The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

Until recently, scientists believed that only very massive nuclei could have excited zero-spin states of increased stability with a significantly deformed shape. Meanwhile, an international team of researchers from Romania, France, Italy, the USA and Poland showed in their latest article that such states also exist in much lighter nickel nuclei. Positive verification of the theoretical model used in these experiments allows describing the properties of nuclei unavailable in Earth laboratories.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pGSWZz

Researchers publish review article on the physics of interacting particles

Scientific articles in the field of physics are mostly very short and deal with a very restricted topic. A remarkable exception to this is an article published recently by physicists from the Universities of Münster and Düsseldorf. The article is 127 pages long, cites a total of 1075 sources and deals with a wide range of branches of physics—from biophysics to quantum mechanics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34QLx1A

Order and disorder in crystalline ice explained

A fascinating substance with unique properties, ice has intrigued humans since time immemorial. Unlike most other materials, ice at very low temperature is not as ordered as it could be. A collaboration between the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the Institute of Physics Rosario (IFIR-UNR), with the support of the Istituto Officina dei Materiali of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IOM), made new theoretical inroads on the reasons why this happens and on the way in which some of the missing order can be recovered. In that ordered state the team of scientists have described a relatively obscure and yet fundamental property of very low temperature ice: ferroelectricity. The results, published in PNAS, are likely to extend to ice surfaces, a possibility that could be relevant to the agglomeration of ice particles in interstellar space.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mYnjsk

Searching for invisible axion dark matter with a new multiple-cell cavity haloscope

Over the past few decades, many experimental physicists have been probing the existence of particles called axions, which would result from a specific mechanism that they think could explain the contradiction between theories and experiments describing a fundamental symmetry. This symmetry is associated with a matter-antimatter imbalance in the Universe, reflected in interactions between different particles.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pptwza

Quantum wave in helium dimer filmed for the first time

Anyone entering the world of quantum physics must prepare themself for quite a few things unknown in the everyday world: Noble gases form compounds, atoms behave like particles and waves at the same time and events that in the macroscopic world exclude each other occur simultaneously.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3hlLqQQ

Perfect transmission through barrier using sound

The perfect transmission of sound through a barrier is difficult to achieve, if not impossible based on our existing knowledge. This is also true with other energy forms such as light and heat.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mHXyMP

Masks block 99.9% of large COVID-linked droplets: study

Face masks reduce the risk of spreading large COVID-linked droplets when speaking or coughing by up to 99.9 percent, according to a lab experiment with mechanical mannequins and human subjects, researchers said Wednesday.

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

A proposal for a neutrino detection array spanning 200,000 square kilometers

Sometimes in astronomy, the acronym for a project fits it particularly well. That would absolutely be the case for the Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection, which researchers hope to scale up to a size of 200,000 km2 in an effort to measure ultra-high-energy tau neutrinos. Is it ambitious? Yes, but that doesn't really stop humanity from exploring when it wants to.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2WIkv8h

Researchers develop new way to break reciprocity law

An international research team lead by Aalto University has found a new and simple route to break the reciprocity law in the electromagnetic world, by changing a material's property periodically in time. The breakthrough could help to create efficient nonreciprocal devices, such as compact isolators and circulators, that are needed for the next generation of microwave and optical communications systems.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3aDusMw

Are two phases of quarantine better than one?

New research into this question shows that the second wave of an epidemic is very different if a population has a homogenous distribution of contacts, compared to the scenario of subpopulations with diverse number of contacts.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2JcZYW7

Three flavors are better than one—in ice cream and supernova research

Any Neapolitan ice cream lover knows three flavors are better than one. New research from Northwestern University has found that by studying all three "flavors" involved in a supernova, they've unlocked more clues as to how and why stars die.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Jb9EAu

Skyrmions proposed as the basis for a completely new computer architecture

The magnetic interactions between atoms at minute scales can create unique states such as skyrmions. Skyrmions have special properties and can exist in certain material systems, such as a 'stack' of different sub-nanometer-thick metal layers. Modern computer technology based on skyrmions—which are only a few nanometers in size—promises to enable an extremely compact and ultrafast way of storing and processing data.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2KOP6hx

Looking for dark matter near neutron stars with radio telescopes

In the 1970s, physicists uncovered a problem with the Standard Model of particle physics—the theory that describes three of the four fundamental forces of nature (electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions; the fourth is gravity). They found that, while the theory predicts that a symmetry between particles and forces in our Universe and a mirror version should be broken, the experiments say otherwise. This mismatch between theory and observations is dubbed 'the Strong CP problem'—CP stands for Charge+Parity. What is the CP problem, and why has it puzzled scientists for almost half a century?

