Urban magnetic fields reveal clues about energy efficiency, pollution

Examining a city's magnetic footprint can be used to monitor the health of that city, including a possible early warning system for trouble with pollution and as a tool for optimizing energy conservation.

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New laser breakthrough to help understanding of gravitational waves

Gravitational wave scientists from The University of Western Australia have led the development of a new laser mode sensor with unprecedented precision that will be used to probe the interiors of neutron stars and test fundamental limits of general relativity.

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Astrophysicists simulate a fuzzy dark matter galactic halo

Dark matter is a type of matter in the universe that does not absorb, reflect or emit light, which makes it impossible to directly detect. In recent years, astrophysicists and cosmologists worldwide have been trying to indirectly detect this elusive type of matter, to better understand its unique features and composition.

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Chip-scale Floquet topological insulators to enhance 5G wireless communications

Floquet topological insulators are materials with topological phases that originate from tailored time-dependent perturbations of their crystal structure. These materials have been proved to feature highly unusual electron conduction properties. In recent years, there has been significant interest in exploring analogous features for electromagnetic waves using tailored metamaterials, which promise exciting opportunities for a wide range of applications, including the development of wireless communication, radar and quantum technology.

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Hunting for one-pole magnets by combining cosmic rays and particle accelerators

Some of the world's most powerful particle accelerators have helped researchers draw new leading limits on the existence of long theorized magnetic monopoles from the collisions of energetic cosmic rays bombarding the Earth's atmosphere, reports a new study published in Physical Review Letters.

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Researchers discover new isotope thorium-207 and odd-even staggering in α-decay energies

A research team at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with their collaborators, has recently synthesized a new isotope thorium-207, and discovered a regular and distinct odd-even staggering (OES) in α-decay energies for nuclei with Z>82 and N

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Modeling the behavior and dynamics of microswimmers

The understanding of the clustering and movement of microswimmers has a range of applications from human health to tackling ecological problems.

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New tool measures atomic scale defects, identifies transistor limitations

A new technique for studying defects in semiconductor materials could lead to improved speed, power and performance of electronic devices by revealing the atomic-level limitations of advanced materials.

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Nuclear isomers were discovered 100 years ago, and physicists are still unraveling their mysteries

Nobel laureate Otto Hahn is credited with the discovery of nuclear fission. Fission is one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century, yet Hahn considered something else to be his best scientific work.

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Acoustic sensors to pinpoint shooters in an urban setting

During a gunshot, two sound events occur: the muzzle blast and the supersonic shock wave. Acoustic sensors, such as arrays of microphones, can capture these sounds and use them to approximate the location of a shooter.

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Making racetrack noise bearable with physics

Although racetracks can be fun for communities, they usually come with very high levels of noise that can sour nearby neighborhoods to the experience.

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Researchers find imperfections provide protection for system symmetry

An international research collaboration has discovered how to exploit certain defects to protect confined energy in acoustics systems. Their experimental approach provides a versatile platform to create at-will defects for further theoretical validation and to improve control of waves in other systems, such as light, according to principal investigator Yun Jing, associate professor of acoustics and of biomedical engineering at Penn State.

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Flow of liquid metals found to exhibit surprising turbulence

Some metals are in liquid form, the prime example being mercury. But there are also enormous quantities of liquid metal in the Earth's core, where temperatures are so high that part of the iron is molten and undergoes complex flows. A team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now simulated a similar process in the laboratory and made a surprising discovery: Under certain circumstances, the flow of liquid metal is far more turbulent than expected—and this has a significant impact on heat transport. The research is published in Physical Review Letters.

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Is it topological? A new materials database has the answer

What will it take to make our electronics smarter, faster, and more resilient? One idea is to build them from materials that are topological.

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Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy

New research suggests an unseen "mirror world" of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity that might be the key to solving a major puzzle in cosmology today—the Hubble constant problem.

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Insights to better characterize the nuclear physics and extreme environments of cosmic explosions

Michigan State researchers have helped peer inside a nova—a type of astrophysical nuclear explosion—without leaving Earth.

