Ultra-high energy events key to study of ghost particles

Physicists at Washington University in St. Louis have proposed a way to use data from ultra-high energy neutrinos to study interactions beyond the standard model of particle physics. The 'Zee burst' model leverages new data from large neutrino telescopes such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and its future extensions.

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Exploring strangeness and the primordial Universe

Physicists believe that in the Universe's first ten microseconds free quarks and gluons filled all of spacetime, forming a new phase of matter named 'quark-gluon plasma' (QGP). Experimental and theoretical work at CERN was instrumental in the discovery of this hot soup of primordial matter, which is recreated today in accelerator-based lab experiments. To discover QGP in such experiments, the observation of exotic 'strange' quarks is very important. If QGP is created, strangeness is readily produced through collisions between gluons. In analysis published in EPJ ST, Dr. Johann Rafelski from The University of Arizona, United States, also working at CERN, presents how our understanding of this characteristic strangeness production signature has evolved over the span of his long career.

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Calculating Hawking radiation at the event horizon of a black hole

A RUDN University physicist has developed a formula for calculating Hawking radiation on the event horizon of a black hole, which allows physicists to determine how this radiation would be changed with quantum corrections to Einstein's theory of gravity. This formula will allow researchers to test the accuracy of different versions of the quantum gravity theory by observing black holes, and comprises a step toward the long-sought "grand unification theory" that would connect quantum mechanics and relativity. The article is published in the journal Physical Review D.

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Investigating dynamics of democratic elections using physics theory

Sometimes, physics theories and constructs can also be used to study seemingly unrelated phenomena, such as social behaviors or dynamics. While human beings are not necessarily similar to specific physical particles, theories or techniques that physicists typically use to analyze behavioral patterns in atoms or electrons may aid the general understanding of large-scale social behaviors as long as these behaviors do not depend on small-scale details. Based on this idea, some researchers have started using physics theories to investigate social behaviors that take place during democratic elections.

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Researchers lay foundation for next generation aortic grafts

A new study by researchers at McGill University has measured the dynamic physical properties of the human aorta, laying the foundation for the development of grafts capable of mimicking the native behaviour of the human body's largest artery.

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Physics of giant bubbles bursts secret of fluid mechanics

A study inspired by street performers making gigantic soap bubbles led to a discovery in fluid mechanics: Mixing different molecular sizes of polymers within a solution increases the ability of a thin film to stretch without breaking.

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Improving aerodynamics during entire flight, not just takeoff and landing

Currently in use on the wings of airplanes are little fins near the leading edge or just upstream of control surfaces to help control the aircraft during takeoff or landing. But these vortex generator vanes and other similar solutions are fixed in place across the entire flight, creating a cruise penalty from the drag. A promising new idea for a device was tested at the University of Illinois that uses an electric spark that can be turned on and off when needed to generate rotating air across the wing for better lift.

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Bats inspire detectors to help prevent oil and gas pipe leaks

Engineers have developed a new scanning technique inspired by the natural world that can detect corroding metals in oil and gas pipelines.

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Researchers rank 'smartest' schools of fish when it comes to travel formations

The concert of motion that fish schools are famous for isn't merely an elaborate display of synchronized swimming. Their seemingly telepathic collective movement is part of a time-tested strategy for improving the group's chances for survival as a whole, from defense against predators to food-finding and mating.

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Smaller detection device effective for nuclear treaty verification, archaeology digs

Most nuclear data measurements are performed at accelerators large enough to occupy a geologic formation a kilometer wide, like the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center located on a mesa in the desert. But a portable device that can reveal the composition of materials quickly on-site would greatly benefit cases such as in archaeology and nuclear arms treaty verification.

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Fourier's 200-year-old heat equation explains hydrodynamic heat propagation

Michele Simoncelli, a Ph.D. student at EPFL, Andrea Cepellotti, a former EPFL student now at Harvard, and Nicola Marzari, head of EPFL's Theory and Simulation of Materials laboratory, have developed a novel set of equations for heat propagation that goes beyond Fourier's law and explains why and under which conditions heat propagation can become fluid-like rather than diffusive. These "viscous heat equations" show that heat conduction is not only governed by thermal conductivity, but also by thermal viscosity. The theory is in striking agreement with pioneering experimental results in graphite published earlier this year ,and may pave the way for the design of the next generation of more efficient electronic devices. The paper, "Generalization of Fourier's law into viscous heat equations," has been published in Physical Review X.

