A new search for axiom dark matter rules out past numerical predictions

The ADMX collaboration, a group of researchers working at universities across the U.S. and Europe, has recently performed a new search for invisible axion dark matter using a cavity haloscope and a low-noise Josephson parametric amplifier. Cavity haloscopes are sensitive instruments designed to detect and study halos around luminous bodies or other physical phenomena. Josephson parametric amplifiers, on the other hand, are technological tools that can be used to manipulate quantum states of microwave light fields.

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High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory tests speed of light

New measurements confirm, to the highest energies yet explored, that the laws of physics hold no matter where you are or how fast you're moving. Observations of record-breaking gamma rays prove the robustness of Lorentz Invariance—a piece of Einstein's theory of relativity that predicts the speed of light is constant everywhere in the universe. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory in Puebla, Mexico detected the gamma rays coming from distant galactic sources.

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Surfing the waves: Electrons break law to go with the flow

If you see people walking down a street and coming to a junction, it's difficult to predict which direction they might take. But, if you see people sitting in separate boats, floating down a stream, and the stream splits into two channels, it's likely that most, if not all, of them will be carried down one channel, the channel that has the stronger flow.

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New method predicts which black holes escape their galaxies

Shoot a rifle, and the recoil might knock you backward. Merge two black holes in a binary system, and the loss of momentum gives a similar recoil—a "kick"—to the merged black hole.

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Physicists weigh in on the origin of heavy elements

A long-held mystery in the field of nuclear physics is why the universe is composed of the specific materials we see around us. In other words, why is it made of "this" stuff and not other stuff?

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Skyrmion 'whirls' show promise for low-energy computer circuitry

UNSW material scientists have shed new light on a promising new way to store and process information in computers and electronic devices that could significantly cut down the energy required to maintain our digital lifestyles.

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Energy-harvesting design aims to turn Wi-Fi signals into usable power

Any device that sends out a Wi-Fi signal also emits terahertz waves —electromagnetic waves with a frequency somewhere between microwaves and infrared light. These high-frequency radiation waves, known as "T-rays," are also produced by almost anything that registers a temperature, including our own bodies and the inanimate objects around us.

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Bubbles go with the flow: Simulating behavior of fluids moving through pipes

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, used a sophisticated physical model to simulate the behavior of fluids moving through pipes. By including the possibility of shear-induced bubble formation, they find that, contrary to the assumptions of many previous works, fluids can experience significant slippage when in contact with fixed boundaries. This research may help reduce energy losses when pumping fluids, which is a significant concern in many industrial applications, such as gas and oil suppliers.

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Reconfigurable structure and tunable transport in synchronized active spinner materials

Actuated colloids are excellent model systems to investigate emerging out-of-equilibrium structures, complex collective dynamics and design rules for next-generation materials. In a new report, Koohe Han and a research team suspended ferromagnetic microparticles at an air-water interface and energized them with an external rotating magnetic field to form dynamic ensembles of synchronized spinners. Each spinner generated strong hydrodynamic flows with collective interactions between multiple spinners to promote dynamic lattice formation. Using experiments and simulations they revealed structural transitions from liquid to near crystalline states, demonstrating the reconfigurable nature of dynamic spinner lattices. The materials showed self-healing behavior and transported embedded inert cargo particles, tuned by the parameters of external excitation. The findings are now published on Science Advances, and provide insight to the behavior of active spinner materials with reconfigurable structural order and tunable functionalities.

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Researchers look for dark matter close to home

Eighty-five percent of the universe is composed of dark matter, but we don't know what, exactly, it is.

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Bricks can act as 'cameras' for characterizing past presence of radioactive materials

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for determining the historical location and distribution of radioactive materials, such as weapons grade plutonium. The technique may allow them to use common building materials, such as bricks, as a three-dimensional "camera," relying on residual gamma radiation signatures to take a snapshot of radioactive materials even after they've been removed from a location.

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Holographic cosmological model and thermodynamics on the horizon of the universe

The expansion of the Universe has occupied the minds of astronomers and astrophysicists for decades. Among the cosmological models that have been suggested over the years, Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) models are the simplest models that can provide elegant explanations of the properties of the Universe, e.g., the accelerated expansion of the late Universe and structural formations. However, the LCDM model suffers from several theoretical difficulties, such as the cosmological constant problem. To resolve these difficulties, alternative thermodynamic scenarios have recently been proposed that extend the concept of black hole thermodynamics.