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2KG3iJQ

Discovery sheds light on the great mystery of why the universe has less antimatter than matter

It's one of the greatest puzzles in physics. All the particles that make up the matter around us, such electrons and protons, have antimatter versions which are nearly identical, but with mirrored properties such as the opposite electric charge. When an antimatter and a matter particle meet, they annihilate in a flash of energy.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34A55Hz

Seeking answers in ferroelectric patterning

Why do some ferroelectric materials display bubble-shaped patterning, while others display complex, labyrinthine patterns?

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2J8Ms5T

Researchers unveil the origin of Oobleck waves

"Oobleck" is a strange fluid made of equal parts of cornstarch and water. It flows like milk when gently stirred, but turns rock-solid when impacted at high speed. This fascinating phenomenon, known as shear-thickening, results in spectacular demonstrations like running on a pool of Oobleck without submerging into it, as long as the runner doesn't stop.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3h6B7zI

Recreating Big Bang matter on Earth

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN usually collides protons together. It is these proton–proton collisions that led to the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. But the world's biggest accelerator was also designed to smash together heavy ions, primarily the nuclei of lead atoms, and it does so every year for about one month. And for at least two good reasons. First, heavy-ion collisions at the LHC recreate in laboratory conditions the plasma of quarks and gluons that is thought to have existed shortly after the Big Bang. Second, the collisions can be used to test and study, at the highest manmade temperatures and densities, fundamental predictions of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force that binds quarks and gluons together into protons and neutrons and ultimately all atomic nuclei.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37u4pVO

Topological phases in biological systems

LMU physicists have shown that topological phases could exist in biology, and in so doing they have identified a link between solid-state physics and biophysics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37vMqyo

New discovery brings analog spintronic devices closer

The observation of nonlinearity in electron spin-related processes in graphene makes it easier to transport, manipulate and detect spins, as well as spin-to-charge conversion. It also allows analog operations such as amplitude modulation and spin amplification. This brings spintronics to the point where regular electronics was after the introduction of the first transistors. These results by University of Groningen physicists were published in the journal Physical Review Applied on 17 December.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34obwx8

Speed of magnetic domain walls found to be fundamentally limited

A team of researchers from MIT and several institutions in Korea has found that the speed of magnetic domain wall movement is fundamentally limited. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes testing a theory regarding the maximum speed of domain walls to prove them correct. Matthew Daniels and Mark Stiles with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. have published a Perspective piece outlining the work by the researchers in the same journal issue and sum up the implications of their findings.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/38dZ7gx

Researchers set new bounds on the mass of leptoquarks

At the most fundamental level, matter is made up of two types of particles: leptons, such as the electron, and quarks, which combine to form protons, neutrons and other composite particles. Under the Standard Model of particle physics, both leptons and quarks fall into three generations of increasing mass. Otherwise, the two kinds of particles are distinct. But some theories that extend the Standard Model predict the existence of new particles called leptoquarks that would unify quarks and leptons by interacting with both.