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Improved mathematical model helps explain different lotus leaf types

A trio of researchers at Fudan University has improved a mathematical model to allow it to predict the shape of different leaf types on lotus plants. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their mathematical work and how they tested it with real world materials.

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Measuring a particle's spin in a rapidly rotating object

A team of researchers at the University of Melbourne has succeeded in measuring a single quantum spin in a rapidly rotating object for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they carried off the difficult feat and ways that their findings might be applied.

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Researchers achieve ultrafast spin-orbit torque switching in ferrimagnetic devices

Spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetization switching is a phenomenon induced by a spin current, which is in turn generated by a charge current. Eliciting this phenomenon could help to manipulate the magnetization in spintronic devices, potentially increasing their performance.

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New mathematical model for amyloid formation

Amyloids are aggregates consisting of stacks of thousands of proteins bound tightly together. Their formation is involved in several widespread disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and Type II diabetes.

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Discovery of a new liquid-liquid interfacial deformation by partial miscibility

The international collaborative team of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT, Japan), IIT Ropar (India), Osaka Univ. (Japan) has discovered that "partially miscibility," in which two liquids do not mix completely with finite solubility, is capable of deforming the liquid-liquid interface. This interfacial deformation originates due to the spontaneous motion driven by phase separation between the soluble species, and is a phenomenon that cannot be seen with completely mixed (fully miscible) with infinite solubility or (almost) immiscible with no solubility.

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Detection of very high frequency magnetic resonance could revolutionize electronics

A team of physicists has discovered an electrical detection method for terahertz electromagnetic waves, which are extremely difficult to detect. The discovery could help miniaturize the detection equipment on microchips and enhance sensitivity.

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Topological defects produce exotic mechanics in complex metamaterials

Metamaterials have properties that depend on their shape and architecture. Researchers at AMOLF, Leiden University and Tel Aviv University have found a new way of designing these metamaterials and their properties by deliberately incorporating small errors. They have published their results in Nature Physics.

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Quantum computers offer another look at classic physics concepts

"Think what we can do if we teach a quantum computer to do statistical mechanics," posed Michael McGuigan, a computational scientist with the Computational Science Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

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Waves of ice inside a droplet

A droplet falling on a surface that is considerably supercooled has been found to freeze in a way never observed before. Instead of the well-known growth of crystals, a colder surface results in moving circular ice fronts. These fronts move out of the center to the edge of the freezing drop. Scientists of the University of Twente and the Max Planck Center for Complex Fluid Dynamics have demonstrated this effect for the first time, and give an explanation for the physical mechanism involved in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Going with the flow: New insights into mysterious fluid motions

Water issuing from an ordinary faucet tells a complex tale of its journey through a pipe. At high velocities, the faucet's gushing stream is turbulent: chaotic, disorderly—like the crash of ocean waves.

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Gravity: We might have been getting it wrong this whole time

Symmetry has been one of the guiding principles in physicists' search for fundamental laws of nature. What does it mean that laws of nature have symmetry? It means that laws look the same before and after an operation, similar to a mirror reflection, the same but right is now left in the reflection.

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Discovery sheds new light on how cells move

When we cut our skin, groups of cells rush en masse to the site to heal the wound.

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New phase diagrams of superfluid helium under varying degrees of confinement

Physicists have been studying superfluid 3He under nanoscale confinement for several years now, as this unique liquid presents a rich variety of phases with complex order parameters that can be stabilized. While past studies have gathered many interesting observations, a complete and reliable picture of superfluid 3He under confinement has yet to be attained.

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Mapping the path of climate change

Since 1880, the Earth's temperature has risen by 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit and is predicted to continue rising, according to the NASA Global Climate Change website. Scientists are actively seeking to understand this change and its effect on Earth's ecosystems and residents.

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Signals from inside the Earth: Borexino experiment releases new data on geoneutrinos

Scientists involved in the Borexino collaboration have presented new results for the measurement of neutrinos originating from the interior of the Earth. The elusive "ghost particles" rarely interact with matter, making their detection difficult. With this update, the researchers have now been able to access 53 events—almost twice as many as in the previous analysis of the data from the Borexino detector, which is located 1,400 metres below the Earth's surface in the Gran Sasso massif near Rome. The results provide an exclusive insight into processes and conditions in the earth's interior that remain puzzling to this day.

