Team accomplishes precise measurements of the heaviest atoms

An international research team has successfully conducted ultra-precise X-ray spectroscopic measurements of helium-like uranium. The team, which includes researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Institute Jena (both in Germany), has achieved results demonstrating their success in disentangling and separately testing one-electron two-loop and two-electron quantum electrodynamic effects for extremely strong Coulomb fields of the heaviest nuclei for the first time.

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New method flips the script on topological physics

The branch of mathematics known as topology has become a cornerstone of modern physics thanks to the remarkable—and above all reliable—properties it can impart to a material or system. Unfortunately, identifying topological systems, or even designing new ones, is generally a tedious process that requires exactly matching the physical system to a mathematical model.

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Rare decay of the Higgs boson may point to physics beyond the Standard Model

Particle physicists have detected a novel decay of the Higgs boson for the first time, revealing a slight discrepancy in the predictions of the Standard Model and perhaps pointing to new physics beyond it. The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Physics of V-shaped flight formations offer insights into energy efficiency

Birds have inspired human flight for centuries, but Shabnam Raayai thinks they can also offer lessons in reducing energy consumption.

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Validating the low-rank hypothesis in complex systems

In a new study, scientists have investigated the pervasive low-rank hypothesis in complex systems, demonstrating that despite high-dimensional nonlinear dynamics, many real networks exhibit rapidly decreasing singular values, supporting the feasibility of effective dimension reduction for understanding and modeling complex system behaviors.

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Gravity helps show strong force strength in the proton

The power of gravity is writ large across our visible universe. It can be seen in the lock step of moons as they circle planets; in wandering comets pulled off-course by massive stars; and in the swirl of gigantic galaxies. These awesome displays showcase gravity's influence at the largest scales of matter. Now, nuclear physicists are discovering that gravity also has much to offer at matter's smallest scales.

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The physics behind 300-year-old firefighting methods could inform knowledge of how our hearts work

Today, water pressure technology is ubiquitous, and any person who showers, waters a garden, or fights fires is benefiting from the technology devised to harness it. In the 17th and 18th centuries, though, a steady stream of water not punctuated by pressure drops was a major breakthrough.

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Astrophysicists offer theoretical proof of traversable wormholes in the expanding universe

The expansion of the universe at some stage of evolution is well described by the Friedmann model. It was derived from general relativity a hundred years ago, but it is still considered one of the most important and relevant cosmological models.

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Unlocking the secrets of the universe through neutrinoless double beta decay

The discovery that neutrinos have mass was groundbreaking. However, their absolute mass remains unknown. Neutrinoless double beta decay experiments aim to determine whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles and, if so, provide a means to determine the mass of the neutrino species involved.

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Investigating the role of 'random walks' in particle diffusion

Several recent experiments identify unusual patterns in particle diffusion, hinting at some underlying complexity in the process which physicists have yet to discover. Through new analysis published in The European Physical Journal B, Adrian Pacheco-Pozo and Igor Sokolov at Humboldt University of Berlin show how this behavior emerges through strong correlations between the positions of diffusing particles traveling along similar trajectories.

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A means for tuning friction on a flat surface without the use of math

A team of microsystems engineers at Université de Lyon, École Centrale de Lyon has developed a method to create a desired amount of friction between two flat surfaces without resorting to math. Their project is reported in the journal Science. Viacheslav Slesarenko and Lars Pastewka, both with the University of Freiburg, have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue, outlining the work done by the team in France.

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Astrophysicist proposes a new theory of gravity without a conservation law

The general theory of relativity is based on the concept of curved space–time. To describe how the energy and momentum of fields are distributed in space–time, as well as how they interact with the gravitational field, a special mathematical construct is used—the energy–momentum tensor. This is a kind of analog of energy and momentum in ordinary mechanics.

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Study suggests that physical processes can have hidden neural network-like abilities

We tend to separate the brain and the muscle—the brain does the thinking; the muscle does the doing. The brain takes in complex information about the world and makes decisions, and the muscle merely executes. This has also shaped how we think about a single cell; some molecules within cells are seen as 'thinkers' that take in information about the chemical environment and decide what the cell needs to do for survival; separately, other molecules are seen as the 'muscle,' building structures needed for survival.

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Discovery of low-lying isomeric states in cesium-136 has applications in particle astrophysics

Large, low-background detectors using xenon as a target medium are widely used in fundamental physics, particularly in experiments searching for dark matter or studying rare decays of atomic nuclei. In these detectors, the weak interaction of a neutral particle—such as a neutrino—with a xenon-136 nucleus can transform it into a cesium-136 nucleus in a high-energy excited state.

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Efficiency asymmetry: Scientists report fundamental asymmetry between heating and cooling

A new study led by scientists from Spain and Germany has found a fundamental asymmetry showing that heating is consistently faster than cooling, challenging conventional expectations and introducing the concept of "thermal kinematics" to explain this phenomenon. The findings are published in Nature Physics.

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Scientists propose a self-organizing model of connectivity that applies across a wide range of organisms

A study by physicists and neuroscientists from the University of Chicago, Harvard and Yale describes how connectivity among neurons comes about through general principles of networking and self-organization, rather than the biological features of an individual organism.

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Physicists identify overlooked uncertainty in real-world experiments

The equations that describe physical systems often assume that measurable features of the system—temperature or chemical potential, for example—can be known exactly. But the real world is messier than that, and uncertainty is unavoidable. Temperatures fluctuate, instruments malfunction, the environment interferes, and systems evolve over time.

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Image: Micro-world within an atomic clock

What looks like an aerial shot of an alien landscape is actually a scanning electron microscope view of a test glass surface, acquired as part of a project to improve the lifetime of spaceborne atomic clocks, found at the heart of navigation satellites. Each sharp plasma-etched feature seen here is smaller than 10 micrometers—a hundredth of a millimeter—across.

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Tahoe avalanche: What causes seemingly safe snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and avid skier explains

An avalanche swept up skiers at Lake Tahoe's largest ski resort on Jan. 10, 2024, as a 150-foot-wide sheet of snow slid down a mountain slope into a pile 10 feet deep. One person died in the avalanche, and three others were rescued, according to the Placer County Sheriff's Office in Auburn, California. The slide happened in steep terrain near the KT-22 chairlift, which had just opened for the season that morning.

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Q&A: Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 passengers likely would have died if blowout occurred above 40,000 feet, says physicist

If the Alaska Airlines plane that lost a portion of its fuselage while ascending after takeoff Friday had been flying at normal cruising altitude, its passengers and crew would probably have died from the depressurization event, according to a Northeastern expert.

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