New deep inelastic scattering experiments measure two mirror nuclei

Scientists are holding up a "mirror" to protons and neutrons to learn more about the particles that build our visible universe. The MARATHON experiment, carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, has accessed new details about these particles' structures by comparing the so-called mirror nuclei, helium-3 and triton. The results were recently published in Physical Review Letters.

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Borexino gathers the first directional measurement of sub-MeV solar neutrinos using a monolithic scintillation detector

Borexino is a large-scale particle physics experiment that collected data until October 2021. Its key mission was to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos using the Borexino detector, the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso near Aquila, in Italy.

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Using math to describe the spinning transition between the assemblage of fibers in yarn

A pair of researchers from Universit´e Paris-Saclay, CNRS and Univ Rennes, CNRS, IPR, respectively, has used math to help describe the process involved when short strands of fiber are twisted into long stretches of yarn. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Antoine Seguin and Jérôme Crassous describe how they used experiments and simulations to better understand the factors involved when fibers are twisted together.

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Team at Borexino shows it is possible to have directional and energy sensitivity when studying solar neutrinos

A group of researchers working with data from the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, has shown that it is possible to measure solar neutrinos with both directional and energy sensitivity. Two teams within the group have written papers describing the work by the group—one of them has published their work in Physical Review D, the other in Physical Review Letters.

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Revamped design could take powerful biological computers from the test tube to the cell

Tiny biological computers made of DNA could revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat a slew of diseases, once the technology is fully fleshed out. However, a major stumbling block for these DNA-based devices, which can operate in both cells and liquid solutions, has been how short-lived they are. Just one use and the computers are spent.

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Could massive gravitons be viable dark matter candidates?

Today, many research teams worldwide are trying to detect dark matter, an invisible substance that is believed to account for most of the matter in the universe. As does not reflect or emit light, its presence has been indirectly revealed via its gravitational interactions with visible matter.

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Researcher documents what happened during the first attempt at a gravitational-wave observatory in Europe

First predicted in Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitational waves are tiny ripples in spacetime generated by titanic and powerful cosmic events. The great physicist believed that no equipment would ever be sensitive to detect these faint cosmic ripples. Fortunately, Einstein was wrong, but that doesn't mean that the detection of gravitational waves has been easy.

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Blowing bubbles in dough to bake perfect yeast-free pizza

In typical breads, yeast produces bubbles via a biochemical process, causing dough to rise and develop into light, airy, and tasty treats. Without that yeast, it is difficult to make morsels with the same characteristic taste and texture. The perfect, yeast-free pizza, as such a food, presents an important challenge for bakers and yeast-intolerant crust enthusiasts across the globe.

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New experiment could confirm the fifth state of matter in the universe

An experiment that could confirm the fifth state of matter in the universe—and change physics as we know it—has been published in a new paper from the University of Portsmouth.

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Scientists may have solved Stephen Hawking's black hole paradox

Researchers may have solved Professor Stephen Hawking's famous black hole paradox—a mystery that has puzzled scientists for almost half a century.

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Moon's orbit proposed as a gravitational wave detector

Researchers from the UAB, IFAE and University College London propose using the variations in distance between the Earth and the moon, which can be measured with a precision of less than a centimeter, as a new gravitational wave detector within a frequency range that current devices cannot detect. The research, which could pave the way for the detection of signals from the early universe, was published recently in Physical Review Letters.

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Surprising behavior of hybrid matter: Antimatter atoms in superfluid helium

A hybrid matter—an antimatter helium atom containing an antiproton, the proton's antimatter equivalent in place of an electron, has an unexpected response to laser light when immersed in superfluid helium, reports the ASACUSA collaboration at CERN. The result, described in a paper published today in the journal Nature, may open doors to several lines of research.

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Novel theory of entropy may solve materials design issues

A challenge in materials design is that in both natural and manmade materials, volume sometimes decreases, or increases, with increasing temperature. While there are mechanical explanations for this phenomenon for some specific materials, a general understanding of why this sometimes happens remains lacking.

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Engineers show spinning magnetic particles surprisingly follow thermodynamic laws

Small spheres suspended in a liquid move enough like molecules that the physics for one can be used to mimic the physics of the other.

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Homing in on the Higgs boson interaction with the charm quark

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson a decade ago, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been hard at work trying to unlock the secrets of this special particle. In particular, the collaborations have been investigating in detail how the Higgs boson interacts with fundamental particles such as the particles that make up matter, quarks and leptons. In the Standard Model of particle physics, these matter particles fall into three "generations" of increasing mass, and the Higgs boson interacts with them with a strength that is proportional to their mass. Any deviation from this behavior would provide a clear indication of new phenomena.

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Ultra-high-rate plasma coating to improve surface function

A Toyohashi University of Technology research team led by lecturer Toru Harigai has developed an ultra-high-rate coating technology for functional hard carbon films using vacuum plasma. Functional hard carbon films with low friction coefficients are used as protective films with sliding surfaces. This technology has achieved a film deposition rate of more than one order of magnitude faster than existing coating technologies, while maintaining the same degree of film quality. The technology—which can be introduced using a unique gas injection method and simple equipment configuration—can be expected to be applied in improving the functional performance of general-purpose products and other mass-produced products.

