Mathematical model provides bolt of understanding for lightning-produced X-rays

In the early 2000s, scientists observed lightning discharge producing X-rays comprising high energy photons—the same type used for medical imaging. Researchers could recreate this phenomenon in the lab, but they could not fully explain how and why lightning produced X-rays. Now, two decades later, a Penn State-led team has discovered a new physical mechanism explaining naturally occurring X-rays associated with lightning activity in the Earth's atmosphere.

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Researchers elucidate the complexity of flames

A research team, led by Professor Yuji Nakamura of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology, discovered that the flickering of flames can be freely controlled by moving two flames closer together or further apart. Until now, it had been known that interference between flames separated by a certain distance causes the flames to flicker during in-phase or anti-phase. However, it was not possible to stably express the state of "stopping the flickering of flames" that should occur under critical conditions where the phase changes.

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DUNE collaboration tests new technology for second detector module

In recent months, the neutrino research facility at the European laboratory CERN has been bustling with activity. Scientists, engineers and technicians from around the world have gathered there to assemble a large prototype of a new particle detector to study the neutrino, one of the most mysterious types of particles in the universe.

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DUNE collaboration ready to ramp up mass production for first detector module

Preparations for the construction of the first detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment are rapidly progressing. Members of the international DUNE collaboration have begun the final tests of detector components that will be shipped to South Dakota. There they will become part of a one-of-a-kind experiment designed to study some of the most elusive particles in the universe: neutrinos.

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Controlling turbulent heat transport by manipulating coherent structures

This topic is reviewed by Prof. Ke-Qing Xia (Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China) and his collaborators, mainly based on their research work over the past ten years.

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Experiment finds gluon mass in the proton

Nuclear physicists may have finally pinpointed where in the proton a large fraction of its mass resides. A recent experiment carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has revealed the radius of the proton's mass that is generated by the strong force as it glues together the proton's building block quarks. The result was recently published in Nature.

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Scientists solve mystery of cubic ice

Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have made a major breakthrough in the study of ice by confirming the formation of pure-phase cubic ice at low-temperature interfaces.

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Tiny yet hazardous: New study shows aerosols produced by contaminated bubble bursting are far smaller than predicted

A cold sparkling water. Waves crashing on the beach. The crackle of a bonfire. Steam from a kettle.

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New neutrino detection method using water

Research published in the journal Physical Review Letters conducted by an international team of scientists including Joshua Klein, the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, has resulted in a significant breakthrough in detecting neutrinos.

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A more accurate way to track the sources of illegally trafficked radioactive materials

A team of nuclear physicists and engineers from Sun Yat-sen University and the China Academy of Engineering Physics, both in China, has developed a more accurate way to track the sources of illegally trafficked radioactive materials. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their new method and its accuracy.

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ATLAS and CMS observe simultaneous production of four top quarks

Today, at the Moriond conference, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have both presented the observation of a very rare process: the simultaneous production of four top quarks. They were observed using data from collisions during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

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An experimental method for examining ultra-light dark matter using millimeter-wave sensing

There may have been more than one way to bring the biblical Goliath down, but David chose to attack using a small stone with a slingshot.

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To uncover new fluid flow laws, researchers turn to drinking straws

A team of researchers has uncovered new laws governing the flow of fluids through experiments on a technology thousands of years old: a drinking straw. This knowledge could be useful for improving fluid handling in medical and engineering applications.

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Improved ATLAS result weighs in on the W boson

The W boson, a fundamental particle that carries the charged weak force, is the subject of a new precision measurement of its mass by the ATLAS experiment at CERN.

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The multiverse: How we're tackling the challenges facing the theory

The idea of a multiverse consisting of "parallel universes" is a popular science fiction trope, recently explored in the Oscar-winning movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." However, it is within the realm of scientific possibility.

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Is there a multiverse?

Interest in the multiverse theory, suggesting that our universe is just one of many, spiked following the release of the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." The film follows Evelyn Wang on her journey to connect with versions of herself in parallel universes to ultimately stop the destruction of the multiverse.

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New possibilities in the theoretical prediction of particle interactions

How does the world look like at the smallest scales? This is a question scientists are trying to answer in particle collider experiments like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. To compare the results of these experiments, theoretical physicists need to provide more and more precise predictions based on our current model for the interactions of fundamental particles, the so called standard model.

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A new and efficient particle resuspension prediction model based on quasi-static moment equilibrium

A team of researchers explored the resuspension mechanism of deposited particles under the action of airflow. Using advanced image detection technology and numerical simulation method, a particle resuspension model based on quasi-static moment equilibrium was developed. The model takes into account the influence of flow characteristics, particle morphology, and rough wall surface, which improves the accuracy of the prediction of resuspension phenomenon, and can be applied to the traceability analysis of pollutants.

