Theorists suggest 'Higgs Troika' may have been responsible for disappearance of antimatter

A team of researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Kansas has developed a theory to explain why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe. They have written a paper describing their theory and have posted it on the arXiv preprint server.

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New 3-D-printed lattice designs defy conventional wisdom on metamaterials

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have designed a new class of 3-D-printed lattice structures that combine lightweight and high stiffness, despite breaking a rule previously thought to be required to exhibit such properties. One of the new structures additionally displays perfectly uniform response to forces in all directions.

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How to dismantle a nuclear bomb: Team successfully tests new method for verification of weapons reduction

How do weapons inspectors verify that a nuclear bomb has been dismantled? An unsettling answer is: They don't, for the most part. When countries sign arms reduction pacts, they do not typically grant inspectors complete access to their nuclear technologies, for fear of giving away military secrets.

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US ATLAS phase I upgrade completed

The ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is ready to begin another chapter in its search for new physics. A significant upgrade to the experiment, called the U.S. ATLAS Phase I Upgrade, has received Critical Decision-4 approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), signifying the completion of the project and a transition to operations.

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Jumping the gap may make electronics faster

A quasi-particle that travels along the interface of a metal and dielectric material may be the solution to problems caused by shrinking electronic components, according to an international team of engineers.

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How to tie microscopic knots

Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have gone to creative lengths to earn their scouting merit badges for knot-tying.

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Researchers observe exotic radioactive decay process

Researchers from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU) and TRIUMF (Canada's national particle accelerator) have observed a rare nuclear decay. Namely, the team measured low-kinetic-energy protons emitted after the beta decay of a neutron-rich nucleus beryllium-11. The research team presented their results in an article recently published in Physical Review Letters.

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Researchers observe phase transition in artificially created flock

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in France has observed a phase transition in an artificially created flock. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they created their artificial flock and the events that led to a phase transition.

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Researchers home in on extremely rare nuclear process

A hypothetical nuclear process known as neutrinoless double beta decay ought to be among the least likely events in the universe. Now the international EXO-200 collaboration, which includes researchers from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has determined just how unlikely it is: In a given volume of a certain xenon isotope, it would take more than 35 trillion trillion years for half of its nuclei to decay through this process—an eternity compared to the age of the universe, which is "only" 13 billion years old.

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Race against time to finish Brazil's particle accelerator

Brazilian scientists are racing against time to finish building a particle accelerator the size of the Maracana football stadium before government funds run out or it is superseded by rival technology.

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Predicting epileptic seizures might be more difficult than previously thought

By studying the brain dynamics of 28 subjects with epilepsy, scientists demonstrated there is no evidence for a previously suspected warning sign for seizures known as "critical slowing down."

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Theorists discover the 'Rosetta Stone' for neutrino physics

Linear algebra is a field of mathematics that has been thoroughly investigated for many centuries, providing invaluable tools used not only in mathematics, but also across physics and engineering as well as many other fields. For years physicists have used important theorems in linear algebra to quickly calculate solutions to the most complicated problems.

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Numbers limit how accurately digital computers model chaos

The study, published today in Advanced Theory and Simulations, shows that digital computers cannot reliably reproduce the behaviour of 'chaotic systems' which are widespread. This fundamental limitation could have implications for high performance computation (HPC) and for applications of machine learning to HPC.

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How molecular footballs burst in an X-ray laser beam

An international research team has observed in real time how football molecules made of carbon atoms burst in the beam of an X-ray laser. The study shows the temporal course of the bursting process, which takes less than a trillionth of a second, and is important for the analysis of sensitive proteins and other biomolecules, which are also frequently studied using bright X-ray laser flashes. The football molecules disintegrate more slowly and differently than expected, as the team around Nora Berrah from the University of Connecticut and Robin Santra from DESY report in the journal Nature Physics. This observation contributes to a more detailed protein analysis with X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL).

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A new way to turn heat into energy

An international team of scientists has figured out how to capture heat and turn it into electricity.

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Theory proposes that LIGO/Virgo black holes originate from a first order phase transition

A few years ago, the LIGO/Virgo collaboration detected gravitational waves arising from a binary black hole merger using the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). This eventually led to the observation of black holes with masses that are roughly 30 times the mass of the sun. Since then, researchers worldwide have been investigating these black holes, specifically examining whether they could be of primordial origin, meaning that they were produced in the early universe before stars and galaxies were formed.