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

Quantum wells enable record-efficiency two-junction solar cell

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of New South Wales achieved a new world-record efficiency for two-junction solar cells, creating a cell with two light-absorbing layers that converts 32.9% of sunlight into electricity.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3r88Xcn

Molecular probes require highly precise calculations

Catalysts are indispensable for many technologies. To further improve heterogeneous catalysts, it is required to analyze the complex processes on their surfaces, where the active sites are located. Scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with colleagues from Spain and Argentina, have now reached decisive progress: As reported in Physical Review Letters, they use calculation methods with so-called hybrid functionals for the reliable interpretation of experimental data.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nvIxyT

First measurement of single-proton interactions with the MicroBooNE detector

Neutrinos are as mysterious as they are ubiquitous. One of the most abundant particles in the universe, they pass through most matter unnoticed. Their masses are so tiny that so far no experiment has succeeded in measuring them, while they travel at nearly the speed of light.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nseNDi

Big Data will analyse the mystery of Beethoven's metronome

Data science and physics research at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and UNED has analyzed a centuries-old controversy over Beethoven's annotations about the tempo (the playing speed) of his works, which is considered to be too fast based on these marks. In this study, published in the PLOS ONE journal, it is noted that this deviation could be explained by the composer reading the metronome incorrectly when using it to measure the beat of his symphonies.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34kVW5B

Longest known exposure photograph ever captured using a beer can

A photograph thought to be the longest exposure image ever taken has been discovered inside a beer can at the University of Hertfordshire's Bayfordbury Observatory.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2J1R51I

Information transport in antiferromagnets via pseudospin-magnons

A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich, the Walther-Meissner-Institute of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim has discovered an exciting method for controlling spin carried by quantized spin wave excitations in antiferromagnetic insulators.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3moh1SH

Characterising cold fusion in 2-D models

Progress towards 'cold fusion,' where nuclear fusion can occur at close to room temperatures, has now been at a standstill for decades. However, an increasing number of studies are now proposing that the reaction could be triggered more easily through a mechanism involving muons—elementary particles with the same charge as electrons, but with around 200 times their mass. Through a study published in EPJ D, researchers led by Francisco Caruso at the Brazilian Centre for Physical Research have shown theoretically how this process would unfold within 2-D systems, without any need for approximations.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oSFeSE

New type of atomic clock could help scientists detect dark matter and study gravity's effect on time

Atomic clocks are the most precise timekeepers in the world. These exquisite instruments use lasers to measure the vibrations of atoms, which oscillate at a constant frequency, like many microscopic pendulums swinging in sync. The best atomic clocks in the world keep time with such precision that, if they had been running since the beginning of the universe, they would only be off by about half a second today.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3adZwCh

Quantum insulators create multilane highways for electrons

New energy-efficient electronic devices may be possible thanks to research that demonstrates the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect—where an electrical current does not lose energy as it flows along the edges of the material—over a broader range of conditions. A team of researchers from Penn State has experimentally realized the QAH effect in a multilayered insulator, essentially producing a multilane highway for the transport of electrons that could increase the speed and efficiency of information transfer without energy loss.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34ekSvt

Ultracold atoms reveal a new type of quantum magnetic behavior

A new study illuminates surprising choreography among spinning atoms. In a paper appearing in the journal Nature, researchers from MIT and Harvard University reveal how magnetic forces at the quantum, atomic scale affect how atoms orient their spins.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nqxMy0

Team's bigger and better 'tweezer clock' is super stable

JILA physicists have boosted the signal power of their atomic "tweezer clock" and measured its performance in part for the first time, demonstrating high stability close to the best of the latest generation of atomic clocks.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3r29WdY

Scientists precisely predict intricate evolutions of multiple-period patterns in bilayers

Surface instability of compliant film/substrate bilayers has raised considerable interests due to its broad applications such as wrinkle-driven surface renewal and antifouling, shape-morphing for camouflaging skins, and micro/nano-scale surface patterning control. However, it is still a challenge to precisely predict and continuously trace secondary bifurcation transitions in the nonlinear post-buckling region. Fundamental understanding and quantitative prediction of morphological evolution and pattern selection are, in fact, crucial for the effective use of wrinkling as a tool for morphological design.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mr7me0

'Chaotic' way to create insectlike gaits for robots

Researchers in Japan and Italy are embracing chaos and nonlinear physics to create insectlike gaits for tiny robots—complete with a locomotion controller to provide a brain-machine interface.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/34fa14m