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Scientists find a common thread linking subatomic color glass condensate and massive black holes

Physicists have discovered a remarkable correspondence between dense states of gluons—the gluelike carriers of the strong nuclear force within atomic nuclei—and enormous black holes in the cosmos.

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Team first to detect neutrinos made by a particle collider

In a scientific first, a team led by physicists at the University of California, Irvine has detected neutrinos created by a particle collider. The discovery promises to deepen scientists' understanding of the subatomic particles, which were first spotted in 1956 and play a key role in the process that makes stars burn.

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Superconducting amplifiers deliver high performance at lower power consumption

Researchers have devised a new concept of superconducting microwave low-noise amplifiers for use in radio wave detectors for radio astronomy observations, and they have successfully demonstrated a high-performance cooled amplifier with power consumption three orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional cooled semiconductor amplifiers. This result is expected to contribute to the realization of large-scale multi-element radio cameras and error-tolerant quantum computers, both of which require a large number of low-noise microwave amplifiers.

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Laboratory-developed high explosives mitigate risk of accidental detonation

In an effort to mitigate accidental detonations of stored explosives, a multidisciplinary team of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists developed a way to create "switchable" high explosives that won't detonate unless activated by being filled with an inert fluid, such as water. Their findings were published March 17 in Physical Review Letters.

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Fundamental constants: Is the universe fine-tuned for life?

Imagine a universe with extremely strong gravity. Stars would be able to form from very little material. They would be smaller than in our universe and live for a much shorter amount of time. But could life evolve there? It took human life billions of years to evolve on Earth under the pleasantly warm rays from the Sun after all.

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The multiverse: Our universe is suspiciously unlikely to exist—unless it is one of many, says physicist

It's easy to envisage other universes, governed by slightly different laws of physics, in which no intelligent life, nor indeed any kind of organized complex systems, could arise. Should we therefore be surprised that a universe exists in which we were able to emerge?

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A crystal, but not as we know it

When we think of crystals, we think of ice, kitchen salt, quartz, and so on—hard solids whose shapes show a regular pattern.

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Observations open door to improved luminous efficiency of organic LEDs

Electroluminescence is the production of light with an electrical current, without relying on heat or chemical reactions. This makes electroluminescent lights reliable and highly efficient: they are used as backlights in digital watches and in the displays of Apollo space shuttle guidance computers. Like OLEDs, light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs)—which emit light through electroluminescence—have undergone many technological advancements. Close examination of the processes that lead to luminescence is essential for improving luminescence efficiency, however, until now there has been no experimental method for examining these processes directly.

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New bubble popping theory could help track ocean pollution and viruses

Bubbles are fun for everyone. But, it turns out, they can also be little menaces.

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Neutron-rich nuclei reveal how heavy elements form

Models for how heavy elements are produced within stars have become more accurate thanks to measurements by RIKEN nuclear physicists of the probabilities that 20 neutron-rich nuclei will shed neutrons.

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Physics model could optimize basketball player positioning

A physics theory that's proven useful to predict the crowd behavior of molecules and fruit flies also seems to work in a very different context—a basketball court.

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A surprising way to trap a microparticle

When physicists recently steered a tiny microparticle toward a cylindrical obstacle, they expected one of two outcomes to occur. The particle would either collide into the obstacle or sail around it. The particle, however, did neither.

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Researchers searching for decay of nature's rarest isotope announce initial measurements

On Feb. 23, researchers announced initial measurements from an experiment searching for the decay of metastable isomer tantalum-180. The measurements were based on the first 229 days of data-taking from the experiment located nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.

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Laser shots could spark additional discoveries in astrophysics

In December, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory made headlines worldwide. Scientists at the NIF performed the first nuclear fusion experiment in which the energy produced from fusion exceeded the amount of energy directly applied to the fuel to ignite it. This first-of-its-kind result will provide invaluable insight into the potential for clean energy from fusion.

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LHCb begins using unique approach to process collision data in real-time

Current technology does not allow all Large Hadron Collider (LHC) proton–proton collision data to be stored and analyzed. It is therefore necessary to filter out the data according to the scientific goals of each experiment. Physicists call this selection process the "trigger."

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The final results of the Majorana collaboration's search for neutrinoless double-beta decay

For more than half a decade, the Majorana Collaboration, a large consortium of researchers from different universities worldwide, have been trying to observe neutrinoless double-beta decay, one of the rarest forms of radioactive decay. This was done using the Majorana Demonstrator, a detector located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, a laboratory that is almost 1 mile underground.

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