UChicago scientists create method to efficiently calculate quantum phase transitions. From water boiling into steam to ice cubes melting in a glass, we’ve all seen the phenomenon known as a phase transition in our everyday lives. But there’s another type of phase transition that’s much harder to see, but just as stark: quantum phase transitions. When cooled to near absolute zero, certain materials can undergo these quantum phase transitions, which can make a physicist’s jaw drop. The material can flip from being…
In firefighting, the worst flames are the ones you don’t see coming. Amid the chaos of a burning building, it is difficult to notice the signs of impending flashover — a deadly fire phenomenon wherein nearly all combustible items in a room ignite suddenly. Flashover is one of the leading causes of firefighter deaths, but new research suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) could provide first responders with a much-needed heads-up. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Hong…
Our modern understanding of the physical world is based on gauge theories: mathematical models from theoretical physics that describe the interactions between elementary particles (such as electrons or quarks) and explain quantum mechanically three of the fundamental forces of nature: the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces. The fourth fundamental force, gravity, is described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which, while not yet understood in the quantum regime, is also a gauge theory. Gauge theories can also be used to…
Stampede2 supercomputer simulates star seeding, heating effects of primordial black holes. Just milliseconds after the universe’s Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hinder formation of the universe’s first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later? Supercomputer simulations helped investigate this cosmic question, thanks…
Physics connects seismic data to properties of rocks and sediments. A new analysis of seismic data from NASA’s Mars InSight mission has revealed a couple of surprises. The first surprise: the top 300 meters of the subsurface beneath the landing site near the Martian equator contains little or no ice. “We find that Mars’ crust is weak and porous. The sediments are not well-cemented. And there’s no ice or not much ice filling the pore spaces,” said geophysicist Vashan Wright…
The new research project IQ-Sense – Integrated Spin Systems for Quantum Sensors aims to measure physical quantities such as temperature, pressure, magnetic or electric fields with unprecedented precision. Such measurements using quantum sensors are of fundamental importance in the natural and engineering sciences, but also in the life sciences and medicine. The project brings together research groups from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and Technische Universität München (TUM), both in Bavaria, Germany. The complementary expertise represented in the project includes physics, chemistry,…
The fate of the world’s biggest ice sheet still rests in our hands if global temperature increases are kept below the upper limit set by the Paris Agreement on climate change. A new study led by Durham University, UK, shows that the worst effects of global warming on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could be avoided if temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Staying below this limit would see the EAIS – which holds…
Flexible waterproof sensors can control smart devices, such as lamps, music players. Wearable human-machine interface devices, HMIs, can be used to control machines, computers, music players, and other systems. A challenge for conventional HMIs is the presence of sweat on human skin. In Applied Physics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, scientists at UCLA describe their development of a type of HMI that is stretchable, inexpensive, and waterproof. The device is based on a soft magnetoelastic sensor array that converts mechanical pressure…
Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)— in which the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a partner— to study planet formation have made the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk. What’s more, the detection also suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet. The results of the research are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Circumplanetary disks are an amassing of gas, dust, and debris around young planets. These disks give rise to moons and other…
Could lead to therapies for people at risk of sudden rupture due to abdominal aortic aneurysm. An experimental drug therapy protects mice from sudden death due to the rupture of a major blood vessel in the abdomen, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings, available online in Biomaterials Advances, may lead to a new strategy in treating abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition in which the wall of the abdominal aorta —…
The level of collagen type XII in breast tumours plays an important role in triggering the spread of cancer cells around the body. Collagen type XII plays a key role in regulating the organisation of the tumour matrix, reveals a new study from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. A team of scientists led by Associate Professor Thomas Cox, Head of the Matrix and Metastasis lab, also discovered that high levels of collagen XII can trigger breast cancer cells to…
Study debunks accepted assumptions of charging mechanism in rechargeable aqueous zinc-manganese battery cells. While scientists have hoped that rechargeable zinc-manganese dioxide batteries could be developed into a viable alternative for grid storage applications, engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago and their colleagues identified the reasons these zinc-based fuel systems fail. The scientists reached this conclusion after leveraging advanced electron microscopy, electrochemical experiments and theoretical calculations to look closer at how the zinc anode works with the manganese cathode in…
Space may look empty, but it contains extreme temperatures, high levels of background radiation, micrometeoroids, and the unfiltered glare of the Sun. In addition, materials and equipment on the outside of the International Space Station are exposed to atomic oxygen (AO) and other charged particles as it orbits the Earth at the very edge of our atmosphere. Only the hardiest materials, equipment, and organisms can withstand this harsh environment, and scientists conducting research on the orbiting laboratory have identified some of them…
Phytoplankton is the foundation of all life on the planet. Understanding how these photosynthetic organisms react to their ocean environment is important to understanding the rest of the food web. In spite of that, computer models of the global ocean biogeochemistry typically don’t include the day/night (diel) light cycle, even though that cycle is critical for photosynthesis in the ocean’s primary producers. For the first time, scientists from the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have incorporated the…
Computers that think more like human brains are inching closer to mainstream adoption. But many unanswered questions remain. Among the most pressing, what types of materials can serve as the best building blocks to unlock the potential of this new style of computing. For most traditional computing devices, silicon remains the gold standard. However, there is a movement to use more flexible, efficient and environmentally friendly materials for these brain-like devices. In a new paper, researchers from The University of…
An all fiber-based approach to generating special optical beams, called Bessel beams, could open up new applications in imaging, optical trapping and communications. Bessel beams look quite different from the usual Gaussian light beams found in optics. In particular, they possess several interesting properties including self-healing, diffraction-free propagation and the ability to carry orbital angular momentum (OAM). This family of beams — also known as vortex beams with a characteristic ring-like shape and a dark central region — include different…
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