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Scientists take the first step towards extending the Standard Model in physics

Researchers of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) in collaboration with colleagues from the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and a number of German scientific organizations, calculated previously unexplored effects in atoms. The results were published in the Physical Review A, highlighted as an Editor's Choice article.

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Transformative 'green' accelerator achieves world's first 8-pass full energy recovery

Scientists from Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have successfully demonstrated the world's first capture and reuse of energy in a multi-turn particle accelerator, where electrons are accelerated and decelerated in multiple stages and transported at different energies through a single beamline. This advance paves the way for ultra-bright particle accelerators that use far less energy than today's machines.

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Low power metal detector senses magnetic fingerprints

Most traditional electromagnetic methods for detecting hidden metal objects involve systems that are heavy, bulky and require lots of electricity.

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High-precision distributed sensing using an entangled quantum network

Quantum-enhanced metrology has been an active area of research for several years now due to its many possible applications, ranging from atomic clocks to biological imaging. Past physics research established that having a non-classical probe, such as squeezed light or an entangled spin state, can have significant benefits compared to classical probes. This idea was explored further in several recent works, some of which also considered the benefits of examining multiple distinct samples with non-classical probes.

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A new strategy for directly detecting light particle dark matter

For almost a century, astronomers have hypothesized that the universe contains more matter than what can be observed by the human eye. It is now believed that approximately 80 percent of the universe's mass is made up of a type of matter that does not emit light or energy and that scientists are still unable to observe directly, referred to as dark matter.

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Study uses physics to explain democratic elections

It may seem surprising, but theories and formulas derived from physics turn out to be useful tools for understanding the ways democratic elections work, including how these systems break down and how they could be improved.

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Physics shows that imperfections make perfect

Northwestern University researchers have added a new dimension to the importance of diversity.

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Platelets instead of spheres make screens more economical

ETH scientists have further developed QLED technology for screens. They have produced light sources that for the first time emit high-intensity light in only one direction. This reduces scattering losses, which makes the technology extremely energy efficient.

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LHCb explores the beauty of lepton universality

The LHCb collaboration has reported an intriguing new result in its quest to test a key principle of the Standard Model called lepton universality. Although not statistically significant, the finding—a possible difference in the behavior of different types of lepton particles—chimes with other previous results. If confirmed, as more data are collected and analyzed, the results would signal a crack in the Standard Model.

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Ultrafast camera takes 1 trillion frames per second of transparent objects and phenomena

A little over a year ago, Caltech's Lihong Wang developed the world's fastest camera, a device capable of taking 10 trillion pictures per second. It is so fast that it can even capture light traveling in slow motion.

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New ORNL software improves neutron spectroscopy data resolution

Neutron spectroscopy is an important tool for studying magnetic and thermoelectric properties in materials. But often the resolution, or the ability of the instrument to see fine details, is too coarse to clearly observe features identifying novel phenomena in new advanced materials.

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How biology creates networks that are cheap, robust, and efficient

From veins that deliver oxygen to tissues to xylem that send water into stems and leaves, vascular networks are a crucial component of life. In biology, there is a wide range of unique patterns, like the individualized structures found on leaves, along with many conserved structures, such as named arteries and veins in the human body. These two observations led scientists to think that vascular networks evolved from a common design, but how, exactly, could nature create so many complex structures from a single starting point?

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Exploring tiny forces with single molecule force spectroscopy

In terms of space organization, DNA has powers rivaling Marie Kondo. A strand of DNA that is two meters long intricately folds itself into a cell nucleus only 10 microns across. (One of the hairs on your head has a diameter of 100 microns, and you can't see anything smaller than that without a microscope.) Everything that needs to happen biochemically for the DNA to function hinges upon the precise unpacking and unwinding of its strands from that tiny space.

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Researchers demonstrate first stable semiconductor neutron detector

Homeland Security might soon have a new tool to add to its arsenal.

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Scientists explain how leaf apex enhances water drainage

Chinese scientists have recently shown how the tiny apex structure in plant leaves controls water drainage and confers an evolutionary advantage.

