Licenses awarded to make GESTRA ready for series production. Sensor specialist HENSOLDT has agreed to cooperate with the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Technology FHR with the aim of transforming the technology demonstrator GESTRA (German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar) into a series-production ready, operationally deployable system called Custodian. To this end, HENSOLDT has acquired the necessary licenses from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and concluded a cooperation agreement. The prototype was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for High…

A new study reports the first experimental creation of a quantum potential with energies given by sequences of prime numbers, paving the way for a new approach to the investigation of mathematical problems related to number theory using quantum physics. Do you want to know whether a very large integer is a prime number or not? Or if it is a ‘lucky number’? A new study by SISSA, carried out in collaboration with the University of Trieste and the University…

An Israeli first: One of world’s most advanced satellite observatories. The Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University has built the first ground station in Israel – and among the most advanced in the world – for tracking, sensing, hyperspectral imaging, and optical and quantum communication with satellites in orbit around the Earth. The station includes a satellite observatory dome with a diameter of 4.25 meters, a tracking system, a primary high-speed camera and secondary tracking cameras,…

A previously unknown phase transition in the early universe. Think of bringing a pot of water to the boil: As the temperature reaches the boiling point, bubbles form in the water, burst and evaporate as the water boils. This continues until there is no more water changing phase from liquid to steam. This is roughly the idea of what happened in the very early universe, right after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago. The idea comes from particle physicists…

Drones are operating increasingly in areas out of sight of the person controlling them. However, conventional remote controls have a limited range, which makes them unsuitable for these flights. On the other hand, simple mobile network-based systems have so far been unable to guarantee a reliable connection when mobile network loads are high or where there is a lack of network coverage. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI have joined forces with partners in the SUCOM project…

The ‘mirrors’ exist for only a fragment of time but could help to reduce the size of ultra-high power lasers, which currently occupy buildings the size of aircraft hangars, to university basement sizes. They have potential to be developed into a variety of plasma-based, high damage-threshold optical elements that could lead to small footprint, ultra-high-power, ultra-short pulse laser systems. The new way of producing mirrors, and other optical components, points the way to developing the next generation high power lasers,…

Some of the most exciting topics in modern physics, such as high-temperature superconductors and some proposals for quantum computers, come down to the exotic things that happen when these systems hover between two quantum states. Unfortunately, understanding what’s happening at those points, known as quantum critical points, has proved challenging. The math is frequently too hard to solve, and today’s computers are not always up to the task of simulating what happens, especially in systems with any appreciable number of…

Commercial aviation uses radar technology in their air traffic control systems to guarantee safe and smooth flights everywhere. For the AKIRA project, Fraunhofer researchers have teamed up with industry partners to develop a novel ground-based radar platform to take the same monitoring capabilities to the world of unmanned aviation. Their vision is one of secure passenger and cargo flights with automated drones in the skies above Germany’s urban centers. Starting on 28 February, a special two-day workshop on »Drone Technology…

LMU physicists have shown how fluid flows influence the formation of complex patterns. The formation of patterns is a universal phenomenon that underlies fundamental processes in biology. An example are the concentration patterns of proteins, which direct vital cellular processes, including cell division, polarity, and movement. These protein patterns arise from the interplay of chemical reactions and the spatial transport of proteins. Transport can occur either passively (through diffusion) or actively (through flows). Unlike diffusion, transport by flows exhibits a…

Scientists couple terahertz radiation with spin waves. An international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has developed a new method for the efficient coupling of terahertz waves with much shorter wavelengths, so-called spin waves. As the experts report in the journal Nature Physics (DOI:  10.1038/s41567-022-01908-1), their experiments, in combination with theoretical models, clarify the fundamental mechanisms of this process previously thought impossible. The results are an important step for the development of novel, energy-saving spin-based technologies for data…

… paves the way for efficient quantum computers. The method, developed by University of Rochester scientists, overcomes the limitations of electron spin resonance. Quantum science has the potential to revolutionize modern technology with more efficient computers, communication, and sensing devices. Challenges remain in achieving these technological goals, however, including how to precisely manipulate information in quantum systems. In a paper published in Nature Physics, a group of researchers from the University of Rochester, including John Nichol, an associate professor of physics, outlines a new method…

A quick electric pulse completely flips the material’s electronic properties, opening a route to ultrafast, brain-inspired, superconducting electronics. With some careful twisting and stacking, MIT physicists have revealed a new and exotic property in “magic-angle” graphene: superconductivity that can be turned on and off with an electric pulse, much like a light switch. The discovery could lead to ultrafast, energy-efficient superconducting  transistors for neuromorphic devices — electronics designed to operate in a way similar to the rapid on/off firing of…

Digitalization, automation and efficiency are the buzzwords of the industry of the future. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS develops customer-specific sensors, actuators and optical components. These represent the key technologies for IoT and numerous future applications with artificial intelligence. Fraunhofer IPMS is one of the leading research institutes for the development and manufacture of electronic, mechanical and optical components and devices and their integration into intelligent systems. With its innovative micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and micro-opto-electro-mechanical…

Shining light on a water droplet creates effects analogous to what happens in an atom. This can help us understand how atoms work, write researchers from the University of Gothenburg in a new journal article. If you whisper by the wall in the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, you’ll discover that the sound bounces off the dome’s walls all the way around and is audible on the opposite side. Which is why the Cathedral’s dome has been dubbed…

Star’s sudden 2020 slowdown allows for test of ‘anti-glitch’ theory. On Oct. 5, 2020, the rapidly rotating corpse of a long-dead star about 30,000 light years from Earth changed speeds. In a cosmic instant, its spinning slowed. And a few days later, it abruptly started emitting radio waves. Thanks to timely measurements from specialized orbiting telescopes, Rice University astrophysicist Matthew Baring and colleagues were able to test a new theory about a possible cause for the rare slowdown, or “anti-glitch,”…

Models capture how solar wind charge exchange events are observed. Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used numerical methods to model the variations observed in soft X-ray signals detected by X-ray satellites. They analyzed data from the Suzaku telescope and compared it with modeling of solar winds interacting with the most upper parts of our atmosphere. They succeeded in capturing how the signal varied with the orbital motion of the satellite, with implications for how predictions can be made for…