Space scientists may need to rethink how gamma-ray bursts are formed after new research led by the University of Bath in the UK shows new-born supramassive stars, not black holes, are sometimes responsible for these huge extragalactic bursts of energy. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been detected by satellites orbiting Earth as luminous flashes of the most energetic gamma-ray radiation lasting milliseconds to hundreds of seconds. These catastrophic blasts occur in distant galaxies, billions of light years from Earth. A sub-type…

Physicists at ETH Zurich developed a versatile dual-comb laser that offers bright prospects for practical applications of optical delay scanning. Ultrafast laser technology has enabled a trove of methods for precision measurements. These include in particular a broad class of pulsed-laser experiments in which a sample is excited and, after a variable amount of time, the response is measured. In such studies, the delay between the two pulses should typically cover the range from femtoseconds to nanoseconds. In practice, scanning…

Indoor & outdoor wayfinding technology for vision-impaired people. Navigating an unfamiliar place is uniquely challenging for people with disabilities. People with blindness, deafblindness, visual impairment or low vision, as well as those who use wheelchairs, can travel more independently in urban areas with the aid of effective wayfinding technology. A new report from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) explores how to leverage low-cost methods to enable people to more easily move through public, urban indoor and outdoor…

H2020 project INSPIRE-5Gplus (https://www.inspire-5gplus.eu/) develops a fully Stand Alone 5G-in-a-Box. New fully Stand Alone 5G-in-a-Box has been integrated, configured and tested by Montimage in the H2020 project INSPIRE-5Gplus (https://www.inspire-5gplus.eu/). It integrates the MMT (Montimage Monitoring Tool) framework for improved analysis and cybersecurity of portable 5G solutions. The 5G-in-a-Box solution includes the following features: 5G-in-a-Box offers a 4G LTE and 5G NSA/SA network platform commercialised by Montimage and Cumucore. It can be used not only for experimental testing but also to…

… with integrated neuromorphic data processing picks up speed. In the Fraunhofer lead project NeurOSmart, five institutes (ISIT, IPMS, IMS, IWU, IAIS)* are jointly researching a particularly energy-efficient and intelligent sensor for the next generation of autonomously acting systems. After just under a year of project work, the Fraunhofer researchers will present the expected sensor system and the hybrid, neuromorphic data processing pipeline at Electronica. The current trend for complex, demanding applications, such as autonomous driving, is toward mobile supercomputers…

Heidelberg physicists demonstrate the coexistence of superfluids in ultracold atomic clouds. Two superfluids can exist at the same time in ultracold atomic clouds. Until now, their coexistence could not be observed experimentally. Now, however, physicists from Heidelberg University have demonstrated such a magnetic quantum fluid – it is fluid in two ways – in an atomic gas. Researchers led by Prof. Dr Markus Oberthaler have succeeded in preparing this state in clouds of ultracold rubidium atoms and to characterise it…

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have discovered a new material, MnBi6Te10, which can be used to create quantum highways along which electrons can move. These electron thoroughfares are potentially useful in connecting the internal components of powerful, energy-efficient quantum computers. When electrons move through traditional metal wires, they lose a small amount of energy—as heat—and some of their intrinsic properties change. Therefore, these wires cannot be used to connect parts of quantum computers…

Using a new experimental method, physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg investigated the resonant two-photon ionisation of helium with improved spectral resolution and angular resolution. For this purpose, they utilised a reaction microscope in combination with a high-resolution extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) photon spectrometer developed at the Institute. The measurements have been performed at the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH), a brilliant radiation source, delivering intense EUV laser flashes. This allows the events from each individual…

Model accounts for scarcity of planets with masses between super-Earths and mini-Neptunes. A new model that accounts for the interplay of forces acting on newborn planets can explain two puzzling observations that have cropped up repeatedly among the more than 3,800 planetary systems cataloged to date. One puzzle known as the “radius valley” refers to the rarity of exoplanets with a radius about 1.8 times that of Earth. NASA’s Kepler spacecraft observed planets of this size about 2-3 times less…

Physicists at Friedrich Schiller University Jena together with European colleagues find a solution for the controllable separation of the undesired bonding between nano-components. Physicists from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, together with colleagues from Düsseldorf, Gothenburg, Lyngby and Trieste have developed an ingenious solution for separating bonded nano-components. Their idea is to immerse the nano-components in a solvent near its critical point. In the experimental setup, they succeeded in separating the components in a controllable fashion by only changing the temperature…

Radiation damage to photovoltaics in orbit can be reduced by making the cells thinner. Most space satellites are powered by photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity. Exposure to certain types of radiation present in orbit can damage the devices, degrading their performance and limiting their lifetime. In Journal of Applied Physics, by AIP Publishing, scientists from the University of Cambridge proposed a radiation-tolerant photovoltaic cell design that features an ultrathin layer of light-absorbing material. When solar cells absorb light,…

Researchers prototype a new generation of quantum microscopy. While quantum computing seems like the big-ticket item among the developing technologies based on the behaviour of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level, another direction promises to open a new door for scientific research itself – quantum microscopy. With the advance of quantum technologies, new microscopy modalities are becoming possible – ones that can see electric currents, detect fluctuating magnetic fields, and even see single molecules on a surface….

Frontera, Stampede2 supercomputer simulations help reveal novel exciton. If you hold one wire mesh on top of another one and look through it, you’ll see a larger pattern called a moiré pattern formed by the overlapping grids of the two meshes, which depends on their relative twisted angle. Scientists developing new materials are actively studying moiré patterns in overlapping atomically thin materials — they produce intriguing electronic phenomena that includes unconventional superconductivity and ferromagnetism. Supercomputer simulations have helped scientists reveal in a bilayer…

Humans cause too much waste not only on Earth. Space debris is also becoming an ever greater problem. To make satellite systems more sustainable, they should be created in a modular system in the future so that individual components can be replaced, thus extending the service life of the satellites. To ensure a problem-free interface between the components, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS has developed a transceiver that guarantees data transfer between the components. This was integrated into…

IceCube telescope: High-energy neutrinos discovered in galaxy NGC 1068. For over ten years the IceCube Observatory in the Antarctic has been monitoring the light traces of extragalactic neutrinos. While evaluating the observatory’s data, an international research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) discovered a high-energy neutrino radiation source in the active galaxy NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77. The universe is full of mysteries. One of these mysteries involves active galaxies with gigantic black holes located…

Konstanz physicists make a surprising discovery when they detect surface melting in glasses. In 1842, the famous British researcher Michael Faraday made an amazing observation by chance: A thin layer of water forms on the surface of ice, even though it is well below zero degrees. So the temperature is below the melting point of ice, yet the surface of the ice has melted. This liquid layer on ice crystals is also why snowballs stick together. It was not until…