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Putting artificial intelligence to work in the lab

An Australian-German collaboration has demonstrated fully-autonomous SPM operation, applying artificial intelligence and deep learning to remove the need for constant human supervision.

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Shifting dimensions: Exciting excitons in phosphorene

Since its discovery in 2014, phosphorene—a sheet of phosphorus atoms only a single atom thick—has intrigued scientists due to its unique optoelectronic anisotropy. In other words, electrons interact with light and move in one direction only. This anisotropy means that despite being two dimensional (2-D), phosphorene shows a mix of properties found in both one-dimensional (1-D) and 2-D materials. Scientists believe that the distinct quasi-1-D nature of phosphorene could be exploited to develop new, innovative optoelectronic devices, from LEDs to solar cells.

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The physics that drives periodic economic downturns

A professor at Duke University says that the way spilled milk spreads across the floor can explain why economic downturns regularly occur.

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Special blend of circuits and memristive devices created for brain-mimicking processing systems

During the 1990s, Carver Mead and colleagues combined basic research in neuroscience with elegant analog circuit design in electronic engineering. This pioneering work on neuromorphic electronic circuits inspired researchers in Germany and Switzerland to explore the possibility of reproducing the physics of real neural circuits by using the physics of silicon.

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Study unveils dependence of spin memory loss in a variety of interfaces

Researchers at the University of Twente and Beijing Normal University have recently conducted a study investigating the parameter known as spin memory loss (SML) for a variety of different interfaces, using a combination of theoretical and computational methods. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, offers valuable new insights that could inform the design of more efficient interfaces.

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First high-sensitivity dark matter axion hunting results from South Korea

Researchers at the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), have reported the first results of their search of axions, elusive, ultra-lightweight particles that are considered dark matter candidates. IBS-CAPP is located at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Published in Physical Review Letters, the analysis combines data taken over three months with a new axion-hunting apparatus developed over the last two years.

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Jets of bacteria carry microscopic cargo

It is a longstanding challenge to be able to control biological systems to perform specific tasks. In a paper published in Nature Physics, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with groups in U.S. and U.K., have now reported doing just that. They have found a way to control bacteria to transport microscopic cargo. Bacteria form the largest biomass in the world, larger than all the animals and plants combined, and they are constantly moving, but their movement is chaotic. The researchers pursued the idea that if this motion could be controlled, they might be able to develop it into a biological tool. They used a liquid crystal to dictate the direction of the bacterial movement, and added a microscopic cargo for the bacteria to carry, more than five times the size of the bacteria.

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A key development in the drive for energy-efficient electronics

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of electronics that will require less power and generate less heat.

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The growth of an organism rides on a pattern of waves

When an egg cell of almost any sexually reproducing species is fertilized, it sets off a series of waves that ripple across the egg's surface. These waves are produced by billions of activated proteins that surge through the egg's membrane like streams of tiny burrowing sentinels, signaling the egg to start dividing, folding, and dividing again, to form the first cellular seeds of an organism.

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Researchers observe ultrafast processes of single molecules for the first time

Markus Koch, head of the research group Femtosecond Dynamics at the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz, and his team develop new methods for time-resolved femtosecond laser spectroscopy to investigate ultrafast processes in molecular systems. In 2018 the group demonstrated for the first time that photo-induced processes can be observed inside a helium nanodroplet, a nanometer-sized droplet of superfluid helium that serves as a quantum solvent. For their investigations, the researchers placed a single indium atom inside the droplet and analysed the reaction of the system with the pump-probe principle. The atom was excited with an ultrashort laser pulse, triggering the rearrangement of the helium environment within femtoseconds (10-15 seconds). A time-delayed second laser pulse probed this development and provided information on the behavior of the system.

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Realizing kagome spin ice in a frustrated intermetallic compound

Exotic phases of matter known as spin ices are defined by frustrated spins that obey local "ice rules"—similar to electric dipoles in water ice. Physicists can define ice rules in two-dimensions for in-plane Ising-like spins arranged on a kagome lattice. The ice rules can lead to diverse orders and excitations. In a new report on Science, Kan Zhao and a team in experimental physics, crystallography, and materials and engineering in Germany, the U.S. and the Czech Republic used experimental and theoretical approaches including magnetometry, thermodynamics, neutron scattering and Monte Carlo simulations to establish the HoAgGe crystal as a crystalline system to realize the exotic kagome spin ice state. The setup featured a variety of partially and fully ordered states as well as field-induced phases at low temperatures consistent with the kagome experimental requisites.

