New single-mode semiconductor laser delivers power with scalability

Berkeley engineers have created a new type of semiconductor laser that accomplishes an elusive goal in the field of optics: the ability to maintain a single mode of emitted light while maintaining the ability to scale up in size and power. It is an achievement that means size does not have to come at the expense of coherence, enabling lasers to be more powerful and to cover longer distances for many applications.  

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New kirigami-inspired models predict how new metamaterials behave

A traditional paper crane is a feat of artistry. Every fold in origami leads to the transformation of a single square sheet of paper into a bird, a dragon, or a flower. Origami discourages gluing, marking or cutting the paper, but in the art of kirigami, strategically placed cuts can transform the shape of the paper even further, creating complex structures from simple slits. A well-known example of this is a pop-up book, where depending on how the flat paper is cut, a different set of shapes—a heart, a frog, a set of skyscrapers—will emerge when the book is opened.

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Study identifies a tidal disruption event that coincides with the production of a high-energy neutrino

High-energy neutrinos are highly fascinating subatomic particles produced when very fast charged particles collide with other particles or photons. IceCube, a renowned neutrino detector located at the South Pole, has been detecting extragalactic high-energy neutrinos for almost a decade.

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Discovering a hybrid skin-topological effect induced by gain and loss

Recently, Associate Professor Yong-Chun Liu of the Department of Physics and others have found the hybrid skin-topological effect induced by gain and loss and the parity-time phase transition between skin-topological modes. The research results were published in Physical Review Letters under the title of "Gain-loss-induced hybrid skin-topological effect."

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The contagious capacity of a single drop of saliva analyzed for the first time

A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has established that the two-meter safety distance may be reasonable for preventing COVID-19 infection

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Following ultrafast magnetization dynamics in depth

The future development of functional magnetic devices based on ultrafast optical manipulation of spins requires an understanding of the depth-dependent spin dynamics across the interfaces of complex magnetic heterostructures. A novel technique to obtain such an "in depth" and time-resolved view on the magnetization has now been demonstrated at the Max Born Institute in Berlin, employing broadband femtosecond soft X-ray pulses to study the transient evolution of magnetization depth profiles within a magnetic thin film system.

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A way to keep objects levitated by sound from falling due to interference

A team of researchers at University College London has developed a way to keep objects levitated by sound waves airborne when other objects interfere with the levitation path. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their self-correcting levitation system.

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Electrons take the fast and slow lanes at the same time

Imagine a road with two lanes in each direction. One lane is for slow cars, and the other is for fast ones. For electrons moving along a quantum wire, researchers in Cambridge and Frankfurt have discovered that there are also two "lanes," but electrons can take both at the same time!

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New device gets scientists closer to quantum materials breakthrough

Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new photonic device that could get scientists closer to the "holy grail" of finding the global minimum of mathematical formulations at room temperature. Finding that illusive mathematical value would be a major advancement in opening new options for simulations involving quantum materials.

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Experiment results confirm anomaly, could point to new elementary particle

New scientific results confirm an anomaly seen in previous experiments, which may point to an as-yet-unconfirmed new elementary particle, the sterile neutrino, or indicate the need for a new interpretation of an aspect of standard model physics, such as the neutrino cross section, first measured 60 years ago. Los Alamos National Laboratory is the lead American institution collaborating on the Baksan Experiment on Sterile Transitions (BEST) experiment, results of which were recently published in the journals Physical Review Letters and Physical Review C.

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Quantum simulator shows how parts of electrons move at different speeds in 1D

A quantum simulator at Rice University is giving physicists a clear look at spin-charge separation, the quantum world's version of the magician's illusion of sawing a person in half.

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Researchers model accelerator magnets' history using machine learning approach

After a long day of work, you might feel tired or exhilarated. Either way, you are affected by what happened to you in the past.

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The direct detection of a topological phase transition through a sign change in the Berry curvature dipole

The Berry curvature and Chern number are crucial topological qualities of a quantum mechanical origin characterizing the electron wave function of materials. These two elements play a very important role in determining the properties of specific materials.

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Ultrafast lasers used to probe next-generation solar cells

Researchers have tracked the first fractions of a second after light strikes solar cells, providing insights into how they produce electricity.

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Can we time travel? A theoretical physicist provides some answers

Time travel makes regular appearances in popular culture, with innumerable time travel storylines in movies, television and literature. But it is a surprisingly old idea: one can argue that the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles over 2,500 years ago, is the first time travel story.

