Simulations provide a potential explanation for the mysterious gap in the size distribution of super-Earths. Ordinarily, planets in evolved planetary systems, such as the Solar System, follow stable orbits around their central star. However, many indications suggest that some planets might depart from their birthplaces during their early evolution by migrating inward or outward. This planetary migration might also explain an observation that has puzzled researchers for several years: the relatively low number of exoplanets with sizes about twice as…

Gravitational lensing maps from initial data promise even more detail. Argonne is part of a multi-institutional effort to survey the sky for clues about the origins and nature of our universe. For more than five years, scientists at the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica have been observing the sky with an upgraded camera. The extended gaze toward the cosmos is picking up remnant light from the universe’s early formation. Now researchers have analyzed an initial batch of data, publishing details…

The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world’s largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, whilst simultaneously setting a world-record in energy output. Looking inside the Joint European Torus tokamak at pulse #104522 from 3 October 2023, which set a new fusion energy record of 69 megajoules. © United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, courtesy of EUROfusion These notable accomplishments represent a significant milestone in the field of fusion science and engineering….

Researchers at EPFL and the University of Jena Develop Fast and User-Friendly GPT-3 Model for Chemical Tasks. GPT-3, the language model behind the well-known AI system ChatGPT, can also be utilised in chemistry to solve various scientific tasks. This was demonstrated by a team of researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications (HIPOLE) Jena. As reported in the journal “Nature Machine Intelligence”, they circumvented the…

Physicists from the University of Augsburg succeeded to distinguish chiral orders with similar magnetization but opposite sense of rotation through electrical measurements at low temperatures. This is relevant for fundamental research on complex magnets and with respect to possible applications for magnetic data storage. The results were published in the renowned journal Nature Physics. Electrical currents and magnetic forces are directly liked to each other: current carrying cables create a circular magnetic field and vice versa a magnetic field deflects…

Fundamental step toward ultrafast magnetism-based computers comes from multi-institution team involving UCLA. One vision for the future of computing involves using ripples in magnetic fields — called magnons — as a basic mechanism. In this application, magnons would be comparable to electricity as the basis for electronics. In conventional digital technologies, such magnonic systems are expected to be far faster than today’s technologies, from laptops and smartphones to telecommunications. In quantum computing, the advantages of magnonics could include not only…

Bayreuth scientists are investigating the structure and long-term behaviour of galaxies using mathematical models based on Einstein’s theory of relativity. Their innovative approach uses a deep neural network to quickly predict the stability of galaxy models. This artificial intelligence-based method enables efficient verification or falsification of astrophysical hypotheses in seconds. The research objective of Dr Sebastian Wolfschmidt and Christopher Straub is to investigate the structure and long-term behaviour of galaxies. “Since these cannot be fully analysed by astronomical observations, we…

Two-dimensional semiconductors, heralded as the next generation in semiconductor technology, are characterized by their single atomic layer thickness. Due to their ultra-thin structure, two-dimensional semiconductors exhibit remarkable optical properties and provide flexibility, along with excellent integration capability with other materials, for a wide range of applications. Leveraging these attributes, they are being applied in diverse fields such as advanced flexible devices, nanophotonic devices, and solar cells. A key aspect of the optical characteristics in two-dimensional semiconductors is the presence of…

Techniques developed with the Laboratory for Laser Energetics’ OMEGA laser system hold promise for sparking fusion at larger scales. Scientists from the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) led experiments to demonstrate an effective “spark plug” for direct-drive methods of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In two studies published in Nature Physics, the authors discuss their results and outline how they can be applied at bigger scales with the hopes of eventually producing fusion at a future facility. LLE…

Researchers at the universities of Mainz, Olomouc, and Tokyo succeeded in generating a logical qubit from a single light pulse that has the inherent capacity to correct errors. There has been significant progress in the field of quantum computing. Big global players, such as Google and IBM, are already offering cloud-based quantum computing services. However, quantum computers cannot yet help with problems that occur when standard computers reach the limits of their capacities because the availability of qubits or quantum…

At a kick-off meeting in Cologne on January 30, 2024, a group of innovative minds gave the starting signal for a roadmap that will bundle the ongoing activities in the field of quantum technologies at universities, research institutes, start-ups and companies in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The two leading state ministries – for culture and science (MKW) and for economy, industry, climate protection and energy (MWIKE) –have commissioned the coordination office QT.NMWP.NRW and Forschungszentrum Jülich with implementing…

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has recently resolved the jet base of an evolving jet of plasma at ultra-high angular resolution. The international team of scientists used the Earth-size telescope to probe the magnetic structure in the nucleus of the radio galaxy 3C 84 (Perseus A), one of the closest active supermassive black holes in our cosmic neighbourhood. These novel results provide new insight into how jets…

A collaborative group of researchers has potentially developed a means of controlling spin waves by creating a hexagonal pattern of copper disks on a magnetic insulator (shown in Figure 1). The breakthrough is expected to lead to greater efficiency and miniaturization of communication devices in fields such as artificial intelligence and automation technology. Details of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Applied on January 30, 2024. In a magnetic material, the spins of electrons are aligned. When…

A team from TU Dortmund University recently succeeded in producing a highly durable time crystal that lived millions of times longer than could be shown in previous experiments. By doing so, they have corroborated an extremely interesting phenomenon that Nobel Prize laureate Frank Wilczek postulated around ten years ago and which had already found its way into science fiction movies. The results have now been published in Nature Physics. Crystals or, to be more precise, crystals in space, are periodic…

A European XFEL team at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology has tested a mock-up coil of the superconducting undulator pre-series module (S-PRESSO) designed for an upgrade of the European XFEL. It reached a world record magnetic field. Undulators are one of the most important devices for a free-electron laser like the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg. With the help of a series of strong magnets an undulator creates an extremely brilliant light by forcing fast-moving electrons onto a slalom…

MultiLambdaChip project gets underway. Modern optical measurement techniques such as digital holography enable inline quality assurance. Until now, the size and cost of the light sources have prevented these measurement techniques from becoming widely established. As part of the MultiLambdaChip research project, Fraunhofer IPM is developing highly integrated, cost-effective laser light sources for use in digital holography, working in collaboration with HÜBNER Photonics, Carl Zeiss AG, cyberTECHNOLOGIES GmbH and the Laboratory for Optical Systems at the University of Freiburg. The…