Simulation claims to find solutions to a central mystery in space physics

How are plasma eruptions in near-Earth space formed? Vlasiator, a model designed at the University of Helsinki for simulating near-Earth space, demonstrated that the two central theories on the occurrence of eruptions are simultaneously valid: eruptions are explained by both magnetic reconnection and kinetic instabilities.

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Using laser-based evaporative cooling to chill negatively charged molecules

A team of physicists at the Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität working with colleagues from Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, has developed a laser technique to selectively remove the most energetic ions from a sample, cooling those that remain.

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Discovering evidence of superradiance in the alpha decay of mirror nuclei

Scientists refer to atomic nuclei as "quantum many-body systems" because they are formed by many particles (nucleons, which include neutrons and protons) that interact with each other in complex ways. Nuclei can absorb energy, placing them into excited states. These states then lose energy through decay and may emit different particles. The various processes of decay and particle emission are called decay channels. The interplay between the internal characteristics of the excited states and the different decay channels gives rise to interesting phenomena.

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Unveiling the secrets of liquid iron under extreme conditions

Two new innovative methods describe how to measure the electrical resistivity of liquid iron—such as that found in planetary cores—at extremely high pressures and temperatures. Prior to this, there were no experimental measurements of the electrical resistivity of liquid iron beyond 51 GPa and 2,900 K. These findings will help derive better theoretical models for the puzzling properties of liquid iron.

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New driver for shapes of small quark-gluon plasma drops?

New measurements of how particles flow from collisions of different types of particles at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have provided new insights into the origin of the shape of hot specks of matter generated in these collisions. The results may lead to a deeper understanding of the properties and dynamics of this form of matter, known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP).

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Fondant: Where baking and thermodynamics mix

With their unique appearance, texture, and mouthfeel, fondants have intrigued bakers and physicists for years. They present an appetizing enigma in the world of confectionery, an intriguing combination of sugar, water, and heat that, when manipulated correctly, yields a delectably creamy product.

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Better predictions of wildfire spread may sit above the treetops

When the skies above Palo Alto darkened with smoke from the Camp Fire in 2018, Stanford researcher Hayoon Chung was in a fluid mechanics lab on campus studying how ocean currents flowed over patches of seagrass. She wondered if patterns similar to the ones she observed in her lab experiments might exist in the rapid and seemingly random spread of the nearby wildfires.

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Q&A: Physicist explains how Titan's 'catastrophic implosion' might have happenedand what it meant for those on board

The submersible Titan that had garnered much of the world's attention for the past week experienced a "catastrophic implosion," according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The tragic result, authorities said, is that the five occupants on board are presumed to have died during the implosion.

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Investigating dark matter interactions using optical atomic clocks

Can dark matter interact with photons and influence atomic structure? A case for optical atomic clocks: Two different types of such clocks were compared at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) within the scope of the Collaborative Research Center DQ-mat and the Cluster of Excellence QuantumFrontiers. It is the most accurate search for an interaction of ultralight dark matter with photons to date.

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New hope in search for dark matter as most sensitive instrument of its kind begins first science run

The search for extremely light particles which are thought to be the building blocks of dark matter is underway.

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Researcher discovers new type of atomic nucleus

An experiment performed in the Accelerator Laboratory of University of Jyväskylä, Finland, has succeeded in producing a previously unknown atomic nucleus, 190-Astatine, consisting of 85 protons and 105 neutrons. The nucleus is the lightest isotope of astatine discovered to date.

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Could quantum gravity models arising from holography explain cosmological acceleration?

Theoretical physicists have long been trying to devise a complete theory of gravity that would also account for quantum mechanics phenomena, as existing models do not. Such a theory could collectively explain the many intricate physical and cosmological phenomena observed over the past decades.

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Direct photons point to positive gluon polarization

A new publication by the PHENIX Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provides definitive evidence that gluon "spins" are aligned in the same direction as the spin of the proton they're in. The result, just published in Physical Review Letters, provides theorists with new input for calculating how much gluons—the gluelike particles that hold quarks together within protons and neutrons—contribute to a proton's spin.

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Novel intrinsic transport effect unlocks potential nonlinear applications

Like the blood coursing through our veins, electrons in the heart of our microchips breathe life into our computers. In the race to accelerate and downsize our electronics, there is a growing demand for new techniques and materials to redefine our current technological approaches.

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Penguin propulsion: The physics behind the world's fastest swimming birds

Penguins aren't just cute: they're also speedy. Gentoo penguins are the fastest swimming birds in the world, and that ability comes from their unique and sophisticated wings.

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A new approach to controlling the properties of turbulence

Turbulence, a fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in flow velocity and pressure, has been the topic of countless physics studies. Although turbulence is a very common phenomenon that occurs in nature, manipulating it and controlling its properties had so far proved incredibly challenging.

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Study reveals the existence of the swallowtail catastrophe in non-Hermitian systems

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan University and Southern University of Science and Technology recently unveiled a possible connection between catastrophe theory, an area of mathematics that focuses on modeling sudden changes (i.e., catastrophes) and non-Hermitian physics. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, specifically shows that a structurally rich degeneracy, known as the swallowtail catastrophe, can naturally exist in non-Hermitian systems.

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Q&A: Illuminating physics in the kitchen

It's a place most of us have to visit daily. Sometimes eagerly. Sometimes begrudgingly. But the kitchen also can be a place of scientific discovery.