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Ultra-rare kaon decay could lead to evidence of new physics

Scientists searching for evidence of new physics in particle processes that could explain dark matter and other mysteries of the universe have moved one step closer, with the new result of the NA62 experiment reported today at CERN.

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Uncorking champagne creates under-expanded supersonic carbon dioxide freezing jets

A trio of researchers from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and the University of Rennes has found that when a champagne bottle is uncorked, the CO2 and water that is released creates under-expanded supersonic CO2 freezing jets. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Gérard Liger-Belair, Daniel Cordier and Robert Georges describe their study of what happens when a bottle of champagne is uncorked, and what they found.

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The Prisoner's Dilemma: Exploring a strategy that leads to mutual cooperation without non-cooperative actions

A research team led by Hitoshi Yamamoto from Rissho University has analyzed which strategies would be effective in the prisoner's dilemma game, into which a new behavior of non-participation in the game was introduced. The study was carried out in collaboration with colleagues Isamu Okada (Soka University), Takuya Taguchi (Shibaura Institute of Technology), and Masayoshi Muto (Shibaura Institute of Technology). The results of the study were published in Physical Review E.

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The best of two worlds: Magnetism and Weyl semimetals

Imagine a world in which electricity could flow through the grid without any losses or where all the data in the world could be stored in the cloud without the need for power stations. This seems unimaginable but a path towards such a dream has opened with the discovery of a new family of materials with magical properties.

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Fractal patterns in growing bacterial colonies

As many people will remember from school science classes, bacteria growing on solid surfaces form colonies that can be easily visible to the naked eye. Each of these is a complex biological system in its own right; colonies display collective behaviours that indicate a kind of 'social intelligence' and grow in fractal patterns that can resemble snowflakes. Despite this complexity, colony growth can be modelled using principles of basic physics. Lautaro Vassallo and his co-workers in Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina have modelled such growth using a novel method in which the behaviour of each of the bacteria is simulated separately. This work has now been published in The European Physical Journal B .

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Fast-cooling sample environment furnaces furnaces

How long does it take to cool a sample environment furnaces from 1000 degrees C to 80 degrees C? Answer: 4.5 hours. This wastes a lot of precious neutron beam time so what has SINE2020 been doing about it?

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Improving the signal-to-background ratio

A good signal-to-background ratio is essential for a successful outcome to a neutron experiment. Unfortunately, some commonly used sample environment equipment produces unwanted signals that hide those coming from the samples being investigated.

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ZnS scintillation detector with wavelength shifting fiber readout

Detectors for reflectometry need to detect a lot of neutrons in a very short space of time. This means they need to be designed with very high count rate capabilities. Unfortunately, current detectors need to improve to meet the demands of reflectometry experiments so researchers at ISIS Neutron and Muon source have been working on a detector that can.

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How to get a particle detector on a plane

You may have observed airplane passengers accompanied by pets or even musical instruments on flights. But have you ever been seated next to a particle detector?

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Physicists discover topological behavior of electrons in 3-D magnetic material

An international team of researchers led by scientists at Princeton University has found that a magnetic material at room temperature enables electrons to behave counterintuitively, acting collectively rather than as individuals. Their collective behavior mimics massless particles and anti-particles that coexist in an unexpected way and together form an exotic loop-like structure.

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Researchers develop unified sensor to better control effects of shock waves

As a fighter jet quickly ascends and accelerates forward, a sonic boom reverberates across the jet's surface and through the surrounding sound waves. At best, it's unpleasant noise pollution. At worst, it can damage the surface of the aircraft. Dissipating this shock wave presents a tough challenge as traditional methods tend to offer efficiency or precision, but not both.

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Scientists develop technique to observe radiation damage over a quadrillionth of a second

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a technique to observe how radiation damages molecules over time frames of just one quadrillionth of a second—or a femtosecond.

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Ultrafast optical field-ionized gases: A laboratory platform to study kinetic plasma instabilities

Kinetic instabilities commonly arise from anisotropic (different properties in different directions) electron velocity distributions within ionospheric, cosmic and terrestrial plasmas. But only a handful of experiments have validated that theory so far. Ultrafast laser pulses can be used during optical field ionization of atoms to generate plasmas with known anisotropic electron velocity distributions to understand the phenomenon in practice. In a recent study, Chaojie Zhang and an interdisciplinary research team in the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics and Astronomy in the U.S., showed that plasma underwent two-stream filamentation following ionization—but prior to collision-based thermalization of the constituent electrons.