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Flat-panel technology could transform antennas, wireless and cell phone communications

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are reinventing the mirror, at least for microwaves, potentially replacing the familiar 3-D dishes and microwave horns we see on rooftops and cell towers with flat panels that are compact, versatile, and better adapted for modern communication technologies.

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Tiny double accelerator recycles energy

A team of DESY scientists has built a miniature double particle accelerator that can recycle some of the laser energy fed into the system to boost the energy of the accelerated electrons a second time. The device uses narrowband terahertz radiation which lies between infrared and radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, and a single accelerating tube is just 1.5 centimetres long and 0.79 millimetres in diameter. Dongfang Zhang and his colleagues from the Center for Free-Electron laser Science (CFEL) at DESY present their experimental accelerator in the journal Physical Review X.

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The power of attraction: Magnets in particle accelerators

In 1820, Hans Christian Oersted gave a demonstration on electricity to a class of advanced students at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Using an early battery prototype, he looked to see what effect an electric current would have on a compass, and since he hadn't had time to test his experiment beforehand, the outcome was just as unknown to him as it was to his students. When he completed the circuit by attaching a single wire to both ends of the battery, the resulting current caused the needle of the compass to line up with the wire, showing that electricity and magnetism were two facets of the same phenomenon.

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Scientists create quantum sensor that covers entire radio frequency spectrum

A quantum sensor could give Soldiers a way to detect communication signals over the entire radio frequency spectrum, from 0 to 100 GHz, said researchers from the Army.

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Researchers detail how antineutrino detectors could aid nuclear nonproliferation

Patrick Huber, a professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Physics, has co-authored an article that describes the potential uses and limitations of antineutrino detectors for nuclear security applications related to reactor, spent fuel, and explosion monitoring.

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Researchers unlock secrets to swimming efficiency of whales, dolphins for next-gen underwater robots

Someday, underwater robots may so closely mimic creatures like fish that they'll fool not only the real animals themselves but humans as well. That ability could yield information ranging from the health of fish stocks to the location of foreign watercraft.

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Three national laboratories achieve record magnetic field for accelerator focusing magnet

In a multiyear effort involving three national laboratories from across the United States, researchers have successfully built and tested a powerful new magnet based on an advanced superconducting material. The eight-ton device—about as long as a semi-truck trailer—set a record for the highest field strength ever recorded for an accelerator focusing magnet and raises the standard for magnets operating in high-energy particle colliders.

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An advance in molecular moviemaking shows how molecules respond to two photons of light

Over the past few years, scientists have developed amazing tools—"cameras" that use X-rays or electrons instead of ordinary light ¬- to take rapid-fire snapshots of molecules in motion and string them into molecular movies.

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Model simulator helps researchers map complex physics phenomena

To understand the behavior of quantum particles, imagine a pinball game—but rather than one metal ball, there are billions or more, all ricocheting off each other and their surroundings.

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Distortion isn't a drag on fluid-straddling particles

Some intriguing physics can be found at the interfaces between fluids, particularly if they are straddled by particles like proteins or dust grains. When placed between un-mixable fluids such as oil and water, a variety of processes, including inter-molecular interactions, will cause the particles to move around. These motions are characterised by the drag force experienced by the particles, which is itself thought to depend on the extent to which they distort fluid interfaces. So far, however, experiments investigating the intriguing effect haven't yet fully confirmed the influence of this distortion. In new research published in EPJ E, a team led by Jean-Christophe Loudet at the University of Bordeaux, France, showed that the drag force experienced by fluid-straddling particles is less affected by interface distortion than previously believed.

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Physicists propose new filter for blocking high-pitched sounds

Need to reduce high-pitched noises? Science may have an answer.

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Radiation damage spreads among close neighbors

A single X-ray can unravel an enormous molecule, physicists report in the March 17 issue of Physical Review Letters. Their findings could lead to safer medical imaging and a more nuanced understanding of the electronics of heavy metals.

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Seeing with electrons: scientists pave the way to more affordable and accessible cryo-EM

Visualizing the structure of viruses, proteins and other small biomolecules can help scientists gain deeper insights into how these molecules function, potentially leading to new treatments for disease. In recent years, a powerful technology called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), where flash-frozen samples are embedded in glass-like ice and probed by an electron beam, has revolutionized biomolecule imaging. However, the microscopes that the technique relies upon are prohibitively expensive and complicated to use, making them inaccessible to many researchers.