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Aerodynamics of perching birds could inform aircraft design

If you have ever watched a bird land on a tree branch, you may have noticed that it rapidly pitches its wings upward at a high angle to execute a smooth landing. However, for some birds, they land by folding their wings as they perch instead, creating a sweeping motion as they decelerate.

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Rocket engine exhaust pollution extends high into Earth's atmosphere

Reusable space technology has led to a rise in space transportation at a lower cost, as popularized by commercial spaceflights of companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. What is poorly understood, however, is rockets' propulsion emissions creating significant heating and compositional changes in the atmosphere.

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Identification of kick velocity large enough for individual gravitational wave event following binary black hole merger

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany and multiple institutions in the U.S. has identified a kick velocity large enough for an individual gravitational wave event after observing a binary black hole merger—a first. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their study of the binary black hole merger GW200129_065458 (now called GW200129) and using models to estimate its recoil velocity.

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'Coarse-graining' can help scientists understand complex microbial ecosystems, theory suggests

Microbial communities shape our health and the health of our planet. Some are familiar to humans, like the microbes that reside in the gut, known as our microbiome. Others keep fermenting along mostly under the radar.

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Searching for cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV dark matter using data from the PandaX-II experiment

Physicists worldwide are continuing their search for dark matter, an elusive type of matter that does not absorb, reflect or emit light and is believed to make up most of the matter in the universe. A type of dark matter that many teams have been specifically looking for is sub-GeV dark matter, dark matter particles with masses below GeV (giga-electron volt).

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Malaria parasites form vortices

The disease of malaria is triggered by single-celled parasites that accumulate in large groups in the salivary glands of mosquitoes before transmission to human beings. The limited space there prevents them from actually moving, unless this restriction is lifted by means of appropriate experimental preparation. In just such a set of experiments, researchers at Heidelberg University have set the pathogens in motion and analyzed the acquired image data using cutting-edge methods of image processing. The data show that the collectively moving pathogens form vortex systems that are largely determined by physical principles. Special computer simulations helped identify the mechanisms underlying these rotating movements.

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The Higgs boson and the rise of the standard model of particle physics in the 1970s

At the dawn of the 1970s, the idea of a massive scalar boson as the keystone of a unified theoretical model of the weak and electromagnetic interactions had yet to become anchored in a field that was still learning to live with what we now know as the standard model of particle physics. As the various breakthroughs of the decade gradually consolidated this theoretical framework, the Brout–Englert–Higgs (BEH) field and its boson emerged as the most promising theoretical model to explain the origin of mass.

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Acoustic black holes as noise traps in wooden structures

Research is currently being completed at Empa on a world-first in the sound insulation of wooden buildings. Using a physical theory from the 1990s and the tools of digitization, a research team has developed new floor elements made of solid wood panels that have so-called acoustic black holes. The idea came from Stefan Schoenwald, head of Empa's Building Acoustics laboratory in Dübendorf. He has encountered the theory of acoustic black holes several times at conferences and in scientific publications since it was first published in 1987. According to the Russian scientist M.A. Mironov from the Andreyev Acoustics Institute in Moscow, a parabolic recess in a material can absorb vibrations like sound and allow them to resonate—in other words, swallow them. Acoustic black holes have already been used in cars and airplanes, where their sound-reducing effect has indeed been confirmed.

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Researchers reveal the origin story for carbon-12, a building block for life

With the help of the world's most powerful supercomputer and new artificial intelligence techniques, an international team of researchers has theorized how the extreme conditions in stars produce carbon-12, which they describe as "a critical gateway to the birth of life."

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Using renormalization group methods to study how the brain processes information

Past neuroscience research suggests that biological neural networks in the brain could self-organize into a critical state. In physics, a critical state is essentially a point that marks the transition between ordered and disordered phases of matter.