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Bigger cities boost 'social crimes'

As cities grow in size, crime grows even faster. But while certain types of crime—car theft and robbery, for example—exponentially outpace the population, other crime categories buck the trend. Rape, for example, grows only linearly, at roughly the same pace as a city's population.

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Physicist estimates the effect of dark matter on the shadow of a black hole

A RUDN University physicist has developed a formula for evaluation of the effect of dark matter on the size of the shadow of a black hole. It turned out that the effect would be noticeable only if the concentration of this hypothetical form of matter around black holes in the centers of galaxies is abnormally high. If it is not the case, then it is unlikely that dark matter could be detected using the shadow of a black hole. The work was published in the journal Physics Letters B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High Energy Physics.

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New hunt for dark matter: Physicists theorize a novel way to explore the nature of dark matter with lasers

Dark matter is only known by its effect on massive astronomical bodies, but has yet to be directly observed or even identified. A theory about what dark matter might be suggests that it could be a particle called an axion and that these could be detectable with laser-based experiments that already exist. These laser experiments are gravitational-wave observatories.

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Artificial intelligence probes dark matter in the universe

A team of physicists and computer scientists at ETH Zurich has developed a new approach to the problem of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Using machine learning tools, they programmed computers to teach themselves how to extract the relevant information from maps of the universe.

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Acoustic energy harnessed to soften shear-thickening fluids

Researchers are using ultrasonic waves to manipulate the viscosity of shear-thickening materials, turning solids to slush—and back again.

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Novel mechanism of electron scattering in graphene-like 2-D materials

Understanding how particles behave at the twilight zone between the macro and the quantum world gives us access to fascinating phenomena—interesting from both the fundamental and application-oriented physics perspectives. For example, ultra-thin graphene-like materials are a fantastic playground to examine electrons' transport and interactions. Recently, researchers at the Center for Theoretical Physics of Complex Systems (PCS), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), in collaboration with the Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics (Russia) have reported on a novel electron scattering phenomenon in 2-D materials. The paper is published in Physical Review Letters.

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Visualizing electrical patterns underlying abnormal heart contractions and deformations

Despite advances in medical imaging, the mechanisms leading to the irregular contractions of the heart during heart rhythm disorders remain poorly understood.

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Novel approach to ultrasound raises possibility of new medical applications

A new ultrasound technique provides a non-invasive way of assessing bone structure on the microscale. Researchers hope to fine-tune the technique for use in assessing osteoporosis risk and treatment.

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Two-dimensional chiral fluid mostly follows hydrodynamics theories

A team of researchers with members from several institutions in the U.S. and one in France has created a two-dimensional chiral fluid that mostly follows hydrodynamics theories. In their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, the group describes their fluid, many of its properties, and the ways it differs from other fluids. Alexander Abanov with Stony Brook University has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

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Next-generation anvils for the Paris-Edinburgh cell

One of the goals of Task 7.3 of SINE2020's Sample Environment work package is to develop better high-pressure cells for neutron scattering. A cell commonly used to put a sample under high pressure is the Paris-Edinburgh (PE) press which exerts the pressure with anvils onto a sample hold in gaskets. However, the existing equipment produces an important neutron background which prevents the measurement of small signals or small samples. The anvils are also quite expensive and can generally only be used three times.

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Finding the missing pieces in the puzzle of an antineutrino's energy

Charged particles, like protons and electrons, can be characterized by the trails of atoms these particles ionize. In contrast, neutrinos and their antiparticle partners almost never ionize atoms, so their interactions have to be pieced together by how they break nuclei apart.

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Scientists shave estimate of neutrino's mass in half

An international team of scientists, including researchers at MIT, has come closer to pinning down the mass of the elusive neutrino. These ghost-like particles permeate the universe and yet are thought to be nearly massless, streaming by the millions through our bodies while leaving barely any physical trace.

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From primordial black holes new clues to dark matter

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are objects that formed just fractions of a second after the Big Bang, considered by many researchers among the principal candidates in explaining the nature of dark matter, above all following direct observations of gravitational waves by the VIRGO and LIGO detectors in 2016. "We have tested a scenario in which dark matter is composed of non-stellar black holes, formed in the primordial universe," says Riccardo Murgia, lead author of the study recently published in Physical Review Letters. The research was carried out together with his colleagues Giulio Scelfo and Matteo Viel of SISSA—International School for Advanced Studies and INFN—Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Trieste division) and Alvise Raccanelli of CERN.

