University of Liverpool researchers are part of an international research collaboration that has shed light on what happens at the extremes of neutron and proton numbers, in search of where the periodic table of chemical elements ends. In a study published in the journal Nature, the research team provide insight into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium (element 100) and nobelium (element 102) with different numbers of neutrons. Elements at the end of the periodic table do not occur naturally and must…
For a wide variety of emerging quantum technologies, such as secure quantum communications and quantum computing, quantum entanglement is a prerequisite. Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have now demonstrated a particularly efficient way in which photons can be entangled with acoustic phonons. The researchers were able to demonstrate that this entanglement is resilient to external noise, the usual pitfall of any quantum technology to date. They recently published their research in ›Physical Review Letters‹. Quantum…
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is one giant step closer to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The mission has now received its final major delivery: the Optical Telescope Assembly, which includes a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) primary mirror, nine additional mirrors, and supporting structures and electronics. The assembly was delivered Nov. 7. to the largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the observatory is being built. The telescope will focus cosmic light and send…
An international team that includes the University of Bath has discovered three ultra-massive galaxies (‘Red Monsters’) in the early Universe forming at unexpected speeds, challenging current models of galaxy formation. An international team that was led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and includes Professor Stijn Wuyts from the University of Bath in the UK has identified three ultra-massive galaxies – each nearly as massive as the Milky Way – that had already assembled within the first billion years after the Big…
An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams uncovered evidence that astrophysics models of massive stars and supernovae are inconsistent with observational gamma-ray astronomy. Artemis Spyrou, professor of physics at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and in the Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Physics and Astronomy, led an international research team to investigate iron-60, an unstable isotope, by using a new experimental method. The team—which included Sean Liddick, associate professor…
… could change how we use and control light. The new discovery could dramatically enhance technologies like lasers, sensors and optical computing in the near future. An international research team has for the first time designed realistic photonic time crystals –– exotic materials that exponentially amplify light. The breakthrough opens up exciting possibilities across fields such as communication, imaging and sensing by laying the foundations for faster and more compact lasers, sensors and other optical devices. “This work could lead…
Researchers at the Technion Faculty of Physics have demonstrated controlled transfer of atoms using coherent tunneling between “optical tweezers”. An experimental setup built at the Technion Faculty of Physics demonstrates the transfer of atoms from one place to another through quantum tunneling between optical tweezers. Led by Prof. Yoav Sagi and doctoral student Yanay Florshaim from the Solid State Institute, the research was published in Science Advances. The experiment is based on optical tweezers — an experimental tool for capturing…
Researchers investigate nuclear properties of element 100 with laser light. Where does the periodic table of chemical elements end and which processes lead to the existence of heavy elements? An international research team reports on experiments performed at the GSI/FAIR accelerator facility and at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to come closer to an answer. They gained insight into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium (element 100) with different numbers of neutrons. Using forefront laser spectroscopy techniques, they traced the…
Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team led by Innsbruck physicist Francesca Ferlaino has now demonstrated a missing hallmark of superfluidity, namely the existence of quantized vortices as system’s response to rotation. They have observed tiny quantum vortices in the supersolid, which also behave differently than previously assumed. Matter that behaves like both a solid and a superfluid…
Scientists use high-energy heavy ion collisions as a new tool to reveal subtleties of nuclear structure with implications for many areas of physics. Scientists have demonstrated a new way to use high-energy particle smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) — a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory — to reveal subtle details about the shapes of atomic nuclei. The method, described in a paper just published in Nature, is…
Part chemist, part physicist and 100% researcher, Niéli Daffé is interested in materials that change colour or magnetism when illuminated. She studies them using X-rays in her SNSF-supported research. From the very first questions, Niéli Daffé’s frank laughter echoes in the small café corner of the library at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Aargau. “It’s true that being a physics researcher sometimes scares people,” she laughs. However, for this expert in magnetic nanosized materials, her job is just like…
In case you’re scratching your head, we help break it down. Using muon spin rotation at the Swiss Muon Source SmS, researchers at PSI have discovered that a quantum phenomenon known as time-reversal symmetry breaking occurs at the surface of the Kagome superconductor RbV₃Sb₅ at temperatures as high as 175 K. This sets a new record for the temperature at which time-reversal symmetry breaking is observed among Kagome systems. Excuse me, what? Yes, you read that right: -98 degrees Celsius….
In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it right. A team of astronomers at the University of Arizona, Tucson used NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes for an unprecedented in-depth look at…
NASA’s Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) is ready to launch to the International Space Station to reveal new details about the solar wind including its origin and its evolution. Launching in November 2024 aboard SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission, CODEX will be robotically installed on the exterior of the space station. As a solar coronagraph, CODEX will block out the bright light from the Sun’s surface to better see details in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. “The CODEX instrument is a new generation…
In space exploration, long-distance optical links can now be used to transmit images, films and data from space probes to Earth using light. But in order for the signals to reach all the way and not be disturbed along the way, hypersensitive receivers and noise-free amplifiers are required. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have created a system that, with a silent amplifier and record-sensitive receiver, paves the way for faster and improved space communication. Space communication…
… in thunderstorm cloud-top corona discharges. A team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), led by Professors LEI Jiuhou, ZHU Baoyou, and Associate Professor LIU Feifan, has made significant strides in understanding the mechanisms behind corona discharges at thunderstorm cloud tops, a phenomenon that plays a critical role in the Earth’s atmospheric chemistry. Their findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications on August 26, introduce a new conceptual model that could reshape our…
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