Breakthrough enables storage and release of mechanical waves without energy loss

Light and sound waves are at the basis of energy and signal transport and fundamental to some of our most basic technologies—from cell phones to engines. Scientists, however, have yet to devise a method that allows them to store a wave intact for an indefinite period of time and then direct it toward a desired location on demand. Such a development would greatly facilitate the ability to manipulate waves for a variety of desired uses, including energy harvesting, quantum computing, structural-integrity monitoring, information storage, and more.

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New study presents multiferroicity in atomic Van der Waals heterostructures

Multiferroics are defined as materials that simultaneously exhibit ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. Such properties make those materials promising building blocks of novel multifunctional materials for a variety of applications. However, it still remains a great challenge to enhance the ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity of multiferroics.

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Solving the pancake problem

If you swirl a glass of wine clockwise, the wine inside will also rotate clockwise. But, if you're making a blueberry pancake and you swirl the pan clockwise, the pancake will rotate counterclockwise. Don't believe us? Go try it.

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Theory reveals the nature of silicon carbide crystals defects

Imperfections of crystal structure, especially edge dislocations of an elongated nature, deeply modify basic properties of the entire material and, in consequence, drastically limit its applications. Using silicon carbide as an example, physicists from Cracow and Warsaw have shown that even such computationally demanding defects can be successfully examined with atomic accuracy by means of a cleverly constructed, small in size, model.

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Study shows the non-exponential decay of a giant artificial atom

To date, research in quantum optics has primarily investigated the relation between light and matter using small atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields that have substantially larger wavelengths. In an unconventional new study, a team at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light set out to explore the interaction between a large atom and acoustic fields with wavelengths several orders of magnitude below the atomic dimensions.

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Providing a solution to the worst-ever prediction in physics

The cosmological constant, introduced a century ago by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity, is a thorn in the side of physicists. The difference between the theoretical prediction of this parameter and its measurement based on astronomical observations is of the order of 10121. It's no surprise to learn that this estimate is considered the worst in the entire history of physics. In an article to be published in Physics Letters B, a researcher from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, proposes an approach that may seemingly resolve this inconsistency. The original idea in the paper is to accept that another constant—Newton's universal gravitation G, which also forms part of the equations on general relativity—may vary. This potentially major breakthrough, which has been positively received by the scientific community, still needs to be pursued in order to generate predictions that can be confirmed (or refuted) experimentally.

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Physicists create device for imitating biological memory

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have created a device that acts like a synapse in the living brain, storing information and gradually forgetting it when not accessed for a long time. Known as a second-order memristor, the new device is based on hafnium oxide and offers prospects for designing analog neurocomputers imitating the way a biological brain learns. The findings are reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

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Break in temporal symmetry produces molecules that can encode information

In a study published in Scientific Reports, a group of researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil describes an important theoretical finding that may contribute to the development of quantum computing and spintronics (spin electronics), an emerging technology that uses electron spin or angular momentum rather than electron charge to build faster, more efficient devices.

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Smarter experiments for faster materials discovery

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory designed, created, and successfully tested a new algorithm to make smarter scientific measurement decisions. The algorithm, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), can make autonomous decisions to define and perform the next step of an experiment. The team described the capabilities and flexibility of their new measurement tool in a paper published on August 14, 2019 in Scientific Reports.

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AI learns to model our Universe

Researchers have successfully created a model of the Universe using artificial intelligence, reports a new study.

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Under pressure: Balloons for particle acceleration

Balloons can help make a space perfect for a party. Now they also can help when it comes to accelerating particles to near the speed of light.

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New, fundamental limit to 'seeing and believing' in imaging

Answers to big questions increasingly require access to the realm of the very small.

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Scientists discover 'electron equivalents' in colloidal systems

Atoms have a positively charged center surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged particles. This type of arrangement, it turns out, can also occur at a more macroscopic level, giving new insights into the nature of how materials form and interact.

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Studying downward terrestrial gamma-ray flashes during a winter thunderstorm

Lightning is a unique and fascinating phenomenon that has been studied for centuries. Although we now have a better understanding of this naturally occurring spectacle, many of its secrets are yet to be uncovered.

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Researchers observe spontaneous occurrence of skyrmions in atomically thin cobalt films

Since their experimental discovery, magnetic skyrmions—tiny magnetic knots—have moved into the focus of research. Scientists from Hamburg and Kiel have now been able to show that individual magnetic skyrmions with a diameter of only a few nanometers can be stabilized in magnetic metal films even without an external magnetic field. They report on their discovery in the journal Nature Communications.