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Precise measurements find a crack in universal physics

The concept of universal physics is intriguing, as it enables researchers to relate physical phenomena in a variety of systems, irrespective of their varying characteristics and complexities. Ultracold atomic systems are often perceived as ideal platforms for exploring universal physics, owing to the precise control of experimental parameters (such as the interaction strength, temperature, density, quantum states, dimensionality, and the trapping potential) that might be harder to tune in more conventional systems. In fact, ultracold atomic systems have been used to better understand a myriad of complex physical behavior, including those topics in cosmology, particle, nuclear, molecular physics, and most notably, in condensed matter physics, where the complexities of many-body quantum phenomena are more difficult to investigate using more traditional approaches.

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High-gravity water waves

What might look like jelly being stirred is actually water subjected to 20 times normal Earth gravity within ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge—as part of an experiment giving new insight into the behavior of wave turbulence.

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Robotic gripping mechanism mimics how sea anemones catch prey

Most robotic gripping mechanisms to date have relied on humanlike fingers or appendages, which sometimes struggle to provide the fine touch, flexibility or cost-effectiveness needed in some circumstances to hold onto objects. Recent work looks to provide a path forward for gripping robots from an unlikely source—the doughnut-shaped sea anemone.

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Galactic gamma-ray sources reveal birthplaces of high-energy particles

Nine sources of extremely high-energy gamma rays comprise a new catalog compiled by researchers with the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory. All produce gamma rays with energies over 56 trillion electron volts (TeV) and three emit gamma rays extending to 100 TeV and beyond, making these the highest-energy sources ever observed in our galaxy. The catalog helps to explain where the particles originate and how they are accelerated to such extremes.

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Magnetic storms originate closer to Earth than previously thought, threatening satellites

Beyond Earth's atmosphere are swirling clouds of energized particles—ions and electrons—that emanate from the sun. This "solar wind" buffets the magnetosphere, the magnetic force field that surrounds Earth.

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New quantum loop provides testbed for quantum communication technology

Scientists from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago launched a new testbed for quantum communication experiments from Argonne last week.

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Reliable and extremely fast quantum calculations with germanium transistors

Transistors based on germanium can perform calculations for future quantum computers. This discovery by the team of Menno Veldhorst is reported in Nature.

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Connecting the dots in the sky could shed new light on dark matter

Astrophysicists have come a step closer to understanding the origin of a faint glow of gamma rays covering the night sky. They found that this light is brighter in regions that contain a lot of matter and dimmer where matter is sparser—a correlation that could help them narrow down the properties of exotic astrophysical objects and invisible dark matter.

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Tuning optical resonators gives researchers control over transparency

In the quantum realm, under some circumstances and with the right interference patterns, light can pass through opaque media.

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Memory storage for super cold computing

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have experimentally demonstrated a novel cryogenic, or low temperature, memory cell circuit design based on coupled arrays of Josephson junctions, a technology that may be faster and more energy efficient than existing memory devices. If successfully scaled, this type of cryogenic memory array could advance a variety of applications including quantum and exascale computing.

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New research uses optical solitons in lasers to explore naturally-occurring supramolecules

Curtis Menyuk, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), has collaborated with a team directed by Philip Russell at the Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPI) in Erlangen, Germany, to gain insight into naturally-occurring molecular systems using optical solitons in lasers. Optical solitons are packets of light that are bound together and move at a constant speed without changing shape. This work, published in Nature Communications, was initiated while Menyuk was a Humboldt Senior Research Fellow in the Russell Division at MPI.

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Satellite test shows objects in space fall at a rate to within two-trillionths of a percent of each other

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in France and one in the U.S. has found that objects of different mass dropped in space fall at a rate within two-trillionths of a percent of each other. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their satellite-based physics study and what they learned from it.

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Wave physics as an analog recurrent neural network

Analog machine learning hardware offers a promising alternative to digital counterparts as a more energy efficient and faster platform. Wave physics based on acoustics and optics is a natural candidate to build analog processors for time-varying signals. In a new report on Science AdvancesTyler W. Hughes and a research team in the departments of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, California, identified mapping between the dynamics of wave physics and computation in recurrent neural networks.

