithium-6 atoms and what they found.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Y0iSST

Artificial intelligence learns to predict elementary particle signals

Scientists from the Higher School of Economics and Yandex have developed a method that accelerates the simulation of processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The research findings were published in Nuclear Instruments and Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JoUXce

Sea quark surprise reveals deeper complexity in proton spin puzzle

New data from the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) add detail—and complexity—to an intriguing puzzle that scientists have been seeking to solve: how the building blocks that make up a proton contribute to its spin. The results, just published as a rapid communication in the journal Physical Review D, reveal definitively for the first time that different "flavors" of antiquarks contribute differently to the proton's overall spin—and in a way that's opposite to those flavors' relative abundance.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JbBmw3

Scientists on making the Large Hadron Collider safer

An international research team headed by Evgeniy Talantsev, a senior research fellow at the Research and Educational Center of Ural Federal University, has approached the task of increasing the reliability of such complex and expensive facilities as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results of the experiment were published in the journal Scientific Reports in an article titled "The onset of dissipation in high-temperature superconductors: magnetic hysteresis and field dependence."

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2O3GZeD

Resistive plate chambers as neutron detectors

Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are being developed as detectors for neutrons as part of SINE2020. Luís Margato, Andrey Morozov and Alberto Blanco from LIP Coimbra in Portugal have been working on the project. Here is what they have done.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Hf1PXS

LS2 report: rejuvenation for the antiproton decelerator

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD), sometimes known as the Antimatter Factory, is the world's largest source of antimatter and has been operational since 2000. Here, antiprotons are slowed down and sent into the experiments, where they are combined with antielectrons to produce the most basic antiatom: that of antihydrogen. Over the course of the second long shutdown of CERN's accelerator complex (LS2), the AD will receive several enhancements as well as repairs and refurbishments.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HxfEjF

ATLAS Experiment releases first result with full LHC Run 2 dataset

Could a Grand Unified Theory resolve the remaining mysteries of the Standard Model? If verified, it would provide an elegant description of the unification of Standard Model forces at very high energies, and might even explain the existence of dark matter and neutrino masses. Physicists at the ATLAS Experiment at CERN are searching for evidence of new heavy particles predicted by such theories, including a neutral Z' gauge boson.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2F96Yyy

Research team uses artificial muscles to develop an air conditioner for the future

It can be used to cool or heat the air in a room or to cool or heat liquids. And it looks like something that Q—the tech specialist and gadgeteer in the James Bond films—might have come up with. The prototype device, which has been developed by a research team led by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Andreas Schütze at Saarland University, is able to transfer heat using 'muscles' made from nickel-titanium. Nickel-titanium or nitinol, as it is often known, is a shape-memory material that releases heat to its surroundings when it is mechanically loaded in its superelastic state and absorbs heat from its surroundings when it is unloaded. This unusual property is the reason why nitinol is also referred to as a 'smart alloy' or as 'muscle wire." This effect has been exploited by the Saarbrücken researchers who have developed an environmentally friendly heating and cooling system that is two to three times more efficient than conventional heating and cooling devices.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TLThh9

An electronically tunable metasurface that rotates polarization

Researchers at the University of Michigan and City University of New York have recently proposed and experimentally validated a transparent, electronically tunable metasurface. This metasurface, presented in a paper published in Physical Review X, can rotate the polarization of an arbitrarily polarized incident wave without changing its axial ratio.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HfFJVc

Physicists lower threshold for detecting extremely weak magnetic signals

Physicists at Saarland University have developed magnetic field sensors that are breaking sensitivity records and opening up a whole range of potential new applications, from non-contact measurements of the electrical activity in the human heart or brain to detecting ore deposits or archaeological remains deep underground. Professor Uwe Hartmann and his research team have developed a system that allows them to detect weak magnetic signals over large distances in normal environments (no vacuum, no low temperatures, no shielding), despite the presence of numerous sources of interference. Their system can detect signal strengths far below a billionth of a tesla—about a million times smaller than the Earth's magnetic field—and can be used to detect biomagnetic signals in the human body or geophysical phenomena.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2u307Af

Researchers report new light-activated micro pump

Even the smallest mechanical pumps have limitations, from the complex microfabrication techniques required to make them to the fact that there are limits on how small they can be. Researchers have announced a potential solution—a laser-driven photoacoustic microfluidic pump, capable of moving fluids in any direction without moving parts or electrical contacts.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2F3x3yN

Physicists solve a beta-decay puzzle with advanced nuclear models

An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2SXFijK

Investigating the motility of swimming Euglena

Some species of Euglenids, a diversified family of aquatic unicellular organisms, can perform large-amplitude, elegantly coordinated body deformations. Although this behavior has been known for centuries, its function is still highly debated.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TuSCRd