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A novel tool to probe fundamental matter

Identifying elementary constituents of matter including quarks, bosons and electrons, and the manner by which these particles interact with each other, constitutes one of the greatest challenges in modern physical sciences. Resolving this outstanding problem will not only deepen our understanding of the early days of the universe, but will also shed light on exotic states of matter, such as superconductors.

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Tomorrow's coolants of choice

Later during this century, around 2060, a paradigm shift in global energy consumption is expected: we will spend more energy for cooling than for heating. Meanwhile, the increasing penetration of cooling applications into our daily lives causes a rapidly growing ecological footprint. New refrigeration processes such as magnetic cooling could limit the resulting impact on the climate and the environment. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Technische Universität Darmstadt have taken a closer look at today's most promising materials. The result of their work is the first systematic magnetocaloric material library with all relevant property data, which they have published now in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

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New results for the mass of neutrinos

Neutrinos and their small non-zero masses play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. The allowed range of the mass scale has now been narrowed down by the initial results of the international Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN). The analysis of a first four-week measurement run in spring 2019 limits neutrino masses to less than approximately 1 eV, which is smaller by a factor of 2 compared to previous laboratory results based on multi-year campaigns. This demonstrates the huge potential of KATRIN in elucidating novel properties of neutrinos over the coming years.

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Study unveils a route to high hole mobility in gallium nitride

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a material often used to build semiconductor power devices and light emitting diodes (LEDs). In the past, researchers have explored the possibility of realizing GaN p-channel transistors, which could aid the development of better performing computers.

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Undergraduate engineers advance shock wave mitigation research

A team of undergraduate engineers at UC San Diego has discovered a method that could make materials more resilient against massive shocks such as earthquakes or explosions. The students, conducting research in the structural engineering lab of Professor Veronica Eliasson, used a shock tube to generate powerful explosions within the tube—at Mach 1.2 to be exact, meaning faster than the speed of sound. They then used an ultra high-speed camera to capture and analyze how materials with certain patterns fared.

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Paramagnetic spins take electrons for a ride, produce electricity from heat

An international team of researchers has observed that local thermal perturbations of spins in a solid can convert heat to energy even in a paramagnetic material—where spins weren't thought to correlate long enough to do so. This effect, which the researchers call "paramagnon drag thermopower," converts a temperature difference into an electrical voltage. This discovery could lead to more efficient thermal energy harvesting—for example, converting car exhaust heat into electric power to enhance fuel-efficiency, or powering smart clothing by body heat.

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Using an optical tweezer array of laser-cooled molecules to observe ground state collisions

A team of researchers from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that they could use an optical tweezer array of laser-cooled molecules to observe ground state collisions between individual molecules. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their work with cooled calcium monofluoride molecules trapped by optical tweezers, and what they learned from their experiments. Svetlana Kotochigova, with Temple University, has published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the work—she also gives an overview of the work being done with arrays of optical tweezers to better understand molecules in general.

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The first observation of a stable torus of fluid's resonance frequencies

A team of researchers at Laroche Laboratory, Université Paris Diderot and Université de Lyon has recently collected the first measurements of the resonance frequencies of a stable torus of fluid. The method they used to collect these observations, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could enable the modeling of a variety of large-scale structures that transiently arise in vortex rings.

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New technology gives a glimpse of solar fuel generation in action

Electrochemical devices that use sunlight to generate fuel represent a promising means of harvesting sustainable energy; but currently, none are efficient enough for real-world applications. One of the main reasons for the slow development is the difficulty in observing and measuring what is happening at the liquid-catalyst interface—the location in the cell where the fuel-producing chemical reactions are taking place—without interfering with the processes.

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How fast is the universe expanding? The mystery endures

Scientists have known for decades that the universe is expanding, but research in the past few years has shaken up calculations on the speed of growth—raising tricky questions about theories of the cosmos.

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New topological insulator reroutes photonic 'traffic' on the fly

Topological insulators are a game-changing class of materials; charged particles can flow freely on their edges and route themselves around defects, but can't pass through their interiors. This perfect surface conduction holds promise for fast and efficient electronic circuits, though engineers must contend with the fact that the interiors of such materials are effectively wasted space.

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Researchers produce synthetic Hall Effect to achieve one-way radio transmission

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have replicated one of the most well-known electromagnetic effects in physics, the Hall Effect, using radio waves (photons) instead of electric current (electrons). Their technique could be used to create advanced communication systems that boost signal transmission in one direction while simultaneously absorbing signals going in the opposite direction.