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Intrinsic quantized anomalous Hall effect in a moiré heterostructure

The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect can combine topology and magnetism to produce precisely quantized Hall resistance at zero magnetic field (an environment carefully screened from magnetic fields). In a recent report on Science, M. Serlin and an interdisciplinary research team in the Department of Physics, National Institute of Materials Science and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in the U.S. and Japan detailed the observation of a QAH effect in twisted bilayer graphene aligned to hexagonal boron nitride. They drove the effect via intrinsic strong interactions, which polarized the electrons into a single spin and valley resolved moiré miniband (interference pattern).

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Water drop antenna lens directs radio wave energy through its curved shape

This novel "water drop" antenna lens design for directing radio wave signals was developed by a pair of antenna engineers from ESA and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology, KTH.

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A mathematical model to describe spaghetti noodle curling when cooked

Two mechanical engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a model to describe the curling action of a spaghetti noodle when it is boiled. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Nathaniel Goldberg and Oliver O'Reilly describe their study of the popular pasta and what they learned about its behavior when it is cooked.

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Neutrons 'break the ice' for exploring fundamental physics in frozen water

The ice we blend into our frozen drinks is a complicated compound, riddled with strange molecular inconsistencies scientists still struggle to understand. Exploring the physics behind the odd microstructure of water-ice may help us learn more about other seemingly unrelated advanced materials and their quantum states.

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Ultrasound selectively damages cancer cells when tuned to correct frequencies

Doctors have used focused ultrasound to destroy tumors without invasive surgery for some time. However, the therapeutic ultrasound used in clinics today indiscriminately damages cancer and healthy cells alike.

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Attosecond control of an atomic electron cloud

Researchers at SAGA Light Source, the University of Toyama, Hiroshima University and the Institute for Molecular Science have demonstrated a method to control the shape and orientation of an electron cloud in an atom by tuning the attosecond spacing in a double pulse of synchrotron radiation.

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Scientists accurately measure the probability of electron capture by the neon-20 isotope nuclei for the first time

A large international team of researchers has empirically measured the probability of electron capture by the neon-20 isotope (20Ne) for the first time. The team has published two papers in the journal Physical Review C describing their achievement and explaining how their experiments pertain to the decay of intermediate-sized stars.

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Keeping dark matter detectors clean and accurate

A research team at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has built an air purifier that has reduced the radon in the air to about 50 times lower than typical outdoor air. The team is helping to ensure success for one of the world's most sensitive dark matter experiments—LZ. Dark matter has never been directly observed. But it is believed to make up 85% of all the matter in the universe. The mystery of dark matter is considered to be one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. The LZ experiment is run deep underground where it will be protected from high-energy particles, called cosmic radiation, which can create unwanted background signals. But underground environments pose other challenges. They are often higher in radon, which can also impede sensitive experiments.

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Indeterminist physics for an open world

Classical physics is characterized by the precision of its equations describing the evolution of the world as determined by the initial conditions of the Big Bang—meaning there is no room for chance. Yet our day-to-day experience and intuition are struck by this deterministic vision of the world: has everything really been written in advance? Is randomness nothing more than an illusion? A physicist from UNIGE, Swizerland, has been analyzing the classical mathematical language used in modern physics. He has thrown light on a contradiction between the equations that are supposed to explain the phenomena that surround us and the finite world. He suggests making changes to the mathematical language to allow randomness and indeterminism to become part of classical physics, thereby bringing it closer to quantum physics. Thanks to these observations, which are published in the journal Nature Physics, a revolution is sweeping through classical physics and paving the way for potentially different futures.

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The case of the elusive Majorana: The so-called 'angel particle' is still a mystery

A 2017 report of the discovery of a particular kind of Majorana fermion—the chiral Majorana fermion, referred to as the "angel particle"—is likely a false alarm, according to new research. Majorana fermions are enigmatic particles that act as their own antiparticle and were first hypothesized to exist in 1937. They are of immense interest to physicists because their unique properties could allow them to be used in the construction of a topological quantum computer.

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A new mathematical model predicts a knot's stability

In sailing, rock climbing, construction, and any activity requiring the securing of ropes, certain knots are known to be stronger than others. Any seasoned sailor knows, for instance, that one type of knot will secure a sheet to a headsail, while another is better for hitching a boat to a piling.

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