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Researchers get first microscopic look at a tiny phenomenon with big potential implications

Matter behaves differently when it's tiny. At the nanoscale, electric current cuts through mountains of particles, spinning them into vortexes that can be used intentionally in quantum computing. The particles arrange themselves into a topological map, but the lines blur as electrons merge into indistinguishable quasiparticles with shifting properties. The trick is learning how to control such changeable materials.

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Maximum mass of lightest neutrino revealed using astronomical big data

Neutrinos come in three flavours made up of a mix of three neutrino masses. While the differences between the masses are known, little information was available about the mass of the lightest species until now.

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Visualizing strong magnetic fields with neutrons

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new method with which strong magnetic fields can be precisely measured. They use neutrons obtained from the SINQ spallation source. In the future, it will therefore be possible to measure the fields of magnets that are already installed in devices and thus are inaccessible by other probing techniques. The researchers have now published their results in the journal Nature Communications.

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Modal time theory: Understanding human existence through time travel and music

Time is a fundamental dimension of human existence and comes in many forms. Using a comparative approach, philosopher and physicist Norman Sieroka looks at what distinguishes them, using time travel and music.

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The challenge: Make and purify a medical isotope that must be used the same day

Two radioactive isotopes of the metallic element scandium, or Sc, appear to be ideal for visualizing, and then destroying, solid tumors. A barrier, however, blocks their use—the inability to rapidly produce and purify the isotopes in useful amounts.

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New way to make micro-sensors may revolutionize future of electronics

Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York researchers have found a way to improve the performance of tiny sensors that could have wide-reaching implications for electronic devices we use every day.

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Scientists develop a metamaterial for applications in magnonics, an alternative to conventional electronics

Physicists from Russia and Europe have demonstrated the real possibility of using superconductor/ferromagnet systems to create magnonic crystals, which will be at the core of spin-wave devices to come in the post-silicon era of electronics. The paper was published in the journal Advanced Science.

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A heavyweight candidate for dark matter

Almost a quarter of the universe stands literally in the shadows. According to cosmologists' theories, 25.8% of it is made up of dark matter, whose presence is signaled essentially only by its gravitational pull. What this substance consists of remains a mystery. Hermann Nicolai, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, and his colleague Krzysztof Meissner from the University of Warsaw have now proposed a new candidate—a superheavy gravitino. The existence of this still hypothetical particle follows from a hypothesis that seeks to explain how the observed spectrum of quarks and leptons in the standard model of particle physics might emerge from a fundamental theory. In addition, the researchers describe a possible method for actually tracking down this particle.

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A 127-year-old physics riddle solved

He solved a 127-year-old physics problem on paper and proved that off-centered boat wakes could exist. Five years later, practical experiments proved him right.

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Scientists discover star dust in Antarctic snow

A team of scientists hauled 500 kilograms of fresh snow back from Antarctica, melted it, and sifted through the particles that remained. Their analysis yielded a surprise: The snow held significant amounts of a form of iron that isn't naturally produced on Earth.

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Researchers propose new holographic method to simulate black holes with tabletop experiment

A research team from Osaka University, Nihon University and Chuo University has proposed a novel theoretical framework whose experiment could be performed in a laboratory to better understand the physics of black holes. This project can shed light on the fundamental laws that govern the cosmos on both unimaginably small and vastly large scales.

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First major superconducting component for new high-power particle accelerator arrives at Fermilab

It was a three-hour nighttime road trip that capped off a journey begun seven years ago.

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Measuring temperatures similar to those occurring in star collisions in the lab

Collisions between neutron stars are fascinating cosmic events that lead to the formation of numerous chemical elements. Temperatures during these collisions are exponentially high, typically reaching up to hundreds of billions of degrees Celsius.

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Boosting computing power for the future of particle physics

A new machine learning technology tested by an international team of scientists including MIT Assistant Professor Philip Harris and postdoc Dylan Rankin, both of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, can spot specific particle signatures among an ocean of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data in the blink of an eye.

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Toward an 'orrery' for quantum gauge theory

Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a new approach to couple quantized gauge fields to ultracold matter. The method might be the basis for a versatile platform to tackle problems ranging from condensed-matter to high-energy physics.

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Lithium fluoride crystals 'see' heavy ions with high energies

Lithium fluoride crystals have recently been used to register the tracks of nuclear particles. Physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have just demonstrated that these crystals are also ideal for detecting tracks of high-energy ions of elements even as heavy as iron.