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Tempest in a teacup: Physicists make breakthrough in creating turbulence

Turbulence is all around us. It's in the swirl of coffee and milk in a latte, unfurling along the wings of airplanes and the sides of cars, churning the blood in your heart after the valve snaps closed. Yet we still don't fully grasp all of its rules.

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New approach for understanding temperature effects on photovoltaic device performance

Photovoltaic technology is indispensable for our ability to mitigate climate change. Nonetheless, more than 70% of the energy made available to us by the sun is wasted in conventional photovoltaic cells. There is little hope for sustainable technological advancement without addressing this issue.

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Physicists make new predictions about the collision of heavy ions at very high relativistic energies

When two heavy ions collide at very high relativistic energies, they penetrate one another, during which they become excited and are slowed down. This "stopping" process can be generated experimentally, as demonstrated on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Europe's CERN research center in Geneva (Switzerland).

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Scientists explain why peanuts 'dance' when dropped in beer

When peanuts are dropped into a pint of beer, they initially sink to the bottom before floating up and "dancing" in the glass.

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Researchers 'split' phonons in step toward new type of quantum computer

When we listen to our favorite song, what sounds like a continuous wave of music is actually transmitted as tiny packets of quantum particles called phonons.

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Gravitational waves innovation could help unlock cosmic secrets

New frontiers in the study of the universe—and gravitational waves—have been opened up following a breakthrough by University of the West of Scotland (UWS) researchers.

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Physicists develop powerful alternative to dynamic density functional theory

Living organisms, ecosystems and the planet Earth are, from a physics point of view, examples of extraordinarily large and complex systems that are not in thermal equilibrium. To physically describe non-equilibrium systems, dynamic density functional theory has been used to date.

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The hunt for elusive axion particles: Experiments suggest better methods for exploring the dark sector

Since axions were first predicted by theory nearly half a century ago, researchers have hunted for proof of the elusive particle, which may exist outside the visible universe, in the dark sector. But how does one find particles that can't be seen?

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Calculation shows why heavy quarks get caught up in the flow

Using some of the world's most powerful supercomputers, a group of theorists has produced a major advance in the field of nuclear physics—a calculation of the "heavy quark diffusion coefficient." This number describes how quickly a melted soup of quarks and gluons—the building blocks of protons and neutrons, which are set free in collisions of nuclei at powerful particle colliders—transfers its momentum to heavy quarks.

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CERN experiment may help physicists work out the content of neutrino beams

At the time of the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, every particle of matter is thought to have been produced together with an antimatter equivalent of opposite electrical charge. But in the present-day universe, there is much more matter than antimatter. Why this is the case is one of physics' greatest questions.

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Elastocaloric cooling system opens door to climate-friendly AC

Air conditioning, refrigeration, and other cooling technologies account for more than 20 percent of today's global energy consumption, while the refrigerants they use have a global warming potential thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide. In a recent study in the journal Science, a team led by Maryland Engineering Professors Ichiro Takeuchi, Reinhard Radermacher, and Yunho Hwang introduced a high-performance elastocaloric cooling system that could represent the next generation of cooling devices.

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Precision nuclear physics in Indium-115 beta decay spectrum using cryogenic detectors

Certain isotopes such as Indium-115 (In-115) are extremely long lived, taking over 100 trillion years for half of the Indium atoms to decay away. These isotopes allow scientists to probe the precise internal processes that govern other extremely long-lived isotopes. New research helps scientists improve the frameworks they use to calculate half-lives and other nuclear properties, such as the structure of the protons/neutrons inside the nucleus.

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A simple solution for nuclear matter in two dimensions

Understanding the behavior of nuclear matter—including the quarks and gluons that make up the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei—is extremely complicated. This is particularly true in our world, which is three dimensional. Mathematical techniques from condensed matter physics that consider interactions in just one spatial dimension (plus time) greatly simplify the challenge.

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Novel insights on the interplay of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force

Outside atomic nuclei, neutrons are unstable particles, with a lifetime of about fifteen minutes. The neutron disintegrates due to the weak nuclear force, leaving behind a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino. The weak nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe, along with the strong force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force.

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Predicting the composition of a steel alloy

Producing energy on Earth through nuclear fusion, the type of reaction that powers the sun, has proven to be a major challenge. The extreme conditions needed for such a reaction require the walls of a nuclear fusion device to be made of a material with a particular set of mechanical properties, including being able to withstand incredibly high temperatures and be shock- and corrosion-resistant. Austenitic steel, a non-magnetic steel with a crystalline structure, is one of the materials considered for use in nuclear fusion devices.

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Examining the propagation of ultrasonic waves through liquids containing encapsulated bubbles

Scientists from the University of Tsukuba obtained a new theoretical equation for the propagation of ultrasonic waves through liquids containing encapsulated bubbles. They found that including the compressibility of the bubble shell was vital for accurately predicting the behavior of sound waves. This work may lead to improved resolution of ultrasound imaging based on the development of improved contrast agents.

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Analysis of lightweight nuclei from gold ion collisions offers insight into primordial matter phase changes

Physicists analyzing data from gold ion smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, are searching for evidence that nails down a so-called critical point in the way nuclear matter changes from one phase to another.

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Thorium-229: How the first nuclear transition can be excited with lasers in the visible wavelength range

The thorium isotope with the mass number 229 (229Th) is highly exciting in many respects—for fundamental physics as well as for future applications, for example in the sense of a nuclear clock.

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