A team led by Prof. LI Chuanfeng and Prof. XU Jinshi from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), collaborating with Prof. CHEN Jingling from Nankai University and Prof. Adán Cabello from the University of Seville, studied the single-system version of multipartite Bell nonlocality, and observed the highest degree of quantum contextuality in single system. Their work was published in Physical Review Letters. Quantum contextuality refers to the phenomenon that the…

A team of scientists, led by the researcher at the IAC and the University of La Laguna (ULL) Sebastién Comerón, has found that the galaxy NGC 1277 does not contain dark matter.This is the first time that a massive galaxy (it has a mass several times that of the Milky Way) does not show evidence for this invisible component of the universe. “This result does not fit in with the currently accepted cosmological models, which include dark matter” explains Comerón. In…

Carnegie Mellon University researchers design systems allowing robots to explore on their own. A research group in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute is creating the next generation of explorers — robots. The Autonomous Exploration Research Team has developed a suite of robotic systems and planners enabling robots to explore more quickly, probe the darkest corners of unknown environments, and create more accurate and detailed maps. The systems allow robots to do all this autonomously, finding their way and creating a map without human intervention….

From energy research to metalworking: Everywhere, the laser offers opportunities to do more for a sustainable future. Today, lasers are already being used to weld battery cells for electromobility particularly efficiently. The laser can be used to measure pollutants in the atmosphere, and it is being used to build the quantum internet. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT presented these and other innovations at this year’s LASER World of PHOTONICS and World of QUANTUM in Munich. The LASER trade…

HZDR team takes a closer look at special kind of quasiparticle. Skyrmions are microscopic magnetic vortices that can form in certain materials. First detected in 2009, they are of interest to research because they could be harnessed for new forms of data storage. As theoreticians had predicted, there are also so called antiskyrmions, which were eventually discovered ten years after skyrmions. Researchers from HZDR, MPI CPfS, IFW Dresden, and the University of South Florida used an ion beam saw and…

… to explore airborne viruses and microorganisms. Researchers show millimeter-sized droplets can be levitated over a pool of silicone liquid for a long-term period — and it enables studying the activity of viruses and microorganisms within airborne aerosols. Self-sustained levitation of millimeter-sized droplets was recently discovered by researchers at Tyumen State University, in Russia, during an experiment to select combinations of immiscible liquids, which don’t form homogeneous mixtures. Researchers Natalia Ivanova and Denis Klyuev noticed something amazing happen: Droplets of…

Automated production for different objects. New approach makes it possible to equip objects of arbitrary shapes with smart sensors. Innovative soft sensors are intended for use in robotics and especially in prosthetics. Researchers see major advantages in the seamless and customizable sensor technology versus existing approaches. Researchers from the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an automatic process for making soft sensors. These universal measurement cells can be attached…

Waves produced by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities transfer energy in the solar system. A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that NASA’s Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter’s magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, to planetary space environments. Jake…

Global LiFi technology firms Fraunhofer HHI and pureLiFi welcome the release of IEEE 802.11bb as the latest global light communications standard alongside IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standards. The bb standard marks a significant milestone for the LiFi market, as it provides a globally recognised framework for deployment of LiFi technology. LiFi is a wireless technology that uses light rather than radio frequencies to transmit data. By harnessing the light spectrum, LiFi can unleash faster, more reliable wireless communications with unparalleled security…

A new satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) aims to pry apart high-energy light into the equivalent of an X-ray rainbow. The mission, led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will do this using an instrument called Resolve. XRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on Aug. 25, 2023 (Aug. 26 in Japan). “Resolve will give us a new look into some of the universe’s most energetic objects, including black holes, clusters of…

Waveguiding scheme enables highly confined subnanometer optical fields. Imagine shrinking light down to the size of a tiny water molecule, unlocking a world of quantum possibilities. This has been a long-held dream in the realms of light science and technology. Recent advancements have brought us closer to achieving this incredible feat, as researchers from Zhejiang University have made groundbreaking progress in confining light to subnanometer scales. Traditionally, there have been two approaches to localize light beyond its typical diffraction limit:…

Despite doubts from quantum physics: Research teams from ZARM and Leibniz University Hannover proved Einstein’s theory of relativity with much higher accuracy. The calculations were based on laser measurements of the distance between Moon and Earth. One of the most basic assumptions of fundamental physics is that the different properties of mass – weight, inertia and gravitation – always remain the same in relation to each other. Without this equivalence, Einstein’s theory of relativity would be contradicted and our current…

A simple yet effective design, coupled with remarkable durability and low cost, make this robotic gripper a promising option for many industries. Although grasping objects is a relatively straightforward task for us humans, there is a lot of mechanics involved in this simple task. Picking up an object requires fine control of the fingers, of their positioning, and of the pressure each finger applies, which in turn necessitates intricate sensing capabilities. It’s no wonder that robotic grasping and manipulation is…

Scientists move toward engineering living matter by manipulating movement of microparticles. Breakthrough uses lasers to mimic biological and meteorological systems. A team of scientists has devised a system that replicates the movement of naturally occurring phenomena, such as hurricanes and algae, using laser beams and the spinning of microscopic rotors. The breakthrough, reported in the journal Nature Communications, reveals new ways that living matter can be reproduced on a cellular scale. “Living organisms are made of materials that actively pump…

A new theoretical study provides a framework for understanding nonlocality, a feature that quantum networks must possess to perform operations inaccessible to standard communications technology. By clarifying the concept, researchers determined the conditions necessary to create systems with strong, quantum correlations. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, adapts techniques from quantum computing theory to create a new classification scheme for quantum nonlocality. This not only allowed the researchers to unify prior studies of the concept into a common framework,…

Cooler than a campfire and smaller than Jupiter, this brown dwarf star is a rare find. Astronomers at the University of Sydney have shown that a small, faint star is the coldest on record to produce emission at radio wavelength. The ‘ultracool brown dwarf’ examined in the study is a ball of gas simmering at about 425 degrees centigrade – cooler than a typical campfire – without burning nuclear fuel. By contrast, the surface temperature of the Sun, a nuclear inferno,…