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Holography and criticality in matchgate tensor networks

Tensor networks take a central role in quantum physics as they can provide an efficient approximation to specific classes of quantum states. The associated graphical language can also easily describe and pictorially reason about quantum circuits, channels, protocols and open systems. In a recent study, A. Jahn and a research team in the departments of complex quantum systems, materials and energy and mathematics and computer science in Germany introduced a versatile and efficient framework to study tensor networks by extending previous tools. The researchers used bulk tiling (computing geometric technique) in their work to obtain highly accurate critical data and established a link between holographic quantum error-correcting codes and tensor networks. They expect the work to stimulate further investigations of tensor network models to capture bulk-boundary correspondences. The results are now published on Science Advances.

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Lab-based dark energy experiment narrows search options for elusive force

An experiment to test a popular theory of dark energy has found no evidence of new forces, placing strong constraints on related theories.

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A glimpse into the future: Accelerated computing for accelerated particles

Every proton collision at the Large Hadron Collider is different, but only a few are special. The special collisions generate particles in unusual patterns—possible manifestations of new, rule-breaking physics—or help fill in our incomplete picture of the universe.

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ATLAS Experiment releases new search for strong supersymmetry

New particles sensitive to the strong interaction might be produced in abundance in the proton-proton collisions generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – provided that they aren't too heavy. These particles could be the partners of gluons and quarks predicted by supersymmetry (SUSY), a proposed extension of the Standard Model of particle physics that would expand its predictive power to include much higher energies. In the simplest scenarios, these "gluinos" and "squarks" would be produced in pairs, and decay directly into quarks and a new stable neutral particle (the "neutralino"), which would not interact with the ATLAS detector. The neutralino could be the main constituent of dark matter.

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Scientists discover new state of matter

A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter—a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum computing.

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Two teams build invisibility cloaks for water applications

Two teams of researchers, one in Korea, the other China, have devised two different types of invisibility cloaks for water applications. Both teams have published papers describing their work in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Super Proton Synchrotron to receive a new beam dump

By the end of the second long shutdown (LS2) of CERN's accelerator complex, a nine-metre-long object with several hundred tonnes of shielding will be installed around the beam line of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). But this object, the longest single component of the SPS, is no ordinary one. It contains the new beam dump of the SPS, designed to absorb beams of particles whose flight through the SPS needs to be terminated. Deep inside the complex device will sit the actual absorbing elements of the dump, containing graphite, molybdenum and tungsten. This core will be sheathed in layers of concrete, cast-iron shielding (painted green per CERN's color schemes) and marble. The new beam dump will help absorb particle beams with a wide range of energies—from 14 to 450 GeV—and is being built as part of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project.

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Scientists discover potential path to improving samarium-cobalt magnets

Scientists have discovered a potential tool to enhance magnetization and magnetic anisotropy, making it possible to improve the performance of samarium-cobalt magnets.

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Counterintuitive physics property found to be widespread in living organisms

Ever since the late 19th century, physicists have known about a counterintuitive property of some electric circuits called negative resistance. Typically, increasing the voltage in a circuit causes the electric current to increase as well. But under some conditions, increasing the voltage can cause the current to decrease instead. This basically means that pushing harder on the electric charges actually slows them down.

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How our biological clocks are locked in sync

Scientists from EPFL's Institute of Bioengineering have discovered that the circadian clock and the cell-cycle are, in fact, synchronized.

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Dark matter search yields technique for locating heavy metal seams

A method for locating seams of gold and other heavy metals is the unlikely spin-off of Swinburne's involvement in a huge experiment to detect dark matter down a mine in Stawell, Victoria.

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Tug of war around gravity

In the summer of 2009, theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde had a brainwave that developed into a radical new idea about gravity and the universe as an ocean of information. Ten years later, the last word about this has not yet been said.

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Patterns typically observed in water can also be found in light

Sometimes in shallow water, a type of wave can form that is much more stable than ordinary waves. Called solitons, these phenomena emerge as solitary waves and can travel long distances while maintaining their shape and speed, even after colliding with other waves.

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Turbulence meets a shock

This may come as a shock, if you're moving fast enough. The shock being shock waves. A balloon's 'pop' is shock waves generated by exploded bits of the balloon moving faster than the speed of sound. Supersonic planes generate a much louder sonic 'boom,' also from shock waves. Farther out into the cosmos, a collapsing star generates shock waves from particles racing near the speed of light as the star goes supernova. Scientists are using supercomputers to get a better understanding of turbulent flows that interact with shock waves. This understanding could help develop supersonic and hypersonic aircraft, more efficient engine ignition, as well as probe the mysteries of supernova explosions, star formation, and more.

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NASCAR may be the fastest way to learn about physics

There's just something thrilling about traveling at high speeds. Throughout history people have always pushed themselves to go faster, whether on foot, on horseback, on a boat or on a bicycle.