New approach can improve COVID-19 predictions worldwide

Methods currently used around the world for predicting the development of COVID-19 and other pandemics fail to report precisely on the best and worst-case scenarios. Newly developed prediction method for epidemics, published in Nature Physics, solve this problem.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ajYFjz

New constraints on alternative gravity theories that could inform dark matter research

While particle theories are currently the most favored explanations for dark mater, physicists have still been unable to detect dark matter particles in ways that would confirm or contradict these theories. Some theorists have thus been exploring new theories of gravity that clearly account for and explain the existence of this elusive type of matter. In order to obviate the need for dark matter, however, these theories should be aligned with cosmological observations gathered so far.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3gWFSfq

New constraints on alternative gravity theories that could inform dark matter research

While particle theories are currently the most favored explanations for dark mater, physicists have still been unable to detect dark matter particles in ways that would confirm or contradict these theories. Some theorists have thus been exploring new theories of gravity that clearly account for and explain the existence of this elusive type of matter. In order to obviate the need for dark matter, however, these theories should be aligned with cosmological observations gathered so far.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3gWFSfq

Massive underground instrument finds final secret of our sun's fusion

A hyper-sensitive instrument, deep underground in Italy, has finally succeeded at the nearly impossible task of detecting CNO neutrinos (tiny particles pointing to the presence of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen) from our sun's core. These little-known particles reveal the last missing detail of the fusion cycle powering our sun and other stars.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37jqnLf

'Magic' angle graphene and the creation of unexpected topological quantum states

Electrons inhabit a strange and topsy-turvy world. These infinitesimally small particles have never ceased to amaze and mystify despite the more than a century that scientists have studied them. Now, in an even more amazing twist, physicists have discovered that, under certain conditions, interacting electrons can create what are called 'topological quantum states.' This finding, which was recently published in the journal Nature, has implications for many technological fields of study, especially information technology.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2K2NUY1

Are primordial magnetic field theories getting in a twist?

In cosmic voids where the density of galaxies is far lower than standard, astronomers have observed weak magnetic fields that may provide a window into the early universe. The fields 10-17-10-10 G in magnitude with large coherence lengths of up to megaparsecs are thought to have their origins in the early universe, but so far it is unclear when or how they were generated. One hypothesis is that an imbalance in the numbers of "left-handed" and "right-handed" fermions may be at the heart of it, as this could give rise to helical magnetic fields. But so far there has been no detailed analysis as to how the evolution of the numbers of left- and right-handed fermions might stack up against this hypothesis. Now a collaboration of researchers in Europe report a more rigorous analysis of this chirality imbalance with surprising results.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mhiFWm

Researchers pinpoint more precise method for atomic-level manufacturing

Quantum computers have the potential to transform fields such as medicine, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence by solving hard optimization problems that are beyond the reach of conventional computing hardware.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3aaJmtq

Controlling the speed of light bullets

Though it sounds like something straight out of science fiction, controlling the speed of light has in fact been a long-standing challenge for physicists. In a study recently published in Communications Physics, researchers from Osaka University generated light bullets with highly controllable velocities.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3a4b0bo

Righting a wrong, nuclear physicists improve precision of neutrino studies

Led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a new study clears up a discrepancy regarding the biggest contributor of unwanted background signals in specialized detectors of neutrinos. Better characterization of background could improve current and future experiments to detect real signals from these weakly interacting, electrically neutral subatomic particles and understand their role in the universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nj7qxF

New computational method validates images without 'ground truth'

A realtor sends a prospective homebuyer a blurry photograph of a house taken from across the street. The homebuyer can compare it to the real thing—look at the picture, then look at the real house—and see that the bay window is actually two windows close together, the flowers out front are plastic and what looked like a door is actually a hole in the wall.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oB4KMi

Physicists observe the emergence of collective behaviour

Phase transitions describe dramatic changes in properties of a macroscopic system—like the transition from a liquid to a gas. Starting from individual ultracold atoms, Heidelberg University physicists were able to observe the emergence of such a transition with an increasing number of particles. The research work was carried out in the field of quantum physics under the direction of Prof. Dr. Selim Jochim from the Institute for Physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3gPh1Kx