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Banana spots can help tackle food waste, study finds

Banana peels hold the key to reducing tons of food waste. A new study released in Physical Biology reveals how the browning of this household staple can be explained and modeled.

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Superconducting X-ray laser reaches operating temperature colder than outer space

Nestled 30 feet underground in Menlo Park, California, a half-mile-long stretch of tunnel is now colder than most of the universe. It houses a new superconducting particle accelerator, part of an upgrade project to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

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A new method to synchronize devices on Earth makes use of cosmic rays

Various technologies, networks and institutions benefit from or require accurate time keeping to synchronize their activities. Current ways of synchronizing time have some drawbacks that a new proposed method seeks to address. The cosmic time synchronizer works by synchronizing devices around cosmic ray events detected by those devices. This could bring accurate timing abilities to remote sensing stations, or even underwater, places that other methods cannot serve. Early tests show promise, but the real challenge may lie in the adoption of this new technique.

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What is the multiverse, and does it really exist?

Whether you need a new villain or an old Spider-Man, your sci-fi movie will sound more scientifically respectable if you use the word "multiverse." The Marvel multiverse puts different versions of our universe "out there," somewhere. In these films, with the right blend of technology, magic, and imagination, travel between these universes is possible.

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Bilayer graphene inspires two-universe cosmological model

Physicists sometimes come up with crazy stories that sound like science fiction. Some turn out to be true, like how the curvature of space and time described by Einstein was eventually borne out by astronomical measurements. Others linger on as mere possibilities or mathematical curiosities.

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Quantum mechanics could explain why DNA can spontaneously mutate

The molecules of life, DNA, replicate with astounding precision, yet this process is not immune to mistakes and can lead to mutations. Using sophisticated computer modeling, a team of physicists and chemists at the University of Surrey have shown that such errors in copying can arise due to the strange rules of the quantum world.

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Researchers test key neutrino model at the Large Hadron Collider

The CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has carried out a new test on a model that was developed to explain the tiny mass of neutrinos, electrically neutral particles that change type as they travel through space.

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Face shape influences mask fit, suggests problems with double masking against COVID-19

In its updated guidance at the start of 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said loosely woven cloth masks offer the least protection against COVID-19, and N95 and KN95 masks offer the most protection. Still, after more than two years since the pandemic began, there is not a full understanding of mask characteristics for the most optimal protection.

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New control electronics for quantum computers that improve performance, cut costs

When designing a next-generation quantum computer, a surprisingly large problem is bridging the communication gap between the classical and quantum worlds. Such computers need a specialized control and readout electronics to translate back and forth between the human operator and the quantum computer's languages—but existing systems are cumbersome and expensive.

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Researchers bridge the gap between disciplines to better understand chemical reactions

Simon Fraser University researchers are yielding new insights into how chemical reactions can be understood and guided. Results of their interdisciplinary approach have been published in Physical Review Letters.

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A 'beyond-quantum' equivalence principle for superposition and entanglement

The physics of the microrealm involves two famous and bizarre concepts: The first is that prior to observation, it is impossible to know with certainty the outcome of a measurement on a particle; rather the particle exists in a "superposition" encompassing multiple mutually exclusive states. So a particle can be in two or more places at the same time, and you can only calculate the probability of finding it in a certain location when you look. The second involves "entanglement," the spooky link that can unite two objects, no matter how far they are separated. Both superposition and entanglement are described mathematically by quantum theory. But many physicists believe that the ultimate theory of reality may lie beyond quantum theory. Now, a team of physicists and mathematicians has discovered a new connection between these two weird properties that does not assume that quantum theory is correct. Their study appears in Physical Review Letters.

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The device hoping to answer the ultimate existential questions

The final piece of an all-new detector has completed the first leg of its journey towards unlocking some of the most enduring mysteries of the universe.

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Using sound waves to model the rotational dynamics of inertial many-particle clustering objects

A team of researchers working at the University of Chicago has found a way to use sound waves to model a system for rotational dynamics of inertial many-particle clustering. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the model they created and possible uses for it.

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