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Dynamic charge density fluctuations pervading the phase diagram of a Cu-based high-Tc superconductor

Charge density fluctuations are observed in all families of high-critical temperature (Tc) superconducting cuprates. Although constantly found in the underdoped region of the phase diagram at relatively low temperatures, physicists are unclear how the substrates influence unusual properties of these systems. In a new study now published on Science, R. Arpaia and co-workers in the departments of microtechnology and nanoscience, the European Synchrotron, and quantum device physics in Italy, Sweden and France used resonant X-ray scattering to carefully determine the charge density modulations in Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBa2Cu3O7– ẟ) and Neodymium Barium Copper Oxide (Nd1+xBa2–xCu3O7–ẟ) for several doping levels. The research team isolated short-range dynamic charge density fluctuations (CDFs) in addition to the previously known quasi-critical charge density waves (CDW). The results persisted well above the pseudo-gap temperature T*, which they characterized by a few milli-electron volts (meV) to spread across a large area of the phase diagram.

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Students make neutrons dance beneath UC Berkeley campus

In an underground vault enclosed by six-foot concrete walls and accessed by a rolling, 25-ton concrete-and-steel door, University of California, Berkeley, students are making neutrons dance to a new tune: one better suited to producing isotopes required for geological dating, police forensics, hospital diagnosis and treatment.

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Probing a nuclear clock transition

Modern atomic clocks are the most accurate measurement tools currently available. The best current instruments deviate by just one second in 30 billion years. However, even this extraordinary level of precision can be improved upon. Indeed, a clock based on an excited nuclear state of thorium-229 should make it possible to enhance timing accuracy by another order of magnitude.

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Scientists detect the ringing of a newborn black hole for the first time

If Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity holds true, then a black hole, born from the cosmically quaking collisions of two massive black holes, should itself "ring" in the aftermath, producing gravitational waves much like a struck bell reverbates sound waves. Einstein predicted that the particular pitch and decay of these gravitational waves should be a direct signature of the newly formed black hole's mass and spin.

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Soft-bodied swimming robot uses only light for power and steering

In a paper in Science Robotics, materials scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering describe a new design for a swimming robot that's both powered and steered by constant light.

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New method of analyzing networks reveals hidden patterns in data

A new way of measuring how relationships in a network change over time can reveal important details about the network, according to researchers at Penn State and the Korean Rural Economic Institute. For example, when applied to the world economy, the method detected the greatest amount of network change during 2008-2009, the time of the global financial crisis.

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Near misses at Large Hadron Collider shed light on the onset of gluon-dominated protons

New findings from University of Kansas experimental nuclear physicists Daniel Tapia Takaki and Aleksandr (Sasha) Bylinkin were just published in the European Physical Journal C. The paper centers on work at the Compact Muon Solenoid, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, to better understand the behavior of gluons.

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Solving the longstanding mystery of how friction leads to static electricity

Most people have experienced the hair-raising effect of rubbing a balloon on their head or the subtle spark caused by dragging socked feet across the carpet. Although these experiences are common, a detailed understanding of how they occur has eluded scientists for more than 2,500 years.

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Reconfigurable electronics show promise for wearable, implantable devices

Medical implants of the future may feature reconfigurable electronic platforms that can morph in shape and size dynamically as bodies change or transform to relocate from one area to monitor another within our bodies.

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New method for material research gets hundred times stronger

Researchers from the Faculty of Science at the University of Oulu have increased the sensitivity of an emerging spectroscopic method with promising applications for materials studies.

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Making waves with metamaterials

For Jordan Raney, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, cutting-edge science sometimes involves whacking a rubber disc with a hammer.

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Fermilab achieves world-record field strength for accelerator magnet

To build the next generation of powerful proton accelerators, scientists need the strongest magnets possible to steer particles close to the speed of light around a ring. For a given ring size, the higher the beam's energy, the stronger the accelerator's magnets need to be to keep the beam on course.

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Measuring changes in magnetic order to find ways to transcend conventional electronics

Researchers around the world are constantly looking for ways to enhance or transcend the capabilities of electronic devices, which seem to be reaching their theoretical limits. Undoubtedly, one of the most important advantages of electronic technology is its speed, which, albeit high, can still be surpassed by orders of magnitude through other approaches that are not yet commercially available.

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Science puts historical claims to the test

The latest analytical techniques available to scientists can confirm the validity of historical sources in some cases, and suggest a need for reconsideration in others.

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Scientists couple magnetization to superconductivity for quantum discoveries

Quantum computing promises to revolutionize the ways in which scientists can process and manipulate information. The physical and material underpinnings for quantum technologies are still being explored, and researchers continue to look for new ways in which information can be manipulated and exchanged at the quantum level.