Video: Small angle neutron scattering

SINE2020 and the Institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France have collaborated to produce a motion design video highlighting how small angle neutron scattering (SANS) can be used to track the description, distribution, and evolution of microstructures.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2tXyNDG

A thermo-sensor for magnetic bits

Scientists of the Department of Physics at the University of Hamburg, Germany, detected the magnetic states of atoms on a surface using only heat. The respective study is published in a recent volume of Science. A magnetic needle heated by a laser beam was placed in close proximity to a magnetic surface with a gap of only a few atoms width. The temperature difference between the needle and the surface generates an electric voltage. Scanning the needle across the surface, the scientists showed that this thermovoltage depends on the magnetic orientation of the individual atom below the needle.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2XKFg2p

New report on industrial physics and its role in the US economy

Industrial physics plays a significant role in driving the U.S. economy, according to a new report by the American Physical Society, which will be described this week at the 2019 APS March Meeting in Boston.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ToxFYA

Physicists discover surprisingly complex states emerging out of simple synchronized networks

Fireflies, heart cells, clocks, and power grids all do it—they can spontaneously sync up, sending signals out in unison. For centuries, scientists have been perplexed by this self-organizing behavior, coming up with theories and experiments that make up the science of sync. But despite progress being made in the field, mysteries still persist—in particular how networks of completely identical elements can fall out of sync.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HkVb1r

ATLAS releases first result using full LHC Run 2 dataset

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently shut down for a major two-year upgrade programme. However, LHC researchers are busy analysing the large dataset they have collected during the machine's second run (Run 2), which took place between 2015 and 2018. The ATLAS collaboration at CERN has now released its very first result based on this dataset. The result sets bounds on so-called grand unified theories, which might fill important gaps in the Standard Model of particle physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TB1Hrs

Researchers develop 'acoustic metamaterial' that cancels sound

Boston University researchers, Xin Zhang, a professor at the College of Engineering, and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, released a paper in Physical Review B demonstrating it's possible to silence noise using an open, ringlike structure, created to mathematically perfect specifications, for cutting out sounds while maintaining airflow.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2IXfhkY

Special surface manipulation forces dropped liquids to spiral when they rebound

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has found a way to force liquid drops to spiral as they rebound after landing on a manipulated surface. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes how their method works and possible applications.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ERJOLV

Spin devices rev up

Electric currents drive all our electronic devices. The emerging field of spintronics looks to replace electric currents with what are known as spin currents. Researchers from the University of Tokyo have made a breakthrough in this area. Their discovery of the magnetic spin Hall effect could lead to low-power, high-speed and high-capacity devices. They have created sample devices which can further research into potential applications.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Tn3i4O

Download the Big Bang on your smartphone

Experience the 13.8-billion-year-old story of the universe in just seven minutes with CERN's new Big Bang app. Launched today at the Google Arts and Culture event in Washington D.C., the app, free and available for download, uses augmented or mixed reality to create an immersive adventure to our origin.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Uo2o4w

Einstein 'puzzle' solved as missing page emerges

An Albert Einstein "puzzle" has been solved thanks to a missing page of manuscript emerging in a collection of his writings acquired by Jerusalem's Hebrew University, officials announced Wednesday.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2XIRlF9

The optomechanical Kerker effect: Controlling light with vibrating nanoparticles

For the Kerker effect to occur, particles need to have electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the same strength. This, however, is very challenging to achieve, as magnetic optical resonances in small particles are relatively weak. Researchers at Ioffe Institute, in St. Petersburg, have recently shown that a similar effect can be attained when small particles are trembling in space.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2UiHNyC

The science of knitting, unpicked

Dating back more than 3,000 years, knitting is an ancient form of manufacturing, but Elisabetta Matsumoto of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta believes that understanding how stitch types govern shape and stretchiness will be invaluable for designing new "tunable" materials. For instance, tissuelike flexible material could be manufactured to replace biological tissues, such as torn ligaments, with stretchiness and sizing personalized to fit each individual.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Hf0u2q

Scientists study neutron scattering for researching magnetic materials

Physicists from the University of Luxembourg and their research partners have demonstrated for the first time in a comprehensive study how magnetic materials can be examined using neutron scattering techniques. The scientists have published their insights in Reviews of Modern Physics, the journal of the American Physical Society.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TiNVKY

Biopsy frozen in seconds in the operating room

For rapid freezing of a biopsy sample taken from a patient, the standard procedure uses liquid nitrogen. However, this is not allowed inside the operating room. The consequence is a laborious procedure causing unnecessary delay. Researchers of the University of Twente developed a 'snap freezing' apparatus that cools a vial even faster than in liquid nitrogen, and is safe for use inside the operating room. Another advantage is that the speed of cooling is adjustable. The new device is presented in Nature's Scientific Reports. The Dutch VUmc hospital is already running experiments using the new device.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TDG7ms

