Modern astronomy has clung to the belief that the relativistic outflows or jets responsible for the existence of electromagnetic radiation of particularly high energies are located in the nuclei of active galaxies distant from Earth. However, a different picture of reality is emerging from the latest data from the HAWC observatory: also jets launched in astrophysical sources from our own intra-galactic ‘backyard’ turn out to be sources of gamma photons of extremely high energy. Electromagnetic radiation of extremely high energies…

…could be leap toward more energy-efficient supercomputing. Ferroelectric material adapts to light stimuli by reorganizing atomic connectivity on the nanoscale. “Today’s supercomputers and data centers demand many megawatts of power,” said Haidan Wen, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. ​“One challenge is to find materials for more energy-efficient microelectronics. A promising candidate is a ferroelectric material that can be used for artificial neural networks as a component in energy-efficient microelectronics.” Ferroelectric materials can be found…

Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes improve defect detection in weld seams. The International Center for Networked, Adaptive Production (ICNAP) of the three Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes will be presenting an AI-supported analysis system for visual quality control at the SPS trade fair in Nuremberg from November 12 to 14, 2024. In hall 6, booth 6-357, ICNAP will be demonstrating how deep learning can be used to check weld seams on battery cell modules for defects in real time. The use case that the…

It is usually not possible to look inside cloudy liquids, but researchers at the universities of Mainz and Düsseldorf have now managed to do so for the first time. When driving though a bank of fog, car headlights are only of limited help as the light is scattered by the water particles suspended in the air. The situation is similar when you try to observe the inside of a drop of milk in water or the internal structure of an…

Quantum technology enables contactless prosthetics control. A quantum sensor that can register nerve impulses without contact opens up new possibilities in prosthetics. Researchers at Fraunhofer IPA are developing together with the industrial partner Q.ANT the prototype of one Prosthetic arm that is controlled by neural commands like healthy limbs. An amputation changes life irretrievably. A lot of things that were previously routine have to be relearned. Hands and arms are key organs for independent interaction with our environment. Over the…

Can virtual agents strengthen the trust of people with a migration background in the police? A research team from the University of Würzburg has investigated this. The results surprised even those responsible. Intelligent virtual agents can help to strengthen the trust of people with a migration background in institutions such as the police. This is the key finding of a new study by scientists at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). Computer science professor Birgit Lugrin was responsible for this study. She holds…

New technique allows greater integration of synthetic diamonds, improving how both quantum and conventional electronics are built. Synthetic diamond is durable, inert, rigid, thermally conductive and chemically well-behaved—an elite material for both quantum and conventional electronics. But there’s one problem. Diamond only likes diamond. It’s homoepitaxial, meaning it only grows on other diamonds, and integrating diamond into quantum or conventional computers, quantum sensors, cellphones, or other devices would mean sacrificing the diamond’s full potential or using large, expensive chunks of…

World’s largest optical mirror successfully installed on support system prototype for the first time to validate telescope’s extraordinary performance. The Giant Magellan Telescope today announced the successful installation of one of its completed 8.4-meter-diameter primary mirrors into a support system prototype at the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. This highly sophisticated system — comparable in size to half a basketball court and containing three times the number of parts of a typical car — is vital to…

New research achieves significant bandwidth in frequency conversion, paving the way for more efficient quantum information transfer and integrated photonic systems. Advancements in quantum information technology are paving the way for faster and more efficient data transfer. A key challenge has been ensuring that qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information, can be transferred between different wavelengths without losing their essential properties, such as coherence and entanglement. As reported in Advanced Photonics, researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) recently made significant…

Researchers will unveil the app on Oct. 15, at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new system for full-body motion capture — and it doesn’t require specialized rooms, expensive equipment, bulky cameras or an array of sensors. Instead, it requires a simple mobile device. Called MobilePoser, the new system leverages sensors already embedded within consumer mobile devices, including smartphones, smart watches and wireless earbuds. Using a combination of sensor data, machine…

Teleoperated robots for gathering moon dust are a step closer, according to new research by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team were able to complete a sample collection task by controlling a virtual simulation, which then sent commands to a physical robot to mirror the simulation’s actions. They were able to do so while only monitoring the simulation – without needing physical camera streams – meaning this tool could be particularly useful for delayed teleoperation on the Moon….

UDDC Ensures Seamless Transmission of Image Data to Microdisplays. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS have developed a Universal Display Data Converter (UDDC). This enables the transfer of image data to existing Fraunhofer microdisplays from various input interfaces. The new UDDC will be presented for the first time at the joint booth of the Fraunhofer Society in Hall B4, Stand No. B-141, at electronica 2024 in Munich. A data converter is an electronic circuit that transforms data…

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy is one hundred times smaller than the Milky Way, but is surprisingly mature for so early in the universe. Like a large city, this galaxy has a dense collection of stars at its core but becomes less dense in the galactic ‘suburbs’. And like a large city, this…

Experimental findings about plasma wave reflection could answer questions about high temperatures. There is a profound mystery in our sun. While the sun’s surface temperature measures around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its outer atmosphere, known as the solar corona, measures more like 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, about 200 times hotter. This increase in temperature away from the sun is perplexing and has been an unsolved mystery since 1939, when the high temperature of the corona was first identified. In the ensuing…

Scientists visualize and control magnetic domains in quantum antiferromagnets. When something draws us in like a magnet, we take a closer look. When magnets draw in physicists, they take a quantum look. Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University and the University of Tokyo have successfully used light to visualize tiny magnetic regions, known as magnetic domains, in a specialized quantum material. Moreover, they successfully manipulated these regions by the application of an electric field. Their findings offer new insights into the…

A research team led by researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has synthesized a new plutonium isotope, plutonium-227. This study was published in Physical Review C. The magic numbers of protons and neutrons, such as 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126, are correlated with shell closures. In past studies, systematic analyses have revealed a persistent weakening of the neutron shell closure of 126 up to uranium, making it fascinating to explore whether…