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Scientists develop a deep learning method to solve a fundamental problem in statistical physics

A team of scientists at Freie Universität Berlin has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) method that provides a fundamentally new solution of the "sampling problem" in statistical physics. The sampling problem is that important properties of materials and molecules can practically not be computed by directly simulating the motion of atoms in the computer because the required computational capacities are too vast even for supercomputers. The team developed a deep learning method that speeds up these calculations massively, making them feasible for previously intractable applications. "AI is changing all areas of our life, including the way we do science," explains Dr. Frank Noé, professor at Freie Universität Berlin and main author of the study. Several years ago, so-called deep learning methods bested human experts in pattern recognition—be it the reading of handwritten texts or the recognition of cancer cells from medical images. "Since these breakthroughs, AI research has skyrocketed. Every day, we see new developments in application areas where traditional methods have left us stuck for years. We believe our approach could be such an advance for the field of statistical physics." The results were published in Science.

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Major steps forward in understanding neutrino properties

In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory in Italy is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.

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Team shows atoms can receive common communications signals

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new type of sensor that uses atoms to receive commonly used communications signals. This atom-based receiver has the potential to be smaller and work better in noisy environments than conventional radio receivers, among other possible advantages.

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Scientists measure precise proton radius to help resolve decade-old puzzle

York University researchers have made a precise measurement of the size of the proton—a crucial step towards solving a mystery that has preoccupied scientists around the world for the past decade.

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Using ultracold atoms to find WMDs

One problem in dealing with weapons of mass destruction is that they are well hidden. The key to finding them may be to change the methods we use to look. One such method is taking shape in a lab in the basement of Small Hall at William & Mary.

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Stretching proteins with magnetic tweezers

Physicists at LMU have developed a highly sensitive method for measuring the mechanical stability of protein conformations, and used it to monitor the early steps in the formation of blood clots.

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Using correlated photons to enhance x-ray imaging

A team of researchers at Bar-Ilan University has found a way to use correlated photons to make sharper X-ray images. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their process and suggest ways it could be used in commercial applications.

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Remora-inspired suction disk mimics fish's adhesion ability, offers evolutionary insight

Remora fishes are famed hitchhikers of the marine world, possessing high-powered suction disks on the back of their head for attaching themselves in torpedo-like fashion to larger hosts that can provide food and safety—from whales and sharks to boats and divers.

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Fragmenting ions and radiation sensitizers

A new study using mass spectrometry is helping piece together what happens when DNA that has been sensitized by the oncology drug 5-fluorouracil is subjected to the ionising radiation used in radiotherapy.

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An astonishing parabola trick

Prospective digital data storage devices predominantly rely on novel fundamental magnetic phenomena. The better we understand these phenomena, the better and more energy efficient the memory chips and hard drives we can build. Physicists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have now completed the essential fundamental work for future storage devices: Using a creative approach of shaping magnetic thin films in curved architectures, they validated the presence of chiral responses in a commonly used magnetic material. This facilitates the creation of magnetic systems with desired properties that rely on simple geometrical transformations. The team has now presented their work in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Mystery solved about the machines that move your genes

Fleets of microscopic machines toil away in your cells, carrying out critical biological tasks and keeping you alive. By combining theory and experiment, researchers have discovered the surprising way one of these machines, called the spindle, avoids slowdowns: congestion.

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Skating droplets move in orbits

They look like planets: Two droplets move in orbits on an ice cold fluid surface. They attract each other, and by almost frictionless movement on their own vapour, they skate around each other. It is a fascinating mechanism that could be used for preparing and transporting biological samples with a minimum of contamination. Researchers of the University of Twente have published a study on this subject titled "Capillary Orbits" in Nature Communications.

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Sensor used at CERN could help gravitational wave hunters

It started with a relatively simple goal: create a prototype for a new kind of device to monitor the motion of underground structures at CERN. But the project—the result of a collaboration between CERN and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia—quickly evolved. The prototype turned into several full-blown devices that can potentially serve as early warning systems for earthquakes and can be used to monitor other seismic vibrations. What's more, the devices, called precision laser inclinometers, can be used at CERN and beyond. The researchers behind the project are now testing one device at the Advanced Virgo detector, which recently detected gravitational waves—tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time that were predicted by Einstein a century ago. If all goes to plan, this device could help gravitational-wave hunters minimize the noise that seismic events have on the waves' signal.

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