Scientists say farewell to Daya Bay site, proceed with final data analysis

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment collaboration—which made a precise measurement of an important neutrino property eight years ago, setting the stage for a new round of experiments and discoveries about these hard-to-study particles—has finished taking data. Though the experiment is formally shutting down, the collaboration will continue to analyze its complete dataset to improve upon the precision of findings based on earlier measurements.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3gDe5Ah

Potential extreme condition history detector—recoverable PL achieved in pyrochlore

Photoluminescence (PL) is light emission from a substance after the absorption of photons stimulated by temperature, electricity, pressure, or chemistry doping. An international team of scientists led by Dr. Wenge Yang from Center for High Pressure Science &Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR) presents a strong tricolor PL achieved in non-PL pyrochlore Ho2Sn2O7 through high pressure treatment. Interestingly the PL can be much enhanced after pressure release and recovered to ambient conditions. Their study is published in the recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37ahFii

Near-atomic-scale analysis of frozen water

Advances in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can allow cryo-imaging of biological and biochemical systems in liquid form, however, such approaches do not possess advanced analytical capabilities. In a new report now published on Science Advances, A. A. El-Zoka and an international team of researchers in Germany, Canada, France, and the U.K., used atom probe tomography to analyze frozen liquids in three-dimensions (3-D) with sub-nanometer scale resolution. In this work, the team first introduced a specimen preparation strategy using nano-porous gold and used ice formed from high-purity deuterated water (hard water) alongside a solution of sodium chloride (50 mM) dissolved in high-purity deuterated water. They then analyzed the gold-ice interface to reveal increased solute concentrations across the interface. The scientists explored a range of experimental conditions to understand atom probe analyses of bulk aqueous specimens. Then they discussed the physical processes associated with the observed phenomena. The study showed the practicality of using frozen water as a carrier for near-atomic-scale analyses of objects in solution via atom probe tomography.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/376Ai6S

Search for invisible axion dark matter with a multiple-cell cavity

Despite its vanishingly tiny mass, the existence of the axion, once proven, may point to new physics beyond the Standard Model. Theorized to explain a fundamental symmetry problem in the strong nuclear force associated with the matter-antimatter imbalance in our universe, this hypothetical particle also makes an attractive dark matter candidate. Though axions would exist in vast enough numbers to be able to account for the "missing" mass from the universe, the search for this dark matter has been quite challenging so far.

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

Visualization of mechanical waves in a liquid medium

The effect of ultrasound on the liquid phase has been visualized using dynamic electron microscopy. The use of the effect of standing mechanical waves arising in the liquid phase under the action of an external ultrasound source makes it possible to control the structure of liquid reaction media at the micro-level and influence the result of chemical transformations.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3m9LxiU

Revolutionary superconducting magnet plate design and analysis

In the production of integrated circuits (computer chips), continuous innovation is essential to remain competitive. A major goal is to increase the productivity of photolithography machines, which is partly determined by their electromagnetic motors. Ph.D.-candidate Bart Koolmees, from the TU/e department of Mechanical Engineering, focused on developing a superconducting alternative for these motors. His work showed that such a design could increase the power of the motor by more than 500%, and he also devised solutions to some of the main technical challenges: thermal insulation and the integrity of the superconducting coils. He will defend his thesis on 9 December.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qMNshd

'Electronic amoeba' finds approximate solution to traveling salesman problem in linear time

Researchers at Hokkaido University and Amoeba Energy in Japan have, inspired by the efficient foraging behavior of a single-celled amoeba, developed an analog computer for finding a reliable and swift solution to the traveling salesman problem—a representative combinatorial optimization problem.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37OFGuA

Energy-efficient magnetic RAM: A new building block for spintronic technologies

Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Seoul National University in South Korea have demonstrated a new way to enhance the energy efficiency of a non-volatile magnetic memory device called SOT-MRAM. Published in Advanced Materials, this finding opens up a new window of exciting opportunities for future energy-efficient magnetic memories based on spintronics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3gxdEaK