More evidence of sound waves carrying mass

A trio of researchers at Columbia University has found more evidence showing that sound waves carry mass. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Angelo Esposito, Rafael Krichevsky and Alberto Nicolis describe using effective field theory techniques to confirm the results found by a team last year attempting to measure mass carried by sound waves.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HgaJ6J

Making long-lived positronium atoms for antimatter gravity experiments

The universe is almost devoid of antimatter, and physicists haven't yet figured out why. Discovering any slight difference between the behaviour of antimatter and matter in Earth's gravitational field could shed light on this question. Positronium atoms, which consist of an electron and a positron, are one type of antimatter atoms being considered to test whether antimatter falls at the same rate as matter in Earth's gravitational field. But they are short-lived, lasting a mere 142 nanoseconds – too little to perform an antimatter gravity experiment. Researchers are therefore actively seeking tricks to make sources of positronium atoms that live longer. In a paper published today in the journal Physical Review A, the AEgIS collaboration at CERN describes a new way of making long-lived positronium.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2SMfNBZ

CERN lab on the hunt for dark matter

Europe's physics lab CERN on Tuesday said it was planning a new experiment to look for particles associated with dark matter which is believed to make up some 27 percent of the universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2NR30xr

CERN approves hunt for new cosmic particles at the Large Hadron Collider

The CERN research board has approved the Forward Search Experiment, giving a green light to the assembly, installation and use of an instrument that will look for new fundamental particles at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2EzqJxQ

Cells in a tight spot

Migrating cells must overcome physical barriers such as tight pores in finely meshed tissues. A recent study by a team of LMU biophysicists provides a new theory to describe how cells manoeuvre such confining environments.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2tSdEdY

Optical clocks started the calibration of the international atomic time

Optical clocks of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) and LNE-SYRTE (Systemes de Reference Temps-Espace, Observatoire de Paris, Universite PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Universite, France) evaluated the latest "one second" tick of the International Atomic Time (TAI) and provided these data to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) to be referred for adjusting the tick rate of TAI. Primary frequency standards based on the cesium microwave clock transition or a secondary standard based on a rubidium microwave transition have long played a role to calibrate the scale interval of TAI.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ITxPTh

Researchers demonstrate nanoparticle systems crucial for new high-speed devices

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated a new way to perform functions essential to future computation three orders of magnitude faster than current commercial devices. The team lead by Associate Professor Shinobu Ohya created a nanoscale spintronic semiconductor device that can partially switch between specific magnetic states trillions of times a second (terahertz—THz), far beyond frequencies of devices at present.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2SOeCCc

Magnonic devices can replace electronics without much noise

Electronic devices such as transistors are getting smaller and will soon hit the limits of conventional performance based on electrical currents.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2tPWbCP

How to catch a magnetic monopole in the act

A research team led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created a nanoscale "playground" on a chip that simulates the formation of exotic magnetic particles called monopoles. The study—published recently in Science Advances - could unlock the secrets to ever-smaller, more powerful memory devices, microelectronics, and next-generation hard drives that employ the power of magnetic spin to store data.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Hb8GAZ

Transforming magnetic storage might stem from the vision of quantum

Magnetic materials have a worldwide market share of some $50 billion per year. A new frontier in the study of these materials, femtomagnetism, could lead to ultrafast magnetic storage devices that would transform information processing technologies with storage devices several orders of magnitude faster.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TqYMBQ

A new approach to an old question: How do we actually cooperate?

In the animal kingdom, birds band together to ward off predators, and honeybees work collectively to benefit the entire hive. Animals of the human persuasion can act cooperatively too, at times, though this behavior is not completely understood.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2SHL491

Researchers use machine learning to more quickly analyze key capacitor materials

Capacitors, given their high energy output and recharging speed, could play a major role in powering the machines of the future, from electric cars to cell phones.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2C56qHZ

Chirality yields colossal photocurrent

A recently discovered Weyl semimetal delivers the largest intrinsic conversion of light to electricity of any material, an international team lead by a group of Boston College researchers reports today in the journal Nature Materials.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2UhM1GI

Assembly in the air: Using sound to defy gravity

Scientists at the University of Bath have levitated particles using sound in an experiment which could have applications in so-called "soft robotics" and help reveal how planets start to form.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TcVwug

Swimming microbes steer themselves into mathematical order

Freeing thousands of microorganisms to swim in random directions in an infinite pool of liquid may not sound like a recipe for order, but eventually the swarm will go with its own flow.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2UeB48S