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A new metric to capture the similarity between collider events

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have recently developed a metric that can be used to capture the space of collider events based on the earth mover's distance (EMD), a measure used to evaluate dissimilarity between two multi-dimensional probability distributions. The metric they proposed, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could enable the development of new powerful tools to analyze and visualize collider data, which do not rely on a choice of observables.

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ATLAS delivers new direct measurement of the top-quark decay width with improved precision

As the heaviest known particle, the top quark plays a key role in studies of fundamental interactions. Due to its short lifetime, the top quark decays before it can turn into a hadron. Thus, its properties are preserved and transferred to its decay products, which can in turn be measured in high-energy physics experiments. Such studies provide an excellent testing ground for the Standard Model and may provide clues for new physics.

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Researchers to study physics of underwater walking

Around 360 million years ago, creatures trekked out of the water and onto dry land, becoming the first terrestrial animals. The colonization of land by animals may be one of the greatest evolutionary events in the history of life, but our understanding of the physics of this event is limited. Professor Henry Astley, Ph.D., from The University of Akron (UA) seeks to find answers.

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Kepler's forgotten ideas about symmetry help explain spiral galaxies without the need for dark matter

The 17th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to muse about the structure of snowflakes. Why are they so symmetrical? How does one side know how long the opposite side has grown? Kepler thought it was all down to what we would now call a "morphogenic field" – that things want to have the form they have. Science has since discounted this idea. But the question of why snowflakes and similar structures are so symmetrical is nevertheless not entirely understood.

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Zooming in on top-quark production

As the heaviest known elementary particle, the top quark has a special place in the physics studied at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Top quark-antiquark pairs are copiously produced in collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector, providing a rich testing ground for theoretical models of particle collisions at the highest accessible energies. Any deviations between measurements and predictions could point to shortcomings in the theory – or first hints of something completely new.

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Spinning towards robust microwave generation on the nano scale

Spin-torque oscillators (STOs) are nanoscale devices that generate microwaves using changes in magnetic field direction, but those produced by any individual device are too weak for practical applications. Physicists have attempted—and, to date, consistently failed—to produce reliable microwave fields by coupling large ensembles. Michael Zaks from Humboldt University of Berlin and Arkady Pikovsky from the University of Potsdam in Germany have now shown why connecting these devices in series cannot succeed, and, at the same time, suggested other paths to explore. Their work was recently published in The European Physical Journal B.

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Entropy explains RNA diffusion rates in cells

Recent studies have revealed that within cells of both yeast and bacteria, the rates of diffusion of RNA proteins—complex molecules that convey important information throughout the cell—are distributed in characteristic exponential patterns. As it turns out, these patterns display the highest possible degree of disorder, or 'entropy', of all possible diffusion processes within the cell.

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Trio behind supergravity breakthrough win Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The three physicists credited with "the invention of supergravity" have won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work nearly 40 years ago. The announcement was made by the Selection Committee. In addition to the award, the three physicists—Sergio Ferrara, Daniel Freedman and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen—will also share 3 million dollars.

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Global team of scientists finish assembling next-generation dark matter detector

The key component of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment is ready to be sealed and lowered nearly 1.5 km underground, where it will search for dark matter.

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Researchers uncover hidden topological insulator states in bismuth crystals

The search for better materials for computers and other electronic devices has focused on a group of materials known as "topological insulators" that have a special property of conducting electricity on the edge of their surfaces like traffic lanes on a highway. This can increase energy efficiency and reduce heat output.

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Bullet shape, velocity determine blood spatter patterns

Blood spatters are hydrodynamic signatures of violent crimes, often revealing when an event occurred and where the perpetrator and victim were located at the time of the crime.

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Scientists develop filter to suppress radio interference

Researchers from Siberian Federal University and Kirensky Institute of Physics have proposed a new design for a multimode stripline resonator. The use of such resonators allows scientists to create miniature band-pass filters with unique frequency-selective properties that are in demand by modern telecommunication systems. The main results of the study are published in Technical Physics Letters.

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ATLAS Experiment releases new search for Higgs boson interactions with the lightest charged lepton

Does the Higgs boson follow all of the rules set by the Standard Model? Since discovering the particle in 2012, the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations have been hard at work studying the behaviour of the Higgs boson. Any unexpected observations could be a sign of new physics beyond the Standard Model.

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New milestone reached in the study of electroweak symmetry breaking

In the Standard Model of particle physics, elementary particles acquire their masses by interacting with the Higgs field. This process is governed by a delicate mechanism: electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Although EWSB was first proposed in 1964, it remains among the least understood phenomena of the Standard Model as a large dataset of high-energy particle collisions is required to probe it.