Network isotopy: A framework to study the 3-D layouts of physical networks

The structure and functions of many physical networks, including the human brain, the vascular system and other biological networks, often depend on their three-dimensional and geometrical layout. Distinguishing between physical networks with identical connections but different geometrical layouts, however, can be very challenging.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3768BLa

Fragments of energy—not waves or particles—may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe

Matter is what makes up the universe, but what makes up matter? This question has long been tricky for those who think about it—especially for the physicists. Reflecting recent trends in physics, my colleague Jeffrey Eischen and I have described an updated way to think about matter. We propose that matter is not made of particles or waves, as was long thought, but—more fundamentally—that matter is made of fragments of energy.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2VZHF9V

High-precision measurements of the strong interaction between stable and unstable particles

The positively charged protons in atomic nuclei should actually repel each other, and yet even heavy nuclei with many protons and neutrons stick together. The so-called strong interaction is responsible for this. Prof. Laura Fabbietti and her research group at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed a method to precisely measure the strong interaction utilizing particle collisions in the ALICE experiment at CERN in Geneva.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37PWqkX

Scientists model photoluminescence kinetics in semiconductor nanoplatelets for better optoelectronics

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues have built two models that accurately explain the light-emitting behavior of semiconductor nanoplatelets, minuscule structures that can become the building blocks for optoelectronics of the future. The paper was published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39QG5zc

'Game changer' perovskite can detect gamma rays

Perovskites are materials made up of organic compounds bound to a metal. Propelled into the forefront of materials' research because of their structure and properties, perovskites are earmarked for a wide range of applications, including in solar cells, LED lights, lasers, and photodetectors.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/383SI7F

Accessing the arches of chaos in the solar system for fast transport

Space manifolds form the boundaries of dynamic channels to provide fast transport to the innermost and outermost reaches of the solar system. Such features are an important element in spacecraft navigation and mission design, providing a window to the apparently erratic nature of comets and their trajectories. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Nataša Todorović and a team of researchers in Serbia and the U.S. revealed a notable and unexpected ornamental structure of manifolds in the solar system. This architecture was connected in a series of arches spreading from the asteroid belt to Uranus and beyond. The strongest manifolds were found linked to Jupiter with profound control on small bodies across a wide and previously unknown range of three-body energies. The orbits of these manifolds encountered Jupiter on rapid time-scales to transform into collisional or escaping trajectories to reach Neptune's distance merely within a decade. In this way, much like a celestial highway, all planets generate similar manifolds across the solar system for fast transport throughout.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37NeYm3

A technique to sift out the universe's first gravitational waves

In the moments immediately following the Big Bang, the very first gravitational waves rang out. The product of quantum fluctuations in the new soup of primordial matter, these earliest ripples through the fabric of space-time were quickly amplified by inflationary processes that drove the universe to explosively expand.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oDbnha

Microjets are faster than a speeding bullet

When a shock wave travels through material and reaches a free surface, chunks of material can break away and fly off at high speeds. If there are any defects on the surface, the shock forms microjets that travel faster than a speeding bullet.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37LocPD

Batteries mimic mammal bones for stability

Sodium-ion batteries are poised to replace lithium-ion batteries for large-scale electrical energy storage. They offer several advantages over lithium-ion batteries, particularly due to the widespread abundance of sodium.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2K0MOeY

Sneezes and coughs act like 'mini atomic bombs' and regularly exceed two meters

Keeping two meters apart might not be far enough to stop the spread of coronavirus from sneezes and coughs, according to a new study.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oCOACb

Elementary particles part ways with their properties

"Spooky action at a distance," Einstein's summation of quantum physics, has been a criticism of quantum mechanics since the field emerged. So far, descriptions of entangled particles to explain their apparently faster-than-light responses, and even explanations for the phase shifts induced by an electromagnetic field in regions where it is zero—the "Aharonov-Bohm" effect—have mostly addressed these concerns. However, recent theoretical and experimental demonstrations of a "counterfactual" quantum communication protocol have proved difficult to explain in terms of physical cause and effect. In this kind of quantum communication, observers on either side of a "transmission channel" exchange information without any particle passing between them—spooky indeed.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39OOinz

Scientists reveal reaction mechanism of 11Be nucleus

Scientists from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have lately made new progress in the study of the reaction mechanism of 11Be nucleus. The study will help understand the effect of exotic structures such as the neutron halo on the reaction characteristics.