New simulation methods to visualise quantum effects in superfluid fermions

What exactly happens inside neutron stars – the final stage of a giant star – is subject to speculation. In terms of physics, the interiors of neutron stars, cold atomic gasses and nuclear systems all have one thing in common: they are gaseous systems made up of highly interactive, superfluid fermions. Researchers fed the supercomputer Piz Daint with a new simulation method, and the results are finally offering insight into unknown processes of such systems.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2UjkSU1

Applying a network perspective to human physiology

In modern medicine, physicians treat organs in isolation. People with heart conditions go to heart specialists, just as those with kidney ailments seek kidney specialists. While this model has made tremendous progress and saved countless lives, it doesn't account for how our organs work together or sometimes fail to do so.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TwbYFp

Light pulses provide a new route to enhance superconductivity

Under normal electron band theory, Mott insulators ought to conduct electricity, but they do not due to interactions among their electrons. But now, scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have shown that pulses of light could be used to turn these materials beyond simple conductors to superconductors—materials that conduct electricity without energy loss. This process would happen through an unconventional type of superconductivity known as "eta pairing."

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TuaX0D

Water tunnel experiments show how mako shark scales help generate super speeds

Shortfin mako sharks have been called the "cheetahs of the ocean," capable of swimming at estimated speeds of 70 or 80 miles per hour. To investigate just how the animals achieve this impressive feat, aeronautical engineer Amy Lang of the University of Alabama and colleagues tested real mako shark skin samples, taken from the flank region of the animal, in water tunnel experiments.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2IOdMFH

Russian Nobel physics winner Alferov dies at 88

Russian scientist Zhores Alferov, who won the Nobel physics prize for his work in semi-conductor and laser technologies, has died, agencies said on Saturday. He was 88.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Hbu88X

New X-ray measurement approach could improve CT scanners

A new measurement approach proposed by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could lead to a better way to calibrate computed tomography (CT) scanners, potentially streamlining patient treatment by improving communication among doctors.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Trn4eP

A high-precision test bench for LISA technology

For the first time, it has been possible to test laser measurement technology for LISA in laboratories almost under mission conditions. A team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute; AEI) and the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz Universität in Hannover, Germany, achieved the breakthrough with a novel experiment. The work ties up with the LISA Pathfinder mission, which tested LISA technologies in space from 2015 to 2017. LISA is a planned observatory in space that will detect gravitational waves inaccessible on Earth. A consortium of international scientists is currently developing LISA as a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). With their experiment, the AEI scientists demonstrate the functionality of the LISA phasemeter, which will be the central measuring unit of the observatory. Their experiment can also be easily extended for further testing and can thus verify other steps of LISA measurements observatory.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2VrkbrK

Promising far-infrared detectors better protected against cosmic rays

Astronomers need ever more sensitive detectors to broaden their understanding of the universe. Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKID) could make far-infrared telescopes 1 million times more sensitive. Scientists from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and TU Delft have now taken a step toward the development of these detectors by protecting them against harmful cosmic rays. Publication in Applied Physics Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2EGUtKw

Scientists learn how to manage the properties of amorphous microwires

Amorphous ferromagnetic microwires are thin, glass-coated wires used to manufacture magnetic safety tags and in medicine. A team of physicists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and MISIS controlled their properties by adjusting internal mechanical stress. Their article was published in the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2TsqgXq

Large Hadron Collider pushing computing to the limits

At the end of 2018, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) completed its second multi-year run ("Run 2") that saw the machine reach a proton–proton collision energy of 13 TeV, the highest ever reached by a particle accelerator. During this run, from 2015 to 2018, LHC experiments produced unprecedented volumes of data with the machine's performance exceeding all expectations.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ILlUXB

A polka-dot pattern appears in superfluid helium-3 in a thin cell when exposed to a magnetic field

A team of researchers from Royal Holloway University of London and Cornell University has found that a polka-dot pattern emerges in superfluid helium-3 when it is placed in a thin cavity and subjected to a magnetic field. They have published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2HbmlYv

A trap for positrons

For the first time, scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) have succeeded in losslessly guiding positrons, the antiparticles of electrons, into a magnetic field trap. This is an important step toward creating a matter-antimatter plasma of electrons and positrons like the plasmas believed to occur near neutron stars and black holes. In an interview, Dr. Eve Stenson presents her research work.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2NB9HDv

The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

You've probably seen this effect—perhaps you are a victim of it. You feel alienated from mainstream culture and want to make a statement that you are not part of it. You think about wearing different clothes, experimenting with a new hairstyle, or even trying unconventional makeup and grooming products.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2EkHcFU