Eternal matter waves. Imagining our everyday life without lasers is difficult. We use lasers in printers, CD players, pointers, measuring devices, and so on. What makes lasers so special is that they use coherent waves of light: all the light inside a laser vibrates completely in sync. Meanwhile, quantum mechanics tells us that particles like atoms should also be thought of as waves. As a result, we can build ‘atom lasers’ containing coherent waves of matter. But can we make…

Researchers created perovskite quantum dot microarrays to achieve better results in full-color light-emitting devices and expand potential applications. Quantum dots color conversion (QDCC) has become a foundational technology in the design of full-color light-emitting devices with dramatically improved color performance. However, conventional QDCC pixels fabricated by inkjet printing, that is commonly used, are still too thin to achieve efficient color conversion. A research team has developed perovskite quantum dots microarrays with strong potential for QDCC applications, including photonics integration, micro-LEDs,…

In the lead-up to the release of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data on July 12, the Webb team is now in the last phase of commissioning the science instruments. The first two instrument modes, NIRCam imaging and NIRISS imaging, have been declared ready for science; watch the “Where is Webb” page as the team works their way through the other 15 instrument modes. After commissioning is finished, the fun – and discoveries – will start: implementing the hundreds of peer-reviewed science programs that have…

A phenomenon that directly proves the existence of quark mass has been observed for the first time in extremely energetic collisions of lead nuclei. A team of physicists working on the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider can boast this spectacular achievement – the observation of the dead cone effect. The objects that make up our physical everyday life can have many different properties. Among these, a fundamental role is played by mass. Despite being so fundamental, mass has…

In a joint experimental-theoretical study, physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), together with collaborators from RIKEN, Japan, investigated the magnetic properties of the isotope helium-3. For the first time, the electronic and nuclear g-factors of the 3He+ ion were measured directly with a relative precision of 10–10. The electron-nucleus magnetic interaction (zero-field hyperfine splitting) was measured with an accuracy improved by two orders of magnitude. The g-factor of the bare 3He nucleus was determined via an…

Combining heavy-ion experiments, astrophysical observations, and nuclear theory. Throughout the Universe, neutron stars are born in supernova explosions that mark the end of the life of massive stars. Sometimes neutron stars are bound in binary systems and will eventually collide with each other. These high-energy, astrophysical phenomena feature such extreme conditions that they produce most of the heavy elements, such as silver and gold. Consequently, neutron stars and their collisions are unique laboratories to study the properties of matter at…

Results may offer new insight into properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP)—the hot mix of fundamental nuclear-matter building blocks that filled the early universe. Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have revealed how certain particle-jets lose energy as they traverse the unique form of nuclear matter created in these collisions. The results, published in Physical Review C, should help them learn about key “transport properties” of this hot particle soup, known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). “By…

… offer new picture of how electrons behave. Princeton scientists have discovered a new quantum state of matter and in the process are rewriting our understanding of the nature of metallic materials. A recent experiment detailed in the journal Nature is challenging our picture of how electrons behave in quantum materials. Using stacked layers of a material called tungsten ditelluride, researchers have observed electrons in two-dimensions behaving as if they were in a single dimension — and in the process…

Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, which routinely sustain many impacts over the course of long and productive science missions in space. Between May 23 and 25, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sustained an impact to one of its primary mirror segments. After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data. Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing. Impacts…

University of Queensland scientists have cracked a problem that’s frustrated chemists and physicists for years, potentially leading to a new age of powerful, efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies. Using quantum mechanics, Professor Ben Powell from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics has discovered a ‘recipe’ which allows molecular switches to work at room temperature. “Switches are materials that can shift between two or more states, such as on and off or 0 and 1, and are the basis of all digital technologies,” Professor Powell…

Clouds of ultralight particles can form around rotating black holes. A team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam and Harvard University now show that these clouds would leave a characteristic imprint on the gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes. Black holes are generally thought to swallow all forms of matter and energy surrounding them. It has long been known, however, that they can also shed some of their mass through a process called superradiance. While this phenomenon is known…

You heard it here first, and then again. If you could immerse yourself in a quantum fluid, you would hear every event twice, because they support two sound waves with different speeds. The researchers in their experiment have realized this remarkable property for the first time in a three-dimensional quantum gas, instead of a quantum liquid. They achieved this result through cooling a gas of potassium atoms trapped by laser beams in ultrahigh vacuum to less than a millionth of…

New photonic devices may have applications in lidar, optical computing and more. Electro-optic modulators, which control aspects of light in response to electrical signals, are essential for everything from sensing to metrology and telecommunications. Today, most research into these modulators is focused on applications that take place on chips or within fiber optic systems. But what about optical applications outside the wire and off the chip, like distance sensing in vehicles? Current technologies to modulate light in free space are…

Astronomers have developed a new code to simulate the formation of a cluster of baby stars. Comparison with the well-known real case of the Orion Nebula shows that its off-center bubble of ionized gas was caused by a massive star that was pushed out of the newborn cluster but is now falling back in. Groups of stars often form together in clouds of cold hydrogen gas. The brightest and most massive stars ionize the surrounding gas, making it too hot…

As far as data security is concerned, there is an even greater danger than remote cyberattacks: namely tampering with hardware that can be used to read out information – such as credit card data from a card reader. Researchers in Bochum have developed a new method to detect such manipulations. They monitor the systems with radio waves that react to the slightest changes in the ambient conditions. Unlike conventional methods, they can thus protect entire systems, not just individual components…

Operation of mass manufacturable photonic sensors at the quantum limit could have applications such as greenhouse gas and cancer detection. Sensors are a constant feature of our everyday lives. Although they often go unperceived, sensors provide critical information essential to modern healthcare, security, and environmental monitoring. Modern cars alone contain over 100 sensors and this number will only increase. Quantum sensing is poised to revolutionise today’s sensors, significantly boosting the performance they can achieve. More precise, faster, and reliable measurements…