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

Imitation mosquito ears help identify mosquito species and sex

Using an imitation "ear" modeled on the organs that mosquitos use to hear, researchers have identified a mosquito's species and sex using sound—just like mosquitos do themselves.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37IoCGj

Team develops component for neuromorphic computer

Neural networks are some of the most important tools in artificial intelligence (AI): they mimic the operation of the human brain and can reliably recognize texts, language and images, to name but a few. So far, they run on traditional processors in the form of adaptive software, but experts are working on an alternative concept, the 'neuromorphic computer.' In this case, the brain's switching points—the neurons—are not simulated by software but reconstructed in hardware components. A team of researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now demonstrated a new approach to such hardware—targeted magnetic waves that are generated and divided in micrometer-sized wafers. Looking to the future, this could mean that optimization tasks and pattern recognition could be completed faster and more energy efficiently. The researchers have presented their results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qBxSos

Triple threat: The first observation of three massive gauge bosons produced in proton-proton collisions

The Standard Model, the most exhaustive existing theory outlining fundamental particle interactions, predicts the existence of what are known as triboson interactions. These interactions are processes in which three-gauge bosons are simultaneously produced from one Large Hadron Collider event.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2VN7XMf

Research reveals how airflow inside a car may affect COVID-19 transmission risk

A new study of airflow patterns inside a car's passenger cabin offers some suggestions for potentially reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission while sharing rides with others.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/36JtBaH

First physics results from prototype detector published

The DUNE collaboration has published their first scientific paper based on data collected with the ProtoDUNE single-phase detector located at CERN's Neutrino Platform. The results show that the detector is performing with greater than 99% efficiency, making it not only the largest, but also the best-performing liquid-argon time projection chamber to date. Scientists now are using their findings to refine their experimental techniques and prepare for the construction of the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, a next-generation neutrino experimental program hosted by the Department of Energy's Fermilab in the United States.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/33HuEWM

Detecting solar neutrinos with the Borexino experiment

Neutrinos are chargeless particles with about a mass about a millionth that of an electron that are created by the nuclear processes that occur in the Sun and other stars. These particles are often colorfully described as the 'ghosts' of the particle zoo because they interact so weakly with matter. A paper published in EPJ C by the Borexino collaboration—including XueFeng Ding, Postdoc Associate of Physics at Princeton University, United States—documents the attempts of the Borexino experiment to measure low-energy neutrinos from the Sun's carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle for the first time.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/37ATbOf

Electrons falling flat: Germanium falls into a 2-D arrangement on zirconium diboride

Scientists have recently revealed, both theoretically and experimentally, that germanium atoms can arrange themselves into a 2-D "bi-triangular" lattice on zirconium diboride thin films grown on germanium single crystals to form a "flat band material" with an embedded "kagome" lattice. The result provides experimental support to a theoretical prediction of flat bands emerging from trivial atomic geometry and indicates the possibility of their existence in many more materials.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/36GGwdl

Anti-gravity: How a boat can float upside down

Here on Earth, everything is subject to gravity—it makes objects fall to the ground and rivers flow from higher ground to the sea. We know what would happen without it, thanks to images of astronauts floating around their spaceship. But could we design an anti-gravity machine, something that would make objects fall upwards, oceans levitate, and boats float upside down?