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Physicists show how frequencies can easily be multiplied without special circuitry

A new discovery by physicists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) could make certain components in computers and smartphones obsolete. The team has succeeded in directly converting frequencies to higher ranges in a common magnetic material without the need for additional components. Frequency multiplication is a fundamental process in modern electronics. The team reports on its research in the latest issue of Science.

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The IceCube Collaboration sets the most restrictive constraints on relic magnetic monopoles from the early universe

Recent technological advances have enabled the development of increasingly advanced telescope and astrophysical instruments. This includes the IceCube telescope, which was originally built to detect and examine high-energy neutrinos in the universe.

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Simulations suggest electrostatic forces could push some spiders airborne

A pair of researchers, one with Notre Dame University-Louaize, the other the University of California, has developed a model that suggests some small spiders may become airborne due to electrostatic forces acting on multiple spider-generated threads. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Charbel Habchi and Mohammad Khalid Jawed, describe how they used data from prior experiments and an algorithm developed by the movie industry to accurately portray animated hair to simulate "ballooning" in spiders.

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Spotting accelerator-produced neutrinos in a cosmic haystack

Physicists have developed new tools to help tone down the cosmic "noise" when searching for signs of particles called neutrinos in detectors located near Earth's surface. This method combines data-sifting techniques with image reconstruction methods similar to the computerized tomography (CT) scans used in medicine. It makes the signals of neutrinos produced by a particle accelerator stand out against the "web" of tracks produced by cosmic rays. These cosmic travelers are 20,000 times more numerous than neutrino interactions in the detector. Filtering out the many tracks from cosmic rays should improve experiments on the Earth's surface that are seeking to understand the behavior of the subatomic neutrinos.

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Scientists use 196 lasers to recreate the conditions inside gigantic galaxy clusters

Galaxies rarely live alone. Instead, dozens to thousands are drawn together by gravity, forming vast clusters that are the largest objects in the universe.

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Examining how animal swarms respond to threats

A herd of antelope feeds peacefully on a meadow. Suddenly, a lion shows up, and the herd flees. But how do they manage to do so collectively? Konstanz physicist Chun-Jen Chen and Professor Clemens Bechinger, a member of the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior," asked themselves how animals must behave in order to initiate an efficient flight response. In a study using microrobots that act like a group of animals, the researchers demonstrate: A swarm of animals—taken as a whole—completes an optimum flight response, even if individual animals do not notice the threat or they react the wrong way. The study was published on 7 March 2022 in the New Journal of Physics. 

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Neutrons help researchers observe real-time stress reduction in 3D printed parts

The heat, pressure, and force that materials experience during manufacturing processes, such as forming, casting, and molding, can cause internal inconsistencies in manufactured metal parts. These inconsistencies include distortions and uneven microstructures, or "strain," which can lead to the parts cracking and failing.

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Tracing the diffusion of carbon isotopes using atomic-scale vibrational spectroscopy

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Japan has developed a technique for tracing the diffusion of carbon isotopes using atomic-scale vibrational spectroscopy. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they used isotopic imaging of 12C carbon atoms embedded in 13C graphene to monitor self-diffusion. Jordan Hachtel, with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has published an outline of recent research involving attempts to detect isotopes with high spatial resolution and the work done by the team in Japan in the same journal issue.

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Physics race pits Usain Bolt Against Jurassic Park dinosaur

With each new semester, thousands of students dive into introductory classes in physics. One persistent problem that dogs instructors, however, is keeping students engaged in math-heavy classes.

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Dark energy: Neutron stars will tell us if it's only an illusion

A huge amount of mysterious dark energy is necessary to explain cosmological phenomena, such as the accelerated expansion of the Universe, using Einstein's theory. But what if dark energy was just an illusion and general relativity itself had to be modified? A new SISSA study, published in Physical Review Letters, offers a new approach to answer this question. Thanks to huge computational and mathematical effort, scientists produced the first simulation ever of merging binary neutron stars in theories beyond general relativity that reproduce a dark-energy like behavior on cosmological scales. This allows the comparison of Einstein's theory and modified versions of it, and, with sufficiently accurate data, may solve the dark energy mystery.

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Researchers show corkscrew elastic waves carry well-defined orbital angular momentum

A team of researchers from the University of Exeter and Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, has shown, theoretically, that corkscrew elastic waves carry well-defined orbital angular momentum. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes experiments they conducted with aluminum pipe and simulations they built that showed the possibility of using waves of vibration moving along the walls of a pipe in new types of applications.

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Local nuclear reactor helps scientists catch and study neutrinos

A nuclear reactor at an Illinois energy plant is helping University of Chicago scientists learn how to catch and understand the tiny, elusive particles known as neutrinos.

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