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Physicists measure how electrons in transition metals get redistributed within fraction of optical oscillation cycle

Researchers in the Department of Physics of ETH Zurich have measured how electrons in so-called transition metals get redistributed within a fraction of an optical oscillation cycle. They observed the electrons getting concentrated around the metal atoms within less than a femtosecond. This regrouping might influence important macroscopic properties of these compounds, such as electrical conductivity, magnetization or optical characteristics. The work therefore suggests a route to controlling these properties on extremely fast time scales.

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Physicists simulate engine oil behavior under extreme pressure

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and elsewhere have modeled the behavior of a widely used lubricant under extreme conditions. Their calculations on Russian supercomputers spare the costly experiments and predict how the viscosity of 2,2,4-trimethylhexane changes between the standard conditions and a pressure as high as 10,000 times that in your room. The findings, reported in Fluid Phase Equilibria, are key for the industrial applications of similar fluids in aircraft engines, as fuel additives and electrical insulators.

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Corkscrew photons may leave behind a spontaneous twist

Everything radiates. Whether it's a car door, a pair of shoes or the cover of a book, anything hotter than absolute zero (i.e., pretty much everything) is constantly shedding radiation in the form of photons, the quantum particles of light.

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Antineutrino detection could help remotely monitor nuclear reactors

Technology to measure the flow of subatomic particles known as antineutrinos from nuclear reactors could allow continuous remote monitoring designed to detect fueling changes that might indicate the diversion of nuclear materials. The monitoring could be done from outside the reactor vessel, and the technology may be sensitive enough to detect substitution of a single fuel assembly.

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Powered by pixels

It's 2019. We want our cell phones fast, our computers faster and screens so crisp they rival a morning in the mountains. We're a digital society, and blurry photos from potato-cameras won't cut it for the masses. Physicists, it turns out, aren't any different—and they want that same sharp snap from their neutrino detectors.

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Two-dimensional (2-D) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with a microfluidic diamond quantum sensor

Quantum sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are a promising detection mode for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy due to their micron-scale detection volume and noninductive-based sample detection requirements. A challenge that exists is to sufficiently realize high spectral resolution coupled with concentration sensitivity for multidimensional NMR analysis of picolitre sample volumes. In a new report now on Science Advances, Janis Smits and an interdisciplinary research team in the departments of High Technology Materials, Physics and Astronomy in the U.S. and Latvia addressed the challenge by spatially separating the polarization and detection phases of the experiment in a microfluidic platform.

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Dark energy vs. modified gravity: Which one will prevail?

Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts the existence of dark energy—a mysterious form of energy that permeates space and accelerates the expansion of the Universe. But what if Einstein was wrong and there was no such thing as dark energy? The GalaxyDance project has been investigating this scenario.

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New approach could make HVAC heat exchangers five times more efficient

Researchers from Tsinghua University and Brown University have discovered a simple way to give a major boost to turbulent heat exchange, a method of heat transport widely used in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

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High-Luminosity LHC: Diggers at work 100 meters underground

Dig, dig, dig. One hundred meters underground, excavation work is under way for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider project. This next-generation LHC, which will begin operation in 2026, will reach luminosities five to ten times higher than its predecessor. This increased number of collisions will increase the chances of observing rare processes.

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Slip layer dynamics reveal why some fluids flow faster than expected

Whether it is oil gushing through pipelines or blood circulating through arteries, how liquids flow through tubes is perhaps the most fundamental problem in hydrodynamics. The challenge is to maximize transport efficiency by minimizing the loss of energy to friction between the moving liquid and the stationary tube surfaces. Counterintuitively, adding a small amount of large, slow moving polymers to the liquid, thus forming a "complex liquid," leads to faster, more efficient transport. This phenomenon was speculated to arise from the formation of thin layer around the internal wall of the tube, known as depletion layer or split layer, in which the polymer concentration was significantly lower than in the bulk solution. However, given the inherently thinness of this layer, which is only a few nanometers thick, on the order of the polymer size, direct experimental observation was difficult, and so progress in the field relied heavily on bulk measurements and computer simulations.

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ATLAS Experiment explores the Higgs boson 'discovery channels'

At the European Physical Society Conference on High-Energy Physics (EPS-HEP) in Ghent, Belgium, the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN released new measurements of Higgs boson properties using the full LHC Run 2 dataset. Critically, the new results examine two of the Higgs boson decays that led to the particle's discovery in 2012: H→ZZ*→4ℓ, where the Higgs boson decays into two Z bosons, in turn decaying into four leptons (electrons or muons); and H→γγ where the Higgs boson decays directly into two photons.

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