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Mechanically controllable nonlinear dielectrics

Strain-sensitive barium strontium titanate (Bax-Sr1-x-TiO3) perovskite systems are widely used for their superior nonlinear dielectric behaviors. In a new report on Science Advances, D.L. Ko and a research team in materials science and engineering, physics, electronics and information engineering in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the U.S. has developed new heterostructures including paraelectric Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BSTO) and ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BTO) epitaxially on a flexible muscovite substrate. The application of mechanical force through simple bending regulated the dielectric constant (electric energy potential) for BSTO ranging from -77 to 36%, as well as the channel current of BTO-based ferroelectric field effect transistors, by two orders. Ko et al. studied the detailed mechanism by exploring phase transition and band structure determination to implement phase-field simulations and provide theoretical support. The field opens a new avenue for mechanically controllable components based on high-quality oxide heteroepitaxy.

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ORNL neutrons add advanced polarization capability for measuring magnetic materials

Understanding magnetism at its most fundamental level is vital to developing more powerful electronics, but materials with more complex magnetic structures require more complex tools for studying them—powerful tools simply referred to as "neutrons."

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Searching for discrete time crystals in classical many-body systems

Our current, well-established understanding of phases of matter primarily relates to systems that are at or near thermal equilibrium. However, there is a rich world of systems that are not in a state of equilibrium, which could host new and fascinating phases of matter.

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Liquid helium-free SRF cavities could make industrial applications practical

The building blocks of superconducting accelerators are superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities made primarily from niobium that are combined in a vessel and bathed in liquid helium to reach superconducting temperatures. While a large liquid helium cryogenics plant may be practical for a major research facility, it can be a barrier to new applications of this accelerator technology.

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An all-electric magnetic logic gate

A team of researchers from ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute has developed a way to build an all-electric magnetic logic gate. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their device and how well it works. See-Hun Yang with IBM Research–Almaden has published a News and Views piece outlining the work by the team in Switzerland in the same journal issue.

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Scientists discover the mathematical rules underpinning brain growth

Life is rife with patterns. It's common for living things to create a repeating series of similar features as they grow: think of feathers that vary slightly in length on a bird's wing or shorter and longer petals on a rose.

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Permanent magnets stronger than those on refrigerator could be a solution for delivering fusion energy

Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energy—the same energy produced by the sun and stars.

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World's first experimental observation of a Kondo cloud

Physicists have been trying to observe the Kondo cloud quantum phenomenon for many decades. An international research team including a scientist from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently developed a novel device that successfully measures the length of the Kondo cloud and even allows for controlling it. The findings can be regarded as a milestone in condensed matter physics, and may provide insights for understanding multiple impurity systems such as high-temperature superconductors.

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Undercompressive shocks proposed to explain 'tears of wine' phenomenon

A small team of researchers at the University of California has developed a theory to explain the shape of tears of wine. They have written a paper describing their theory and uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server—it has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Fluids.

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Glass transition of spins and orbitals of electrons in a pure crystal

A joint research group from Osaka University and the University of Tokyo uncovered the mechanism of the glass transition that electrons can experience in pyrochlore oxide crystals. The researchers show that distortions in the atomic lattice cause two types of rotational degrees of freedom of spins to become coupled and form a glassy state at the exact same temperature. This work will shed light on our understanding of the mechanism of glass transitions, which is one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in physics.

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Breakthrough made toward more powerful particle accelerators

An international team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has for the first time demonstrated the ionization cooling of muons. Regarded as a major step in creating more powerful particle accelerators, this new muon accelerator is expected to provide a better understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter.

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New LHCb analysis still sees previous intriguing results

At a seminar today at CERN, the LHCb collaboration presented a new analysis of data from a specific transformation, or "decay," that a particle called B0 meson can undergo. The analysis is based on twice as many B0 decays as previous LHCb analyses, which had disclosed some tension with the Standard Model of particle physics. The tension is still present in the new analysis, but more data are needed to identify its nature.

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Paper sheds light on infant universe and origin of matter

A new study, conducted to better understand the origin of the universe, has provided insight into some of the most enduring questions in fundamental physics: How can the Standard Model of particle physics be extended to explain the cosmological excess of matter over antimatter? What is dark matter? And what is the theoretical origin of an unexpected but observed symmetry in the force that binds protons and neutrons together?