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mCk4HT

Researchers observe what could be the first hints of dark bosons

Extremely light and weakly interacting particles may play a crucial role in cosmology and in the ongoing search for dark matter. Unfortunately, however, these particles have so far proved very difficult to detect using existing high-energy colliders. Researchers worldwide have thus been trying to develop alternative technologies and methods that could enable the detection of these particles.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lI98r1

Lab study of droplet dynamics advances 3-D printing

A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists has simulated the droplet ejection process in an emerging metal 3-D printing technique called "Liquid Metal Jetting" (LMJ), a critical aspect to the continued advancement of liquid metal printing technologies.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lHbupO

How to cool more efficiently: Environmentally friendly refrigeration processes

In the journal Applied Physics Reviews, an international research team from the University of Barcelona, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), and TU Darmstadt report on possibilities for implementing more efficient and environmentally friendly refrigeration processes. For this purpose, they investigated the effects of simultaneously exposing certain alloys to magnetic fields and mechanical stress.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qrtVmf

China turns on nuclear-powered 'artificial sun'

China successfully powered up its "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, state media reported Friday, marking a great advance in the country's nuclear power research capabilities.

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

Research leads to better modeling of hypersonic flow

Hypersonic flight is conventionally referred to as the ability to fly at speeds significantly faster than the speed of sound and presents an extraordinary set of technical challenges. As an example, when a space capsule re-enters Earth's atmosphere, it reaches hypersonic speeds—more than five times the speed of sound—and generates temperatures over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its exterior surface. Designing a thermal protection system to keep astronauts and cargo safe requires an understanding at the molecular level of the complicated physics going on in the gas that flows around the vehicle.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39EBSOU

Physicists capture the sound of a 'perfect' fluid

For some, the sound of a "perfect flow" might be the gentle lapping of a forest brook or perhaps the tinkling of water poured from a pitcher. For physicists, a perfect flow is more specific, referring to a fluid that flows with the smallest amount of friction, or viscosity, allowed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Such perfectly fluid behavior is rare in nature, but it is thought to occur in the cores of neutron stars and in the soupy plasma of the early universe.

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

Researchers pioneer a revolutionary new method to directly observe dark excitons

Heralding the end of a decade-long quest, in a promising new class of extremely thin, two-dimensional semiconductors, scientists have for the first time directly visualized and measured elusive particles, called dark excitons, that cannot be seen by light.

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

Searching for sub-eV sterile neutrinos using two highly sensitive detectors

The standard model of particle physics only accounts for 20% of matter in the universe. Physicists have theorized that the remaining 80% is made up by so-called dark matter, which consists of particles that do not emit, absorb or reflect light and thus cannot be directly observed using any existing instruments.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/36ABY8s

Supernova surprise creates elemental mystery

Michigan State University (MSU) researchers have discovered that one of the most important reactions in the universe can get a huge and unexpected boost inside exploding stars known as supernovae.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3my7o4X

Researchers improve the measurement of a fundamental physical constant

The validation and application of theories in physics require the measurement of universal values known as fundamental constants.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39Bzrwn

Biomedical engineers find active particles swim against the current

Researchers are beginning to understand the behavior of so-called "active" particles, which, if it can be controlled, has potential implications for engineered drug delivery systems and smart 3-D printing, according to an interdisciplinary Penn State research team.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39wqcOh

Curtin collision models impact the future of energy

A new Curtin University-created database of electron-molecule reactions is a major step forward in making nuclear fusion power a reality, by allowing researchers to accurately model plasmas containing molecular hydrogen.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3fTSXFP

Scientists solve big limitation of stratospheric balloon payloads

Nearly all photons emitted after the Big Bang are now visible only at far-infrared wavelengths. This includes light from the cold universe of gas and dust from which stars and planets form, as well as faint signals from distant galaxies tracing the universe's evolution to today.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/33x3dPf

A new lesson about phase transitions and criticality

NUS physicists have discovered a theoretical behavior known as the "critical skin effect" influencing how changes between different phases of matter occur.

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

A possible way to measure ancient rate of cosmic ray strikes using 'paleo-detectors'

An international team of researchers has proposed a way to indirectly measure the rate of cosmic rays striking the Earth over millions of years. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they suggest using the imprints made by atmospheric neutrinos in so-called "paleo-detectors"—natural minerals expressing damage tracks resulting from nuclear recoils.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lr8Apo

Next step in simulating the universe

Computer simulations have struggled to capture the impact of elusive particles called neutrinos on the formation and growth of the large-scale structure of the universe. But now, a research team from Japan has developed a method that overcomes this hurdle.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qbHx4Z