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A model that can predict the exact quasi-particle properties of heavy Fermi polarons

Physicists studying quantum many-body physics very rarely reach exact solutions or conclusions, particularly in more than one dimension. This is also true for the Fermi polaron problem, describing instances in which the many-body quantum background is a non-interacting Fermi gas.

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New, highly tunable composite materials—with a twist

Watch for the patterns created as the circles move across each other. Those patterns, created by two sets of lines offset from each other, are called moiré (pronounced mwar-AY) effects. As optical illusions, moiré patterns create neat simulations of movement. But at the atomic scale, when one sheet of atoms arranged in a lattice is slightly offset from another sheet, these moiré patterns can create some exciting and important physics with interesting and unusual electronic properties.

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Information energy accounts for dark energy, resolves Hubble tension, avoids the 'big chill,' and is falsifiable

Stellar heated gas and dust has an entropy, or information content, with an equivalent energy of 1070 joules, directly comparable to the mc2 equivalent energy of the universe baryon mass. In a study published in Entropy, Professor Paul Gough at the University of Sussex shows that this information energy can account for the dark energy causing the accelerating universe expansion.

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Room-temperature molecular switch discovery paves the way for faster computers, longer-lasting batteries

University of Queensland scientists have cracked a problem that's frustrated chemists and physicists for years, potentially leading to a new age of powerful, efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies.

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New insights into neutron star matter

An international research team has for the first time combined data from heavy-ion experiments, gravitational wave measurements and other astronomical observations using advanced theoretical modeling to more precisely constrain the properties of nuclear matter as it can be found in the interior of neutron stars. The results were published in the journal Nature.

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Examining the odd locomotion of microswimmers

Being odd can be a good thing, particularly when you are a microscopic cellular organism trying to go places.

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'Urban canyons' prolong sonic booms in cities

Twenty years after the retirement of the Concorde, several industrial and research projects want to make supersonic flight a reality again. However, supersonic planes produce sonic booms loud enough to warrant noise concerns and regulations, limiting their use over land.

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New model offers physics-inspired rankings evaluation

The world is rife with rankings and orderings. They show up in tennis—as in the French Open, which ends with a final ranking of champion players. They show up in pandemics—as when public health officials can record new infections and use contact tracing to sketch networks of COVID-19 spread. Systems of competition, conflict, and contagion can all give rise to hierarchies.

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Origin of the boson peak in amorphous solids

Scientists from the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo used molecular dynamics simulations to better understand the unusual properties of amorphous solids, such as glass. They found that certain dynamical defects help explain the allowed vibrational modes inside the material. This work may lead to controlling the properties of amorphous materials.

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Uncorking champagne bottle produces supersonic shock waves

Opening a bottle of champagne traditionally marks the beginning of a festive celebration. Following the fun pop of the cork, a fizz of bubbles releases into the air, and finally, there is the pleasant tingle on the tongue.

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Physicists announce first results from Daya Bay's final dataset

Over nearly nine years, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment captured an unprecedented five and a half million interactions from subatomic particles called neutrinos. Now, the international team of physicists of the Daya Bay collaboration has reported the first result from the experiment's full dataset—the most precise measurement yet of theta13, a key parameter for understanding how neutrinos change their "flavor." The result, announced today at the Neutrino 2022 conference in Seoul, South Korea, will help physicists explore some of the biggest mysteries surrounding the nature of matter and the universe.

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A new duality solves a physics mystery

In conventional wisdom, producing a curved space requires distortions, such as bending or stretching a flat space. A team of researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new method to create curved spaces that also solves a mystery in physics. Without any physical distortions of physical systems, the team has designed a scheme using non-Hermiticity, which exists in any systems coupled to environments, to create a hyperbolic surface and a variety of other prototypical curved spaces.

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Discovery of new mechanisms to control the flow of sound

Using a network of vibrating nano-strings controlled with light, researchers from AMOLF have made sound waves move in a specific irreversible direction and attenuated or amplified the waves in a controlled manner for the first time. This gives rise to a lasing effect for sound. To their surprise, they discovered new mechanisms, so-called "geometric phases," with which they can manipulate and transmit sound in systems where that was thought to be impossible. "This opens the way to new types of (meta)materials with properties that we do not yet know from existing materials," says group leader Ewold Verhagen who, together with shared first authors Javier del Pino and Jesse Slim, publishes the surprising results on June 2 in Nature.

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