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Electrical power generation from moderate-temperature radiative thermal sources

Moderate-temperature thermal sources often radiate waste heat as a by-product of mechanical work, chemical or nuclear reactions, or information processing. In a new report in Science, Paul S. Davids and a research team at the Sandia National Laboratory in the U.S., demonstrated the conversion of thermal radiation into electrical power. For this, they used a bipolar grating-coupled complimentary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) tunnel diode. Using a two-step photon-assisted tunneling charge pumping mechanism, the team separated the charge carriers in pn junction wells to develop a large, open-circuit voltage across a load. The scientists experimentally showed electrical power generation from a broadband blackbody thermal source with converted power densities of 27 to 61 µW/cm2 for thermal sources between 250 degrees C to 400 degrees C. The demonstrated scalable and efficient conversion of radiated waste heat into electrical power can be used to reduce energy consumption—in order to power electronics and sensors.

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Introducing the light-operated hard drives of tomorrow

What do you get when you place a thin film of perovkite material used in solar cells on top of a magnetic substrate? More efficient hard drive technology. EPFL physicist László Forró and his team pave the way for the future of data storage.

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Study reveals collective dynamics of active matter systems

Flocks of starlings that produce dazzling patterns across the sky are natural examples of active matter—groups of individual agents coming together to create collective dynamics. In a study featured on the cover of the March 6 issue of the journal Science, a team of researchers that includes Brown University physicists reveals new insights into what happens inside active matter systems.

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How do you weigh a single molecule?

Utrecht scientists have succeeded in measuring the mass of individual molecules. By modifying an existing mass spectrometer and developing special software, the researchers succeeded in making ultra-sensitive measurements. This enables them to measure each particle separately in a mixture of molecules for the first time. This has far-reaching applications in, for example, gene therapy products, in which a precise measurement method is crucial. The researchers will publish their findings on 9 March in Nature Methods.

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'Strange' glimpse into neutron stars and symmetry violation

New results from precision particle detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) offer a fresh glimpse of the particle interactions that take place in the cores of neutron stars and give nuclear physicists a new way to search for violations of fundamental symmetries in the universe. The results, just published in Nature Physics, could only be obtained at a powerful ion collider such as RHIC, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

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Machine-learning technology to track odd events among LHC data

Nowadays, artificial neural networks have an impact on many areas of our day-to-day lives. They are used for a wide variety of complex tasks, such as driving cars, performing speech recognition (for example, Siri, Cortana, Alexa), suggesting shopping items and trends, or improving visual effects in movies (e.g., animated characters such as Thanos from the movie Infinity War by Marvel).

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Machine learning illuminates material's hidden order

Extreme temperature can do strange things to metals. In severe heat, iron ceases to be magnetic. In devastating cold, lead becomes a superconductor.

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Radar and ice could help detect an elusive subatomic particle

One of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics these days is a tiny subatomic particle called a neutrino, so small that it passes through matter—the atmosphere, our bodies, the very Earth—without detection.

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Argonne's pioneering user facility to add magic number factory

One of the big questions in physics and chemistry is, how were the heavy elements from iron to uranium created? The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is being upgraded with new capabilities to help find the answer to that question and many others.

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Proposed transistor is made of graphene and a two-dimensional superconductor

Researchers at the Center for Theoretical Physics of Complex Systems (PCS), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea) have proposed a transistor made of graphene and a two-dimensional superconductor that amplifies terahertz (THz) signals. This research was conducted in collaboration with colleagues from the Micro/Nano Fabrication Laboratory Microsystem and Terahertz Research Center (China), the A. V. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics (Russia), and Loughborough University (UK) and was published in Physical Review Letters.

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'Tickling' an atom to investigate the behavior of materials

Scientists and engineers working at the frontier of nanotechnology face huge challenges. When the position of a single atom in a material may change the fundamental properties of that material, scientists need something in their toolbox to measure how that atom will behave.

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Longest microwave quantum link

Physicists at ETH Zurich have demonstrated a five-meter-long microwave quantum link, the longest of its kind to date. It can be used both for future quantum computer networks and for experiments in basic quantum physics research.

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Simultaneous optical trapping and imaging in the axial plane for light-matter interaction

Optical trapping has become a powerful tool in numerous fields such as biology, physics, chemistry. In light-matter interaction, transfer of optical linear momentum and angular momentum gives rise to optical forces acting on the illuminated object, thus enabling the acceleration, three-dimensional (3-D) confinement, spinning, rotation, and even negative pulling of particles.

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China Spallation Neutron Source: Beam power reaches design goal ahead of schedule

The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) conducted on-schedule beam commissioning from Feb. 3 to Feb. 28, thus achieving its design goal of 100kW 18 months ahead of schedule. Since then it has conducted stable operations at 100 kW.

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Variations in the vibrations of beams of silicon create a sensitive way of measuring pressure changes

A micrometer-scale, low-power consumption pressure sensor has been developed by KAUST scientists, with potential applications in vacuum environments.

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Researchers estimate size of bird with unusual vocal biomechanics by its song

A team of researchers from Universidad de Buenos Aires, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales and the University of Münster accurately estimated the size of a white-tipped plantcutter bird by studying nothing but its song. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their study of the unique bird and is raspy cry.

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Researchers propose new physics to explain decay of subatomic particle

Florida State University physicists believe they have an answer to unusual incidents of rare decay of a subatomic particle called a Kaon that were reported last year by scientists in the KOTO experiment at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.

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25 years on: A single top quark partners with the Z boson

A quarter-century after its discovery, physicists at the ATLAS Experiment at CERN are gaining new insight into the heaviest-known particle, the top quark. The huge amount of data collected during Run 2 of the LHC (2015-2018) has allowed physicists to study rare production processes of the top quark in great detail, including its production in association with other heavy elementary particles.

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Mpemba effect: The fastest way to heat certain materials may be to cool them first

To heat a slice of pizza, you probably wouldn't consider first chilling it in the fridge. But a theoretical study suggests that cooling, as a first step before heating, may be the fastest way to warm up certain materials. In fact, such precooling could lead sometimes to exponentially faster heating, two physicists calculate in a study accepted in Physical Review Letters.

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A theoretical approach to understand the mechanisms of 3-D spatiotemporal mode-locking

Laser technology confines light inside a resonator containing a gain medium, a material with quantum properties that can amplify light. As laser resonators are generally far larger than the wavelength of light, lasing inside their cavities can occur in a wide range of patterns, which are known as modes.

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Hope for a new permanent magnet that's cheap and sustainable

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the search for a new, sustainable permanent magnet.

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Scientists shed light on mystery of dark matter

Scientists have identified a sub-atomic particle that could have formed the "dark matter" in the Universe during the Big Bang.

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Unstable rock pillars near reservoirs can produce dangerous water waves

In many coastal zones and gorges, unstable cliffs often fail when the foundation rock beneath them is crushed. Large water waves can be created, threatening human safety.

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They are there and they are gone: ICARUS chases a fourth neutrino

Argon. It's all around us. It's in the air we breathe, incandescent lights we read by and plasma globes many of us played with as children.

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How can we stop the spread of false rumors about COVID-19? Better math

Think of all the false rumors that went viral about COVID-19—it got so bad, the World Health Organization called it an "infodemic." Whether it is in hoaxes or a viral conspiracy theory, information travels fast these days. Just how fast and far information moves depends on who shares it, and where, from discussions on social media to conversations with fellow commuters on your way to work.

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The magnet that didn't exist

In 1966, Japanese physicist Yosuke Nagaoka predicted the existence of a rather striking phenomenon: Nagaoka's ferromagnetism. His rigorous theory explains how materials can become magnetic, with one caveat: the specific conditions he described do not arise naturally in any material. Researchers from QuTech, a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO, have now observed experimental signatures of Nagaoka ferromagnetism using an engineered quantum system. The results were published today in Nature.

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Fish school by randomly copying each other, rather than following the group

Fish school by copying each other and changing directions randomly, rather than calculating and adapting to an average direction of the group, a group of scientists co-led by UNSW has shown.

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Measuring the sound of a soap bubble popping

A team of researchers from Sorbonne Université and the University of Lille has measured the sounds that occur when a soap bubble pops. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the action as it unfolds and the sounds that are emitted as ordinary soap bubbles pop.

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Scientists pair machine learning with tomography to learn about material interfaces

By using machine learning as an image processing technique, scientists can dramatically accelerate the heretofore laborious manual process of quantitatively looking for and at interfaces without having to sacrifice accuracy.

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Why is an empty shampoo bottle so easy to knock over?

It becomes annoyingly easy to knock over a shampoo bottle when it's nearly empty. This is an easily observed and curiosity-provoking phenomenon that, according to Lehigh University physics professor Jerome Licini, yields insights into center-of-mass and impacts.

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